The War on Terrorism: Get the “F” out of our church (Editorial)

(I wrote this about a year ago in the midst of a flurry of attacks on our ministry and my character. I still stand behind what I wrote. I need it published some where, because I never sent it to the terrorists that needed to read it.)

Terror Alert: High. What color is it these days? Orange? Red? Puce? Over the past months the Terror Alert system our country uses has become the fodder for late night talk show hosts and quips on family sit-coms. Certainly our nation is not gripped in fear. Or is it? I wish I had bought stock in 3M six months ago. Duct tape flies off the shelves at Wal*Mart quicker then the swim suit issue of Sports Illustrated. Honestly, are those saw horse barriers put up in front of the local oil company in my small town truly going to stop any kind of terrorist attack? On September 20th, 2001, just nine days after the most gruesome terrorist attacks the world has ever seen, President Bush addressed our nation during a joint session of Congress. In that address the president said this about how terrorist operate, “These terrorists kill not merely to end lives, but to disrupt and end a way of life. With every atrocity, they hope that America grows fearful, retreating from the world and forsaking our friends.” The chief weapon of a terrorist is not a car bomb or a suicide plane it is fear.

Terrorism is defined by Webster as, “The state of being terrorized or the act of terrorizing; the use of intimidation to attain one’s goals or to advance one’s cause.” The terrorist succeeds not when the plane levels a skyscraper but when thousands are afraid to use our commercial airline system to travel. The terrorist wins when the people of this nation buy duct tape and sheets of plastic, when they certainly provide little, if any protection from a chemical attack. The terrorist rejoices when we trick ourselves into thinking that wooden saw horses are a suitable barrier against his car bomb. Secrecy is the gun that propels the bullet of fear. We live in fear because we neither know who the terrorists are or when and where they will attack next. Americans are accustom to fighting wars head on. Political parties and agendas aside, this country is winning its war on terror. There has not been another attack on our nation’s soil since 9/11. We are winning in part because President Bush in that address to the nation identified al Queda and Osama bin Laden as our enemy. In giving our enemy a face he reinsured our resolve as a nation to confront our fears and fight this war.

Our churches are also in a “War on Terrorism”. As leaders we hear the “chatter” of these small pockets of people that have been sewing seeds of discontent throughout our church body. Some of these pockets have chosen the “hit and run” method of terrorism by delivering emotional suicide bombs and then choosing to worship elsewhere. Although those attacks wound our church, the terrorists that have remained behind are doing far greater damage to the body. They do not attend Sunday worship but show up at committee meetings, use prayer cards in a hateful manner, have stopped giving to the general fund and do little to fulfill the “Great Commission” through our church. Their implements of terrorism include: snide, underhanded remarks at committee meetings, unsigned letters with ministry job postings elsewhere sent to staff members and slanderous gossip disguised in the name of “problem solving.” President Bush’s description of the terrorist he is fighting provided an eerie reflection of what we face in our bodies. He said, “We are not deceived by their pretenses to piety. We have seen their kind before. They are the heirs of all the murderous ideologies of the 20th century. By sacrificing human life to serve their radical visions -- by abandoning every value except the will to power -- they follow in the path of fascism, and Nazism, and totalitarianism. And they will follow that path all the way, to where it ends: in history's unmarked grave of discarded lies.” The terrorists we fight have shown disrespect towards God’s word by their loveless actions against their brothers and sisters in Christ in an attempt to gain perceived power.

Our ability to over come the fear of terrorism can only be derived from a sense of Christ centered confidence. The kind of confidence Jesus instilled in his disciples the day he first sent them out on their own to do His ministry. Jesus’ pep talk to them out of Peterson’s The Message reads like this, “Don't be intimidated. Eventually everything is going to be out in the open, and everyone will know how things really are. So don't hesitate to go public now. Don't be bluffed into silence by the threats of bullies. There's nothing they can do to your soul, your core being. Save your fear for God, who holds your entire life--body and soul--in his hands.” It’s time we get the “F”, fear, out of our churches. We must not be afraid to identify these people for what they are and put them on notice that their behavior against Gods people will not be tolerated anymore. We can no longer function in God’s will as paralyzed servants, in fear of what others may think or say about the decisions we make to advance Gods Kingdom. We can no longer enable these people to build the walls around their Christian ghetto even higher. As leaders desiring God’s will to move His church forward we must embrace faith, hope and love. Embrace them with a Christ centered confidence and a healthy fear of God.