I love the local church, and at God’s invitation, I have given my life to it. Overall it continues to be the most rewarding endeavor I could possibly imagine. When the church is working as God designed it, there is nothing quite like it. There are other times, however, when the church is a mess. Personally, I’m highly motivated either way. Success or mess, I love the church, and I’m fired up to help strengthen it any way I can.

This article is written to leaders who find themselves in a mess of crisis proportion. First, let me say take heart. You can navigate through tough times no matter what is happening. Keep these four things in mind.

1. It’s not your church. It belongs to God, and He cares even more than you do.
2. Set your vision on the long haul, not the short run.
3. Don’t panic. God isn’t panicking and remember He’s the owner.
4. Think much and pray more.

So let’s take a more dramatic case, since the topic is Leadership Crisis. A church in San Antonio, Texas wanted to sell their property, relocate and build a new building. More accurately stated, the Pastor, staff and board wanted to relocate. It was a congregational government so a vote was taken. The membership was split nearly 50-50. The older generation wanted to stay, and they controlled the money. The younger generation wanted to go and they controlled the volunteer power. This is overstated, but accurate enough to paint a picture of what happened. So the pastor and board made the call, it was time to sell and relocate.

No one would have guessed what happened next. The tension got so thick, and the infighting became so all-consuming that the Senior Pastor took it as a sign from God to resign. He delivered his final message, packed up his office and left. No fuss, no muss. No drama. Just gone. He had been there for 9 years and the people loved him.

Emotions are running high. Like millions of others, I have not been able to rest well the past few nights. Two police related shootings have risen to national attention. Alton Sterling and Philando Castile were human beings slain in the streets by men who we trust to protect us.

Admittedly, bad police do not represent all police. I know many well-meaning and good-hearted police. And most of them mean well. We need them; they are sworn to protect and help to care for our communities. We must support our law enforcement communities; cooperate with their efforts; try to build positive relationships with them; and pray for them, continually. Yet, we must deal with the few that have senselessly slaughtered too many of our people and represent deeper cultural problems that persist along racial lines.

Let’s face it!

The recent killings and other situations across the country that have been similar to these bring back to our minds cultural and generational emotions from the Jim Crow era.

A lot of blood shed is screaming out to us from their graves. We must speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves!

Our attitudes of hate, and violence; our systems of injustice; a society full of acrimonious behavior must change. We must think beyond party politics; our society is in a moral decline, and we are hasting toward self destruction.

An unprecedented number of black men’s red blood stains the streets of America not to mention all of the other human beings who senselessly die from violence every day; there is no denying that we have a serious problem.

Time out for diverting the issues and pretending that this is just black people exacerbating the problem for political expediency or for some sort of cultural pity. Time out for silence and devaluing human beings just because they don’t look like us, don’t believe like us, or don’t vote like us.

The voice of the prophet Amos resounds in the corridors of my mind:

“But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” Amos 5:24

A revival is imminent. The Holy Spirit will stir-up a godly justice and the righteousness of God will transform like none other.

So, we must not allow heated emotions to drive our actions. We must be sober minded and strategic. We must come together in unity and pray, and work together to advance a Christ-centered agenda.

Yet, a Christ-centered agenda is not a passive agenda that sings and prays and pats each other on the shoulder; then move on.

A Christ-centered agenda is about listening to each other, caring for each other, and trying to understand each other while also working together for change. We do not have to agree to care enough about people’s lives to fight for them, to care for them, and to honor them, to love them.

Admittedly, this is a challenging task; yet, with Christ, we can achieve it.

Far too long, division has been the answer to disagreement. But, we cannot change a nation in crisis with divisive resolutions.

Everybody’s life matter—civilians as well as police.

Now is the time!

We need Black, White, Brown, and other people; we need Pentecostals, Baptists, Methodists, Catholics, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Independents, Word of Faith—any others who I left out. We need the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

We cannot heal this nation with violence. Also, we cannot heal it being calm. We must remain intensely concerned, relentlessly devoted, and be silent no more!

This is the time; we are the people; we can do this in Jesus’ name and by the Holy Spirit!

With sincere concern,
Dr. Antipas
July 8, 2016

The collective heart of a grieving nation continues to shatter as protesters shout in vain over the exploding crises between local citizens and law enforcement. When will this end? How will it end? Where are the civic leaders who will coalesce efforts to address this national pandemic?

A society needs the important work of its dedicated police officers. Yet, another young black man has suffered death at the hands of a white policeman. My heart goes out to the family and friends of Baltimore’s Freddie Gray. What a heart-wrenching blow to a loved one’s heart to learn that a son, brother, or friend died in the custody of the very officers who have sworn to protect him.

Even deeper, people – our communities – are restless. Their feelings are real and must be affirmed. How can young black men continue to die from the bullets of police officers’ weapons? In each of these murders, the young man was unarmed. Common sense dictates that a systemic problem is at play. We must not grow numb to the odious realities that plague our communities.

As I listen to the news, I hear the cry of a nation. I hear the mothers and I hear the fathers. I hear the urgency of the moment. White people, Black people, more people must be willing to participate in a national movement for positive change. While I condemn the protestors’ destructive behavior, I cannot ignore the underlying tension that fuels the frustration. Violence destroys more than it heals, and history teaches that violence does not solve problems. If we want to see change, we must face the ugly truths about racism, classism, and sexism, and seek conciliatory approaches not only for justice, but also for healing.

While we need everyone to participate in change, I extend a special appeal to the Church. The Spirit of Jesus Christ calls the Church to “to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free” (Luke 4:18). A Spirit-filled Church, moreover, must proclaim a liberation that emancipates the entire community, which includes police and civilians, from the hostility inherent in systems of dehumanization. The Spirit sends the Church to clarify the ambiguity that fear and hatred inflict upon people. The Spirit of Christ compels the Church to fight for the rights of the oppressed, to bring healing and reconciliation among people, and to lead those who are astray back to God.

I applaud religious leaders in Ferguson, New York, Cleveland, Baltimore and other cities for their relentless efforts to communicate the broader community’s anger and frustration and to encourage a level of civility in this time of national crisis. Now is the time for the Church to rise with a voice of moral consciousness to jolt a nation that is far from just. The Church must work with city, state and federal officials to bring order to this disarray. The Church’s prophetic voice must establish an unrelenting commitment to be the Church in the face of crooked, perverse and often competing evils. If there is going to be a change, the Church must play a role that is proactive, prodigious, and prophetic.

This call to reform by Loren Sandford was originally published on December 31, 2010.

I find myself beyond appalled and deeply concerned about a trend I have seen developing in the body of Christ for several years now. I believe this trend is propelling us toward a crisis in the charismatic Christian world that may well derail and destroy revival before it can take firm root.

It seems that in the quest to become more and more supernatural many have increasingly wandered away from the plumbline of solid Christian doctrine and responsible accurate interpretation of the Scriptures. The resultant weirdness flowing from key leaders in various places is leading many followers into what can only be called heresy.

Some prominent teachers in the renewal movement now espouse “open theism” which posits that God does not know the future, the end from the beginning. It then builds on that premise to diminish the revelation of the omniscience and absolute power of our God that Scripture so clearly articulates. Another teaching gaining ground among us is the idea that once we have come to Jesus we need never repent again because we are no longer sinners. What about Paul’s statement concerning sinners, for instance, among whom he identified himself in present tense as “foremost of all” (I Timothy 1:15)? I think some people need to do a thorough study of New Testament exhortations to repent.

The problem stretches from the heretical to the silly. I recently returned from a ministry trip to New Zealand where one prominent leader has been teaching that we can unleash our spirituality by taking monoatomic gold pills. Why? Because Adam was made of monoatomic gold! What!? Another teacher here in the U.S. teaches that God didn’t part the Red Sea; Moses did! Where is our discernment? Recently I’ve heard it taught that it would be OK to pierce the ear in the lobe, but not at the top because the top is the ear gate and you might hinder your ability to hear God. Where is there any real foundation for this in God’s Word?

I am aware of one Christian leader who has devised a method of Christian divination, claiming that in doing so he has redeemed something for Christian use that the enemy stole. What happened to the biblical injunction against engaging in that kind of activity and the penalties for doing it?

I’m just scratching the surface here with a few representative examples. Where is the justification for any of this when held up to the light of solid exegesis of God’s Word? And if you don’t know what exegesis is, take some time to look it up and learn to understand how to read the Bible accurately for what it actually says. It’s time for us to stop interpreting the Bible through the filter of our personal revelations and personal experiences and learn to interpret our personal revelations and personal experiences by the Bible.