In the years past, I simply shrugged my shoulders at such books, seeing them as nonsensical and unhelpful. Yet, afterlife books and resources have congealed into something of an industry — an industry of books, paraphernalia, and movies — with a consequential and costly underbelly. And this new industry is generating massive revenues for those with a compelling afterlife story. Read more

Last week Dick and Rich Bott invited me onto their radio program, “The Complete Story,” to elaborate on my recent article, “Seven Questions Every Donor Should Ask.” In that conversation, the Botts and I were able to tease out some of the implications of Christian stewardship, including the role of Midwestern Seminary in serving the church by training pastors and ministers to stand firm on the pressing moral issues of the day. I invite you to listen to our entire conversation here.

This past week, the evangelical world jolted to attention when World Vision announced it would permit the employment of practicing homosexuals who are committed in a same-sex marriage relationship. Thankfully, within 48 hours they humbly and penitently pronounced a policy reversal.

In the aftermath of the World Vision controversy, one issue lingers. Given our cultural trajectory, it will only intensify. How can a Christian donor know which ministries and institutions are most worthy of financial support? Seven questions should be contemplated by every donor and answered by every recipient before a gift is made.

Does the entity have a clear and functioning confessional statement?

An organization worth supporting must have a clear statement of belief—a statement that is publicly expressed, well-defined, and enforced within the ministry. It does not have to be exhaustive, but it must be faithful to the Word of God, the gospel, and, at a minimum, other first-order doctrines. It is not enough to have a confessional statement buried on the ministry’s website. Is the document actually functioning? Are employees truly expected to believe and teach in accordance with it? Does it have functioning accountability?

What is their code of conduct policy for employees?

Most every organization has some sort of code of conduct, or lifestyle expectation, for its employees. By reviewing these documents, you can ascertain not only what behavior(s) they tolerate, but also what they encourage. Consider carefully what is stated and unstated. Note what is not mentioned. For example, do they precisely speak to issues of sexuality, gender, and marriage? Ambiguity is the breeding ground for doctrinal unfaithfulness, moral decay, and ministry drift. Do not subsidize a ministry that is already slouching toward compromise.

What is their structure of accountability?

Generally speaking, the further from the local church you find an entity, the more prone it is to drift from its original mission. Thankfully, this is not always the case. There are some para-church ministries that are strong in confession and mission, but if the non-profit is not governed by the church, one should inquire of the entity’s legal structure. Who governs the organization? Who are the fiduciaries? How are trustees elected? To whom is the ministry ultimately accountable?

Do they give a clear and sound gospel witness?

As one who supports ministries in addition to my local church, I am often presented with good, better, and best choices. Whether it is feeding children, supporting orphan care, or general benevolence assistance, there are explicitly Christian organizations that meet those needs while giving a clear gospel presentation. Why settle for meeting only the physical needs when you can meet eternal needs as well? Seek out ministries that meet the needs of body and soul.

Are they clear and public on social issues?

If the entity is not clearly, publicly, and frequently making plain its stand on marriage, abortion, and other key issues, you have every reason to be concerned. Many nonprofits function under their own version of “don’t ask, don’t tell.” If the entity is not clear on these issues, it is not cynical to assume the worst, it is wise. In this regard, do not settle for private reassurances. If the stance is not clear and public, it is not much of a stance at all. Have an eye for obliqueness and an ear for the passive tense.

From where does most of their funding come?

Just as flowers grow toward sunlight, nonprofits grow toward their sources of funding. If an entity receives most of its funding from the federal government, secular foundations, or more socially progressive sources, this should cause concern. After all, if the nonprofit is robustly Christian, then why would more secular groups be willing to fund them? Moreover, if a tug-of-war over a ministry’s future occurs, ministries tend to go the way of their most generous supporters.

How, exactly, will my gift be spent?

Finally, it is always right for the donor to gain as much insight into how the money will be spent as they desire. I do not give my children a dime without inquiring why they need the money. Why would I give an organization thousands of dollars without full disclosure into how my gift will be used?

Conclusion

Recently, I visited with the leader of an institution far to the left of the one I lead. When I inquired of her school’s position on same-sex marriage, she acknowledged their instructional staff was far more progressive than their older, more conservative donor base. She candidly admitted their intent to “hang out in the mushy middle as long as possible” so as not to offend the faculty or alienate their constituency.

I fear this strategy is common today. My greater fear is that many sincere Christians are naively supporting it. Do not be duped by a nonprofit’s sleight of hand. Make sure you know the cause to which you are giving is truly worthwhile. Furthermore, do not settle for a “good” option when even the best ministries and institutions are in urgent need of financial support.

The 19^th century Prussian statesman Otto Von Bismarck observed, “Political genius is hearing the distant hoof beat of the horse of history and then leaping to catch the passing horseman by the coattails.”[i] When it comes to issues of human sexuality and marriage, skilled politicians are not the only ones listening to the hoof beats of history and lunging for the horseman’s coattails. Religious leaders are too.

As cultural momentum toward full acceptance and normalization of homosexuality and same-sex marriage intensifies so will the pressure on Christian organizations to adopt accommodating policies.  Indeed, venerable Christian and Baptist entities have amended, or are contemplating amending, their guidelines toward same-sex marriage and alternative lifestyles.

Many self-identified Christian entities yet to officially sanction homosexuality and same-sex marriage operate under their own version of “don’t ask, don’t tell.” “Mum” is their word. They seek intentional ambiguity on issues of gender, sexuality, and marriage to avoid offending one or more of their constituencies. Such middle ground is eroding by the day, as it well should. Every institution’s constituency has the right to know where it stands, and every school—and every school leader—has a moral obligation to make its stance known.

Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary has long since settled its view of marriage and human sexuality, but it is appropriate to state and restate our convictions, especially in light of the swift and dramatic cultural shifts now taking place. Midwestern Seminary is not polling students, conducting market surveys, or engaging focus groups among likely supporters to determine our position. Nor will we. Midwestern Seminary stands unapologetically for a biblical sexual ethic that affirms marriage as between one man and one woman for life and counts as sin all sexual activity outside of covenantal marriage. Driven by biblical conviction, denominational faithfulness, confessional integrity, and societal witness, we have so planted our standard.

Biblical Conviction

Midwestern Seminary is committed to the Bible as God’s inspired, inerrant, and authoritative Word. We confess with the Reformers, vox Scriptura vox dei—the voice of Scripture is the voice of God. The Bible speaks clearly concerning marriage and human sexuality, and we joyfully submit to its declarations. As part of his created order, God established marriage as between one man and one woman.[ii] This standard remains consistent throughout Scripture, confirmed by Jesus[iii] and reconfirmed by the apostles.[iv]

Moreover, the Bible prohibits all sexual activity outside of covenantal marriage, including fornication, adultery, and homosexual acts. The Bible’s statements about human sexuality and marriage are clear—sexual activity is reserved exclusively for one man and one woman, bound together before God in a covenantal, conjugal marriage.

Denominational Faithfulness

Midwestern Seminary is an entity of the Southern Baptist Convention, the nation’s largest Protestant denomination. We abide under their ownership and governance and are legally and morally obligated to keep trust with the Southern Baptist churches that own us.

Southern Baptists have clearly and repeatedly stood with Scripture and the broader Christian tradition on human sexuality and marriage. The vast majority of Southern Baptists classify as sin all forms of sexual immorality and alternative lifestyles. Moreover, the SBC will not seat messengers from churches that “act to affirm, approve, or endorse homosexual behavior.”[v]

As Midwestern Seminary stands for sexual purity and conjugal marriage, we do not stand alone. We are in lockstep with the denomination that owns us.

Confessional Integrity

As a seminary of the SBC, Midwestern Seminary is bound confessionally to the Baptist Faith & Message, 2000. Our confessional commitment is nonnegotiable, forthright, and unshakeable. We hold our doctrinal commitments with full integrity and keep them in both the letter and spirit of their expectation.

The BF&M 2000 defines marriage as “the uniting of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime.”[vi] The Midwestern Seminary faculty happily teaches in accordance with and not contrary to the BF&M 2000 and will continue to do so, undaunted, regardless of cultural challenge or societal scorn.

Societal Witness

Finally, Jesus’ command to “love your neighbor as yourself” necessitates that we “speak the truth, in love” to all peoples on all things, including issues of marriage and sexuality. We understand Scripture establishes and celebrates conjugal, covenantal marriage as the only sexual relationship that glorifies God and facilitates human flourishing.

Furthermore, Scripture labels all sexual activity outside of covenantal marriage, including fornication, adultery, and homosexual acts, as sin. For millennia, these acts have been proscribed by the Christian tradition, and love for neighbor compels us to point out these acts as sin and point our neighbors to the gospel of Christ, which redeems us from all sin.

Conclusion

Persistent agitation to legalize same-sex marriage will not abate, and the national acceptance of same-sex marriage likely will accelerate. We are not mere onlookers, listening for history’s hoof beats and lunging for the passing horseman’s coattails. Neither are we crusty, staid traditionalists, channeling William F. Buckley, standing athwart history yelling “Stop!”

Midwestern Seminary is called neither to ride the cultural current nor to stop it but to transcend it altogether. Our call is to speak consistently the settled truth of Scripture with confidence and grace, and to point all peoples to the message of Jesus, which saves, transforms, and renews. We do so not because the sexually immoral are worse than us, but because they are precisely like us—in need of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Driven by biblical conviction, denominational faithfulness, confessional integrity, and societal witness, Midwestern Seminary graciously—yet confidently—declares that God intended marriage to be a lifelong covenant between a man and a woman, and that all sexual activity outside of that marital covenant is sin. To this truth, our consciences are bound. Here we stand.

On March 13, 1859, the preeminent preacher of Victorian England, Charles Spurgeon, delivered one of his most memorable sermons, “Christ Precious to Believers,” to a congregation of over 10,000. The congregation, having long since proven too large for Spurgeon’s New Park Street Church now filled London’s largest indoor auditorium, the Music Hall of the Royal Surrey Gardens.

Impressing upon his hearers the centrality of Jesus and the imperative to preach Christ from all of the Bible, Spurgeon paraphrased a recent exchange between a sage, elderly pastor and minister in training. “Don’t you know, young man, that from every town and every village and every hamlet in England, wherever it may be, there is a road to London? So from every text in Scripture there is a road toward the great metropolis, Christ. And my dear brother, your business is, when you get to a text, to say, ‘Now what is the road to Christ?’ I have never found a text that had not got a road to Christ in it, and if ever I find one . . . I will go over hedge and ditch but I would get my Master, for the sermon cannot do any good unless there is a saviour of Christ in it.”[1]

The apostolic mandate to “preach Christ and him crucified” that Spurgeon exemplified with force and animation in Victorian England is all the more urgent for the 21^st-century church. Moreover, Spurgeon’s call echoes forward to this day in homiletical classrooms across America. This call is not merely a nudge toward a more polished homiletical delivery; rather it comes with the weighty knowledge that the message of a crucified and risen Christ alone saves. Thus, it is indeed “Him we proclaim.”

Our culture finds itself at the intersection of geopolitical tumult abroad, encroaching secularism at home, and a general sense of the decay of so many markers of Christian civilization that generations past  held constant and sure. This backdrop accentuates the need and the promise of preaching. Not just any preaching will do, however. We must settle for nothing less than preaching that is muscular in biblical content, courageous in delivery, and Christ-centered in focus. Moreover, we must be about the business of producing preachers who are submissive to the authority of Scripture, under compulsion to declare the whole counsel of God, and who exult in proclaiming the riches of Christ every time they fill the pulpit.

Spurgeon’s preaching legacy lives on through the massive 63-volume collection of his pulpit ministry at both New Park Street and the Metropolitan Tabernacle. It has been noted that you can turn to the last page of any of Spurgeon’s preserved 3,563 sermons and you will find him pointing his hearers to Christ. As president of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, which owns Spurgeon’s 7,000-volume library and various other memorabilia from his ministry, including his writing desk, I am reminded again and again of his relentless desire to preach Jesus.

Likewise, those who are called to preach must point their congregants to Jesus, and those who train preachers must have a similar gospel emphasis. Exegesis and hermeneutics classes must show students how faithfully to interpret Christ. Systematic theology classes must point students to Jesus, the apex of the whole Bible. Evangelism classes must be designed to train students to spread the gospel of Christ most effectively and energetically. And, of course, homiletics classes must equip young preachers with the tools to preach Christ. This continuity of study bespeaks a collective intentionality to see the name of Christ known among the nations.

Declaring Christ from the entire Bible is more than a theological trend or an interpretive approach; it is a biblical mandate, a Great Commission necessity, and the primary aim of biblical preaching. Spurgeon’s goal must be our own—to preach Jesus in every sermon.