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Years ago while I was in college I conducted a youth revival in a large church right outside of Washington DC. Over 900 young people attended that week. It was an interesting meeting. A fight broke out the first night between one of the church young people and a visitor from the inner city. The fight was quickly stopped and order was restored. The next night one of the boys in the fight brought a gang in from the inner-city of Washington DC to get even. I remember thinking as I saw a car load of thugs pulling through the parking lot of the church and then back out onto the road in front of the church, “This is gonna be a mess”. When the car came through the second time, I went up to the car to welcome these rough-looking visitors. They ignored my welcome and refused to come in. A few minutes later the gang pulled off to the side of the church property and just seemed to be waiting.

As I got ready to start that night, I went to that boy’s dad (The other boy’s dad happened to be a personal worker for the meeting), and pointed off to where the car load of thugs was parked and told him that I thought we were going to have some trouble. He very calmly told me not to give it one more thought. He walked off toward where I had just seen the car load of thugs parking. I saw him speak into a radio that I didn’t know he had, and then he and two other gentlemen ran towards that car. It turned out he was a secret service agent assigned to protecting then-Vice President, George Bush Sr. Apparently, there were a couple more secret service agents working at my meeting as well. Needless to say, we had no trouble that night. No one ever saw the gang of thugs again. The meeting went on and of the 900+ young people who attended that week over 300 of them walked an aisle and received Christ during the meeting. Scores more vowed not to listen to rock music. Many dedicated their lives to the Lord. For me it was a very memorable meeting.

The other day I saw where this same church, the Bethlehem Baptist Church of Fairfax, Virginia, is hosting the Fall 2002 National Meeting of the BBFI. In a related church advertisement, they featured a photo of the church's new Youth Pastor, Rob Hoerr. He was all decked out with a goatee, an earring, and a P.O.D. shirt. (P.O.D. is an acronym for the “Contemporary Christian” rock band Payable on Death. In a 2001 interview with Theresa McKeon titled "P.O.D. The Fundamental Elements of God Rock", Sonny of P.O.D. said, "Jesus was the first rebel. He was the first punk rocker going against all the rest of it.") When I saw this I thought about that meeting fifteen years ago. The same stuff the new youth leader is standing for and identifying with, young people fifteen years earlier in the same church, were repenting of and forsaking. But this same thing can be found in churches all over. The average preacher today determines what he believes and where he is going to stand by what these beliefs and positions will cost him personally. If God isn’t changing and His book isn’t changing, it is time preachers and churches quit changing! It’s time to draw a line in the sand. The church isn’t supposed to stay two steps behind the world. My heart broke as I saw this church going the way of the World. But forget my heart, what about the great heart of God!

Pastor Steven E. Mays – Faith Baptist Church, Laurens, SC.
BroMays@FaithBaptistTrumpet.org