Corrupt

Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.

 - From the Second Chapter of Acts

I was a member of the Pleasant Hill Advent Christian Church, in Southlake, Texas, between 1982 and 1985. In fact, I probably still am on the membership rolls! I was there when the pastorate of Donald B. Wrigley ended, and they commenced on a search for a new pastor.

One of the first candidates that came in, to fill the pastoral opening, was the one that received the call: Glenn Fell. They had a series of special services and meetings over the course of the weekend, where they could hear Glenn preach two or three times. The final sermon that he delivered was on Sunday morning. It was a lively, energetic, and forceful sermon, in which he came down hard on the attitudes and practices of the congregation he had only known briefly.

There was one line that everybody talked about later . . . that I still remember, clearly, forty years later. At the peak of his delivery and text, he raised his voice and shouted "We have to be bold in telling others about Christ, and ministering to the world. . . . No! I'm not going to say 'We'! I already do all of that! YOU have to be bold!"

This sounds like something that a person's friends, or family, would push back: "No, don't say that."

But it was the point that put him over the top. I was talking to John Harper about it, the pastor of the Riverside Advent Christian Church in Fort Worth, Texas. He said "Texans like having their feet stepped on. They would have liked that."

When's the last time you heard about Christians that actually wanted to be scolded? (Or judged, or adjured, or admonished).

Peter was like that. There probably was no on like him, for the remainder of Scripture . . . that would go right up to a crowd and say "You" are missing the mark. Paul had a little more subtlety, and worked on connecting with people. Peter just put it out there.

He talked about "this corrupt generation." Interesting that, even two thousand years ago, people ascribed characteristics to generations. Peter did just that . . . and probably rubbed some young people . . . or maybe some old people . . . the wrong way. He even put an exclamation point on all of it, by referring to Christ . . . "whom you crucified."

It's not at all like that, today. Pastors go out of their way to be whimsical, funny, buoyant, approachable, accessible. They may make some mention of "sin," but they won't define it. They don't call attention to "death," and why it is such a metaphysical problem for humanity. We are overly careful about not offending, or hurting feelings.

It makes the pastor's job a lot easier, when the people are actually eager to be corrected, re-directed, or even . . . judged.