Sometimes, when reflecting on what to write, articles like these seem to write themselves. They flow from a deep wellspring that has faithfully delivered refreshment. There are other times when the words don’t come quickly or easily. It’s rather that in recent weeks, storms have delivered more than my soil can handle, and I’m trying to cope with spiritual flash floods.
And the rains keep coming.
As I write these words, we have experienced a catastrophic series of national tragedies in little more than a week: a mass shooting at a Tops grocery store in Buffalo, NY; another at a Taiwanese congregation’s lunch at Geneva Presbyterian Church in Laguna Woods, CA; and most recently at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, TX. In times of such great grief, as politics and influencers scramble to have a say, I wonder what to offer that can bring both reassurance and challenge to us as Christians earnestly seeking to respond rightly.
Closer to our spiritual home, the results of an independent investigation commissioned by the messengers of the 2021 Southern Baptist Convention were released. The extensive report confirms a decades-long cover-up in the face of hundreds of credible reports of sexual abuse by ministers, missionaries, seminary professors, and elected leadership at the highest levels. Though the church has long prioritized our identity as “Yates Baptists,” we cannot dodge the demands of news like this.
As I have prayed about where to place our collective heads and hearts in worship this summer, I remembered a book I read last fall that spoke deeply to me. In A Church Called Tov, Scot McKnight and Laura Barringer propose a roadmap to a better way by unpacking the Hebrew word “tov” (pronounced “tōv”), most often translated “good.”
In English, we hear the word “good” and understand it only as an intermediate step — something you pass through on the way to something like “great.” This is not so in the biblical text. After all, this is the word God uses to describe the majesty of creation upon looking at it all. As McKnight writes, “Very good! Very well done! Perfect! A masterpiece! All these English terms and more are found in that beautiful word Tov.”
Through lives shaped by striving for the good, we can help shape the culture of our church and transform the church’s impact on the world. All by seeking the good.
That is my prayer.
Grace and Peace,