True Believer

I became pastor at Naples' First Baptist Church in March of 1992. The average weekend worship attendance has gone from 634 in 1992 to 3,220. In season, we average around 4,200. We have emphasized unashamedly, unapologetically, preaching the word of God. We don't try to entertain or sugarcoat it. It's not Gospel Lite.

As a preacher, my job has become more difficult as the culture has become more immoral. I do see signs of hope, and I remain an optimist. I believe there is a growing discontent with filth and immorality in our society. But unless there is a significant turning back to God, we can't save the culture.

An article in the paper yesterday said that organized religion is declining in Western Europe. The problem with organized religion is that it's just that: religion; whereas true Christianity is a relationship.

In the name of religion, crusades have been waged, and we have jihad. It's not enough just to believe in something; you have to believe in the right thing.

When I was a kid, I was turned off by religion. I thought the church was full of hypocrites. But when I was a teen-ager, my parents moved to another church, which had a dynamic youth program.

I saw an authentic relationship with Christ in the lives of those teen-agers; and then I wanted what they had.

I gave my life to Christ on New Year's Eve 1965. I was 15 years old. Within a matter of days, my life changed and my vocation changed. I had thought I

wanted to be an architect and immediately I knew I should preach. I preached my first sermon at 15 and began pastoring when I was 20.

God makes everybody a free agent. I'm in the wrong if I try to force them to believe something.

However, I would be quick to add that I follow what Jesus said in John 14:6: "I am the way, the truth and the light. No man comes to the Father except through me."

I'm a Baptist because I believe that's as close to the Bible as I can get. I don't think other denominations are wrong. Different beliefs can coexist. But if it's inherent in another belief system that all infidels must die, for instance, then we can't coexist.

At the time of the 9/11 attacks, we had felt for a long time that America was immune to the rest of the world's problems. As a preacher, I had been saying, "It's coming here. We better get ready." And there was a chilling realization on that day that it was true.

Do you remember that, after 9/11, there was a surge not only in patriotism but also of interest in God? And then, all of a sudden, it was gone again. For those couple of weeks, everything was more valuable and precious. That was so exciting.

Most people, unfortunately, only respond to tragedy. C.S. Lewis called it "God's megaphone." God shouts and He also whispers. But most of the time, we need the shouting.

One week after 9/11, I was guest chaplain before the U.S. Senate. It had been lined up a year in advance. Someone had given Sen. Jesse Helms one of my tapes from the Southern Baptist Convention. He recommended that I come as a guest chaplain. It was an amazing time. There was a heaviness in the air. No one knew what was coming next. Joe Lieberman and Fred Thompson and other senators came up to me afterward and said, "Thank you. We need a prayer more than most

people realize."

Sometimes things happen that shake people out of their faith. That goes back to the great question of Job and suffering: Why do the righteous have tribulations? My answer is, we live in a fallen world where there's evil and all kinds of pain and problems. We have to make sense of that. When my wife had a late-term miscarriage, God impressed on me to say to her, "The question is not why? But what? What does God want to do in our lives through this?"

We don't know the ways of God, but we can get small glimpses. One of my favorite quotes is from the great preacher Charles Spurgeon: "When you cannot trace His hand, trust His heart. God is too good to be unkind and too wise to be mistaken."

God has placed in each of us a God-shaped vacuum that can only be filled by Him. Look at Naples. It's one of the most beautiful places in the world. Some of the wealthiest, most successful people live here.

Yet in our ministry we find that material success doesn't fill the void. There has to be something more. I'm preaching through Ecclesiastes right now, which is the great book that asks, "Is there meaning to life?" I think it's perfect for Naples.

We have an ex-NFL quarterback in our church, Gary Cuozzo. Gary told me a story this week about Bob Lilly, the great lineman for the Dallas Cowboys. He told me that when the Cowboys won the Super Bowl, Bob said, "Is that it? Is that all there is?"

It's that God-shaped vacuum. People won't find true meaning without filling it.