New Wine’s upcoming 25-year anniversary

By New Wine, New Wineskins ministry,

Have you ever watched Get Smart? I am referring to the original comedy television series from the late ‘60s starring Don Adams as Maxwell Smart, or “Max”—otherwise known as Secret Agent 86. For you younger readers, the series features the US counterintelligence agency titled CONTROL that contends against CHAOS. (The series was popular enough that many years later Steve Carell starred in a movie version based on the series).  Here’s the intro to the series with a variety of security doors. This short clip is indelibly etched in my mind. Many of Secret Agent 86’s hilarious efforts to safeguard national security and ward off disaster are less than smart. In fact, they are out-of-control and downright ridiculous and silly.

I thought about this series when reflecting on the lack of security checkpoints at last Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner. However, there was nothing funny about what played out as a gunman opened fire in the hotel lobby, just outside the gathering. Many news shows have now highlighted the lapses and challenges posed to providing security at the event. Here are two accounts of the security problems: MS NOW and FOX News.

I remember sitting in that same cavernous hall in the Washington Hilton back in 2016 for the National Prayer Breakfast. This is the same hotel where President Reagan was shot back in 1981. As The New York Times reported, the Washington Hilton is once again a crime scene.

Some have said that part of the solution to providing needed security against similar occurrences in the future is to keep the press from critiquing those in power. The argument goes that criticism generates violence. Certainly, hateful criticism from multiple sectors across the cultural spectrum can serve as fuel for violence. But constructive criticism in support of the common good is essential for the cultivation and preservation of democracy.

Constructive criticism is also vital for the growth and maturation of the church. Thankfully, the church engaged in rigorous, healthy debate at the Jerusalem Council, as recorded in Acts 15. There was no place for character assassination, just careful analysis of arguments regarding saving faith and circumcision to cultivate diverse unity between Jews and Gentiles through Jesus. Similarly, according to Galatians 2, Paul challenged Peter in Antioch for refusing to eat with Gentile Christians when Jewish representatives visited them from Jerusalem. Perhaps his determination to speak truth to power recorded in Galatians 2 played a pivotal role later in prompting Peter to speak  persuasively at the Jerusalem Council that God had given Cornelius and fellow Gentiles the Spirit through faith in Jesus and apart from circumcision (See also Acts 10).

We certainly need security checkpoints on the ways in which we engage in debate. There is no place for barging through checkpoints and opening rhetorical fire like a machine gun on those who disagree with us. As noted above, we need constructive criticism to heal and strengthen.

At New Wine, New Wineskins we seek to see the person with whom we disagree as a human, not a demon. Moreover, as New Wine Ministry Council leader Pastor Jim Sequeira always exhorts us, it is vital to listen to others, seeking to understand them in the context of their personal stories. That takes time. That involves “learning to listen and listening to learn,” as Grace Shim, Executive Minister of Serve Globally for the Evangelical Covenant Church, stated during a presentation at the Pacific Northwest Conference’s annual meeting, which I attended earlier this month.

At New Wine’s upcoming 25-year anniversary celebration and benefit dinner on Saturday, May 16, we will take the opportunity to discuss how important it is for us to engage in constructive discourse for building and restoring relational bridges through Jesus in our polarized culture. Please join us for the gathering. You can find out more information and register here.

Your continued prayers, encouraging words, and generosity help us move forward with a sense of purpose as we seek to build constructive and life-giving arguments that seek to account for the concerns of people from across the ideological spectrum to build just and equitable relationships in a Christ-honoring way. There’s no need to be silent, but definitely a need to ensure our speech is always gracious and seasoned with salt (Colossians 4:6) to build up and preserve healthy relationships and diverse community. So please reach out to us at this page to share with us how you seek to cultivate checkpoints for fostering rather than canceling healthy conversations with people of various walks of life through Jesus.

In the meantime, let’s be sure to take to heart the need to put in place constructive security checkpoints in our assorted conversations. It doesn’t take much to open a floodgate of hostility, hatred, and harm. May we never be satisfied to let loose our tongues, even for a moment. The same James who oversaw the Jerusalem Council has this to say about the tongue:

“Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell” (James 3:5-6; NIV).

It only takes a small spark of the tongue to open fire on all around us. May we never become comfortable with failing to secure the safety on our tongues, as Maxwell Smart appears to be with failures to control chaos: “Missed it by that much.” So, let’s be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry (James 1:19).

Slowly Getting Smarter,

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