Voices

Connect: Investing in others

/// PREVIEWED ON COVER

Todd Fisher

Oklahoma Baptists’ Executive Director-Treasurer @eToddFisher

One of the difficult things pastors are sometimes called on to do is officiate the funeral of a family member. These are not easy to do, especially if the pastor was close to the family member.

Recently, my uncle passed away, and I had the honor of officiating his funeral. In my high school years, I spent many Saturdays working for him at his house doing landscaping and odds and ends jobs. The joke in our family was that he could be demanding and very particular about certain things.

It was not uncommon at all for me to plant a tree or shrub at his house only to have to dig it up and move it a few inches or turn it a quarter turn. We joke about that, but honestly I don’t remember the particular trees I planted or all the other things he had me do around the house.

What I do remember is how he invested in me. On those Saturdays, as lunch time came along, he would give me a $20 dollar bill and tell me to go to this hamburger place near their house and buy two double-meat cheeseburgers and two large fries. I’d bring them back and we would sit in the garage and talk. He would impart to me his wisdom and experience from everything to handling finances well, being responsible, family, politics, you name it.

I didn’t fully realize it then, but my uncle was intentionally filling in on some things I was missing from not having my father at home. He was a generous and caring man to me his whole life. I had dress clothes to wear on Sundays when I first became a pastor because of the hand-me-downs my uncle would give me. He and my aunt always gave great gifts and were present at my wedding and graduations.

As I thought through what to say at my uncle’s funeral, what struck me most was his investment in my life and how that investment would bear fruit long after his passing away. I can think of many things he taught me that I try to live out in my life and have imparted to my own children.

What my uncle did for me, he did for my other cousins as well. We all told stories at our family gathering before his funeral of the investment he made in each of our lives. My uncle was a very successful businessman, but the lesson of his life is clear. Material things last only so long, but what you invest in others can carry on long after your time on earth is done.

As followers of Christ, we live for what is eternal. We want to invest our lives in eternal things. We are not merely living for what we can see, taste, touch or spend. An important way we accomplish that is to invest in others. I hope you will pause and consider the people you can invest in today. Who can you encourage, disciple, mentor, spend time with, or help in tangible and non-tangible ways?

I am mindful of Prov. 27:17, “Iron sharpens iron as one man sharpens another,” as well as 1 John 3:18, “Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.” In our churches, homes, schools and places of business there is great need to invest in the lives of others as we point them to faithfulness in Christ.

It’s a joy to serve.

Sword & trowel: Is Oklahoma going to pot?

Brian Hobbs

Editor of the Baptist Messenger @BrianGHobbs

Do you recall that scene from “It’s A Wonderful Life,” when George Bailey (played by Jimmy Stewart) is given a glimpse of what life would be like in his lovely town, had he never lived?

To his horror, George finds himself not in his quaint town of Bedford Falls, but in Pottersville, a city marked by vice. He sees streets rampant with establishments thriving on addiction, lust and greed.

For some Oklahomans who have lived in the Sooner State for decades, it seems like we too have awakened to find ourselves in a place like Pottersville in just a short matter of years.

For evidence of this, look no further than the rapid advance of legalized marijuana in Oklahoma over the last four years. Drive around your average city block and what do you see? Decades ago, you would see a thriving church, a locally-owned bank, a diner and a nice school. Today, you see a marijuana dispensary and perhaps a casino.

In 2018, voters approved a state question presented to the public as mere medical marijuana. Yet the resulting effects of it have been rather more than that, with the number of marijuana dispensaries in Oklahoma now exceeding the number of Baptist churches. The amount of farmland converted in recent years to marijuana growing operations is staggering. And no city or town is without a business sign boasting a green marijuana leaf.

Yet all this is a warm-up act to what will happen next if voters approve a recreational marijuana state ballot question heading to a voting place near you. To be specific, State Question 820 has been approved for a vote of the people and could appear as soon as 2022.

This measure would fully legalize the recreational use of marijuana for Oklahomans 21 years and older. Proponents of the state question have used noble sounding phrases to advance their drug’s cause, phrases like “sensible laws,” “the tax revenue will help education.” Socially liberal votes that promise good end results, however, often end up furthering social harm and societal breakdown.

The fact of the matter is, to approve recreational marijuana means removing important legal barriers between the people of this state and the trafficking of these addictive, mind-altering drugs. Oklahoma Baptists approved a resolution in 2018 against recreational marijuana, saying the drugs leave “neighborhoods and schools vulnerable for exploitation.”

If this ballot measure is approved, Oklahoma would become one of only a few states to have legalized this habit-creating drug, even putting us at odds with current Federal laws against controlled substances. Legalized marijuana poses health and safety risks to the families and communities of Oklahoma, all while bringing profound moral consequences.

Oklahoma voters will have the power to say “Enough” when it comes to the advance of marijuana our state. It is time for Oklahoma Baptists to urge caution against this unwise, unnecessary ballot question.

Oklahoma voters can “just say no” to making our state a place of vice, a modern-day Pottersville. Let’s not let Oklahoma continue to go to pot.

FEEDING &LEADING

A PODCAST FEATURING TODD FISHER & ANDY TAYLOR

07: Conflict with the Pastor

Hear Todd Fisher and Andy Taylor discuss how pastors can wisely navigate situations in which conflict arises between a pastor and church members.

Listen at www.oklahomabaptists.com/podcast or on...