Jeremiah Knoop

Happy follower of Jesus. Husband. Father of four. Pastor at North Center.

[Jeremiah Knoop @JeremiahKnoop2]

I LOVE BEING A PASTOR

Our church's small group ministry started up again this week, and I was reminded of why I love being a pastor.

I love watching young people grow in their relationship with Jesus, and I love listening to our elderly members reflect on a lifetime of God’s faithfulness.

I love the sound of a congregation lifting its unified voice in song. I love preaching and teaching God’s Word to those who have ears to hear. I love being in the water with believers as they follow the Lord in baptism. And I love praying over the Lord’s Table as we remember the body and the blood of our Savior together.

I love knowing all the ways that members are quietly serving one another behind the scenes. I love watching brothers and sisters pray with one another, bearing one another’s burdens. And I love being present as members discover that they don’t need to guard their tears.

I love dancing with people in their joy and sitting with them in their sorrow. I love being asked to be with them in their hospital room. I love being trusted with hard conversations. And I love hearing my fellow pastors talk about how to care for the Lord's sheep.

I love celebrating new life through baby dedications and end-of-life home-goings through funeral services. I love walking with engaged couples as they prepare to become one flesh. I love seeing a nursery teeming with little ones, and I love watching children grow up in the church as generations worship King Jesus together.

I love seeing the gospel take root in hearts and homes. I love being in the room as followers of Jesus confess sin and seek accountability to walk in newness of life. And I love watching believers slowly (sometimes imperceptibly) become more like Jesus.

I love the unseen work. The quietness of the study. The sermon preparation. The prayer closet. The conversations that nobody else hears.

I love listening to my brothers discuss theology around the campfire and current events in the weight room. And I love being cared for by my own people. I love being prayed for, encouraged, corrected, challenged, and loved by the very people I’ve been called to shepherd.

I just love the church. I love her in the beauty, and I love her in the mess. I love her not because she is perfect, but because she belongs to Christ.

And I love that, by the grace of God, I get to spend my life loving these people.

I love being vocationally called to shepherd the church of God. I love being given a front-row seat to the grace of God, and I do not take it lightly.

As the Apostle Paul charged the pastors in Ephesus, “Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood” (Acts 20:28).

His blood. His church. His sheep.

And I just love being their pastor.

[Jeremiah Knoop @JeremiahKnoop2]

WHAT HAPPENED TO MY PASTOR?

Have you noticed a recent shift in your pastor’s preaching? Maybe his sermons sound a little more political than they once did? Maybe his applications are more invasive than they once were? Maybe his vocabulary feels a little sharper, more combative? Maybe he is beginning to speak more openly about culturally divisive issues – like sexuality, education, masculinity, mandatory vaccinations, entertainment, and the direction of Western culture? Maybe he is increasingly willing to pick sides rather than attempt to moderate a third way?

If this is a description of your pastor, you are not alone. There is a noticeable shift taking place across the pastoral landscape in the global West, and many Christians are wondering the same thing: What’s going on?

Why are so many pastors getting political all of a sudden? Why does it seem like church leaders are engaged in the culture war more than ever before? Shouldn’t ministers of the gospel stick to preaching…I don’t know…the gospel!? And what’s with the rise of polarizing messages coming from the pulpit and sharp language coming from the podcasts? When did meekness get replaced with an obsession for masculinity?

These are the types of questions being voiced in frustration by many within the global West today, and it’s not hard to understand the concern beneath their query. When I was entering pastoral ministry just twenty years ago, I was instructed to remain silent on issues of political concern – as was every other pastor I knew. We were told to “stay in our lane” when it came to the culture war. After all, our pulpit was in the sanctuary, not in the social square. Whenever possible, we were instructed to chart a third way when it came to polarizing issues. “Choosing sides only fosters division.”

And one could argue that this pastoral philosophy worked…for a while. But then, somewhere around 2014, we entered what Aaron Renn calls “Negative World,” and the script no longer fit the scene. To quote Lady Galadriel, “The world has changed.” It’s fine for hobbits to sit around the Green Dragon drinking ale and smoking pipeweed while the Shire is at peace, but when the servants of Mordor come riding through the gate, it’s time to put down the pint, draw Sting, and start spilling Orc blood. That might sound a bit too aggressive, but it makes the point. While it may have been permissible for pastors to remain politically silent and culturally neutral during the era that celebrated Christianity (i.e., “Positive World”), the stage has shifted drastically in the past decade, and this shift has had no small impact on the way modern pastors are called to shepherd their flock.

PASTORS & POLITICS
So, what’s with the ever-growing list of politically engaged pastors and church leaders? The easiest way to answer this question is to look at the shift that has taken place in the political sphere in recent years as politicians have increasingly attempted to leverage biblical morality to construct their political platform. Once upon a time, political differences were limited to such things as infrastructure, taxation, environmental regulations, and international trade, but… “the world has changed.” Now, like never before, party lines have been drawn across foundational realities – like the sanctity of human life, the meaning of marriage, the primacy of parental authority, and the ontology of biological sex.

In other words, it’s not that pastors have suddenly become political. Rather, it’s that the political sphere has suddenly self-identified as the arbitrator of biblical morality, and faithful pastors are now forced to protect the sheep from the onslaught of political wolves wearing the mask of morality. It’s not that pastors are suddenly getting political; it’s that the political sphere has suddenly invaded the church. And now, as a means of protecting his sheep, the faithful shepherd is called to join King David in grabbing the predator by its beard and striking it down (1 Sam 17:34–35). Kicking mutt and taking manes! Just to be clear, we are talking about wicked ideologies here, not people (e.g., 2 Cor 10:4).

PASTORS & THE CULTURE WAR
One might wonder if we can explain this pastoral movement into the culture war as simply a hazardous biproduct of disgruntled Generation Xers or overzealous Millennials? Maybe this is just a generational tick? While generational differences undoubtedly factor into various preaching styles, the problem with such an oversimplified answer is that this pastoral movement crosses all generational lines. We see this kind of intensified socio-political engagement from Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, and even Gen Z. Why? Perhaps it’s because the culture war has already invaded the church. A generation ago, when a pastor was preaching on biblical sexuality, his congregation was not wrestling through cultural pressures of gender identity, pronouns, LGBTQ school curricula, compelled speech, and the like. But… “the world has changed.” The Galactic Empire has invaded Echo Base, and now the Rebel Alliance must either engage or surrender. If there ever was a third way, it is long gone – buried beneath the smoking ruins of a world that no longer exists.

SHOULDN’T PASTORS JUST PREACH THE GOSPEL?
Yes, your pastor is called to be a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ (Eph 3:7), but let us never confine the good news of Jesus to some spiritually isolated realm “deep in my heart.” At the center of the gospel is the call to repent of your sin and to confess that JESUS CHRIST IS LORD (Rom 10:9). That begs the question, “Lord of what?” According to Abraham Kuyper, “[over every] square inch in the whole domain of our human existence.” This means that the gospel has something to say about every sphere of humanity: education, sexuality, marriage, parenting, government, finances, health, entertainment, and every conceivable etcetera. In the words of the late R.C. Sproul, there is not one rogue molecule in the entire universe. Christ is Lord OVER ALL.

Of course, the gospel does not provide a manual for how to replace the transmission in your truck or how to become an expert in cyber security, but Christ’s lordship does have something to say about financial stewardship, work ethic, and protecting your family. To quote one such culturally engaged pastor, there comes a time in our present cultural milieu “When ‘Gospel-Centered’ isn’t Gospel Enough.” That to say, “the world has changed,” and it ought to be a great encouragement for the church in the global West to see a movement of pastors and church leaders who are so committed to the gospel of “CHRIST’S LORDSHIP OVER ALL” that they are bringing it to bear in every area of life.

POLARIZING MESSAGES
How do we process the fact that pastoral messages have become increasingly polarizing in their cultural context? [Warning: at this point the answers are going to start sounding a little redundant!] In all likelihood, the polarization is not stemming from your pastor’s preaching, but from the polarization that has already grown up around the church – like overgrown vines on a neglected trellis. I’m not suggesting that your pastor’s messages aren’t polarizing; I’m saying that maybe his context no longer affords him any alternative.

And, in this regard, maybe the world actually hasn’t changed all that much. Jesus Himself said, “He who is not with Me is against Me…” (Matt 12:30). I’m not sure it gets much more polarizing than that. Where the world has changed (at least in the global West) is where it concerns our once-unified conviction regarding the supremacy of biblical truth. As a country, we used to be unified in our allegiance to the unchanging truth of Holy Scripture. But…“the world has changed.” And now, in a society that has become so sharply divided along the lines of biblical truth, it has become impossible for pastors to speak with clarity, conviction, and consistent application in a way that doesn’t divide.

SHARP LANGUAGE
“What about the sharp language that has become so commonplace among the Reformed crowd today? Isn’t that contrary to everything that Jesus taught?” Not at all. Jesus Himself used the serrated edge when the situation warranted. As did the prophets and the apostles. There are times when politically correct and socially polite verbiage is simply not strong enough to pierce through the darkness of the present spiritual deception. Of course, the pastor must exegete his audience to know when and how to incorporate the serrated edge into his vocabulary, but there are times when this method is the only method – as we see modeled throughout the entire Bible.

GENTLE AND LOWLY
Whatever happened to “gentle and lowly” pastors who imitate the heart of Christ (Matt 11:29)? Have we traded Christ-like meekness for an obsession with cultural masculinity? No, not necessarily. Insofar as the shepherd is faithful to his calling, then this meekness is ever present – even as he joins the bloodcurdling charge against the White Witch on the ford of Beruna. See, gentleness is not the absence of strength. It is strength under control. Strength equally suited for protecting souls and plundering serpents. Strength that is equally adept in upholding the weak as it is in uprooting wickedness. Strength that knows how to love one’s family even as it unleashes hell on those who would seek its harm. May we never forget the heart of our Lord who tenderly received the little children and publicly condemned the religious hypocrites.

WISDOM IS KNOWN BY HER CHILDREN
One of the ways we can evaluate this modern movement within Reformed Christianity is to examine the marriages and ministries of these oft-criticized men. Do their wives feel known, seen, loved, and cared for by their husbands? Are their children being raised to joyfully embrace a biblical worldview? Are their congregations growing in their love for the Lord and for His Word? Are their churches boldly engaging the culture with gospel joy? Are they building things – like schools, businesses, and ministries – for the Kingdom of God? If so, then perhaps it’s worth reconsidering our skepticism toward our politically engaged, culture warring pastors. “The world is changing,” and our pastors will either rise to meet the challenge, or the souls of our congregations will be found dismembered along the road of thirdwayism.

God help us.

(Photo courtesy of AI)

[Jeremiah Knoop @JeremiahKnoop2]

@redpilledkitty It truly is utterly despicable and heart-wrenchingly heinous and deserves nothing less than the death penalty.

[Jeremiah Knoop @JeremiahKnoop2]

DEADLOCKED JURY CONTINUES

As of this moment, there is still no verdict in the trial of Lindsay Clancy. Yesterday, the jury reported that it was unable to reach a unanimous decision, and the judge ordered them to continue the deliberation. The jury is not deliberating over her guilt, but over her culpability. Lindsay admits to strangling her three children to death in their Massachusetts home on January 24, 2023. Cora was 5, Dawson was 3, and Callan was 8 months.

The internet is flooded with news articles and opinion pieces on this story, and so I won’t belabor my thoughts here. I will simply say two things.

First, the gospel of Jesus Christ is for everyone. Jesus died to pay for the sins of the world (1 John 2:2), even the most heinous sins – like a mom methodically murdering her three children. Lindsay is not beyond the reach of Christ’s forgiveness. “If she confesses her sin, He is faithful and just to forgive her sins and to cleanse her from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). As a citizen of a nation that was founded on the Word of God, Lindsay ought to have the gospel preached to her and be given the opportunity to repent of her sin, trusting in the full and free forgiveness that comes only through Jesus Christ.

Second, God has given the government a sword (Romans 13:1–4). It is the government’s God-given responsibility to reward the good and punish the evildoer. The death penalty exists for a such a crime as this – regardless of any extenuating circumstances. And this deadlocked jury will be held responsible before Almighty God for the decision that is reached.

[Jerry Dorris @jerrydorris]

Pastors who dodge public theology in the pulpit may avoid conflict in the pews, but they rob their people of seeing how the gospel transforms every sphere of life. Silence on cultural sin catechizes the flock into believing Christ rules only on Sundays.

[Michael Foster @thisisfoster]

Gen Z, say, “This stops with us survivors. Never again.”

[Jeremiah Knoop @JeremiahKnoop2]

“We simply found ourselves in contact with a certain current of ideas and plunged into it because it seemed MODERN and SUCCESSFUL…. We just started automatically writing the kind of essays that got GOOD MARKS and saying the kind of things that WON APPLAUSE…. We were AFRAID of a breach with the spirit of the age, AFRAID of ridicule.”

~ C. S. Lewis

[Jeremiah Knoop @JeremiahKnoop2]

"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities." ~ Voltaire

[Canon Press @canonpress]

"Wilson believes that America should be a kind of theocracy, not a secular democracy. If he had his way, clerics would not control the government, he says, but Christianity would infuse everything: law, architecture, even dentistry."

Read more HERE:
https://t.co/RUDeu9yXN1

[Jeremiah Knoop @JeremiahKnoop2]

Evil doesn’t retreat because we behave; it retreats because we advance.

[Pastor Rich Lusk @Vicar1973]

The mission of the church is not merely to avoid evil, but to conquer evil.

[Jeremiah Knoop @JeremiahKnoop2]

@Vicar1973 Playing defense was never part of the great commission. Christ didn’t bind the strong man so we could build monasteries — but so we could plunder his house.

[Jeremiah Knoop @JeremiahKnoop2]

@joe_rigney The road to Wittenberg runs straight through Hippo.

[Jeremiah Knoop @JeremiahKnoop2]

@Vicar1973 Here here!