Doctrine and Mission

Tag: tribalism

  • The Reformation is Not Over: Why the Church Still Needs Reform Today

    On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-Five Theses to the church door in Wittenberg—not to start a new religion, but to call the church back to the gospel. The Reformation was the recovery of Christ-centered Christianity from a system that had obscured grace behind religious performance, institutional power, and cultural assumptions.

    We celebrate the Reformation historically—but the work of reform is unfinished. Churches drift. Hearts drift. Cultures shift. And every generation must return to the gospel afresh.

    The Reformation was not a moment to be remembered.
    It is a movement that must continue.

    The Five Solas for Today

    The ancient Solas remain true—but to confront today’s distortions, they must be re-articulated for our cultural moment.

    1. Scripture Above Self (Sola Scriptura)

    The original Sola Scriptura asserted that the Bible—not church tradition or papal authority—is the final authority for faith and life. Today, the challenge is different. The rival authority is not Rome; it is the self. We live in a world that teaches us to “live your truth,” “follow your heart,” and treat feelings as ultimate. Many Christians now approach Scripture not to be shaped by it, but to see whether it confirms what they already feel.

    A modern Reformation calls us to place Scripture back above self.
    The Bible critiques our desires, corrects our instincts, and commands our obedience. The church must stop asking, “What do we want Christianity to be?” and start asking, “What has God revealed?”

    Until we surrender personal preference to divine authority, reformation is still needed.

    2. Grace Over Performance (Sola Gratia)

    The Reformers fought a works-based system that told people to earn salvation through religious effort. Today, our works look different—but the impulse is the same. Instead of religious merit, we seek identity, belonging, righteousness, and value through:

    • self-improvement
    • productivity
    • emotional wellness
    • political activism
    • theological correctness
    • ministry success

    We are a culture of achievement-based self-worth. Even in church, people quietly assume, “If I were more disciplined, more bold, more spiritual, God would be more pleased with me.”

    But grace is not God helping us perform better.
    Grace is God loving, rescuing, and restoring sinners who cannot save themselves.

    A modern Reformation must proclaim again:

    Your hope is not your performance for Christ.
    Your hope is Christ’s performance for you.

    Only grace breaks the cycle of religious exhaustion.

    3. Faith, Not Self-Expression (Sola Fide)

    Faith is not merely sincerity, personality, trauma history, or personal authenticity. Our culture has redefined faith as being true to yourself. So Christianity becomes a journey of self-discovery, not self-denial. The cross becomes a symbol of empowerment, not execution of the old self.

    But biblical faith means trusting, obeying, and submitting allegiance to Jesus as Lord.
    Faith does not express who you are—it transforms who you are.
    Faith does not validate your identity—it redefines your identity.

    The church must reject the gospel of authenticity where the highest virtue is “being yourself.” Christ does not affirm our self so much as He crucifies it and raises us into something new.

    To rediscover Sola Fide is to rediscover the call:

    “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me.”

    4. Christ, Not the Brand (Solus Christus)

    We live in the age of the platformed Christian—celebrity pastors, influencer spirituality, church-as-production, and faith-as-aesthetic. Churches measure success by visibility, personalities, energy, and brand identity. The question is no longer, “Is this faithful?” but “Is this impressive?”

    But Scripture speaks directly to this temptation.

    In Corinth, believers were dividing themselves by which Christian leader they preferred. Some said, “I follow Paul.” Others, “I follow Apollos.” It was the first-century equivalent of denominational tribalism, ministry fandom, and pastor-centric identity.

    Paul responds with a thunderclap:

    “Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?”
    — 1 Corinthians 1:13

    In other words:
    No leader died for you. No pastor rose for you. No teacher can save you.

    Paul then explains that Christian ministers are simply servants, not stars:

    “What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed…
    I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.”
    — 1 Corinthians 3:5–6

    The church does not exist to elevate gifted personalities.
    It does not gather to admire Christian leaders.
    It gathers to worship Christ alone.

    A modern Reformation must dethrone our idols of charisma, influence, branding, tribal loyalty, and spiritual consumerism—and enthrone Christ alone as the head, center, message, authority, and meaning of the church.

    No pastor is the point.
    No platform is the mission.
    No personality is the glory.
    Only Christ.

    5. God’s Glory, Not Our Platform (Soli Deo Gloria)

    The glory of God was the heartbeat of the Reformation—and it is the truth most lost in our time. We live in an era of self-display, self-promotion, and self-exaltation. Even spiritual things can be leveraged to build a platform—sermons crafted for applause, ministries built for clout, good deeds performed for recognition, churches measured by optics.

    But the church does not exist to make us impressive.
    It exists to make Christ known.

    When the glory of God fades, something else always rises to take its place: the pastor’s ego, the church’s brand, the identity group’s agenda, the political movement’s mission, the individual’s comfort.

    A modern Reformation calls us back to kneeling posture:
    We must decrease. Christ must increase.

    The Reformation Continues

    We celebrate the Reformation not as nostalgia, but as a reminder:

    The church is always tempted to drift.
    The gospel is always worth recovering.
    And Christ is always worth reforming for.

    Reformation is not rebellion against the church—it is love for the church.
    It is not innovation—it is restoration.
    It is not going forward—it is returning.

    Ecclesia semper reformanda.
    The church must always be reforming.

    Not to become something new.
    But to become once again what Christ intended her to be.

    Always returning.
    Always repenting.
    Always reforming.
    Always Christ.

  • The Trump and Elon Feud and SBC Cooperation

    What Two Billionaires Can Teach Us About the Need for Unity in the Church

    In recent weeks, headlines have spotlighted a public unraveling of the once-curious alliance between Donald Trump and Elon Musk. Once praised by Trump and courted by Musk, the relationship has devolved into social media barbs and personal insults. Trump has labeled Musk “a BS artist,” while Musk has increasingly distanced himself from Trump’s brand of politics. Their high-profile “breakup” is just another example of the culture of fragmentation that defines our age.

    Social media makes it easy to sever ties. A disagreement? Block. A moment of offense? Unfollow. A different worldview? Cancel. Our tools have discipled us in the habits of disunity—removing nuance and patience in favor of fast takes and instant tribalism. This is the air we breathe, and whether we admit it or not, it’s shaping our institutions—including the church.

    The SBC: A Big Tent in a Divided Age

    The Southern Baptist Convention is a diverse body. Theologically, ethnically, generationally, and geographically, we bring a lot of differences to the table. And in recent years, those differences have grown sharper. Social issues, political alignments, leadership conflicts, and theological emphasis have all contributed to rising tensions. Many are tempted to throw up their hands and walk away—to treat the church like social media: if you don’t like what you see, just “block” the whole convention.

    But the SBC isn’t Twitter. It’s not a platform built on clout or algorithms. It’s a people united by a common confession and a Great Commission. What makes the SBC work—at its best—is not uniformity, but cooperation. We voluntarily link arms to plant churches, send missionaries, train pastors, and preach the gospel to a lost and dying world. That mission is too important to walk away from.

    Unity Without Compromise

    Our culture is confused about unity. It either means total agreement or total silence. But biblical unity is something different. It’s grounded in truth and expressed in love. As Paul wrote to the Philippians, we are to be “of one mind, striving side by side for the faith of the gospel” (Phil. 1:27). Not identical minds, but a shared direction.

    We don’t need to agree on everything to cooperate in gospel work. But we do need clarity about what matters most. That’s why our confession of faith matters. That’s why doctrinal integrity must never be sacrificed on the altar of pragmatism or politics. And that’s why we must resist the cultural impulse to divide every time there’s friction. The kingdom is bigger than our tribes, and the gospel is stronger than our algorithms.

    Conclusion: Hold the Line Together

    Trump and Musk may go their separate ways, each with their own platforms and followings. But the church cannot afford to mimic their model of fragmentation. If we become just another reflection of the world’s division, we lose our witness.

    As Southern Baptists head into another convention season, let us remember: we are not bound together by personalities or platforms, but by doctrine and mission. Let the world feud. Let the church be different.