A pastor's aid to teaching ethics

Nick Eicher, WORLD’s chief content officer and the executive producer of WORLD Radio, recently shared with me a story about WORLD editor in chief Marvin Olasky and theologian J.I. Packer. The two were scheduled to speak at a conference on different topics in different rooms at the same time. Marvin, ever polite but also quite serious, expressed how much he’d rather be listening to Packer than lecturing on journalism. After all, what is journalism compared to theology?

“Nonsense,” Packer said. “Think of what revitalizing journalism would do for the cause of Christ in America. It is the most needed sort of pre-evangelism. It is training in Christian worldview, and it is an aid to sanctification.”

Pastors, have we thought about this for the ethical development of our flocks? Do we need pre-evangelistic tilling, training in a godly worldview, and a 24/7 aid to our congregation’s sanctification? Good godly journalism can help.

Early in American history, news outlets had a distinctly Christian bent. Most national institutions had the same leaning. Governments, businesses, and even schools that assumed Christian fundamentals as norms surrounded churchgoers. Today, that has all changed. In our nation’s agriculture, art, business, education, government, religion, or science, where are Christian principles predominant? Where is pre-evangelism taking place? Where is Christian worldview training happening? Where are aids to sanctification inside or outside your church walls? It’s now difficult to find.

Recently I discovered one solution, WORLD’s daily news podcast The World and Everything in It. I wasn’t asked to write this column as a promo or an ad. I’m writing this because Christian ethics are learned and the podcast will help churches teach ethics.

Pre-evangelism is like preparing soil for seed: the ground turned upside down (politically correct ethics questioned, turned right-side up), selected fertilizer introduced (alternate possibilities that were never before considered presented), and rows furrowed (the mind prepared for growth). Properly plowed soil will accept kernels that hard-packed, sunbaked soil will reject. The same is true for the human mind.

Christian ethical worldview training involves two aspects: learning and unlearning. Learning that God is concerned with every aspect of every part of His creation and unlearning the lies we’ve been taught. The World and Everything in It works hard at aiding both.

Aids to sanctification are almost oxymorons. It seems our culture has a hidden agenda to take the sincere Christian off the track of sanctification and onto a path of self-destruction or self-indulgence. Wholesome movies are panned, good books are unreported on, and G-rated TV shows are confined to a few cartoons. God is banned from government, taboo in education, and unnecessary in science, agriculture, and business. Christian newspapers are relegated to struggling local tabloids.

The World and Everything in It is there to aid in the Kingdom’s work. Our job as pastors is to prepare God’s people for works of service, and this podcast can help. Try it for a week and then serve it to your people. Christian ethics must be taught. Our churches will learn them nowhere else.