During this year of great adversity, with a raging pandemic and ever-increasing political divisiveness, your humble correspondent is very grateful to be able to share the biblical teachings and spiritual counsel of David Lee, the lead pastor at Ekklesia Atlanta Christian Fellowship. Sharing the same last name, David and I were inseparable in our high school yearbook. The distance has grown since our classmate days, but the connection now means more.
Regarding connections, David spoke about a higher calling: “As I prayed about my future [while in college and involved with both church and a campus ministry], I felt God challenging me to flip my vocational aspirations, to put church first and everything else second. I believed God was telling me, ‘I have other people who will take care of those other things; I want you to focus on building my church.'”
In Part I of this Q&A, the Good Reverend addresses fresh challenges, age-old questions and more:
What is your idea of the ‘best day’?
I think it’s days when people feel really connected with God and I was there to witness and maybe help that. My role, my sense of usefulness or satisfaction are secondary. I think sometimes pastors really do just have a front-row seat to witness things that only God can do. So whether it’s wrapping up a wedding or being there to help someone when they lose a loved one or praying with someone who is deciding to become a Christian, it’s all amazing to witness. I also believe that a quiet day at home or sitting somewhere in nature and just meditating and enjoying all that God is and does is a great day.
The pandemic has necessitated social distancing. How has your church and its fellowship adjusted?
We have moved to virtual services and small group meetings, but it is difficult. The social interaction that was very important to people is, of course, not the same. Church in some ways was always a nice change-of-pace from other things, even as some churches have tried to become more like the rest of the world. But as we deal with the crises of the pandemic and the exposure of other issues in our communities, the message of brokenness and hope in Jesus Christ is still relevant and needed. The challenge is bringing that message to people when it’s so easy to disengage while distanced. So we try to provide care for people, encourage members to reach out to one another, urge people to not give up meeting and serving (Hebrews 10:24-25). It’s okay though. The church can adapt as we carry out our mission. I love the story of Acts 8: when the church scatters because of the outbreak of persecution, one of the church members, Philip, finds himself in places he’d never imagined. What does he do? He tells people about the hope of Jesus Christ. And God works even as the church gets scattered. God works even in the midst of trials and difficulties.
It’s obviously a very divisive political time in this country. As a pastor, what can you do when a parishioner brings up a political issue and what do you feel is off limits?
Ideally, nothing is off-limits. If people say things that are divisive, it gives me a chance to point them to the Gospel that addresses our sinful attitudes and calls us to graciousness. I like discussing things about which people feel passionately, and sometimes that provides an opportunity to compare that with their passions or missing passions for God and what the Bible teaches us. Ultimately, we can agree that there are issues and problems, and if people are putting their hopes in politicians, then I get to teach a biblical perspective on the role of government, the fallibility of all men and systems, and our calling as the church and as Christians to demonstrate a different hope and way… I’ll conclude just by saying that every issue we face always points to our fallen, broken condition and our need for God’s intervention, and that still applies today.
Pastor David Lee
Let’s finish Part I of our talk with that classic question – why do bad things happen to good people?
We all have a desire to experience good, and to be good, but we can all admit that there is bad in the world and also in ourselves. How can we who are imperfect and live imperfectly in an imperfect world know of something better? Because God created us from His goodness and for His goodness. But we experience the opposite and why is that? Because we, from the very first of our kind, turned away from God and tried to do it differently. So even though my mom has schizophrenia and my dad has Parkinson’s, I told them clearly it wasn’t their fault, but it is part of our fallenness and living in a fallen, broken world. All of this reminds us that we were created for more, and that God invites us to be reconnected and reconciled to a life where we allow God to be God, and He brings goodness back into our lives through Jesus Christ. The Gospels report lots of interactions where Jesus does this beautifully and gives us hope.
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