The Puzzle, March 2-3, 2009
Synagogue Fishing
So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. Acts 17:22-23America is seeming more like Athens all the time, increasingly open to anything, except the exclusive claims of Christianity. How do we reach people like that? What makes the difference?
During the time in my life when I was struggling the most, intellectually, with my faith, it wasn’t the pro or con arguments which got through; it was the love, and it was the example. I looked at the love around me and knew it was real. I had experienced the love of God and knew it to be true. I had seen the example of people like my parents, and saw that their lives worked. At one point, it just became a leap of faith. Torn between what well-credentialed liberal theologians had to say and the simple faith model I had observed in the lives of my godly parents, I went with the more powerful of the two, the life that worked and the God of the Bible, as opposed to the domesticated version of Him espoused by some. I honestly felt sorry for people who had a god they could understand, and scriptures requiring the validation of their intellect in order to be true. In a moment of time, I skipped over the whole thing and went with a God I already knew and a Book I already loved. It was a “leap” of sorts, but a pretty short one, and I never looked back.
I decided to believe the Bible, just like I always had, and ignore whatever conflicted with it. That was a good choice! I think that’s what’s going to have to happen in America, in order for people to move forward in their faith. They are going to have to take the leap. Some places you can’t get to, gradually. There are places you get stuck, and you never move on, if you have to have explanations for everything along the way. If you try to live by just what you can figure out about the Bible and what makes sense and what you can prove to be true, there isn’t enough left over to get you through real life. If you believe the whole thing, there’s plenty.
Starting from Their Page
Paul did his homework, prior to talking to the Athenians; he didn’t waltz in with the assumption that they would automatically give him an audience. He studied their culture, their poets, and their way of thinking, found a place of commonality, and went from there. He didn’t leave out the things he knew they wouldn’t understand, such as the resurrection, but he also didn’t begin at the roadblocks to their faith; he began where they were: so afraid of leaving something out that they had made an image “to the unknown god,” just in case!We need to do like Paul, and start from the page of those we’re trying to reach. In ministering to modern-day Americans, if we’re trying to make points among the church crowd, we can start out by attacking the moral values of this culture and railing against those who favor abortion, gay marriage and sexual immorality, but we’re not going to connect with the broken people of this age if we start out at these roadblocks. Where are their minds? The economy, their messed-up relationships, their loneliness and lack of purpose. Music. Their kids. Entertainment and sports. I just can’t believe that the lost people of our nation go around thinking about how to get forgiven for their sin, all the time! They’re not tracking that same concept, at least not in the biblical way. They want help, but a “Savior who died for them” is not fitting the recipe for what they would call “help.” That doesn’t mean they don’t need Jesus; it just means they’re far enough away from that concept that we need to start somewhere within their reach, in offering help. The Church needs to get better at starting where the world is, and going from there, instead of expecting them to come seek us out and start from whatever page we’re on.
Sitting in our Synagogues
There is still a place for church ministry from the pulpit, but there’s very little evangelism taking place in sanctuaries in America, anymore. If we’re going to reach this generation, we’re going to have to haunt the marketplace, because they just aren’t coming to find us, no more than the Gentiles were tracking down the Jews and trying to be converted to Judaism, back then. Sitting in our synagogues is not working. It’s time to go to the marketplace, on purpose, and spend the days there, not marketing the Church like another commodity, but listening to a hurting world, helping them find their place in God’s Kingdom by starting where they are, not where we think they should be.What would happen if teams of missionaries, each bringing their own perspective and gifts, went through our cities in waves? Teams could focus on segments of society where there might be a special connection, such as the intellectual community, immigrants or college students. Many of us feel ill-equipped when it comes to evangelism, but I’m coming to see it more like fishing; while some may possess a natural gift, the only people who catch anything are the people who go out. And the more they go out, the better they get at it.
We don’t all fit in the same spot, but we all fit, somewhere. And whatever we do, we need to approach America as the mission field it is, rather than sitting in our synagogues expecting the world to beat down our door, anytime soon.
The Puzzle, March 4, 2009
Brace for Impact
Only three words were spoken to the passengers of Flight 1549 by their captain, Chesley B. Sullenberger, known now worldwide simply as “Sully.” As the jetliner glided toward the Potomac, both engines silent and powerless due to a double bird strike, Sully was determined to land his aircraft safely on the surface of the river. One hundred fifty passengers were on board, in addition to the five crew members. It had never been done before successfully—ditching a jetliner in the water, but God had prepared this man for this task over the course of his whole life, including giving him the confidence to absolutely know he could do it. As the Airbus lined up perfectly with the river’s surface, the passengers prayed rather than panicked, and obeyed the only instructions coming to them from the cockpit where a man held their lives in his two capable hands.“Brace for impact.”
They did. The force of the gigantic plane contacting the water was sufficient to shear an engine completely off. Sully kept the craft level and right side up, and God kept it floating. The passengers had time to deboard the aircraft onto the wings, looking for all the world like a crowd of people standing on water. Sully had time to walk the cabin twice, making sure his passengers were all out. In a matter of minutes they were surrounded by a flock of rescue boats, plucking people to warmth and safety. Everyone did what they were supposed to do. It all ended really well! No fatalities, not even very many injuries, new national heroes at a time of hero-deficiency. While Sully had to guide a powerless jetliner full of passengers into a safe, first-time-ever water landing, all the passengers needed to do was brace for landing, not panic, and get out of the plane. Guided by their captain’s three calm words, and the heroic efficiency of crew and fellow passengers, they all made it.
Brace for Impact
Do you know what I think God is telling us in America, these days? I think He’s telling us, “Brace for impact.” The calm voice of God is telling us some things will get rough, and we need to prepare ourselves physically, mentally and spiritually, so we don’t get hurt unnecessarily when what He’s already seen coming makes contact with our lives.We know we’re in great hands, when God is at the controls. He will get us safely through. He promised that. Our job is to not panic, to be ready to take care of ourselves and our loved ones, to be ready to help others, to be ready to share Christ. Our confidence in the Captain will help others to keep from losing it. One other thing which I think applies: while every single person successfully got out of Flight 1549, their baggage didn’t do so well, at least not on the first day. A lot of valuable stuff was still in the overhead bins, as shivering passengers saw their belongings sinking into the Potomac. Their luggage? Already gone. They got out with their lives, and that was about it.
We need to think about that. We’re so stuck on our possessions, I’m afraid some of us might be willing to risk eternity just to hang onto earthly valuables a little longer. The morbid math reassures us that one day we’ll be letting go, anyway, since trips to the next world don’t involve carry-on’s, luggage or real estate, but the thought of just walking off and leaving it while we’re still breathing is still a tough one. At least, it is for me. Are we ready to let go of our belongings, if the impact of what God is doing in our world separates us from them?
Are we ready? Are we living so close to the edge that we have put ourselves in needless danger, and will need rescue if the least little thing goes wrong, or are we exercising restraint and wisdom in our finances and relationships? Are we ready not only to help ourselves and our loved ones, but to help others? Whatever happens in the next few months or years may present the best opportunities in our lifetime for genuine ministry. Last of all, are we ready to share Christ? This world doesn’t make sense without Him, even in the good times. Not enough people know that. After we have helped people in practical ways because we were prepared would be an excellent time to gently tell them.
The Church in America needs to brace for impact. We need to listen to our Captain, stay calm, and lead the way, by following God’s directions. This will have a calming effect on a nervous world around us, plus opening up myriad opportunities to witness. We need to loosen our grip on the things of this world, in case we must quickly leave them behind in order to obey God. We might as well; eventually, death will pry our fingers off, anyway (cheery thought!). If we get to keep our stuff til then, we’ll enjoy it much more without the worry. Let go. Then the hard part is over and we can enjoy it until it really is time to leave the carry-on’s behind and follow Jesus out onto the wing. Our Captain is in control. He will get us through whatever lies ahead. All we need to do is keep a very loose hold on the temporal things and a committed hold on the eternal, and the peace that comes with that package. Oh, and when they ask (and they will), don’t forget to tell them about the Savior at the controls.
The Puzzle, March 6, 2009
God in a Giving Mood
He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Romans 8:32It started over a week ago, when I was praying for $2,000 to get us back in the clear, financially. I had just prayed for a thousand dollars to be in the mail, when I went in and checked the post office box. There was a $25 check there, plus another one—for $1,000. Our eleven-year-old son and I had prayed specifically for $2,000 at bedtime a couple nights before, so I made sure to let him know about the answer to prayer. That was eight days ago.
It was enough to get us by, although we still needed another $1,000, due mostly to car problems, which had racked up another $400 in bills. Then there were some medical bills that still had to be taken care of, and even after transferring everything I could out of savings, we were still short, and needing another $1,000 to get everything squared up. I checked the post office box twice today, with nothing either time. I put in my request to God, telling Him I had tried to be obedient to Him, but I needed another $1,000, and if there was anything He wanted me to do, I would do it. I asked that it not be from an inheritance of a loved one or anything like that, and I asked for it to be in addition to what would normally come in through Servant Connection. Then I just went about my business. Our daughter was home when the mail came to our house, late. There was a pile of it, including a couple letters from colleges. I gave our graduating senior one of the letters, from a college to which she had applied. She opened it and kind of gasped. She had been given one of the top academic scholarships, for $8,000, renewable, and on top of a $4,000 scholarship she had already been awarded from that school. Praise God!
I saw a small envelope in the pile that looked like a thank-you note. It actually was. It was from some friends in Alaska, for whom I had commercially fished for seven seasons. In 1989, the Exxon Valdez oil tanker ran aground in Prince William Sound, wreaking havoc with the environment in Alaska, and resulting in massive lawsuits, just now being paid, twenty years later. My friends had received partial payment for their losses, and even though I wasn’t in Alaska the year of the oil spill, they had decided they wanted to share with me some of what they had received. In the little note were kind words about our friendship, and the blessings through the years. And a check for $1,000.
I read the note to our daughter and showed her the check, then we both went to the school for show-and-tell with my wife. Last was the eleven-year-old. I reminded him of our specific prayers, the direct answer of a week before, and my specific prayer earlier today, not only about the second $1,000, but also about the needed scholarships. When I finished telling him, he said, “Man, God must be in a giving mood, today!” I told him, “Son, God is always in a giving mood.” It’s just not every day that you have a $9,000 day, all in direct answer to prayer!
I’m just so thankful! We serve an absolutely wonderful God. He owns it all. And He loves to answer prayer. I love Him, and not just because He gave me a $9,000 day. I’ll love Him, forever. And I just wanted to share these answers to prayer with you. If you have a need, I hear God is in a giving mood. He’ll either grant your request or let you know what to do. Trust Him! He’s good.
God gives grace in advance. I prayed for a $1,000 check today, and received one that God had sort of written out twenty years ago! That’s just Him, though. I prayed for salvation when I was five years old, but the grace to grant my request had been granted almost 2,000 years before I was born. In God we have all the grace we need, and we have it when we need it, even if it’s been “in the mail” for a couple decades or a couple millennia. He sure is in a giving mood! Always. Man, I love Him!
The Puzzle, March 7-29, 2009
Missionary Money
After this Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. And he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. And he went to see them, and because he was of the same trade he stayed with them and worked, for they were tentmakers by trade. And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and tried to persuade Jews and Greeks.When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was occupied with the word, testifying to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus. Acts 18:1-5
New challenges face the Church in America, these days, on top of old challenges we still had not really mastered. A new hurdle to overcome has to do with the poor state of the economy, resulting in substantial decreases in income for most churches and non-profits. Some people are more reluctant to give, now, while others simply have less money to give. Painful cutbacks face many ministries and churches. This is in addition to whatever financial pressures the ministries were facing before the recession.
In times of abundance, there is more room for error when it comes to financial decisions, but few American ministries would express their current money situation these days in terms of having “abundance.” In times like this, it’s pretty important for us to get it right when it comes to financial decisions.
Fortunately, the Bible has a lot to say about finances, with not hundreds but thousands of verses having to do with money scattered through its pages. The first few verses of Acts 18 might not be considered one of those passages, but I see in it a principle which could really help us, in good times and bad:
It’s not exactly a Bible verse, but I think it’s what Paul and company were doing during their missionary visit to Corinth. The little missionary company was split up, with Paul newly arrived in Corinth, Timothy and Silas still in Macedonia. Paul set about preaching in the synagogue. Somehow he connected with a transplanted Jewish couple, Aquila and Priscilla, who had recently come from Rome, where Caesar had expelled all the Jews. Natives of Pontus, an area north of Palestine, Aquila just so happened to also be a tentmaker, Paul’s trade. The two men joined in a tentmaking venture in Corinth to support themselves. Paul preached in the synagogue and made tents on the side. This enabled him to preach to the Corinthians without letting money be an issue in any way. When Timothy and Silas arrived, Paul then devoted full time to preaching, the implication being that Timothy and Silas were now somehow providing for the group.
When Money is the Focus
So, who cares whether or not Paul took up offerings when he got to Corinth, or if he stayed up half the night making tents? Why is this a big deal, worthy of notation in scripture? I happen to think that all of scripture is valuable to us, and usually on multiple levels. The brief mention of how Paul supported himself during this time belies the significance I think it had to his mission.There were a number of obstacles Paul was having to overcome when it came to introducing the Gospel to the Corinthians. He was bringing a message of purity to a culture so decadent that “to Corinthianize” was used as a verb. These people were in for a big lifestyle change if they were going to follow Christ! Corinth was also a hub of commerce; money meant a lot to these folks. When money is the focus of a culture, everything having to do with it is a distraction. The motive of profit is assumed behind each action. Had Paul arrived asking financial support for his ministry, the Corinthians may have interpreted the Gospel as nothing more than a new means of making a profit. It was important to Paul in this situation to be able to preach the Gospel without money getting in the way. He removed the distraction by refusing to take money from them, even if it was offered.
What was he doing? Paul was removing what he saw to be a hindrance to the spreading of the Gospel. In his thinking, at least in Corinth the Gospel would be better accepted if no one could accuse the preacher of being in it for the money. I think he was right. There are similar situations in our world, today. When money is a distraction from the spread of the Gospel, we do well to minimize or remove that distraction. We’ll come back to that, later.
Paul evidently would have liked to have been full-time in preaching from the very start, but without his companions, he had to fend for himself when he first came to Corinth. He wisely joined forces with Aquila and Priscilla, and made the most of the situation. I would imagine there were conversions and opportunities to witness which came through the avenue of tentmaking, as well as through preaching in the synagogue. However, when Timothy and Silas hit town, Paul seems to have slacked off in the tentmaking and ramped up the preaching ministry.
Do Whatever Best Promotes the Gospel
The Corinthians didn’t know about Jesus, and weren’t going to hear about Him unless someone told them. Paul knew that was his primary assignment: To preach Christ. The reason he veered off into part-time tentmaking was because he felt that best suited his mission, for the time. When reinforcements arrived to help with income, he dove back into full-time ministry. The fact that he continued to preach without pay gave Paul some needed ammunition later, when dealing with this peculiarly contentious bunch. He was able to “boast” to the Corinthians that he had not accepted money from them. It gave them one less thing about which to complain. Through his hard work and the work of his missionary team, Paul had removed a Gospel barrier to reaching the Corinthians, when he had eliminated the issue of money. The Corinthians already had plenty of issues. They didn’t need one more.Multiple Disclaimers
I’m about to move into an area where angels fear to tread, that of church finance. Before we even get going, I want to issue all the disclaimers which might help save my hide! “The Puzzle” is an honest search for the answers to questions we face these days, which means that sometimes I don’t like the answers any more than the next person. There’s also the possibility that I’m just plain wrong—hopefully sincerely wrong, but wrong, nonetheless. Another disclaimer I want to make is that these conclusions or recommendations I’m making are not aimed at specific individuals or ministries, nor do I wish for anyone to lose their job or something on account of me. The direction we’re going now is to see what happens when this principle is applied to present-day circumstances. God will make clear to each of us if He is giving us instructions through this study, and what we are to do.How about if we begin with really current events, as in this morning? Today, as I write, the CEO of AIG is testifying before Congress, where posturing politicians decry the ridiculous bonuses paid to AIG employees, in a company which ran aground and is so enormous that Congress felt compelled to bail it out. The dozens of million-dollar plus bonuses paid out to executives in the failing company are now the lightning rod of public opinion, as taxpayers who footed the multi-billion dollar bill to do it and are themselves struggling financially, look at those who drove the company into the ditch being paid extravagant sums of money for doing it. There’s a lot of finger pointing going on right now, but creating a new retroactive vengeance tax to confiscate the money or figuring out who the ten most loathsome culprits are in the mess will not get the company on its feet again, nor help the overall economy appreciably. Faultfinding doesn’t get people (or economies) out of messes. What is needed are workable solutions; indictments and accusations don’t fix the situation. They do, however, provide a huge distraction, which often prevents true solutions from ever getting the chance to be heard.
Cows in Ditches
A sage piece of advice from someone who knew about such matters goes like this: When your cow is stuck in the ditch, first, get the cow out of the ditch. Then, figure out how the cow got into the ditch. Third, figure out how to keep the cow from ever getting in the ditch, again. I’ve read of major business executives who used that little plan to pull huge corporations out of the ditch. It’s workable advice! I wish more people would follow that kind of thinking, rather than devoting so much energy to faultfinding.The three-step plan for dealing with cows in ditches is a practical plan for many types of situations, including church administration, business, and... well, just the other day I tried it on home repair and it worked. The main reason I bring up the AIG situation, though, is to highlight how when money issues become a distraction, progress pretty much stops in all areas.
Keep the Focus on Jesus
Let’s leave the world of business and government and come over to the church world, now. Think of how many times the work of the Gospel has faltered among people because they were distracted by money issues. Someone did something illegal, or just extravagant, with church money, and all attention is placed upon it for the time being. What does it do to the growth of the Gospel? Stops it. What if the perception in the community is that the church is all about money or that the pastor is greedy—should we look for many conversions taking place? Not until the focus is back on Christ, rather than money. Sometimes the attention in a church is on how little money is available, occasionally it’s on how much—either way, when finances occupy center stage in a church, Christ is crowded off to the side, and not many people manage to find Him as Savior.Paul had the foresight to understand that if he allowed money to be a distraction in his ministry in Corinth, the cause of Christ would be harmed. So, he purposefully isolated this issue from the Corinthian Church by not allowing them to be responsible for his financial support while he was there. Apparently, Paul didn’t do that everywhere, but he did it in Corinth. He sensed that for the Gospel to spread in this city, the best plan was to take the money issue off the table. In this particular situation, a bi-vocational missionary was the most effective missionary. When help arrived, he then became a full-time missionary, supported by others on his team. The key strategy was to keep the focus of the Corinthians on Jesus, not on finances. It worked. The Church was established in Corinth. It wasn’t without sacrifice, but it was worth it.
Now, to the Church in America. We’re not far from Corinth, in terms of the setup. Decadence and immorality? Check. Idolatry? Lots of it. We just don’t worship little stone statues, for the most part. Everything else, though. And one of our top gods is money. It’s not just enjoyed by our culture; it’s worshiped, by millions! Last of all, the Corinthians were no strangers to religion; they just didn’t know Jesus. There, too, some of America is sliding into that category as a society. There’s plenty of spirituality and religion available, but not that much of it is really centered on Jesus Christ.
So, if our goal is to make disciples for Jesus among the people of the U.S., what are some of the distractions which would hinder the acceptance of the message of the Bible? Money would have to be on that list, wouldn’t it? If we’re trying to reach new people for Jesus, wouldn’t it make sense to do our best to keep the focus in the Church on the appeal of the Savior, rather than the distraction of money? Let me be clear. I am not saying I think pastors should not teach on financial principles or tithing. Disciples need to be trained in how God wants us to be good managers of what He has placed in our hands. What I am saying is that we should avoid letting money issues become a barrier to those who don’t even yet know Jesus (such as the Corinthians, when Paul first came to town). We need to advance the Gospel by keeping the focus on Christ, not on other things. This isn’t easy, but it’s important. We would do well to pay attention to it. Keep the focus on Jesus.
What's Holding the Church Back
Money issues are holding the Church back in America.However, it’s not what most people think. It’s not because we don’t have enough money (though we usually don’t). It’s not because people aren’t tithing (though they usually aren’t). I think it has much more to do with how money gets in the way and becomes the distraction, one way or another, than it is about the lack of it or even the lack of giving. It’s the preoccupation with it.
Examples:
* “We can’t do the ministry we think God wants us to do, because we don’t have enough money.” Translated, this ends up being, “We can’t obey God,” because we are committed to doing His work in a certain way (our way), which usually entails a lot of extras and perks (earmarks?) not in His original package. I’m not hearing the apostles in Acts discussing whether or not they could afford to obey the Holy Spirit!
* There’s a preoccupation with how the money gets spent. Differing opinions as to what constitutes “excess” provide grist for those desiring to cut back on their giving, with the excuse that their money is being poorly administered. If they were tithing to more worthy organizations or causes, instead, the point might be well taken. I don’t think that’s usually the case, though.
* Church leadership is consumed with financial issues. How much of the time of the church leadership is spent in determining where the money is spent? Oh, man! That’s not counting the kind of time that treasurers and finance committee members put in. That’s just the pastor and church board, elders or deacons or whatever. How much of the conflict in the church revolves around the issue of money? Quite a bit. In some churches, nearly all of the conflict has to do with money issues, at least on the surface.
To sum it up, preoccupation with money hinders the spread of the Gospel. And spreading the Gospel is our mission.
The Great Commission is Our Mission
Jesus’ parting words to His disciples about making disciples in all the nations weren’t because He couldn’t think of what else to say! He was serious, and the disciples took Him seriously, too. Everything they did lined up with His instructions. It was their mission. All the players understood the goal.In America these days? Not so much. I see churches and ministries going every which way, like twenty-something’s out trying to find themselves. It’s unusual to be able to find a church on-task, bringing people to Christ and helping them to become mature disciples. For many churches, that’s what they say they are doing, but the evidence indicates otherwise. Something like 5% of churches in America are seeing growth through conversion, which means 95% aren’t!
It’s not because we’re broke, either. I don’t know what the income figures are, just that they are in the billions. I wonder what the budget of the Early Church looked like.
Can we agree that the mission of the Church is the Great Commission, at least in theory? That means that all of the money in the Church really is missionary money—it’s to go toward the mission of the Church. If the available money is not contributing toward the mission, something ought to be reallocated until resources line up with the goal. And what is the goal? I like the new denominational mission statement of the Church of the Nazarene, a simple rewording of the Great Commission: “To make Christlike disciples in the nations.” I find it hard to improve upon the simple brevity yet completeness of this statement. The mission? “To make Christlike disciples in the nations.” The money? It’s to help with the mission.
The Business Angle
How does a well-run business look at money? It’s a means to an end. For most for-profit businesses, that end is “more money.” Money for the shareholders, money for the employees, money for the company to expand around the world... The bottom line of business is making a profit. I tire of hearing the adage, “Why can’t the Church be more like a business?” since the Church never has been a business, nor should it be, but here is one place where we could learn from the business world and come closer to Christ’s expectations of us in the process.For a business, money is used to make more money. In the Church, money should also be looked upon as a means to an end: More disciples of Jesus. It’s not like we can “buy” disciples for Christ or pay people to become Christians (though it might turn out to be more efficient than some things we’ve already tried). Conversion has to be real or it doesn’t count, but we can look around and see what’s resulting in more disciples for Christ and what isn’t, can’t we? It’s not that hard to see what’s a good investment and what’s not, when it comes to the Great Commission. What’s hard is being objective about it.
Here’s the principle we’re coming down to: Resources should be used to accomplish the mission of the Church, which should be “more disciples of Jesus.” If what we’re doing with available resources (money, time, talent) isn’t resulting in more people following Jesus Christ and becoming mature disciples, maybe we should quit that and reallocate the resources to something more effective.
The Big Three Plea
What would be some examples of this? Let’s go back to the business world for a moment, since it’s safer territory for many of us.Remember the original bailout plea from the Big Three automakers? Hat in hand, three chief executive officers went to Congress, asking for tens of billions in taxpayer dollars to keep their companies from going under. Ford Motor Company said they could probably scrape by without government assistance, but General Motors and Chrysler insisted that if help wasn’t forthcoming, they’d be gone in a matter of months, if not weeks.
How did each of the CEO’s arrive in Washington, D.C.? They each flew in on their own corporate jets, causing a congressman to lecture, “Couldn’t you have at least ‘jet-pooled’ or something”? When you’re giving even politicians the high ground of grilling you for wasteful spending of tax dollars, you’re doing something! The executives took their public scolding, used more modest means of travel when they came back for their second plea, and seemed mystified as to what had caused the indignation of the public in the first place. From outside the industry, it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that perhaps some of the “normal” practices of the automakers were what had helped lead them to the edge of bankruptcy. The culture of corporate America so thoroughly pervaded these people that it didn’t occur to them that individuals and small businessmen and even congressmen might consider their “normal” practices abnormal. Even the guy on the exit ramp with the cardboard sign begging for money knows if he wants spare change, he’d better hide the Cadillac.
What does any of this have to do with the Church? The Church has a pretty extreme PR problem in the United States. Televangelists with their own private luxury jets aren’t helping. “Donations are down! God’s work is going under if we don’t hear from you by credit card, today!” Sell the jet, Bozo.
Unfortunately, the extreme cases aren’t the only ones. Work your way down the church ladder and you find plenty of examples of things which distract or detract from the spreading of the Gospel, leaving an unbelieving populace clicking their tongues and an embarrassed church crowd wanting to change the subject. Bottom line: Is the way we’re dealing with resources hurting the cause of the Gospel? If it is, we ought to do something about it! Get rid of the expense. Get rid of the offense—or at least don’t put the thing in the spotlight. Be willing to do whatever it takes to get the focus back on Jesus and not on the “ministry,” particularly when people consider the ministry to be nothing more than a sideshow money machine, and God to be more of the same.
Support the Church!
At the same time, wherever people are genuinely experiencing changed lives, wherever the Gospel is preached without compromise, wherever disciples are being made for Christ, support the Church! Where it’s working, it’s seldom flashy and even less seldom over-funded. Do whatever helps in spreading the Gospel and avoid whatever hinders the message of Christ.We’re on a mission, here. We need to remember that. Our resources ought to line up with the mission given us by Jesus, which is the Great Commission. And if we’re doing something which is only hurting the cause of Christ, rather than helping it, we need to do something different, even if people howl.
Further Out on the Ice
So far we’ve been talking mostly in generalities, when it comes to the Church. It would be nice to stop here, nod in agreement that we’re supposed to keep the focus on Jesus and not money, and go on to less sensitive topics. The problem is, we’ve barely left the shore. Further out on the ice, I think I see a hand waving. If we don’t get more specific in applying these principles, we’re not going to get close to those who need real answers instead of nice-sounding platitudes. Tell my family I love them. Here goes...If you love Jesus, vacuum the church carpet.
Crack.
If you love Jesus, be willing to talk about Him even if they don’t give you money.
Splash!
Well, that went well.
What Hinders the Mission
While I come up for air, let’s talk specifics about what hinders the Great Commission, starting with the far-off arena of television ministries.Television is an incredible medium, its potential to influence, astounding. With precious few exceptions, though, what I have seen of television “ministry” is more of a deterrent to the Gospel than a help. This is only my personal opinion, but if as a Christian, I’m often turned off by what I see, I can only imagine the effect it must have on millions of non-believers, disgusted by the antics of people who come off as absolute frauds. For the person who never attends church, but who has come across religious programming on television, what do you suppose they think the Church is like? What they saw on TV! Why would they think differently? And would what they saw cause them to want to give their life to Christ or would what they saw lead them to think that Christianity is nothing more than religious infomercials, with shysters making money off the easily duped?
I’m sure there are those who have been genuinely converted, healed and whatever through the influence of these programs, so it’s not a total loss, but to my thinking, the shows which distort the Gospel into a weird sort of circus, all the while pleading for donations, make everyone else’s job harder, in trying to convince a skeptical world that what they saw on a late-night cable program isn’t at all what the Gospel is about.
Television is a great medium, but it’s expensive. The sheer cost of trying to minister in this way has a way of distorting the message. Often it veers toward a “health and wealth” gospel which people like to hear, but which is more fund-raising technique than biblical truth. The pressures of coming up with large sums of money on a weekly basis cause the focus of most television ministries to be geared toward raising money to keep the ministry afloat, and “soft,” inoffensive subjects are the standard fare. The parts of the Gospel which are harder to hear don’t get much air time! Thus, the Gospel gets distorted, with only the popular parts of the message offered in the first place, and some pretty drastic license taken with scripture to make it fit the feel-good atmosphere required to maintain a faithful, contributing television audience.
If God says, “Go into television!” fine. Obey Him. If not, please don’t. I don’t think it’s helping, and there seem to be more casualties than converts.
Meanwhile, one of the best, most effective ministries I’ve seen in recent years is a small string of movies which have emerged from Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Georgia. Someone forgot to tell them churches couldn’t or shouldn’t make movies. Their newest offering, “Fireproof,” has already been used of God to help thousands of marriages. Not only that, but a movie shot with a $500,000 budget grossed over $33 million in box office sales before even becoming available on DVD. To me, this is an example of a financial investment that advances the Great Commission. I would that a lot more of God’s money was so effectively spent! Way to go, Sherwood Baptist!
Tentmaking in Jesus' Name
From what I understand, manual labor was despised by the Roman upper class, in Paul’s day. The fact that one of the leaders of the Early Church was willing to engage in it to support himself, in order to be able to preach the Gospel free of charge to the Corinthians, indicates the commitment of the apostle. He must also have realized that manual labor could damage his chances of making inroads with the aristocracy. Apparently, he didn’t care. In addition, I would imagine that Paul had plenty of excuses for not engaging in anything very physical. How many times already had he been beaten? He’d been left for dead at least once, following a stoning. Had the tentmakers’ union demanded a physical, I doubt if Paul would have passed. This was one tough, committed apostle. He did whatever he felt he had to do, when it came to fulfilling the Great Commission.That same attitude is largely missing in the modern Church. It shows up in things like this—and the unbelieving world notices:
We say we love Jesus with all our heart. The Church is important to us. We would do anything for our Lord.
Just don’t ask me to vacuum the church carpet. Or mow the church grass. And don’t ask me to clean the church toilets! Don’t even think about it!
Talk to church leaders of any size church and they’ll tell you how hard it is to get volunteers for the less desirable jobs. Usually, the church has to hire somebody before it gets done. That’s just the way it is. “But I hate janitorial work!” Amen, brother. Me, too. Once in a while, we come across someone who enjoys cleaning “God’s house,” usually because they love both God and cleaning. There’s never a line vying for the position of volunteer custodian in a church, and sometimes it’s hard to find people who will even do it if you pay them.
That’s how it goes with the less desirable positions; what about the spotlight slots? Pastor. Worship leader. Associate in charge of youth, children, seniors, etc. The reason it costs so much to run a church is because in so many cases, not much is happening unless the church is paying for it to get done. I’m not begrudging anyone their paycheck, particularly for those jobs few people are willing to do, even for money. Neither am I saying that ministers and associates and musicians shouldn’t accept or be given a paycheck for their work. All I’m asking is that we consider how it must look to the people we’re trying to win to Christ, when we say we love Jesus but we’re reluctant to do anything just because we love Him. Do you see what that mindset does to our witness? It’s no big deal to see someone cleaning a toilet because they get paid to clean toilets and it’s the only job they could get. It is a big deal to see someone whom you know hates cleaning toilets, but who is willing to do it as an act of love for Jesus.
How about preaching? Preaching is effective, and I love doing it, whether or not I get paid (usually, I do). But if I were a non-believer, I’d be much more impressed with the spontaneous, sincere testimony of someone who cared about me, who told me about Jesus because they loved me, as opposed to a professional minister doing it from a pulpit because it was their job to tell people about Jesus. I’d also be more impressed with either of them if they were talking about how great Jesus is somewhere outside a church building, rather than inside, where I would expect God-talk to be going on.
Sincere Commercials
Both the pastor and the janitor are worthy of their pay; what bothers me about the usual scenario is the subtle attitude that says that both vacuuming the church carpet and talking about Jesus are actions which we leave to paid employees, and our personal responsibility ends when we contribute to the church coffers to help pay their wages. The sometime result is that even those who are doing the ministry and the unpleasant chores of the church body feel like hirelings and nothing more, and the witness to the watching community comes across the same as a television commercial, where a smiling actor is paid to convince people that they sincerely adore the product they’re being paid to sell. The product information might be accurate and the actor might actually be sincere, but the seasoned TV viewer knows to be skeptical of all paid advertisements; those people are not out there because they care about your needs, even if they might. They are paid to try to convince you that it’s all about you, when of course, it’s all about them and the company they’re representing.When Paul preached the Gospel to the Corinthians free of charge, he cut through that natural skepticism. It turns things around when you have a message so important that you’re willing to pay your own way just to get it to people about whom you care! I think the present-day world around us would be more affected by the witness of the Church if it came to them without the appearance of just being another paid advertisement. I still recall the story of a secular radio station years ago which offered free air time to anyone willing to preach the Gospel without mentioning the name of their church. No takers in the entire town. The ministers were unwilling to take the time to talk about Jesus to a secular audience unless there was the possibility of benefit coming back to them in the form of more people coming to their church. Sad. I understand, though. I know of several ministers who have been booted from their churches because they were spending too much time trying to minister to those outside the church, instead of tending to the many needs of the “flock” paying their salary. Once again, how does this look to the world? And how in the world does this attitude help in fulfilling the Great Commission—making Christlike disciples in the nations? The attitude that says “I will only speak about Christ or do acts of service in His name when there is benefit coming back to me” is an attitude which is greatly hindering the Great Commission. Wouldn’t we do well to repent of such an attitude and show the world a Church that loves Jesus and would do anything for Him, whether clean toilets or witness to how great He is, even if it landed us in prison? That’s the attitude which effectively introduced the Gospel to city after city in a perverted, cynical Roman culture, two millennia ago. It would work in our perverted, cynical culture today, too, if we adopted it as a sincere lifestyle, rather than another marketing approach. “Anything for Jesus.” What a concept.
Church Finance Triage
I know of very few businesses, government agencies, schools, churches, ministries or families which are not facing financial pressures, these days. For all of the above, I would recommend going through that simple three-step get-the-cow-out-of-the-ditch formula discussed at the beginning of this chapter. It makes sense! Deal with the urgent, first, however it has to be done, and don’t waste a lot of time in assigning blame. This is the medical idea of triage, where whoever says “chest pain” goes right in to the emergency room, while ingrown toenails sit in the waiting room for another two hours. After the medical team does their best to prevent anyone from dying on their watch, then comes the lecture to the heart patient on slimming down and going smoke free, a little advice on proper foot care to the toenail person, and a specific plan for both on how best to prevent future visits. Oh, yes. And the bill.It makes sense to triage the needs facing us at every level, these days. And sometimes, what needs to happen is that we need to let something go, because it’s too costly or it’s ineffective, or we will lose something more important to our mission if we don’t let it go.
Churches and ministries are definitely not exempt from the need to cut back, these days. All but a few of the ministries with which I’m acquainted are struggling, financially. Finance committees are huddled around tables trying to make ends meet in churches, just like in business and government. When it comes to financial triage in the Church, how do we determine what’s important enough to save, and what will have to be thrown overboard or tabled indefinitely?
This is where that other principle kicks in:
If something has to be eliminated, why not start with anything that was already hindering our mission?! Meanwhile, what should be safe at the top of the priority list? Whatever is most effectively advancing our mission—whatever is most helpful when it comes to making Christlike disciples in the nations. Then evaluate everything in between according to its effectiveness in advancing the mission. If there are cuts which can be made to lower the cost without adversely affecting the advancement of the Gospel, that’s an option, when cuts are necessary. Back to the cow in the ditch: The mission is to get her out of the ditch, whatever it takes, whatever it costs. If the cow dies in the ditch, the new barn you built for her won’t do much good. Nor does it work to try to remove a living cow from the ditch in pieces, if you want her to remain living. Do whatever it takes to accomplish the main mission successfully. It may be that there’s not much left for anything else. It doesn’t matter, because if the main mission is not being accomplished, the rest of it is meaningless. Come to think of it, I could show you a lot of empty church barns, with hardly any cows inside. Hmm.
Sacred Cows in the Sights
O.K., enough about Holstein’s. It’s time to upset the few people whom I’ve not already irritated. To do this, I’m going to suggest we consider dispatching what for some may be a sacred cow: The church bulletin.Before you start throwing food, insults or cow chips, let me ask those who may have enshrined the church bulletin as a necessary part of our service to Christ a simple question: Do you know of anyone who has ever been saved because of a church bulletin?
Let’s make that two questions: Do you know anyone who has recently been saved?
That was a setup, since 95% of American churches are not growing through seeing people saved for any reason, and I’ve yet to meet anyone who even indirectly was led to Christ through a church bulletin.
What’s helping to advance the Great Commission? Sorry, but I don’t think church bulletin makes the list. Nor does most of the rest of what we’re doing! That was painful to say, but unfortunately, as good as some of it may feel to us, and as pretty as the barn looks, the lost cows are still in the ditch, and dying by the millions! Our response? We grit our teeth at the news, shake our heads at the culture, and stay as far as possible away from the ditch because we just know that if we go down there, we’re going to get dirty, and one of the things might even follow us home if we helped them. Instead of teaming up and prying lost cows out of the mud, we sit in barns with heat pumps and big building payments, paying someone to tell us about the plight of lost cows everywhere and the Savior who is available to them, while glancing down at the folder to see how much longer it is until lunch. Next week, we’ll do the same thing. It’s our “worship.” The pastor sometimes feels he’s on American Idol, with a big panel judging his performance, and the weekly dread that this may have been his last week on the show if he chose the wrong sermon topic, things didn’t go well or he didn’t “stand out.”
Ah, the Great Commission! The what? Advancing it—you know, making Christlike disciples in the nations? So we are honestly convinced that the way we do things is advancing the Great Commission? I’d hate to see a retreat.
Bigger Problems
If we’re honest, it’s not hard to see that most churches have much bigger problems than a few inefficiencies in the way resources are spent. There are many American churches where it has been a long, long time since anyone even paid attention to a cow in the ditch. If there’s no heart for the lost in a body of people, they can be pretty efficient in their finances, yet utterly ineffective when it comes to advancing the Gospel.Back to the bulletin. If small churches (under 100) are looking for a place to save money, this might be a good place to find it. In tepid defense of the bulletin, it can be helpful in minimizing the need for platform announcements, though the important ones are usually doubled up on, anyway. In larger churches where there is a lot going on, a bulletin serves as a catalog to programs and services available to people. In this way, it can be helpful to newcomers. Most of the regular attenders don’t need it, though, and don’t read it, because it says the same thing week after week. In order to pick up the variation they were supposed to notice, they’d have to read the whole thing, which they don’t do because they assume there are no variations. See what I’m saying?
In place of the bulletin, newcomers coming into a service could be given a visitor’s packet which would tell them what they needed to know, important announcements could be given from the platform and/or put on a screen, and a weekly obligation costing quite a bit in terms of time and money could be eliminated.
The bulletin is not without its benefits. In large churches, where people don’t know one another, something like this is more of a necessity, even if it’s still relatively inefficient. Not only that, but even in a smaller body, if all it’s going to do is cause a big stir or cost someone their job to eliminate the bulletin, the potential trouble caused from dropping it is probably not worth the potential savings. Plus, I happen to like the bulletin; I just don’t like the amount of work and expense that ends up going into it, if it could be more effectively used elsewhere.
For some of us, the idea of a bulletin is appealing because we (A) enjoy seeing things in print; (B) want to know what’s going on, what’s going to happen and when; (C) like to have something to hold in our hands so we don’t feel so awkward. I plead guilty on all counts.
Probably the biggest benefit to having a church bulletin is that it forces the procrastinators (guilty, again) to get their stuff figured out prior to Saturday night or Sunday morning. Musicians, pastors and associates, church leaders—all of them have planning and preparation to do before the worship event on Sunday, and the printing of a bulletin helps keep them on track to get it done by earlier in the week. This is good (usually). The bulletin prods people who might otherwise “prepare” by randomly flipping open songbooks or Bibles on the way to the platform on Sunday morning. Adequate preparation usually results in more excellence, or at least it goes in that direction. Lack of preparation almost always shows.
Flip Side
There’s a flip side to this, though.First, the more preparation and routine is locked in, the harder it is to have anything spontaneous happen.
Second, what was intended as preparation in pursuit of excellence can come off as either predictably boring or just weird.
Third, the bulletin eats up a lot of time and money. Is it worth it?
These days, people expect everything they see in print to be of high quality. That’s why there’s an expensive copy machine sitting in the church office, complete with maintenance contract. The main use of the copier is to print the bulletin.
The bulletin is the biggest task of the week for the church secretary. She spends hours each week hitting up people for their information, then editing it, compiling the bulletin, copying it and folding it. It’s the biggest part of her workweek. Without the bulletin, she wonders if they would even need her. And people still never seem to know what’s going on, no matter how many times she’s told them, “It was in the bulletin”!
Even if the church bulletin were a great evangelism tool, which it isn’t, would it warrant the cost, in terms of resources devoted to it each week? True, it prompts planning, usually a good thing, but it also requires valuable time of everyone who is doing anything in the church.
Back to the point about the church bulletin being “predictably boring.” Can you tell me what your bulletin will say before you open it? It’s not hard, is it? This announcement will be over here; on this side of the page it always says that; we have three songs, then the offering; there’s a thingy for visitors that goes here. I already know what we’re going to do before I even go in the building. A little bit of the information changes from week to week, and they do different songs; otherwise, you could give me last week’s bulletin and I probably wouldn’t notice the difference, especially if I forgot to even open it, which happens, sometimes.
What if the Holy Spirit wanted to do something unusual or out of the ordinary in a Sunday service? Something not in the church bulletin? Would He get the cooperation of the Church? Or would He be out of luck unless He made it a point to get with a couple leaders early in the week, before the bulletin was printed? Truth is, in a lot of churches, if it’s not in the bulletin, they’re not going to do it! And if it is in the bulletin, the Holy Spirit has to do something pretty drastic before they’ll skip it! In terms of variety and spontaneity, we’d be very much better off in our worship services if we didn’t even have a bulletin, and it would save a lot of time and money. Rather than creating anticipation, it makes everything programmed and predictable. Even a little weird.
A Weird Way to Worship
What is worship?Is it singing? Is it talking? Is it giving? Listening? Serving? What?
Let’s try a synonym and see if it helps: Adoration. God wants us to adore Him, right? If we “worship” someone, it means we adore them. In order to adore someone, does that mean we have to sing? Does music have to be involved? Do we have to say it out loud in order for them to know we adore them? Can we give a gift to someone or serve them without adoring them? Does listening to someone mean we adore them? Enough said, students. Spring break is in a week.
While all these things may be ways we express adoration for someone, adoration is an attitude of the heart. If it doesn’t come from the heart, all actions are empty. So it is with worship. If we don’t adore and worship God from the heart, whatever we do is empty. It’s not worship unless that’s the attitude of our heart.
Think once again of the people we are trying to reach with the Gospel. One more time: That’s our mission. To me, the best way to convince people that God is good is if they see someone they trust who is totally in love with God, who adores Him, without apology. If what they see in our lives is sincere adoration for Jesus, it doesn’t matter how that adoration is expressed; if it’s real, they know. But how could they be less than confused if our lips are saying we love and adore Jesus Christ, but the attitude of our heart shows differently? I’m talking now more about the actual atmosphere of a worship service, when visitors look around and see people seemingly bored to death with the whole thing, with some folks looking like kids being forced to sing “Happy Birthday” to someone they don’t even like.
And when it comes to expressing adoration, planning helps show we care, while predictability generally doesn’t.
We call what we do in church meetings “worship.” Using the synonym “adoration,” what would you think if you were unfamiliar with all things church, and wound up as a spectator in a building where you had been told people were gathering to adore Jesus Christ? Would what you would see be what you had expected? Do you think it would make sense, or would it be confusing to you? Would you come away with the feeling that these people really do adore their God, or would it seem to you that they scarcely paid attention to Him, yet said the only reason they were in the building was to “worship” Him?
One last time I’m going to beat up on the poor bulletin, then let it go. Christianity is supposed to be about loving and serving Jesus Christ, right? An attitude of adoration toward Him, where we express our love in every possible way. A little bit like dating.
The Dating Folder
Can you imagine going on a date with someone and having them hand you a little folder describing everything you were going to do for the evening? The first time would be kind of cool. “Wow! You really put a lot of thought into this!” The second time would probably be appreciated, too, except you notice that there wasn’t much difference between last week’s and this week’s. By the third date, when he hands you the bulletin you’re thinking, “I’d rather have roses. And I’d rather that you surprised me, and put the time and thought into something new. This is no longer new. In fact, now it’s kind of weird.”What would it do to a hundred ladies walking into church on Sunday if they received a beautiful rose as they came in the door instead of a bulletin for that week? Not every week, but once. Would they complain that they didn’t have a bulletin? I’m pretty sure it would cost less than it does to give them a bulletin, when you figure paper, copier and labor costs. Who knows? It might even advance the Kingdom a little. Just a thought.
There are plenty of settings where the absence of a bulletin (even for a week) would be a bigger distraction than it would be worth. If having a program in hand is a big deal to a sizeable number of people in a church, or if there are enough people that the bulletin is really needed as a communication tool, keep it. But if the church is small, the cost of producing a bulletin outweighs its advantages, and there is need to cut expenses, I’d strongly consider eliminating it, or going with something less frequent—kind of a “bulletin for the month” or something.
What this is all really about is trying to do whatever advances the Great Commission. Where it gets sticky is when these decisions by necessity drift over into personnel issues, usually a substantial part of any church budget.
When it comes to church employees such as custodians and secretaries, I think each situation would need to be examined to determine whether this setup was advancing the Gospel or hindering it. More often than not, there is either “history” involved or ties of family or friendship, which make objective decisions impossible or irrelevant, when it comes to positions of employment within a church. On top of that, churches hate to fire anyone for any reason, simply because it looks bad, and so easily results in hard feelings. When an employee is also a member of the church or a relative of a member, it’s that much harder to hold them to any kind of performance standard. Consequently, many a church is burdened with incompetent employees who cannot be dismissed, for various personal reasons. The best time to think about their qualifications and value to the mission of the church is before they are hired! Probationary employment is sometimes helpful, in this regard. If an employee feels they have some sort of “tenure,” they probably do, in the church world. If changes need to be made, often the only thing which works is the elimination of that position, entirely. The position may be cut back, dropped entirely or replaced with volunteers, if financial conditions necessitate a change, anyway.
Best Time to Make a Change
Whatever changes need to be made in a group, I’m convinced that the best time to make them is when the status quo is no longer an option. Many people dislike change, some of them intensely. The only time you get those folks to come along with you in changing things is when leaving it the same is no longer an option. For instance, a husband and wife can be divided over whether to buy a different house. He wants a new one, she likes the old one. She isn’t changing her mind. Then the house burns down, or they move to a different city. The status quo is no longer an option. At this juncture, both of them want a new house, since keeping the old one isn’t possible, anyway. Now, it’s just a matter of finding a new house they both like.It works this way in business, too. Businesses don’t like to lay off employees, either, so in tough economic times, they first stop hiring new people. Next, they don’t replace people who quit or retire. They will move folks around to different positions to fill the slots, if feasible, or increase the workload for the remaining employees—anything to keep from hiring anyone new or having to lay someone off. Incentives are offered to people close to retirement age to accept an early retirement package, reducing the cost to the company, since the employer will either not replace the worker or will hire a younger, less expensive employee to replace them. Laying people off comes only after other options have been exhausted. Churches are wise to take great pains to treat employees with maximum fairness and grace. We should bend over backwards to be an excellent employer, once we have placed ourselves in that position. If possible, the time to make an employment change is when the decision doesn’t affect an existing employee. If a position needs to be dropped, anyway, the best time to do it is when that position is vacant.
Church Staff Compensation
Now we come to what for many churches represents the largest percentage of their budget (particularly if there are no building payments to make): clergy compensation. Whether a small church with a solo pastor or a larger church with multiple staff members, clergy compensation and related expenses are going to make up a big portion of the church budget. In the institutional, organized Church in America, clergy positions are generally only given to those who have trained for the ministry in some formal way, usually college or Bible school, and often with graduate studies in a seminary, besides. Some ministers have doctoral degrees. Whatever the route taken to gain clergy status, it usually represents considerable amounts of time and expense in meeting the qualifications expected. Those are just the educational requirements. On top of this are whatever other qualifications are required by the body ordaining the ministerial candidate. These may include experience in ministry settings, annual interviews, or whatever the church decides is necessary to weed out the unqualified. It’s not an easy thing to become an ordained minister.It’s also not an easy thing to support a family on a minister’s income. For this reason, a large number of ministry spouses are employed. It’s not uncommon at all for the spouse’s income to exceed that of the professional minister, even though the minister may be more highly educated than the spouse. That’s just the way it is.
In generations past, the ministry was highly regarded as an honorable profession within the community. That status has noticeably faded, particularly in more liberal parts of the nation.
While public esteem has diminished, expectations have increased for the American pastor. He or she is expected to somehow compare with television and radio preachers in communication excellence, provide shepherding to any and all, and maintain a godly CEO image which guides the church as an institution, while staying humble and spiritual. The senior pastorate has become a position few can handle. It is complex, sometimes contradictory in its expectations; ministers and their families often suffer greatly at the hands of purportedly well-meaning church leaders. Many ministers are exiting the ranks of the clergy, these days, and many of them are doing it because they have been devastated. Please hear me when I say that the last thing I want to do is give anyone more ammunition for mistreatment of the clergy! As a group, I would say that we’ve already had about enough!
Here’s what I’m suggesting, when it comes to the Church:
When we’re starting from scratch—a new missionary endeavor, a new church plant—we have the freedom to come up with a plan for advancing the Gospel and just implement it, without worrying about past obligations. Not so within an established church. The person who moved cross-country to occupy a ministry position should not suddenly find his employer has had a change of philosophy concerning clergy compensation! Stranding a ministry family financially “in Jesus’ name” is not going to advance the Gospel; it will hinder it pretty greatly, particularly in the home of that minister. As I said before, if a church needs to make major financial changes affecting personnel, the time to do it is when there are no personnel to be affected. Any changes which are made in an established church need to be made as gradually and gracefully as possible. It only takes a little bit of unfairness or misunderstanding on the part of a church to hinder the Gospel pretty effectively in a community.
The Non-Believer's Vantage Point
With the caveat that everything needs to be done with much prayer and the Spirit’s guidance, let’s look at this thing from the position of the non-believer the Church is attempting to reach.Things which make the Gospel more attractive to the non-believer:
*Sincerity
*When the Gospel is delivered without ulterior motives
*When it involves risk or sacrifice to deliver the Gospel
*When obstacles are removed which detract from the Gospel
Money issues which hinder the Gospel:
*If the minister appears to be lazy. People resent it if they think their money is going to someone who isn’t doing anything. They don’t concentrate on spiritual things, because they’re distracted by their preoccupation with someone who, in their opinion, is not doing their job.
*If the minister seems greedy, or uses money as a weapon for trying to induce guilt. This happens too frequently. It’s what leads people outside the church to surmise, “They’re only after my money.” Sometimes, it’s true! Whether it is or not, even that perception is a real killer when it comes to evangelism.
*If there seems to be waste or excess in the church’s finances.
*Preoccupation with money in the church—either not having enough of it or an employer/employee mentality that sidetracks genuine worship (It seems no one is willing to do anything unless they’re being paid).
The Minister's Vantage Point
Are we going to get paid? This is the pertinent question for the minister, and of even greater interest to the minister’s spouse! Let’s try it in several different situations.First of all, in a church plant (new church):
In a church plant, does it advance the Gospel to pay the minister? It depends on the attitude of the minister and the attitude of the attending people. If the issue of money is not keeping people from Christ, by all means pay the guy if you have any money!
For the church planter, I think it’s fine to accept whatever comes your way. If you’re starting a church, you’re probably earning everything you get! It’s healthier if there is support coming from outside sources, too, even if it’s temporary. In fact, it’s better if outside help is clearly temporary, so you don’t start a welfare church, afraid to outgrow its welfare status. As far as outside employment, I think this one comes down to the principle: Do whatever best promotes and least hinders the spreading of the Gospel.
It takes a lot of ingenuity to begin a new work. The principle of what best advances the Gospel is a moving target, in situations like these. Sometimes, it may be best to dive wholeheartedly into “ministry,” allowing a spouse or an outside support group to finance your ministry habit until the church is established. I would definitely pray about part-time employment, though, were I planting another church. Certain jobs or businesses are ideal for establishing contacts, while at the same time removing financial pressure from the new church. For example, I found working at a grocery store meant I would come into contact with nearly everyone in town, each week. There are numerous job situations where one can have an income and a ministry simultaneously, in addition to whatever is happening in the church. I think these are a good deal for church planters, and pastors of smaller churches. Pray about it. God knows what He wants you to do.
Established Small Church (100 people or less):
Many small churches are high maintenance, with high expectations of their minister. A maximum amount of grace and wisdom is required, in order to minister in a small church. In short, you need God! (That’s good). Allow Him to guide you in how to best minister. If you focus on loving the people instead of on trying to change them or grow the church, you’ll probably get further in those areas, anyway, and have a lot more fun along the way. When it comes to finances, it’s the job of the church leaders to figure out how much to pay you. I’ve found that if I left that decision entirely to them, they were more generous toward me than I would have been to myself. If the church is open to a bi-vocational situation, and the Gospel can be promoted at the same time, I would also pray about that. And if the church is ready to accept more of the day-to-day ministry responsibilities, and not leave it all up to the paid “professional,” I look on that as very healthy! Encourage them and love them. Have a good time. If you do, the church probably won’t stay in the small church category for long, anyway, and you may have to quit your other job in order to minister full-time through the church.
Intermediate and Large Churches:
In the present-day set-up, the obligations placed upon a pastor of a church of over 200 people is such that there’s no way he could do it, plus pursue another job on the side, at least not in a denominational church. I’m not saying it isn’t being done or is impossible, but the bigger the church, the more pressure there is, and the more crises. If person is in charge of a larger church, he had better be paid everything you can give him, because he doesn’t have time to do anything else! For churches between 100-200 in attendance, the situation is more debatable. Pray and proceed.
Organic Church:
“Organic” is the term associated with groups of Christians who meet together as followers of Christ, without formal leadership, buildings, recognized clergy or formal organization. This is the kind of “church” which currently meets in my home, weekly, even while we continue to attend an institutional church. I see the organic church as a tool God will use effectively in the future, even as He continues to bless the institutional church wherever it’s paying attention to Him.
The clergy don’t get paid in the organic church, because there’s no distinction made between followers of Christ. Individuals are free to minister according to their gifts, with the only leader being Christ, the Head of the Church. The downside of this, for trained clergy, is that there is no salary; the upside is that all the ministry you get to do is because you love Jesus, and He somehow provides. Also, you’re not alone, in an “us and them” situation, as so often happens in ministry in the institutional church. We’re all equal at the foot of the cross. For people who need the various trappings of the institutional church, organic can be a little too much. If that’s the case, please stay put! But if the Lord is calling you to venture into something which might seem foreign at first, it’s worth the leap, as long as it’s Him calling you.
The Church Member's Vantage Point
My hat is off to you if you made it this far! We’ve been talking about things few enjoy discussing, plus I know some of my suggestions must seem pretty far out. Thanks for hanging with me. I want to speak to those of you who are on various church boards and committees, striving to steer your church through the current crisis, whatever it may be. God wants to help you! It’s His Church. If you ask Him for guidance, you’ll get all you need.If we come back to the principle of advancing the Gospel, “making Christlike disciples in the nations,” it becomes more readily apparent to us what is crucial and what is not. Move prayerfully, carefully and with grace, but move in the direction of the mission whenever there is opportunity! If there is a boulder in the way, go around it, rather than beating your head against it. Do everything in love, with the assumption that others love Jesus as much as you do. Most of all, listen to God, then obey Him. He has allowed you to be in a position of influence for a reason. He trusts you to pay attention to Him, and move in the direction which helps spread the love of Christ to the world.
Conclusion, Finally!
I don’t know why it’s taken me weeks to work through this topic. I guess it’s because I’m afraid of hurting the Church I love by tossing around opinions which could get people off-track. At the same time, I’m frustrated when I look at the Church in our nation and how lifeless and ineffective so much of it is. When we seem to be sliding backwards each year in the evangelization of our country, it doesn’t seem like the right thing to assure everyone that “We’re doing fine, just keep doing what you’ve been doing!” Nor do I wish to discourage people into giving up on the Church, just because we’re not experiencing revival at the moment. My desire is that we would follow Jesus. He not only knows the way, He IS the way! If there’s something we should change, He is faithful to let us know what it is. If we are to stay the course, He makes that clear to us as well. Ours is to ask Him, and obey. The Lord doesn’t need any of us to make His Church succeed. He has given us a clear mission, though: Go and make disciples of all nations. If we do whatever promotes that mission, and try to avoid whatever hinders it, we’ll be doing O.K.September Puzzle Archives
October Puzzle Archives
November Puzzle Archives
December Puzzle Archives
January Puzzle Archives
February Puzzle Archives
March Puzzle Archives
Servant Connection
Journal