Is There a T-Shirt for This?

It would appear that I am a heretic, by the judgment of a local fellowship. If I don't change my doctrine (or at least the terms I've used to express it), they've decided to separate from me. It's possible that I can work through the situation to prevent the action, since the practical differences between us are truly minute, but those are tricky shoals to navigate.

It's kinda strange to be looking at separation from this side of things. I just want to know if there's a t-shirt or something for the experience, like people get for riding wild roller coasters or surviving hurricanes.

When Opportunity Knocks, Just Shoot Through the Door

I've got a whole queue of post drafts lined up, but opportunity came knocking to take me for a stroll. Well, okay, it kicked down the door and demanded that I come along. Hiking this path with opportunity has kept me too busy to finish any of the other posts yet.

Specifically, this is the opportunity to practice what I preached about dealing with friendly fire. Shortly after I posted that, the call came in from a friend in a local preacher's fellowship I've been attending. The word is doing the rounds among the leadership that I preach something heretical, and he wanted to talk to me about it.

Ironically, the folk who seem to have a problem with what I preach pretty much jumped straight to some of the tactics typically used in returning fire. Handouts misrepresenting what I believe and refuting that misrepresentation are going about, what I actually said is being freely ignored (despite the actual sermon they're worried about being openly available to anyone who wants it), and people are going to others to get them on their side for the battle instead of coming to me personally with their concerns.

Now I've got to make sure I respond in the Spirit, not in the flesh. There is such a temptation to lash out in anger at the wrongs that have been done me, to stomp off and refuse to fellowship with men who would hurt me so casually, to bash those who tolerate and participate in these actions rather than rebuking them, to broadcast the names and crimes of people who claim to serve God but disobey Him, and to start playing the political game by contacting the ones who are most likely to agree with me and take my side and lining them up to support me.

There is also the temptation to come as close as I can to knuckling under without actually compromising my convictions, to bury the hurt and ignore the sin for the sake of peace, because I don't want any trouble, I don't want any conflict, and I don't like being criticized. Some of the people involved in this are men I know, love, respect, and am grateful toward. However, what some of these people have done is plainly wrong.

So I've been spending big blocks of time in thought and prayer for days, trying to make sure I don't act in anger, hurt, or fear, but rather speak the truth in love with wisdom. I simply want to do what God wants. I want to obey His Word. I want to be the wise man who can receive rebuke where it is warranted and thank the one who delivered it. I don't want to fall into the trap of turning to blast away at those who should be on my side. I also don't want to turn a blind eye to sin among the leaders of God's people.

I have met with one man, the only one who has thus far come to me personally about the whole of the situation (kudos to him, by the way, for that at least.) I've told him I'll meet with another, the one who began to spread the situation throughout the fellowship, after I pull some things together. After that, I can only hope and pray that the Lord will give clear guidance and that I'll have the courage, patience, strength, and humility to do what He wants.

Whatever course I take, the road is going to be rough. That's always true when you walk out the door with opportunity. The practicing can be so much harder than the preaching.

So Nice to Talk without the Shouting

I had another post in the works, but things have gotten crazy around here because of Christmas ministry madness, and I wanted to mention something else anyhow. I've really been enjoying the conversation with author Bruce Baker in the comments thread of this post. Even if we never come to complete agreement on the subject, we have found much common ground, and I, for one, have been forced to carefully think through my position, the Scriptures I'm resting it on, and the implications of it. Thought like that is always a good thing.

It's a given that believers, even Fundamental believers, won't walk into every conversation agreeing with each other on every point. It should be a given that our mutual goals are the glory of God and all of us getting closer to Him. That means we need to be gracious in our communication with each other, especially where there are points of disagreement. I'm not talking about compromising on the fundamentals - I'm talking about discussing the Scriptures in a way that edifies all involved and all who see and hear. That doesn't mean ignoring the differences in viewpoints, but it does mean not shouting about them and descending into name-calling over them. It means discussing them with clarity and gentleness.

It's such a blessing to find other believers who view interaction about the Scriptures the same way. Conversations like this give me greater hope for Fundamentalism than even our apparent growth rate does.

I've Had It Up to Here with Anger

Fundamentalists often seem like angry people, don't they? That's certainly the steriotypical perception, and I'm afraid I've met some who reinforced that steriotype.

In fact, some of us are even proud of our anger. We call that good kind of anger "righteous indignation."

We're righteously indignant about the President wanting to use our tax money to murder babies. We're angry about the Muslims and their thousandth mosque in the U.S. We're angry about the New Evangelicals being willing to compromise the identity and work of Christ in the name of Christ. We're righteously indignant about the drug dealers and the pornographers and... well, pretty much anything that makes us mad, so long as we can justify the anger by saying the other person or group is sinning. If they're sinning in what they're doing, it's okay for us to be angry about it. Hey, God gets angry at sin, so shouldn't we?

Sometimes I think our movement's key verse is Ephesians 4:26a, "Be ye angry, and sin not." So long as we don't actually punch someone in the snoot or blow something up, isn't it okay to be angry, especially over sin? To listen to our preaching, sometimes, you'd think we actually have an obligation to be angry.

There's a tiny problem with all this anger that's flying around: the Bible. In our rush to excuse anger we think is justified, we've grabbed a magnifying glass and expanded Ephesians 4:26a so large we can't see the rest of the page.

What's on the rest of that page? Ephesians 4:31-32. "Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." Wait... we're supposed to put ALL wrath and anger away from ourselves? Yup, that's what it said.

Is that an aberration we should explain away, doing a little exegetical gymnastics to reinterpret it? Um, nope. Psalm 37:8 says, "Cease from anger, and forsake wrath: fret not thyself in any wise to do evil." In the preceding verse, it even tells us not to fret about people who bring wicked devices to pass. Rats... guess it's not okay for me to vent in anger over people, even if what they are doing is wrong.

In fact, as I perused the Scriptures, I couldn't find any situation in which God commanded an individual to be angry, nor could I find a case in which He commended a person for being angry, let alone acting in that anger.

Time and again, God warns against being hastily angry, acting in anger, or staying angry (that's the point of Ephesians 4:26 - we all feel anger sometimes, but we shouldn't let it linger or cause us to sin.) Yes, God acts in anger - God also enacts vengeance and seeks worship, neither of which belong to us.

Anger is fundamentally wanting to right a wrong, I think. It's being upset the world didn't work the way we thought it should, that someone didn't act the way we knew they should. But I'm not sure we have a "right" to that. Yes, people wrong us, sometimes. But ultimately, every sin is against God. He's the one who established the order of creation and gave the dictates of morality, not us. He has the right to be angry, to set right the wrongs, to expect the world to work as He desires. We don't. It's not our job to set things right - it's our job to do right.

We may experience anger as an emotion - but we ought not live in it or act on it.

God told us in James 1:20, "For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God." Yet I hear sermon after sermon that seems fueled by anger and wrath, rather than by compassion and love. Is it any wonder that people don't seem moved by the preaching at times, despite the energy poured into it and the eloquence exercised in it? When the energy is man's, the work accomplished is rarely God's.

The Old Bait-and-Switch

I used to think bad marketing was good evangelism.

It seemed the height of wisdom to advertise a big youth activity - pizza, games, skits, fun for all! Fliers would go out. Teens would be urged to play it up to their friends, to hype it at school, to urge it on their family.

In reality, there might be rather pathetic cheese pizza, 15 minutes of games, a skit performed by some people who ought to have known better, and then the youth leaders had fun herding all the teenagers into a big room to listen to a 45-minute sermon.

Sometimes, this was effective in getting people to trust Christ or make decisions for Him - the gospel is a powerful thing, even if it's abused by poor marketing. Depending on how dynamic or funny the speaker was, sometimes many would come back for more. But just as often, the kids who came were one-shot wonders, annoyed at being tricked into a church service when they were promised games and fun.

Now, believe me, I've got nothing against pizza. I'd be thrilled if they'd give it its own food group, and maybe put it down at the bottom of the pyramid, with roughly the same recommended portion as grains, veggies, meat, and dairy combined. (After all, those are all on a worthwhile pizza - why can't we just eat lots of pizza and call all those things done?)

I love games, and I especially love the kind of games that get played at youth rallies - lots of enthusiastic violence and mayhem, little refereeing, plenty of potential for exciting injuries. And if someone is really funny, let the man work!

But I don't like deception. And we don't need deception. If the world needed more games, Christ would have founded Nintendo instead of dying on the cross. If it needed more pizza, He could have served that instead of representations of His own flesh and blood at the last supper. If it needed more laughs, He could have told jokes instead of going to the cross in silence. What the world needed was good news - the gospel of Jesus Christ, crucified for our sins and risen from the dead. So that's what He gave us. And that's what we have to give the world.

There's no need to dress it all up and trick people into coming. Teens (and adults, for that matter) are desperate for real answers, for peace with God, for love, joy, hope, purpose, and acceptance. We've got all of that. Why hide the true power of what we possess behind a facade of skits and games? We're not here to entertain - we're here to transform.

I still have youth activies (and young adult activies, and so on). And they still involve lots of potential for injury, loads of pizza, and we laugh all the time. But I don't try to cover it up that we'll be looking at the Bible and talking about what it says, either. I try to make it clear what people can expect.

As we've done that, as we've renewed our focus on the Bible, as we've been up-front about when we're having a Bible study, when we're having a game day with a brief challenge, and when we're having a church service, the Lord has blessed. We're seeing young people saved, we're seeing them bringing their families to church with them, and we're seeing God work.

We don't have to trick people for Jesus. His truth is far more powerful.

Putting People in the Wrong Places

In the business world, people work their way up through the ranks. It's a great system, far better than so many social and economic systems where a person is locked into a particular role simply because of their race or parents.

I'm afraid, though, that many of our churches are applying this model to something it shouldn't apply to.

Here's how it works in many fundamental churches:

Young guy decides he's called to preach, goes to Bible college. If he's smart, he usually finds a way to work in a local church for at least some of the time he's in school.

Young guy graduates from college with minimal experience, but a fair bit of book-learning, and possibly the most balance in his education he'll have at any point in his life.

Young guy looks for a church. At this point, there are several courses open. Strangely, big, healthy churches that can afford to pay well enough to comfortably support a family and that aren't likely to explode or implode within the next year rarely hire a kid fresh out of school. They're able to attact someone with experience, someone who has proven himself. Sometimes, the young guy becomes an assistant pastor at one of these healthy churches, where he learns the ropes of big-church ministry under an experienced pastor. These positions are limited, though, and frequently, the duties in such a position are very limited too, so that he becomes an expert at one aspect of ministry, but doesn't learn much about the practical side of the rest of it.

Sometimes, he becomes an assistant, but at a church that isn't so strong and healthy - he might have to work part-time or even full-time to support his family, but at least he's getting some experience, and hopefully some training from an experienced pastor. Unfortunately, if the church can't afford an assistant, it's often because the church has some kind of problem. Many times, the young guy becomes the fall guy when there's a problem. Note that he's also receiving training from someone who is not the pastor of a strong healthy church - sometimes, this is because the pastor isn't capable of building and operating a strong, healthy church, and thus, his training is flawed.

Sometimes, he goes straight into the pastorate himself. But since the strong, healthy churches are already being served by experienced, knowledeable men, he winds up with a small, unhealthy church. The problem is that while he's got a pretty balanced education, there's no way even a graduate degree can prepare him for all the tensions and problems a small, struggling church can have. So the young guy gets a trial by fire. Sometimes, he gets fed up and quits. Sometimes, the church demonstrates why it's small and unhealthy by running him off. Sometimes, he manages to learn on the job fast enough to keep his job and survive to either build the church up or to be noticed by one of those strong, healthy churches, where he goes as soon as he can.

There's a problem here. The guys who actually have the knowledge and experience to navigate the troubled waters of small-church ministry aren't in the small churches anymore! They've taken easier, better-paying positions at large, healthy churches. The guys who are getting the problem cases are the ones who are the least prepared and qualified to handle them.

Now, I know I'm speaking in generalities here. I know guys who came out of Bible college quite capable of starting a church or taking a troubled church, and by God's grace, and without too much hindrance from the congregation, making it work. I know that in some ways, it's a different skill set to administrate a church of 1,000 people, as opposed to shepherding the small flock of 40. (This is part of the problem with the young guy being an assistant in a large church, then expecting to step out and pastor a small church successfully.) The man who can do one well may not be able to do the other well.

I also know that faithfulness in the small is required before responsibility in the large, and it would perhaps be a greater disaster to put someone incompetent in charge of a church of 500 than a church of 50.

But rather than sorting out who is best suited to what kind of ministry, we do it like the business world - throw them in the water, sink or swim, and the guys who make it get the cushiest spots on the island.

Now, I'm not about to disgard the traditional Independent Baptist model of pastoral selection. I don't want some group over me telling me which church I have to go work for, or telling churches who they can and can't hire as pastors. I especially don't want said group shuffling me from church to church every few years - it can take years to really become effective as pastor of a new group of people. It takes time for their vision to adapt to your leadership and for you to learn the personalities, strengths, and weaknesses of a congregation.

The current system takes men who could have been good pastors and throws them to the wolves before they are ready. It takes men who belong in administrative roles or primarily preaching roles and has them in situations the Lord never gifted or equiped them for.

Do I have a great solution, a better system?

Well, the solution is not a system. The solution is to get back to choosing pastors based on Biblical guidelines rather than business-world models. A church is not a business. The right pastor is not necessarily the person with the most apparently-ideal education, background, and family makeup. The right church for a pastor is not necessarily the one that pays the best or is the most comfortable.

Both churches and pastors need to step away from a business-world way of thinking and ground their decisions in the Word of God, trusting the Spirit of God. God knows the right man for the job, and He knows the right job for the man. If we let Him put the bodies together, I suspect they'll work a whole lot better.

What do you think about churches and how they get pastors?

The Life of a Pastor....

I've been wanting to post here on nearly a daily basis, or at least on a regular 3-4 time a week schedule. But doing this quietly and doing it so that there is not obvious overlap between what I post here and what I use in ministry places a handicap on that.

Oddly, the life of a pastor is not all sitting around composing thought-provoking blog posts. Ministry is rather like juggling when there's one more item in the air than what you can normally handle. Whenever you feel like you've finally gotten the hang of keeping it all up there, somebody tosses another knife or torch or chainsaw into your pattern. Every once in a while, you're able to get far enough ahead to retire one of the items and breathe for a moment. In those moments, I try to blog. But the last week has not had many of those moments.

(And no, reading articles about the NFL has nothing to do with this time shortage. Nothing at all.)

So, I'll try again tomorrow. Not the NFL reading - there's only two more articles I care about to read tomorrow - the blog posting.