A Message to Church Leaders

More and more often, I’m hearing about churches whose leaders want to “deal with” a sinner in their midst. In every case, the one being “dealt” with wound up feeling crushed, abandoned, humiliated…anything but loved unconditionally and, certainly, left unrestored. In one case, a lady caught in sin (literally, set-up and caught on video tape…imagine!) was not only interrogated by the church elders but was ultimately sent by the church to receive psychological counseling. The mind boggles! The mighty army of God was unable to cast out the demons in operation in one of their members and, instead, turned to a psychologist for help! When that failed, her husband divorced her and she very unceremoniously left town. She visited my office just before she left. She was dazed and confused, her mind left reeling from the experience and concerned that there was a root problem of a demonic nature that all parties had failed to recognize and deal with. I asked her if she’d been hearing voices or seeing things, something I’m prone to asking quite often lately. Surprised, she said she HAD been hearing voices and that the psychologist diagnosed her with Disassociative Identity Disorder (D.I.D., formerly referred to as M.P.D. – Multiple Personality Disorder). She left town very soon after and I can only hope she returns or finds Christians in her new hometown with the faith to believe that Jesus still delivers the demonically oppressed and who can help her attain and maintain her deliverance.

Twice last week I was informed about churches – both of which happened to the same denomination – which were slowly falling apart because certain members of their “ruling class” decided they had grown tired of their young ministers. I know both of these men and they’re both young and on-fire for God. They weren’t disliked because of an affair with the church secretary or misappropriation of funds. No, someone in power merely decided there were either too many changes taking place, these men were too immature (though the “mature” leaders selected them) or the people weren’t “being fed.” By the way, the average pastorate of this particular denomination lasts about 18 months in America these days. Over 260 members of this group join Mormon churches every week nationwide. Our town’s fastest growing religious group IS the Mormon church.

In another instance last week, I heard from a “Pastor A” – a man with a growing church that meets in the large banquet facility of a restaurant/bar – that “Pastor B” had confronted him about his perceived poor choice of a meeting place for church services. After all, liquor is served by the man to whom they are now paying rent. Forget the fact that Pastor A’s church was bursting at the seams; he was meeting in a bar and Pastor B found that despicable! Sorry, Pastor B, but Jesus would be there. In truth, Jesus IS there, entering within the hearts all those who attend each Sunday. If anyone wants to flee the places where alcohol is served, one had better not attend a major league sporting event any more. Truth is, the entire state of Texas would be off-limits.

NOTE: A British minister I know said he took his Bible to the nearest pub to get out of the house while his wife held a woman’s Bible study there. As he sat reading the Word of God, drinking his Guinness beer, a man approached him. Later, another. In time, after several visits, he not only made converts of the entire bar staff, but the owner offered him the upper room for the establishment of a church! Personally, I’ve been part of three churches established in or over a bar, the last one provided rent-free by the bar owner.

Selah.

CHURCH, AMERICAN STYLE

Here in imperialistic America, it’s easy to get distracted from the Great Commission. We have WAY too much time on our hands. We forget that we are only about 20% of the Body of Christ worldwide and that the other 80% is flourishing, most of it amidst persecution. While we’re supposed to be making the world jealous for what we say that we’ve found in Christ, what we Americans call “Christianity” is probably our nation’s #1 cause of atheism.

God hates division. Unity and unconditional love draws the power of the Holy Spirit. Though a woman is caught on tape (reminds me of the woman “caught” in adultery), I cannot help but focus on those who caught her. “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone,” a wise Teacher once said. Pastors, deacons, elders…let’s talk about YOU for a moment. Lust, doubt, worry, rage, porn, hatred, criticism, gossip, dissension…these are all sins, too. If we were a fly on the wall in your home, would you want THAT video taped? Are we running the church institution so much like we are the Board of Directors for some ungodly secular business entity that we forget about our job description as leaders: prayer and service to God’s people?

A young couple had been living together for several years. Everyone assumed they were married but when the elders of their church learned the truth, they stormed in on them one night, unannounced, and confronted them regarding their sexual sin. The couple ultimately left that church – hurting, feeling unloved and unaccepted, condemned – and attended elsewhere. In the meantime, I was privileged to counsel them and officiate their eventual wedding. I began the counseling by saying, “I won’t throw stones at you if you’ll promise not to throw any at me.” They laughed, agreeing. We met for 6 weeks straight and remain friends to this day.

MORE, OR LESS, THAN MEETS THE EYE?

We have a Holy Spirit, the One who convicts us not only of our sins but our righteousness as well. Far too many church leaders are trying to play His role, too often administering guilt and condemnation rather than conviction. Though others may see us as a pillar of faith and holiness, of all the places upon which we should focus our self-assessment, the level of our personal brokenness and compassionate love for people, is a great place to start.

“Man looks at the outside but God looks at the heart,” (1 Samuel 16:7). Too often, we desire an outward appearance of godliness – something any devil can muster up. If someone is perceived as being “good,” we assume they are living a “holy” or “godly” lifestyle. Poor assumption for there is none good but God (Ps. 14:3; Rom. 3:12; Mark 10:18). Too often we focus on the numbers we’re running in Sunday School rather than the numbers that are slowly trickling out the back door due to neglect, people who simply didn’t find what they were looking for.

Christian leaders, something is rotten with the state of the ekklesia. Don’t expect changes to come from among the people. As Leonard Ravenhill said, “Revival begins in the pulpit, not in the pew.”

JESUS WANTS HIS CHURCH BACK

The Head of the Body is Jesus Himself. Too often, we attempt to serve Him as a consultant. Anything with two heads is a freak as you know. It’s either going to be Christ or the Leadership Team at the helm. It will never be both. If we claim that it IS Jesus, working THROUGH our Leaders, then let’s compare the methods of ministry, the doctrine being used and taught, to the things He did and said.

If they don’t match up, logic screams that it’s not Jesus.

Is there a sense of God’s power and presence in your ministry (I’m not referring to goosebumps during worship or folks who speak in tongues during services but scream at each other at home)? When something apparently spiritual occurs in our midst, do we try and duplicate it again or see what other neat thing the Spirit may be wanting to do that’s entirely different? Again and again we give it a title, slap a logo on an overpriced polo shirt, and charge and arm and a leg for a nicely packaged study workbook or tape series that, as one Catholic man observed regarding a radio ministry, “keeps more people from being able to afford it than can.”

Over 53,000 people leave Christian churches each week (for perspective, 57,000 Americans died in the Vietnam war). Nearly 3,800 American churches close their doors annually. 43% of Christians surveyed, across denominations, say that they do NOT trust their church leaders. As supposed “fishers of men,” what most churches refer to as Church Growth is little more than transfer growth as we put more effort into attracting the “churched” than we do in seeking out the “unchurched.” Liken that to a preferance to eat fish at a restaurant than to catch and clean our own.

“Heaven, we have a problem!” It’s one of Biblical proportions and it’s happening all around us. Without Divine intervention, we are doomed. Wait a moment…Divine Intervention is all we’ve ever needed all along. Sadly, we’ve too often alienated the Divine One from our churches, preferring the traditions of men which have made His Word of no effect (Mark 7:13).

Are lives being changed in your congregation? Don’t look for the Fruit of the Spirit manifested within a Church service; that’s too easy. Look for this fruit among your people on the other six days of the week, at work, at school, in the community, in their homes, in their marriages. The Church – the Bride and Body of Christ – is a living organism, NOT an organization. Her life should beget abundant life. Those who know God are the Ark of the New Covenant, bringing the presence of God – Jesus Himself – with them everywhere they go all day long.

Where Jesus goes, things change. How’s that coming along?

This living organism we call “The Church” is too often sound asleep. As my dear friend Ed says, how can we pray for revival when we’ve yet to be “vived”?

GAME PLAN

To those in positions of church leadership, forget it. You can’t do it. It’s not something anyone can “muster up” either. One either knows Jesus and lives according to His doctrine, living a life that manifests and bears the Fruit of the Spirit, bearing life after their own kind…or they don’t. When statistics reveal that most ministers spend way too little time in weekly prayer and very few believe in the inerrancy of Scripture, when we place all the emphasis on church attendance and too little on discipleship, placing too much importance on the unscriptural clergy/laity distinction, what we’re seeing now is simply the result of years of repeated mistakes.

It’s time for a change. It’s time to change our minds and embrace the fact that doing things in the prescribed way just isn’t working.

If you’d like to examine your options, write. Let’s discuss the matter. If you want something you’ve never had, it might be time to do that which you’ve NEVER considered doing.

We all know the definition of insanity; doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results. What’s happening in the Church in America today is absolutely insane.