Archives for October 2006

Another online friend writes on this topic here, and I think I agree with him. (Good to be on the agreeing side, eh, Ben?)

I was prompted to add a few comments on this subject because in my e-mail inbox today was an e-mail from a ministry that I am sure means well, but… But here is the subject line of the e-mail:

This Fall, Keep the First-Time Guests You Reach

The e-mail is from a ministry called www.ChurchLeaderInsights.com. The man behind this ministry is called Nelson Searcy. I see he went to school at Gardner-Webb University, a school in a town where I used to serve as a weekend youth pastor. I made lots of mistakes on North Carolinians! He has taken subsequent education at two SBC seminaries. The bio on his sight reads this way:

In 2002, Nelson Searcy started The Journey Church of the City in New York, NY. The congregation has grown from a handful of people to over 1100 in four Sunday worship services and over 1200 in 95 small groups. The Journey is an innovative, multicultural church in Manhattan. An experienced strategist, coach and speaker, Nelson serves as a regular consultant to churches across America. He is the author of over 20 articles and 30 training resources on leadership, evangelism, church planting and church growth. Before coming to NYC, he served as the Director of The Purpose Driven Community at Saddleback Church.

Here is the promotional blurb for the Assimilation Seminar, which is what the e-mail I received was advertising. You can find the site here. (Somehow it slipped through my ever vigilant spam filter.)

It’s not enough to just attract first time guests –
you must learn how to keep them! This seminar on
Assimilation discusses practical steps that will help
you create an inviting environment for your first-time guests- one that they will want to come back to time and time again! 2 Teaching CDs plus a Resource CD

Resource CD Includes:

25+ page Assimilation Strategy used at The Journey
Sample Emails
Sample Surveys
Greeter and Usher Overviews
Sample Follow-Up Letters
Sample Communication Cards
Plus much more!

Return and Exchange Policy

About The Teachers:
Nelson Searcy and Kerrick Thomas are Teaching Pastors at The Journey Church of the City in New York, NY. The Journey is an innovative, multi-cultural, multi-site church in Manhattan and is one of the fastest growing churches in the Northeast. The church is recognized for its creativity, media and relevant approach to life changing teaching.

Well, I don’t know. Am I responsible to keep those who come? Am I responsible to make them comfortable? I guess so, in a way. I mean I shouldn’t be rude to them or unfriendly or make them feel unwelcome as PERSONS, that wouldn’t be following the way of Christ.

But if I preach the truth that all without faith in Jesus Christ will spend eternity in HELL, and deserve to be there, would that make them uncomfortable? If that kind of preaching is true, I wonder when I should get around to it after I have made my visitors comfortable. I wonder if I will keep them if I do get around to it.

The concept is curious. It might be interesting to get the materials to see what they have to say and the CD advertised is only $37, so not a great cost. But… my philosophy is pretty well set on this and I don’t think I will bother. Too many other things to do and read. My curiousity level isn’t stirred high enough to even part with $37.

I hope the visitors we do have will come back because they have been stirred to do so by the Holy Spirit from faithful preaching of the Word of God. I don’t know any other way to build a church.

I also found the return policies of this ministry to be ‘interesting’, that is, if this really is a ministry. Very curious. I wonder if the Lord who overturned tables in the temple would have any thoughts on it at all.

Regards,
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3

The ministry has always been full of difficulty, but I wonder if there are some difficulties that are more the symptom of our time and place than perhaps at any other time in history. One of the most difficult problems I have faced is the intractability of professing Christians. There is a claim of faith in Christ, but many of those making the claim will not accept direction from the spiritual leader God appointed for them, the pastor of the local church.

By making this observation, I want to be clear that I don’t take the position that the pastor is the dictator of every aspect of the congregant’s life. But I do believe the role pastor carries some authority, especially in spiritual matters. The Lord established the church and he gave certain gifts to the church, apostles, prophets, evangelists and pastors (Eph 4). These gifts are for the purpose of building the church, equipping the saints for their own ministry.

The metaphor of building implies that the one doing the building has some authority over the construction process. That brick will go there, this beam will go here, etc. We are of course dealing with souls with wills, not with bricks and beams with no wills, so the analogy does break down at some point, but I think that the church would do better if it would break down less.

A recent difficulty with an individual got me to thinking about the problem. This individual is in constant conflict with people around him. He claims to be a Christian, but fights with everyone who attempts to exert any authority over him, whether it be a secular authority, Christian authority, family authority, government authority, you name it, he fights it. He is an extreme example, but I think that the conflict with him helps to define a much more widespread problem in the church at large.

This individual sees himself as an equal with the pastor (or any other authority he encounters). As such, he will not accept direction, and he will only accept counsel if it is given in such a way as to make him think he thought of it. In other words, the only way to affect any change with him is to manipulate him into it. He mainly wants authorities to let him do what he wants and to make him feel good. Most authorities aren’t interested in either of those two options, so conflict ensues.

This individual illustrates in a vivid way a more widespread problem that exists in the church. The pastor is seen as ‘the Bible teacher’, but not as the ‘overseer’. He is there to ‘feed me’, but he is not there to ‘lead, guide, direct, or otherwise interfere with me’. Some churches use the term ‘teaching elder’ to describe him. What an anemic title! What a ‘kept man’! The term reminds me of the man named Micah in the book of judges who kept a priest for himself (Jdg 17), a Levite, possibly the grandson of Moses, who officiated at the little shrine that Micah made for himself. A kept man. Later, the tribe of Dan discovered this Levite and hired him a way as the ‘kept man’ of the whole tribe, so that they could have their own priest in their own locale. How could such a man lead people spiritually? He was just there to provide those who hired him with religious services. He was not there by the call of God, not able to utter a thus saith the Lord!

In the church today, many people view themselves as the equal of the minister. They will defer to his Bible knowledge and enquire of him regarding Bible trivia, but there is little submission to his spiritual direction. His opinion is one among many and if it doesn’t match mine, he is a control freak, a bigot, a racist, or what have you. You name it, his voice is merely an option (at best), and certainly not authoritative.

In the meantime, personal lives and families of many professing Christians are falling apart. The pastor may lead an exemplary life, be reproducing himself in the lives of his children (the only people in the church he can really train to accept his authority), be a man of impeccable credentials in the surrounding secular world, but still, he may not tell me how I ought to live!

Well, how do we win in the pastorate with such a spirit as that?

I wish there was an easy answer. I am afraid the answer is the one that our Lord gave the disciples when they were frustrated with their own inability to exercise authority: “This kind cannot come out by anything but prayer.” (Mk 9.29)

That answer may not be very satisfying to us. We would like a magic bullet that we could use to just say the right thing to people to get them to change. I think we have to accept the fact that people are rebels and there is nothing WE can do to make them change. But we can pray. And we can trust in God. And God CAN do something to make them change.

It is frustrating to minister to people, especially rebels who refuse to accept any authority. Thank God there are some disciples who do encourage you by their willingness to truly receive spiritual counsel.

But the man of God must truly be a man of God. The place of leadership must drive him to prayer, because “This kind cannot come out by anything but prayer.” The place of leadership must drive him to the Book, because the Book is his authority, not himself or his own opinions. The courage of Christian leadership is obtained only by complete dependence on Christ. We aren’t here to win debates or argue people into the kingdom. We are here to cry to God for direction and strength, and see if he won’t do the mighty work of changing lives.

Regards,
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3

For our monthly men’s meeting, I am doing a historical/theological survey of fundamentalism to equip them with a better understanding of who we are and why we are what we are.

For today’s meeting, I was perusing Beale’s In Pursuit of Purity. The first sentence gives a definition of fundamentalism that I find quite satisfactory.

“Ideally, a Christian Fundamentalist is one who desires to reach out in love and compassion to people, believes and defends the whole Bible as the absolute, inerrant, and authoritative Word of God, and stands committed to the doctrine and practice of holiness.”

Is there anything missing from this definition? Beale doesn’t use the word ‘militant’ or its derivatives and he doesn’t mention ‘separation’, but he does say ‘defends’ and use the phrase ‘committed to the doctrine and practice of holiness’. Are these terms sufficient to carry the meaning of the term Christian fundamentalist?