Dogs & Doghouses

It used to be that the church I pastor would get three types of mail. The first type was the stuff that would never get opened – flyers from furniture stores, coupon books, and those little squares of advertisements for Christian things (usually about 40 to a pack) wrapped in cellophane. This was the stuff for the trash. The second type had to be opened. This mail included things like bank statements, electric bills, insurance announcements, and other functions associated with operating a modern church; the necessary requirements that had to be responded towards in some manner (usually with an enclosed check). The third type of mail was from other churches in the association. This mail included things like invitations to Bible conferences, missionary reports, and an occasional call for a special function like a revival or an ordination.

Just some cautionary words, and maybe it’s just me, but the nature of the mail I’ve been receiving lately seems to have changed. Of course we still get the world’s junk mail. The trash can is still nice and full every week. And of course we still get the bills that have to be paid. Though someday, we’ll prayerfully be finished with the mortgage payment for the building. The change in our mail has come, unfortunately, with what we receive from other works in the association.

Lately, it seems like we never receive anything that doesn’t include a request for money or a plea for a love offering, or a special one-time call for funds to help pay off a building. I’m sorry if I sound hard hearted, but everybody who cares to write these days does so with their hand out, just like the world. Even the last couple associational meetings, aside from the fellowship, have struck me “conventionish” and have had the feel of large-scale fundraisers. At those events too, most everyone with a booth was asking for financial support or had something to sell.

Has the American Baptist Association been reduced to a group of churches so in debt and so strapped for cash that the greatest communication between the works is a cry for money and a monthly financial report? It’s easy, I suppose, to go ahead and ask, falling prey to the, “Everybody else does it,” and the intellectually sluggish, “It can’t hurt to ask,” mentalities. These strike me as the world’s ways, carrying with them a tone of being entitled, possibly driven by looking down the street at what some other denomination has and saying, “I want that too.”

And I hear people say, “We’re just trying to build a strong church for the Lord.” But one thing to remember is that God sees strength differently than we do. It’s the natural thing to want “nice things” and bigger buildings. But when we are at our weakest in this world, being faithful with the God-called work, being service rather than results oriented, is when we may be at the peek of our service to God. Hebrews chapter eleven is a wonderful catalog of strong, faithful, people. Compare them to the temples of their respective times and you’ll see the contrast.

Have we entrenched ourselves into the world system so deeply that we are now indebted to it, fearful that the Lord isn’t going to take care of us? Or have we impatiently trusted in the shadow of the mortgage bank, strengthening ourselves in the easy line of credit, and now find ourselves asking God about it as a secondary thought (Isaiah 30:1-5)? And why does it feel like we’ve turned our backs on the example of Paul who, at both Corinth and Thessalonica, worked doubly hard to make sure he and his fellow workers were not financially burdensome (I Corinthians 9:15 and II Thessalonians 3:8-10)? In Psalm 37:25 we read, “I have been young, and [now] am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.” God isn’t going to abandon the obedient to starvation.

And speaking of debt, Paul advised in Romans 13:8 (to) “Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.” With that in mind, doesn’t it make sense to shy away from building projects that leave us trapped in debt for 15 to 20 years to the point where we have to send mass mailings begging for money? Should we not be more content with what we have (Philippians 4:11 and I Timothy 6:8) and less eager to financially overextend ourselves to the point of having to panhandle from the brethren?

And I really try not to be a Scrooge about all this. You remember Scrooge? He’s the guy who had to be visited by ghosts before he finally loaned the money to Tiny Tim’s dad for the surgery. I would like to be more financially supportive to many of the missionaries and pastors whose mail I receive. But you know what? The church I pastor only has so much. I wonder whose son didn’t get surgery because there was no more money. I imagine even Scrooge only had so much (maybe someone should have a talk with those ghosts)? And you know what else? After nearly ten years on this field I still work a part time secular job to help ends meet. There is no guarantee in God’s Word that I’ll ever be a “full-time” pastor. It’s part of the territory. Do you know any pastors that still have to do that, who yet struggle and feel guilty because they can’t help out with every call for money? Yet as pastor it’s part of my duty to see that the assembly spends what money it does have wisely.

The point is often made that, “If just one soul is saved then it doesn’t matter how much money we spend.” While that sounds good and has helped open many a wallet to enable some to build bigger buildings and fund many other endeavors, the New Testament provides a cash-free system (let that sink in a moment, a system that NEEDS NO MONEY) whereby the debt we owe to God was paid in full – it cost Jesus His life. It’s already been paid. Our task, as God-called Pastors and teachers is to tell others about this. We shouldn’t worry so much about spending enough so that we can impress the unchurched into visiting. We are to go out to all the world, not sit in and build bigger barns.

I don’t want to belong to an association of fund raisers.

To be ignorant about something means a person does not know about it. To be ignorant means you are lacking in knowledge. It’s nothing to be proud of and we are all, to an extent, ignorant about any number of things. For example, I do not know how to rebuild a carburetor. I’ve never even attempted to rebuild a carburetor and, aside from raising the hood of my car and looking somewhere past the air filter, I wouldn’t know how to begin. I’m not even certain I could disconnect a carburetor from the rest of the engine block. I am only guessing that the carburetor is directly connected to the engine block. For all I know there is an intermediary component between the two. I would have just as much chance of success as attempting a heart-bypass surgery (another topic that I hold very limited information about) as to attempt to “fix” a carburetor.

Perhaps a man of my age, having driven the number of vehicles I have should understand such things as a matter of practical “getting along in life” information. It’s nothing I brag to others about, that I’m a poor engine mechanic. I certainly do not think I am a better man than a good engine mechanic because he knows more on the subject than I. It would be foolish on my part to think that. If anything, in the area of engine repair, his knowledge gives him the advantage. This I must admit or show a profound egotism in my insistence that not knowing about carburetors is some sort of morally redeeming and uplifting virtue.

Now here is the problem. In God’s work I have heard a lot of sermons and expressed sentiment emphasizing the importance and value of ignorance. Many pastors and evangelists speak of their ignorance as though it is a glorious, God-given, advantage. Their ignorance is their shield and from behind it they make any number of questionable proclamations.

“I know no Greek!” they boast. “I have no seminary degree!” they exclaim. “The fewer letters a man has after his name, the better.” This is all agreed upon in certain circles, as though there is scripture to back it up. To support these claims they illustrate from any number of anecdotal experiences they have had with the “educated”; those inferior men of God who have a better education than they do. It’s this “educated” person who knows and relies upon the original Greek and Hebrew in spite of the overwhelming granite face of the KJV-onlyism. It’s the “educated” Bible scholar who contemptuously studies church history and points out contradictions based on both Protestant and Roman Catholic tradition, and not scripture. These educated ones are responsible for trying to change things. Ironically, these prophets (the oracles of not knowing) seek the best auto mechanics and heart surgeons they can find as they continue to throw the red meat of ignorance to one another.

I am reminded, according to the story, that many years ago there lived an Emperor who was fond of fine new clothes. This particular Emperor fell to two swindlers who effectually sold him nothing. On the day of the parade to show his new clothes it took the insight of a child to proclaim, “The Emperor has no clothes.” The Emperor, shaken to his core with the truth of the matter, stubbornly proceeds with the show while the rest of the village understands all too well.

God’s men, pastors standing in their pulpits proclaiming how wonderful it is to be ignorant, are certainly no more than a foolish Emperor admitting he wears nothing. For them, to rise beyond the elementary fundamentals of the original languages is foolishness. For them, the academic training and insights labored for by others holds little value. And, for them, the degrees which show at least the desire to better ones self for God’s sake, are meaningless. At least the Emperor was secretly ashamed of what had happened. Outwardly he insisted that he was wearing fine new clothing. Some of our brethren are so illogical as to hold an opposite opinion. Not only are they ignorant, but they like it that way and would have others to be ignorant with them. It would be like the Emperor insisting that others disrobe into his new style, while yet upholding the charade of the newest fashions.

I have known braggarts. I have worked with boasters whose egos could barely fit through the door of my home. These men had letters after their names, flown proudly on a snapping verbal banner for all to hear. And if I didn’t notice, they would snap the louder. These ones also proclaim notions about learning and the lack thereof from behind their pulpits. These will tell you, “I have been studying this topic for years and you will have to take my word for it because you won’t understand.” They have their own stories to tell; condescending experiences with the lesser mortals they encounter. Maybe they deserve their own essay. But the point is, pride is pride and God’s men can be proud of their ignorance just as easily as they can be of their pedigrees. And from my own experiences I note the former case is more likely than the latter.

Scripturally, I find all kinds of men being used by God. “Moses,” we read, “was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds.” (Acts 7:22) His was a secular education if ever there was. Daniel was also a promising young man, “…skilful in all wisdom, and cunning in knowledge, and understanding science, and such as had ability to stand in the king’s palace, and whom they might teach the learning and tongue of the Chaldeans.” (Daniel 1:4) We deny Paul’s brilliance as an educated man and writer at our own peril.

To those who think having no knowledge is an immediate advantage and an obvious sign of divine favor and blessing, I would only caution, let us not consider nothing as though it were something. Stop your boasting. You are drawing attention to the wrong things.