It happened nearly 2000 years ago on an obscure piece of land lost among the Great Roman Empire. A relatively unknown, not profoundly well travelled, not well educated man began to speak in the desert. He was called Yocanhan, and being of a priestly family he was performing a ritual called a mikvah, on those who came. This Mikvah (ritual bath) was two fold. It identified their desire to start a new life and to bear fruit in showing that they have repentant (turned away) from their former (evil) behaviour. It also prepared them for what was to come, in similar manner to the way the children of Israel did when they washed themselves and their clothes before they saw their God on Mt Sinai. These people were preparing to see their God.
So, in practical terms… what did Yocanhan (who we know as John the Baptist) recommend? What was he telling people to do?
Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance…
And the multitudes asked him, saying, What then must we do?
And he answered and said unto them, He that hath two coats, let him impart to him that hath none; and he that hath food, let him do likewise.
And there came also publicans to be baptized, and they said unto him, Teacher, what must we do?
And he said unto them, Extort no more than that which is appointed you.
And soldiers also asked him, saying, And we, what must we do? And he said unto them, Extort from no man by violence, neither accuse any one wrongfully; and be content with your wages.
For a number of days now, I have felt a deeper and deeper impression that we missed the boat. I feel that God told us what we should do, as disciples, and then we chose a completely different path. This path is one which has moral social standing. It has public and private perks. It is orderly, acceptable and doesn’t infringe on our lives. In short, my greatest fear is that in mass we have rejected the radical things Jesus said and replaced them with a different gospel.
Please allow my to show you what I see. Imagine, if you can, that you are seeing some of these things for the very first time. One of the most difficult items of any such critique is that our familiarity to the modern church often keeps us from looking very closely. We don’t often look when we think we already know. However, this process of careful scrutiny I think is necessary to bring clarity. Try to pretend, you just don’t know.
See, if it is possible, when you examine the truth and expectations of Jesus for his disciples how they conform or contrast this with what you see today.
The present Situation
Every Sunday morning, well dressed, predominately middle class people in acceptable homes and all the signs of personal wealth and (order), drive to large structures and file in from roughly 9:00am to noon. It is a pleasant enough place. The “church building” is often bright and cheery. The lobby is comfortable and usually allows for mingling. Much smiles and hand shaking happens there, perhaps a few welcoming hugs. There is brightly coloured booklets and flyers intended to advertise one program or another or perhaps to provide some level of education. It is well kept. There are often flowers in every season. There may be beautiful art work, or stained glass. The sanctuary
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is intended to inspire a hush as one enters in, or at least a feeling of reverence.
The session opens with a lively song, or perhaps with a welcome message from a very friendly person at the front. He/she demands little from you, often inviting you to “enjoy”. And what is not to enjoy? The music, whether you know the songs or not, are easy to pick up on. There may be a special music number. There may be some stories to inspire. Sometimes a multimedia presentation. Somewhere, there is what is called an offering, that goes to help the expenses of the “church”. Finally, there is some sort of main message. Generally, this is given by the pastor (the key leader) of the “local church”. It is a teaching generally designed to take something from the Bible, or a church teaching and bring it down to be understood and enjoyed at the most common level. It is often interspersed with comedy and engaging stories (programmed within every 10 minutes or less). The message is generally not allowed to go very long. It would be rare to find someone “preach” for even 30 minutes. A form of personal application ends the message and some sort of “wrap up” happens. Generally, this is a song, but there can be other ways. The group is dismissed and they walk out of the sanctuary and mingle a bit before they head for home.
The people who are there, as I mentioned, tend to represent the middle class, neither too far to affluence nor to poverty. They tend to be moral, conservative values, family people. The “church” is their social organization. They are pious. Generally, they do believe what they say. They have high regard for their church and varying degrees of church loyalty. They see their church as a worship center (a place to collectively worship their God). The church is an education center. Aside from main church services, they often have Sunday School-electives, perhaps a Sunday evening worship, weekly Bible studies of various sorts for different target groups, perhaps a mid-week service and a youth program (activities targeting teen, perhaps Jr. High and College age depending on the size and structure of the church). This church may support some sort of “mission work”. A lot of this is overseas stuff. Somewhere in the church is often a poster or wall telling who “their missionaries” are and where they are working. If there have been any resent updates (a letter) from the missionary, it will be posted there. The church may or may not be denominational. If it is a part of a denomination, then there will be some effort to affirm that their “denomination” is the most true, right, best representation of God in the world today. If not, then the church will often glory in the fact that they are “more Biblical” and aren’t a part of any of those denominations.
The pastor(s) are polite and professional. They are generally trained at a vocational institute. They have various degrees from a Bible certificate to a doctorate, generally based on size of the church. In an average church (under 200 people) or denominational church a Masters degree is standard. Other church leaders will come from various backgrounds, and will do this work on a volunteer basis. If they fill a teaching role they are often given very specific courses to teach so that they don’t veer too far off track. Generally, teachers like this, since it saves them preparation time, while allowing them to still teach a good class.
The overall impression that is meant to be conveyed is safety and security. It is non-offensive. It is orderly and controlled. A set course on almost any Biblical area is
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observed and although some small variances are tolerated, there is very little wiggle room outside those small opinions.
I don’t want to say there are no other church models. There really are. There are the mega churches (usually at least several hundred people attending). They are all of the template just described, but with far more expertise. Their programs are bigger, better attended and their budgets are much larger. They are run much more like a “nice” corporation. Order is even more important there.
There are also, what is generally considered small town churches (or church plants) which allow for a bit more flexibility. They may have to abandon programs that are not well attended . They may start some programs sooner then would match their size based on interest or resources; however, they typically have at their core (template) all the same values, but just not the ability to do them as effectively due to the constraints of budget, manpower, and/or desire.
I love this institution. Let me say this again. I love this institution. I was raised in this environment. I was trained to be a pastor. I served in various roles in various churches. I understand and embrace this experience. I have over the years hoped too much for it’s effectiveness. I, for example, have been under the false belief (as all pastors are taught) that people are there for the message (the preaching). Everything is a rising experience for the best part which is the message that God has given to His people. This message that I, the pastor, would share with my flock.
Further, I have laboured with the expectation that the church is outside of traditional institutions. It won’t run like a club, or a business. There is no need for diplomacy, we are the people of God. I have convinced myself that God’s work (of which I called the church) will continue forever, even in the face of church closures and splits. I have believed that long time members will be spiritually full grown. I have also believed that all God’s people will embrace a local church. These beliefs constantly fly in the face of my experience. I have, in resent years, found many people reject that structure and institute, while still passionately embracing God.
A new design
I sincerely believe that we are on the edge of a turning wheel. I think we are about to enter another rotation, one which is far different historically then we have seen in the past. I think the old model of church is over. In fact, it was probably over years ago, but we within the church tend to reject this concept of finality and still embrace ancient “orderly institutions”, even if it is obvious they are not doing what they intended. Now is the time to look to this new design and much to our amazement, we are likely to find that the new design is a lot like a very old design. My hope is when all is said and done, we will actually find what Jesus intended for his own disciples.
A personal note:
Forgive me this intrusion, but I want you to know, that although I have seen what this vision looks like, I am just barely on the path. I have a long way to go. I am a husband and father of 8. I am 39 years old. I trained as a pastor, missionary, worked for a
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Bible college and worked in personal finance. I have failed to live up to what Jesus has set before me and I sorrow for wasted years. Everyday I am struggling with the way we put these principle into practice. In fact, it is painful. My world works better in that old church model. I am Rev. Brad Lang there. I have respect. I know the language. I accept the admiration of my peers, and can easily find a place. It is for me the broad (the easy path), but today I am trying to choose the more difficult path. The other path is overgrown and does not even look like a path. It looks like it leads to nowhere, and yet, I am confident, this is the lone path I must follow. I hope you can see this concept as well, but please do not hold me as the model. I am just the messenger and fellow walker on this journey.
So, where is this going?
Although I will review my concepts at the end, it might be fair to show a picture, a contrasting picture of what I call a “guaranteed catastrophic failure”, and that is to make disciples according to the values that Jesus set. Wow, I can hear you saying…so, what? Isn’t that what all the churches everywhere strive to do? NO. I say this as a former pastor. I think no church leader wants a single Jesus-style disciple anywhere near his congregation. He may give lip service to this idea. He may even think that he would like this, but in his most honest moment he would likely admit to himself that such a thing would be terrible. To do so would threaten his very existence. It would be challenging and convicting to any pastor, (as I feel now). Most would not tolerate it. Such a brother would need to be silenced, at the least. In fact, I think being expelled from the church would be more likely.
The Pastor:
Please don’t get me wrong, the pastor, by and large, is a great person. He (or she) was someone who could have chosen a hundred different professions, and yet they chose to lead a church. Many of them, as I did, threw away scholarships to fine schools to go to more obscure places and learn how to be a church leader. They have spent years in study of Scripture. They may be able to read 1 or more of the original languages that the Bible was written in. They learn theology and church administration. They learn about models of church structure, preaching and teaching. They continue to hone their craft of preaching and leadership (administration) and become fully trained pastors. Their programs were designed to make them a successful pastor. In today’s world, these people often go into debt to reach that final goal. They give much for this goal.
My own Alma Mata (Briercrest Bible College) for the upcoming year charges for meals, a dorm room, and 15 credits per semester 5 x 3 credit classes, per semester would be $10,065.00 if paid up front in full. It would be more if you chose an instalment program, and that does not include any costs of books, photocopying, travel, costs to do your laundry etc. So, bare bones, you would have to pay $10,065 each year. For a degree in Christian education (as it stands today) you would have to attend just over 5 years at that rate. A BA degree from the Bible School I graduated from would be at least $51,000 (plus some extra costs and not counting any “price increases” in the next 5 years). If you
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want a seminary degree you can count on another $40,000 and three more years. So, a normal pastor today training in a middle size church (under 200 people) would be on the hook for roughly $90,000 to $100,000 and 8 full years of their life.
This post (the pastor) in Canada today has an average earnings between $33,017 to $66,912 depending on the size of the church and years of service according to the latest Stats Canada survey. This also assumes a “full-time” pastoral position. Many do not find a full time position. Some try to make ends meet on a part time salary or have to go around trying to see if they can find other churches which will help support their church efforts by taking them on as a charity project. Some take a position in a sort of “volunteer basis” and hope that there may be some compensation (pay) along the way. This career is unlike any other career I have ever seen.
I am hoping to generate some sympathy for this position, and to recognize that these people in professional church ministry are really very sincere, talented, dedicated people who are trying to do their best with a system that many people are beginning to see is out of touch with their world.
I have known many pastors over the years and have found very few that I have not enjoyed, yet some of my harshest criticism of Christian church ministry is levelled at them.
The reason, I point to the pastor first, will become obvious in a moment. I ran through a number of church budget surveys the other day to see what type of “budgets” we find in a church. I was working with a theory that “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Luke 12:34). What I found was remarkably similar from small churches to large churches. Somewhere between 42% and 51% percent on average of the entire church budget is spent on pastoral (or church workers) salaries. I have already said generally a pastor is rarely “overpaid”. For someone with their level of education and “professionalism” there would be few places to be paid as little. They also often lack benefits that are common with almost every other sort of job. They may not have a retirement program. They may not have supplemental health care, dental, etc. This is not living in the lap of luxury. I think one can see that with the level of “student loan” today, there are many pastors who can not afford to even “serve” because their wages would not cover their student loan much less a survivable income.
Many pastors also have a significant lack of job security. Today, most of us are familiar with the fact that even what was perceived as a “stable, secure” job may not be as stable and secure as we thought. Just ask some of the factory workers or auto assembly staff who have watched their jobs vanish over the last few years. However, in times where my position has been phased out or staff were cut, I found that this was often quite gentle. I knew that the company was going through difficulties. There was generally efforts to communicate that this action was “not my fault”. It was no fun being “removed from your position”, but there was always kindness involved at every stage. Many times these same former employers would call me back at the first change that there was a need for new staff.
A removal of a pastor can be much quicker and uglier. It can be far more emotionally taxing and leave one in a serious financial situation. Upsetting the wrong
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person can get you unemployed. One confidence vote can send the pastor packing. If the church owns the parsonage (house for the pastor and his family to live), then he is also homeless.
However, back to my former assertion, half of most church budgets go to salary.
When I was in my early 20s, I came up with a radical thought. It was not a unique thought to me, but it felt as if I was the only person asking the question. “When did we start paying professional pastors?” I figured it must be Biblical. Many pastors have gone into great lengths to explain that it is entrenched or at the very least implied that a vocational pastor was the standard. The reality is this reflects more eisegesis (putting meaning into a passage, a Bible interpretation “no no“) rather then exegesis (drawing meaning out from a passage).
Some pastors suggest (using an understanding called “Covenantal Theology” that in the Old Testament there were priests who did service for the Temple, and they were entitled to eat some of the food that was used in certain types of sacrifices. In the New Testament there were pastors who should also be paid for their service.
The first problem with this should be obvious. The people who are characters in the New Testament are not aware that they are in the New Testament. They still go to the Temple. They still brought sacrifices to the priests. They still had the priests take their due from the sacrifices. It is silly to say that they saw this substitution, since this substitution theology (with the destruction of the temple) did not happen until almost the entire New Testament was penned.
Paul does make some statements and I think they are very appropriate that when people come and share in their meetings, they are worthy of their hire (1 Tim 5:18). I think the most convincing argument for a paid clergy is 1 Corinthians 9:1-15. In this, Paul (who is not accepting a salary from the church: 1 Cor 9:12 and 14) is asking a series of rhetorical questions about whether there should be any compensation for those who are the head of the larger church body. In fact, his main point seems to centre on the question of “when the big name, high profile, apostles show up, is it appropriate to feed them? Or do they have to fend for themselves?” He says take care of them. In fact, he could ask the same, but he doesn’t. Most people will remember that Paul was a tent maker (Ac 18:1-3) and generally funded him own ministry.
In all honesty, I don’t want to suggest that Paul does not make any allowances for a “professional ministry”, in fact, he does, comparing the role of the priest (as I said earlier) he says this:
1 Cor 9:13-14 Know ye not that they that minister about sacred things eat of the things of the temple, and they that wait upon the altar have their portion with the altar?
Even so did the Lord ordain that they that proclaim the gospel should live of the gospel.
I need to point out a subtle item here. Paul does not say “ignore the temple, because now we have paid pastors”. Paul is saying God does have examples of people who receive some material benefit from the ministry they do, and it is not right to make everyone be as he is and fund their own service. I would suggest, that although Paul does
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not practice this paid minister role himself, he does make some allowance for it.
Now, is the person Paul speaks of the pastor? To be honest, I don’t think so. The churches in the New Testament were not formalized institutions like ours today. Paul is talking about someone who “proclaims the Gospel“ (:14). In a general sense one could argue all of Christ’s people do proclaim the Gospel, but it would be a bit difficult to imagine that Paul is speaking that all believers should be paid a salary for this duty.
Paul mentions 4 people specifically in this passage (Himself, Barnabus, Peter called here “Cephas” and his wife). A most straight forward reading of the passage would suggest that we are talking about those who minister who are on the road “proclaiming the Gospel”. Note, this would have been an easy time for Paul to urge the congregations (of which there were likely many, but are all collectively spoken of as “one body“) in Corinth to remove people from the work force so they could specifically become professional vocational ministers. Paul does not pursue this line of thought. In fact, in none of his writings does he ever assert this. His line of thought appears to be very modest; caring for travelling ministers who benefit your fellowship.
I know I have gone a long time on this point, but I want to stress that a professional, vocational pastor is a burden on a Congregation. It creates a “ministry” with the most significant budget drag on a church. For the pastor, it often makes him a relatively low paid servant who is obligated to do the ministries of the church, especially, if no one volunteers to do these for him. In the back rooms of churches there are people who talk in whispered tones “hey, don’t we pay the pastor to do that?” It is an arrangement which should be changed.
Second Church Budget item:
In my years as a banker, I had the chance to see the insides of many businesses. One business I saw, was a very successful factory. They made their “widgets” and found that they were getting interest in there product all over the area. They worked Monday to Friday 9 to 5 and found that they could not keep up. So, the proposal was to build a new building. There would be significant costs, but if their growth continued they should have no problem justifying the cost. However, the senior management, decided instead to hire more staff and set up a weekend rotation. So now the machines were working 7 days a week. Business continued to boom, and they had more orders then they could fill. The new building was again proposed, and seemed all the more justified. However, the senior management tried a different approach and hired more staff and now had a night shift.
By now they had significantly increased their production and their widgets were going around the world. There was still more orders that were finding their way to a “back log“. Now for certain they needed a new building, right? Of course, the management sat back and adjusted schedules so that there were 3 eight hour shifts per day 7 days a week. This meant their machines were always running. It was a challenge to keep the systems always working, but a dedicated staff kept everything in good shape. After some time, there were more orders coming and a new building was proposed. This time, the management agreed to the new building, which is an amazing structure on the outskirts of the town where we lived.
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I mention this story to introduce the second largest burden on church budgets…the building.
Statistics suggest that church building take the costs of 21-25% of an average church budget (according to Wikianswers and Lifeway.com) Some churches without a mortgage and limited upkeep costs can be as little as 13%. Some older structures with more upkeep costs and/or a mortgage obviously can be much higher.
I went to visit a friend (a pastor) at his church while he was studying on a January morning. The church boiler system (large older church) had failed and he was huddled in his office around a space heater while he was trying to figure out how to fix the situation. If you live in Ft. Lauderdale, and your heater goes in January, that’s inconvenient. If you live in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and your heating fails in January that can be fatal.
So, when I heard, I dropped by with Tim Hortons we sat around his little space heater and shivered and talked about solutions. I was glad I wasn’t a pastor at that time.
For the pastor, a church building is often an extension of themselves. It is a tangible image of their success. Remember, what I said before, a pastor is often a low paid servant, so this tangible sign of success is welcome, and in fact, often perceived necessary to keep one feeling good about what is happening.
Many churches also have histories which attach some sentimental value to the building. Today, the oldest surviving structure in Saskatchewan is a church. I suspect that would be true of many places. Maintaining “historical sentimental” structures is not always an easy task, ask anyone who has inherited a old castle, or old mansion. It can be time consuming and costly. The heating system, plumbing systems, electrical, mechanical systems can create nightmares for someone who was rewarded in the past for being a passionate speaker (a pastor). Many pastors just don’t have the skill-set to be maintenance crew.
On the other side is the church’s present need to be viewed as warm and inviting. It should be clean. It should be neat. It should inspire a sense of reverence. You want people to come in and feel as if they are…home. This home should not be like their present residence which may be scattered with Lego and colouring pages. It is home…only better. More order. More clean. More warm, and more inviting. The un-stated desire of churches (and church members) is growth with the “right kind of people”. Most churches really don’t want to target the homeless. They don’t want people who look bad or smell. Single moms, tend to be struggling and often can be disorganized. Troubled teens might taint “our children”. They want people who are positive. They want people who are moral and upright and will benefit the church personally and financially.
The church building is a double edge sword. On the one side, if you don’t have a building, you have an answer to the question: do you really have a church? For the past 10 years we have been involved in a series of church plants (brand new start up churches). Some more successful then others. Many of these started in people’s homes.
A home was a wonderful place to meet, but when I would talk to other Christians they would eventually ask “so, where are you guys going to church?” We’d tell them we were meeting in someone’s home. If we said a “church plant” then we were often treated with some sort of missionary respect. If we simply said we are meeting with 3 other
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families in a home, we would get the dark eyes.
“oh” (silence)
We would find we would have to back peddle and explain that we haven’t rejected God and all the things of Christianity. We would have to defend meeting in homes.
Another church plant we were involved with was given an unused church building for Sunday evenings. We were still only a couple families, but the fact that we had a building meant that we were “real”. Without a building, there is the obvious question of whether you are real, or someone who has rejected God and his church.
For the record, this church plant with a building was no more successful then many of the church plants that met in homes, but it’s financial burden was much higher.
Related to this was in a “church plant” (meeting in homes situation) we often did not go through the formal process of setting up a name or having a board of directors. We didn’t put an advertisement in the Yellow pages. We often didn’t call the guy who spoke the most the “pastor”. Each one of these lacks, decreases your sense of credibility in the eyes of the “traditional church”.
“oh… no pastor”
“oh… doesn’t really have a name”
“oh… doesn’t advertise”
Trust me, it’s not a fun conversation.
If you have gone through this experience, you know what I mean. If you haven’t, then really no amount of explaining will help you understand.
Please forgive me that sidebar, let’s get back to the building concept. A Building (aside from a sense of credibility) also allows people to wander in. I know that sounds funny, but it is perceived important that churches be “available” for the person who awakens one morning and says “wow, I think I will head down the street today and go to church.” Do these people actually exist?
Surprisingly enough…they do.
There aren’t as many as you might suspect, but there are events in people’s individual life that inspire them to “go to church”. There are new people who move into the area (as we did a few weeks ago) who want to find a like-minded church. Christmas and Easter can be a time where people who normally won’t show up for church will go to hear the music and or the message. It is part of their holiday traditions. So, if there were no public structures, it would be more difficult for these people who respond with a spontaneous desire to “attend church today”. In fact, it is really for these people that the church is trying to make itself so welcoming. It is hoped that these people will find a pleasant experience. It is hoped that these people will become regulars and eventually supporters. This is not all bad.
Having said this, I still think by and large, the church is one of the most overpriced, generally unused structure in the Christian world. The building is dead weight. It is costly to run and maintain. It stands idle most days of the week. It is justified by some reason in the past that it was necessary. It forces a need for budgets. If you have a church, you have bills, someone needs to pay those bills. There are “ministries”
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involved in simply keeping up the structure. My home church had a division of leaders called “trustees”. They were responsible for the structure. That was “their ministry”.
It has been reported that likely the earliest “church building” was from either the 3rd or 4th century AD. Is was found in the area of Megiddo and is identified by the use of the “fish” symbol (so supposedly predating Constantine’s “cross” symbol) also:
One of the inscriptions read that the building was dedicated to “the memory of the Lord Jesus Cristos.”
To be honest, it is difficult to know whether this was a structure that was used as a church as we would understand churches today, or whether this was a “prayer room”, or a monument, a pilgrimage site or something else. Either way, this “church building” is long after the disciples were all dust. The early church was not about a building.
I have a couple other concerns with respect to church “buildings” that I want to share. One is that it distorts the theology of the church. In Bible study and theology circles the science (or understanding) of what the church is and what it should be is called Ecclesiology. If you could muddle through the ancient language it would mean “the science (or study) of a people called out”. The problem for most people today when you ask “what is the church?” They will list the programs which are generally done in the building. If you ask where do you see the church active you will get an address. They miss that a “church”, is really just the people. It is the people who are “called out“. When the New Testament talks about the “called out ones”, and uses the term “church” in our English translations of Scripture, they have no concept of a building. They are only thinking about the people.
This confusion might not seem terrible at first, but it does cause many problems in what one’s values and where our loyalties this side of heaven lay. If we are to love “the church”, it means we love the people, not the programs. If we are to give to the church, it means we give to people, especially people in needs within the church, not that we give to a new building project. If we love the church (meaning: “it’s people“) you have more flexibility about where you will put in your time, your money and your energy. You are looking for people and their aid… not a structure.
Related to this, the “church structure” gives a false sense of who is and is not a part of the “church”. In my local town, there is a nice little church that I have attended. There are good people there. It is warm and inviting and a nice place to worship. In fact, in this small town there are many churches, of various stripes. Some of these churches would have nothing in common with each other, but some are so close ideologically, you wonder why in such a small community there would be multiple churches.
The structure and the membership list makes it easy to say “oh, they are part of our church”, or to say, “those people are not a part of our church”. You have a firm 4 walls system. You have a fortress. You have people in the fortress and those on the outside. The problem is that if we understand the church as God says in the New Testament (without walls) then we who are followers of the Messiah would all be part of The Church of this town. It is far more important who we follow then where we meet. This would sound like an easy point, but among my dear brothers who are established members of many denominations, you would find that it is almost too much to handle.
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One more story, another friend, who also served as a pastor was so confused about this concept of the church as the structure, not the people, that it caused him to act…let’s just say interestingly. He and his wife bought a home that was on top of an old church site. The church had moved on to another building and the land was prime real estate so another company bought the land and built this low income housing complex.
This friend told me that he realized that the “ground” was sacred since it held a church structure. So he combed through the demolition site to find some wood that he enshrined in his home. The old wood and the acknowledgement of this “sacred soil” was a perpetual offering that he still honoured the church that stood there.
When I heard this, at first I thought that was a bit sweet, but the more I thought about it, the more silly I thought it was. He had no loyalties to this church. He wasn’t doing it to remember his favourite church that he grew up in. (Not that this would be right, but at least it might be more understandable). He did this on the superstitious belief that sense the dirt and the old pieces of wood were the place where Christians met that God has made them magical. His ideology is more Roman Catholic in orientation. He believed that since someone (a protestant version of a priest) must have blessed this land, it was now sacred. The church was probably dedicated to God, and now even though it doesn’t stand, we have to act to avoid God’s judgement. He built a small idol in his home wrapped around memories that he did not possess of some old structure.
That church didn’t die. They moved to a new bright building just up the road. The ground was not in some way “sacred” because someone planted a building there. There is only one place that God tells people to take off their shoes because they stand on sacred ground. That Sacred ground was really about the presence of the Creator of heaven and Earth being present. It wasn’t even about that dirt. Yet, in our “replacement theology” we mistakes every pastor for Moses and every 4 walled structure with Mount Sinai.
Just as a side note, what happened to those few places that were sacred ground? One is hidden behind a fence in Saudi Arabia under Muslim control (Mt Sinai). The other has a lovely gold domed mosque sitting on it, and has been defiled multiple times (the Temple Mount). God has not chosen to destroy those who do not honour his sacred sites there, how much less do you think he cares about some dirt and old wood in one of Canada’s many cities?
Again, we might sound well meaning as we continue to miss the boat. “the Church” is people…not a building.
What about a pastor without a church?
I have already commented about the Bible schools, and how costly this sort of education can become. This is particularly notable when someone attends Bible college and then finds vocational work outside the church ministry. They suddenly find that they have paid for a high priced private school education and have almost no transferable, marketable skills. This can be seen in certain University degrees as well, but with respect to Bible schools this is very pronounced. As a side note, I was reading a profile on Christian musician Steve Taylor and about his Bachelor’s degree he said it was worth "slightly more than the cash value of a Pizza Hut coupon." That pretty much summarizes
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it.
As I stated, I was a banker. In my years in finance, I bumped into many of my old classmates. (We live in the same Province we schooled in). What I have found for many of them has been very discouraging. Dedicated people who planned to give their lives to the ministry of the poor in Canada or around the world, or people who were passionate pastors, and preachers, I would find working a borderline existence in some commission sales job. Sincerely, I have been there. Or, they might be working some crazy shift work as an untrained entry level labourer. One was tending bar, and working the “off sale” side. Several seemed to get into selling used cars. Some got into selling insurance (as I did), with varying degrees of success.
Not that I want to discourage anyone in any job they hold, but this was not why people invested huge amounts of time money and energy. This was not why people staying up late in the night and woke early to pray years ago. Many of these people no longer had any value or (place) for Christians in their life. Many were bitter and battle scarred. Several of them had lost their family through divorce. Some even professed they were “living in sin”.
I guess one of the most difficult part of this is when you speak to these former classmates, who would be the people that would change the world, you find such pathetic sorrow. Many of them are desperately poor. Some did go bankrupt, but a student loan in Canada is not a loan the government lets people default on. Many have found themselves in abject slavery to a debt burden that they felt they needed to become “the servant of God“.
Most, as I stated have very limited marketable skills. Therefore they have a very difficult time “working” in the traditional industries. Business is difficult and often tough decisions have to be made. A sub-standard product might be produced because of a tight time line. A sub-standard product might be sold because the need to make a commission. These Bible school students can be more emotional then your average employee. That may be great if your industry needs highly emotional people. This however can be terrible if your industry needs a job to get done.
I have over the years higher some of these people and have had various problems with them. One problem has been the fact that I am required to be “more understanding”. That might sound funny, but hear me out.
If I hire a moral atheist. He will likely show up to work on time. He will likely do what he needs to do and hopefully well. He will finish strong. Now for the same job I hired a Bible school grad. He shows up late because he was helping out his wife with the kids. I have to be understanding, because after all, I am married with kids and I understand the importance of the role of the husband and father in God’s designed home. His work might be substandard, but I need to understand because God had placed on his heart the needs of Africa and he spent time in prayer instead of doing the job assigned. Who should he listen to, God or man? He heads home a bit early at the end of the day so he can study the material he’s teaching for his Sunday school class. He knows I won’t mind. Seriously, this is the struggle that one finds when dealing with Bible school students as employees, and in fact, it is why they tend to have such an on again/off again
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employment history. In a world where you must choose to serve God or money, they tend to not understand that in most businesses…you need to serve money. Feel free to serve God when you are without sluffing off your own employment.
One more example, just so you can see this. I was a mid level manager at a restaurant. I was cooking and had a cooking staff. We all had schedules and the next day there were two of us working the kitchen. I was doing the short order and Ryan (not his name) was doing the preparation, a vital job to keep the business running. I started work at 5:00am and Ryan came in shortly after. At 11:00pm the night before his shift, I get a phone call from Ryan. Of course, I am thinking something serious must be going on. Ryan says, “you know, we were visiting family here in Calgary (7 hours away) and having such a great time that I won’t be able to show up tomorrow. We’re just going to stay the night.” (I’m a family guy. He knew I’d understand and certainly I wouldn’t want to put his physical health and that of his family at risk by having him drive while a bit tired. In fact, if he did leave right now, he’d still be late, and wouldn’t be at his best to work). I explained to him very clearly that if I did not see him at his station the next morning, I would allow him a permanent holiday. The next day, he wasn’t there. I did fire him. Two days later, he was back with a very moving story of his spiritually lost family members and how he was ministering to their needs, but was too embarrassed to explain to me what was really going on. My restaurant was owned by the Bible school so they made arrangements for him to be rehired, as if nothing happened.
When I left my post, my replacement (at my urging) was one who came from the neighbouring town without any “faith background”. We hired her because she was a good kitchen manager, and made few demands to be “understanding”. She knew what was needed to run a business and she did it.
I realize as I re-read this that I have painted in too wide of a brush. Not all Bible school grads are useless. There are many hard working people of all walks of life, but as a group, my experience has been that they have been a lot more needy and did not perform as well as their secular counterparts.
One last comment here, after the investment of Bible College and/or seminary it is very difficult to justify they you are employed as the late night shelf stocker at a large multinational department store, so those who have maintained some sense of their faith embellish a bit. They will actually say something like this.
“God has given me a ministry to the late night employees of X. I am reaching out to those people who never hear the Gospel. I am standing in the gap between heaven and hell making the world a better place.” Usually a tear comes to their eye as they share. You think…wow, and I am just a missionary to Africa. I wish I could do what he’s doing.
In fact, he often isn’t doing anything of the sort. But how do you justify what you do? You need some level of delusion to keep going. You either exaggerate your ministry work, or you say that your secular work is just what keeps the bills paid while you do what God really called you to do (i.e. sweeping the church, teaching Sunday school, etc.). You need some way to avoid the scorn of your peers. Believe me, the scorn is real. Fellow students may understand, but many will still condemn you for “secular employment”.
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Other Related Industries:
Aside from Bible colleges and seminaries, one of the areas that cause me concern is related “Christian industries”. I can get up in the morning and dress in my “Jesus loves you” T-shirt and Jericho Jeans, drink my Redeemed coffee from my precious Moments Bible mug. I can listen to hours of Christian music and watch Christian TV stations. I can grab a handful of books from my Christian bookstore, and put my children’s lunches in their Veggietale backpacks. I can live my whole life in a Christian cocoon. In fact, why shouldn’t we? Aren’t we told to come out and “be separate”? Aren’t be told not to conform to the pattern of the world? What could be wrong with these Christian industries?
I don’t intend on being too rough with this industry. Most of these people are just people who love Jesus and want to run a good business. In fact, years ago, this was a very profitable business. If you wanted an Amy Grant audio tape, or a Veggie tales VHS tape, where did you go? The Christian book store (or a Christian mail order catalogue). My house was filled with walls of books mostly Christian. These were Bible interpretation, Christian thinkers, Christian history, and even a few just for enjoyment. I loved (and still do) to read. I can’t help when I see a deal on Christian books especially if it is on a subject I have been interested in, or by an author I have wanted to read.
With a limited market, these Christian Books stores made money hand over fist. Their margins were high and there was a partial monopoly on where you can buy. They also could continue to justify their existence because they were shaping the Christian world. When a new message came out, they would place this prominently and people would buy and read. When a new album came out there would be ready people eager for the album. They also managed to break church fortress barriers. You could be Baptist, Pentecostal, Lutheran and Catholic, and you would still buy from the same shop. You may not embrace everything there, but you still would find enough unique items that you couldn’t find elsewhere.
Enter the electronic world and the Multinational stores. Today, many of those old Christian book stores have fallen on tough times. I can quickly order the same material from an on-line source at a significant reduction. I remember the day that it was announced that Veggietales was going to be sold in Walmart. These VHS tapes went from $20 each to $10 overnight it seemed. For a father, this was great. I didn’t even think of how this would hurt the Christian book store. Today, I may even be able to buy direct from the author or company that produces the material. If I want music, I can download it (from companies like Itunes) and pick and choose the stuff I want. The Christian Book store that used to revel in their heyday now find themselves struggling to adapt. I have seen some transition well, but it is a specialty market that now their niche can be accomplished at less cost, easily elsewhere.
If you happen to know one of these owners, you will find that they are struggling with shrinking margins at a time where costs are rising. They are dedicated to ``their ministry``, but were (for the most part) unprepared for the changes that were coming and now have come. They are bailing water while it is still raining.
Only two more comments here. The first is that this type of para-church industry
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has been a costly weight for the Christian community to bear. We paid top dollar for this “comfort”, to feel a Christianized version of what the world has. The world has it’s music… and we have ours. The world has their romance novels…and we have ours, our redeemed spiritual romance novels. It was costly, but we gladly paid for things which we felt would make us “more Christian” or better Christians. In fact, I would argue, it may not have accomplished that at all. What we became was more comfortable. We painted a world for ourselves which produced a false Christian culture.
The second item was this “ministry” tended to internationally direct the focus of the local church, for good or bad. We now developed “relationships” through books and other media with other pastors and leaders. This relationship was not real. We just enjoyed what they taught. For the most part we don’t know those pastors. In fact, we are shocked and hurt when we find out our spiritual hero announce that he’s been carrying on a 25 year affair. We don’t have the experience of knowing these people. We know what they write or say.
As such, whole movements have come and gone as directed by…Christian bookstores (as a compliment to other media). If the new books are about Worship, the local churches adopt the type of worship subscribed to in the new books. If the new books are talking about feeling the love of Jesus, the local churches tend to follow suit. If the Christian book store is alive with books on Christian dieting, or Christian golf swings then that will become the focus of ministry in some local churches.
Again, some of this is great. You can see people all around the world looking outside their local concerns, but some of this is damaging. We don’t see what is happening locally anymore. Our church is not an agent of change in the area. It is a local branch of the most popular spiritual movement from some larger urban centre. It’s almost like a franchise. It may not reflect the needs of the local body of believers, but that doesn’t matter. What is important is being contemporary and relevant, and one of the best ways to do this is to follow the trends seen in this Christian sub-culture.
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also
Back to my original statements about how ‘a church budget reveals the values and priorities of the church‘, we run into the final ¼ of the church budget…everything else. All ministries of the church are covered within the costs of ¼ of a normal church budget.
We should state that some things are common place like paper, photocopies, and newsletters, which you would find in any office, but much of this section is the costs associated with the ministries.
Christian Education- Many people would conclude based on what they see within the church that this is the primary focus of the church. In fact, it may be the lion`s share of what is seen within the church. It is seen through a pulpit ministry. It is seen in Sunday school. It is seen in mid-week services. It is seen in youth groups, Men`s Bible studies, Women`s Bible studies, and Bible studies designed every subculture imaginable.
Here is the catch, although the disciples were to teach their `disciples` what it took to follow Jesus, this was only one of the things they did.
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Acts 2:42 And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and the prayers.
Acts 2:43 And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles.
Acts 2:44 And all that believed were together, and had all things common;
Acts 2:45 and they sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all, according as any man had need.
New believers were taught from the disciples. They had a significant learning curve. Jesus’ disciples would teach them about what Jesus said about Sabbath, about how to pray, about how to give, about what to avoid, and what to embrace. They had the stories that Jesus told to recall for those who were not there. It was 3 years of active ministry that the disciples were trying to impart to the masses.
The disciples were unique in this ability to impart their experiences. They were firsthand witnesses of Jesus. When other needs came up, they did not eagerly embrace them as their role because they had a significant job to do. (Ac 6:2), so they chose others to fulfill those responsibilities. Yet, in spite of how very important their role was, it was only one of 4 things that the church was dedicated to, and was not what the church was known for. The church was not an education center to recite the words of Jesus. It was far more then that.
Unfortunately, it is easier today to see the church as first and foremost an education center. Yet, it is very difficult when you look at the words of Jesus and the writing of the New Testament to think that the only role of the church is education.
Another strange concept to think about is that Jesus, when he was here did not train his disciples forever. He was only present in active teaching ministry for roughly 3 years. In practice, he taught, and then he left them to teach. His practice was to complete this education. He also said in words that he expected there to be a time when a student was fully taught (Luke 6:40, cf. Matthew 10:24). This was certainly not within the first few weeks of the dawn of the church, but it was expected that the new disciples would be “fully trained”. This concept is a bit foreign to our modern understanding.
We have people who every week, multiple times a week, show up to be “trained” for the balance of their life. There is never a sense that this job is complete. If a “student” is to go and minister when they are fully trained, when will this be? After 10 years? 20 years? 60 years? The real answer is never. Part of this is because the “traditional church” is a teaching institute, therefore, if we are no longer being taught…what would we do? We must always be teaching. We must always be training. The modern church never does, and never intends on having someone “fully trained”. In fact, that is one of the reasons we have Bible Schools and Seminaries.
Also, from the Bible school and seminary side, I can say it will amaze you to find how little a new student seems to know. He/she often has a very limited knowledge of Bible (I know I did). He/she knows very little about theology (that was my story). They often have distortions of historical truths and spiritual understanding based on the limited spiritual teaching they had within their home church.
For example, my home church taught the pre-tribulation rapture, and that the
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Charismatic gifts ended with the apostles. You may or may not believe this, but this was (and still is) an entrenched teaching. If you were to disagree, “there was the door“. Growing up, I wondered if anyone could really believe God’s word and not see things exactly my way. Amazingly, in Bible school, I found many people who had a different perspective. Many of these people loved God passionately. Many were surprised that I could have such a narrow perspective and that I didn’t know how many passages of Scripture tended to contradict my own ideology. Obviously, I was never taught otherwise.
If the sole accepted role of the church, or perhaps it would be better said, the “primary role”, is teaching and training, I must suggest that we talk a lot, but we don’t ever get to the point that we have fully trained disciples.
What other things fill that last ¼ of a church budget?
Youth ministry: In churches all around the western world there are youth ministries. I have some experience here because I served as a youth pastor in two different churches. I was trained to be a pastor, and if you are in your late early 20’s when you graduate there are few places to go except a “youth pastor”. So, that’s where I found myself.
Some churches have just one level of “youth ministry”, usually High school. Some have multiple levels. Larger churches will have youth ministry for High school, Jr. high, College and Career age. I have seen pre-Jr. High and I have seen a later College and Career age, but these were unique to larger programs. With some small exceptions, they are remarkably similar.
Ask a youth minister why they do what they do and they should produce a philosophy of ministry. These words are generally well-written (or well spoken) which explain their desire to bring salvation their target group, disciple them, and prepare them for the amazing adventure of the powerful and enriching spiritual life. Seriously, this is why youth pastors do what they do.
However, with some exceptions, this is not what most youth pastors put into practice. If they actually used their philosophy as the determination of success, they many would find their efforts are going the wrong way, and their success is almost nil.
In practice, as a youth pastor, I did what other youth pastor’s did. I planned “crazy activities” for the already churched kids, urged them to invite some friends who don’t come to our church, created a party and then had the kids sit down for a few minutes as I tagged on some sort of spiritual concept to justify the time spent and “redeem it” in some way.
In truth, my job (although never formally stated) was to provide the teens within the church a “healthy” alternative to what they might experience in the world. We were their social and entertainment centre. We were the safety net trying to keep “our kids” from going to be a part of the world.
I remember one time, when some young men started to attend our youth group. For me, this was excellent, finally, some “real un-churched people”. They were not inspired by their interest in my programming. They were interested in a couple young ladies who attended our church. I am sure everyone must be shocked at that idea. For me,
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this was a chance to do something real. For the parents, this was a danger and a threat to their “safe” fellowship. As a young pastor, I found out in a hurray my vision for my role were just illusions. Those boys needed to go. If I wanted to reach the “lost”, I could chose any number of lost “within” the church. I could target bored Christian youth. I could target youth from other churches. But under no uncertain terms was I to allow those “unwashed heathens” to enter our safe community. We did not want to risk our children being “tainted” by those kind of people.
In the end, my job was to keep the sheep safe. I was to not lose a single sheep and was given defined places I could go for “new sheep”. I did my role well, and in the end decided I did not wish to remain a youth pastor.
I wasn’t a father then (as I am now), and I do have sympathy for those parents. The youth ministry was a place to keep their kids on the straight and narrow. It was ran and funded by the church. It was to benefit the church, specifically the children of important church members. We (as leaders) were set up to be examples for the teens so they could see a Godly husband and wife who loved (and served Jesus). It was not all bad, but it was different then I expected. If parents were going to let they children come to the youth group, they had to feel it was “safe”. Spiritual growth is a bonus. Growth in the size of the group is nice, but not necessary. I could do most anything provided it was seen as “moral” (or fairly moral) and provided I threw in some little devotional at the end. I did that, much to my own sorrow.
This week I heard about some friends who are setting up an amazing new youth ministry program. It is big bucks, lights, and sound and excitement. They opening event is a 24 hour party with loud music, and a dance-a-thon, and colours and food, and they have a speaker coming in at the end to share his thoughts. They have pitched this as something completely new and will change all teens forever. What I see is what I have seen from almost all youth pastors for years. We produce a show, and tag a devotional on the end. Sincerely, I hope they do well. There is nothing new under the sun.
Like I said, this doesn’t matter that much whether you are High school, Jr. High, older or younger. These “ministries” are redeemed entertainment. Strangely enough, we have limited teaching on how to run these types of programs in Scripture.
Continuing the last part of that final ¼ of the church budget
Missions: Finally, there must be some area that I can not speak ill of, right? I have a real love for the missionaries. In fact, after my youth ministry experiences my wife and I met with some missionaries and decided to dedicate ourselves to overseas service. We were going to work with a Muslim group on the border of a former Soviet Republic state. I don’t want to mention which one, because they are not legally supposed to be there and many of the missionaries are doing so in significant physical danger.
In part, that was what interested me. Things were happening there. God was working and these Muslims were coming to know Jesus. They in turn were reaching their families and then their families were reaching others. Who wouldn’t want to be a part of that? In fact, I was invited to help disciple so these new believers didn’t slip into error.
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We had no debt, so we were unique among our peers, and could actually go overseas, without having to raise support to cover our student loans. It looked like a match made in heaven.
The dirty secrets of missionaries.
1) Many missionaries are not very good “church players”. There are reasons why some people go overseas. They see a functioning church system and want nothing to do with it. So, if you love God, what choice do you have? You have to build something different, either locally or overseas. This, in part, was my situation. However, missionaries rely on churches to give them “support” a pay check to work overseas.
2) Most missionaries are not functional in the language when they arrive. We would not have been. The Muslim dialect we were going to learn, we couldn’t learn at home, we had to be in the culture to actually gain success in the language…so, how long does it usually take for a missionary to learn the local language? Some proficiency is accomplished within 7 years. Most missionaries only last 4 years. (anyone see a problem?)
So, how does a missionary become successful especially, if they don’t speak the language?
3) There is limited ways to know whether a missionary is a success. The missionary tells you whether he/she is successful or not. The letters sent home tell you about what the missionary on the field is doing. Do you think any missionary is going to say, “it was a lousy month, didn’t do anything.”? Not likely. A missionaries job (what keeps him/her on the field) is the keeping their level of support. The missionary letters, if done properly, need to give the local churches the feeling as if they are part of something vital. There will hardly ever be any local accountability. In one case, one missionary I knew had an emotional breakdown from the overseas experience, came home to Canada and was working at the home office. She had been their for months, but didn’t let her supporting churches know what was going on. As long as she sent glowing reports back, the church was happy. Even if she didn’t send a report for months, they wouldn’t know any better. The local church needs the missionary to know they are reaching the world. The missionary needs the church to pay the bills while overseas.
I was stunned when I read KP Yohannan’s book Revolution in World Missions. You see, he was one of those people being served by the missionary. He never got a chance to write back to those supporting churches and say “what you think is happening is not really happening.” His missionary lived in a castle with armed guards and did some little things here and there, but didn’t interact with the locals.
K.P.’s alternative is based on using National missionaries, who already know the language and customs, to reach their own people. The reasons are two-fold.
First, you don’t have to train national missionaries the languages and customs. They are not seen as foreigners bringing their own foreign god into the area.
Second, a western missionary, when they move to a foreign country, typically does not live at the same standard of the people they serve. Many live a life and lifestyle that they could not afford in the western world. They have servants, and comparative wealth. They travel, and have adventures. Who wouldn’t want a job like that?
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However, a national missionary does live at the same standard of the locals. They are better positioned to reach locals. K.P.’s innovation is train those guys to do their job better, or supplement them to leave their day job so they can be evangelists and church planters. You get a better “bang for the buck”.
Of course, as you can imagine, there is a lot of resistance to K.P.’s position. Some argue that the old missionary concept should be kept up even if it isn’t successful specifically because it gives the local church a “missions connection”. I am just suggesting that international missions as a flawed institute, and if we are serious about getting the job done, we are probably not looking close enough at the goal. We have replaced substance for image, and back to my original contention, this image is very costly.
On average it costs $6,032 monthly to support a missionary overseas. Averages are just that, the real numbers can be as low as $1895.00 and as high as $12,000.00 a month, (that’s $144,000/year, man I hope they can make ends meet on that) according to and article by Daryl Anderson
http://www.efca.org/files/document/reachglobal/understanding-missionary-support-8-08.pdf
According to K.P’s web site, it takes usually $1800 a year to fully support a national missionary.
http://staging.mygfa.org/donation/item/unsponsored-missionaries/
One closing comment here. I read some of the missionary biographies and was moved by the work they did. William Carey (considered the founder of modern missions) labourer for years without any fruit to show for his effort. In fact, many people never brought people to know Jesus. I was reading and discussing Hudson Taylor with one missionary about “taking on the clothing and customs of the nations“. I had been taught or believed from his concepts that this was key to making an impact, and my long term missionary friend asked, “so did anyone ask the nations whether they saw Hudson Taylor as one of them, or just some goof who tried to dress like them?” I had never thought of it, and in fact, I don’t know whether dressing and acting like the nations really does make a difference. It’s very difficult to beat actually “being a national”
Having Destroyed, how do we rebuild?
So, just to review, I have said from looking at an average church budget you have a pastor (very modestly paid servant), of which I have felt may be a significant drain on church resources and have some significant downsides. I have mentioned the church building which is costly to maintain and is an overpriced, usually empty structure that we keep for sentimental reasons. I have mentioned the education ministry, which has been mistaken as the only (primary) role of the church while never finishing the job of having someone “fully trained“, and youth ministry which professes to be impacting teens while really providing moral entertainment. I even addressed missionaries who go have adventures where many of them can’t effectively impact the culture in which they serve and live at standards unavailable to most westerners. I have shown the dark side of Bible
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school and Christian book store. By now, we should be saying…what do we do?!?
You must be thinking I am just the grumpiest old guy around. Is there anything I like? In fact, there is much that I like. I even feel bad about expressing some criticism about any of these institutions, but I think it is necessary to contrast this with what I think is Jesus’ expectations for Christians. If you see what the “church” was supposed to be, I think you might see how far we have fallen. Perhaps, if we are lucky, we may even see where we can return.
Can we ever know what Jesus expected?
I think the answer is “yes”, but in order to do this we have to do a very difficult item. For a moment, we have to approach the New Testament with an almost clean slate. For years we have heard the same stories over and over. We tend to ignore items which don’t match what we have already concluded and we tend to insert new ideas which aren’t present anywhere. In fact, we create a Jesus and disciples who are a lot like us. In fact, they are so much like us that they no longer challenge us to become more.
1st Century Judea was a nation under the reign of the Roman empire. They had been Greek before, but were at that time controlled by the Romans. In spite of this Judea, still held the remains of Jewish culture. The people who Jesus spoke to never had to be taught about Adam, Noah, the Flood, David the King, the books of the Scriptures. They knew this stuff. Those who received the teachings of the Messiah, were a people primed for the message. Even so, many rejected this message.
Further, when the religious leaders talk about the disciples they call them “unlearned men” (Ac 4:13). By this, we understand that they did not have formal, professional education, of the professional religious leaders. Yet, they spoke as one who knew God’s word cold. They were disciples (Apostles) who had become “fully trained”. Jesus, in 3 (or 3 and a half) years, had refined their education and now had people who could stand against the greatest scholarship of the time.
Jesus arrived at the crossroads of history. 40 years after his ascension to Heaven, the Temple would be destroyed and the nation would be scattered. If God sent the Messiah only 50 years later, it would have been a totally different place. Jerusalem would be a new place with a fine temple to Jupiter. The children of God would have been scattered. The next moment in history for a national Israel would not have been until 1948. In fact, a similar situation would not have come until significantly after 1948, even today we lack the temple, the high priests, a functional priesthood, and many other situations that would aid the spread of the Gospel.
The Hebrew language (or Aramaic) were common as was Greek. Most Bible scholars point out that the New Testament was written in Greek. Although, there are certainly some indication that there may have been a Hebrew (or Aramaic) text that predated the Greek text, the most consistent material that we have is the Greek text. I won’t make any attempt to argue for this lost Hebrew New Testament. The fact that we have a Greek text is wonderfully helpful. Almost anyone in the Western world at the time could read Greek.
One of the other things we note, is that it’s not even written in a fancy style of
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Classic Greek. It is written in what is termed Koine Greek, which means “common Greek”. Think about it. The Bible (or what we find of the earliest texts) was written in the style of The Reader’s Digest. It is something almost anyone could read. You didn’t have to be a Jewish Rabbi to understand. This allowed the New Testament (which at the time was just a collection of letters) to move from people to people, culture to culture and still be understood. Greek was the English of the day.
Jesus arrived in a world expecting the Messiah. There were several reasons for this, and I won’t go into detail of this, but there were indications of when the Messiah was supposed to come and the people knew “now” was the time. That is why so many of the messianic movements came within this 100 year time frame. The Bible reports that people thought John the Baptist might be the Messiah. After the disciples had taken the teaching of Jesus all over Judea the elder statesman Gamaliel (Ac 5:34-39) reminded his fellow leaders that these types of movements were common and if this is just another Messiah movement, then it will die out on it’s own. They had seen it happen again and again.
When one reads the Gospels, you are struck with the sense of how short and concentrated is Jesus’ life and ministry. There is no time to waste. He keeps implying that this is planned to be short. He has to work while “it is still day”, or he frequently points out “his time has not yet come”. He’s in a hurry. He doesn’t tend to stay long in any one place. Crowds are chasing him, and his next location is often not obvious.
Jesus is also not easy to understand. The Bible says he purposely chose to make this more difficult. Often he speaks in parables, which serve two purposes. The first, was he purposely chose to hide his truth.
Matt 13:11-15 Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. . . .Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. . . . lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.
He was God. He chose to reveal his message to whom he wished. I recently taught on this passage, and you can see people’s eyes start to bug out of their head when you say Jesus intended people not to understand him. In fact, I suggest Jesus was one of the worse evangelists of his time. In the end, even his disciples ran away from him. Only John and several women saw the crucifixion.
However, from my teaching, I commented that I think Jesus wanted people to ask him “what does this mean?” He told lots of people many things if they simply asked that question. I think in part, Jesus did this so that they would be insulated from fully rejecting Jesus. The masses could not be fully condemned for rejecting what they did not understand, and then when they hear the “rest of the story” about his resurrection and ascension, and eventual return they could combine this with what they heard and actually believe as prompted by the Holy Spirit. It was a complex strategy, but one that eventually worked brilliantly.
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A second bonus of using the “parable” was that years later, as the disciples put his message to print, these parables were easy to remember. Think about a lecture you heard or a news report you caught. You may not be able to remember the context, or the weaving of oratory, but you remember pictures. You might remember an illustration for years. The disciples had “parable pictures” to hang their memories of Jesus’ teaching. Add this to the physical things they were witnesses to, and you have almost the full content of any Gospel.
So what would a disciple of Jesus look like?
First and foremost I think we need to keep in mind that Jesus was speaking to people who were already familiar and in many respects following God’s word. Many Christians chafe at the idea that Jesus and all of his disciples believed and lived the Old Testament. He was completely obedient to the Law (Torah), and he encouraged everyone to be the same.
In the Bible, there is indication of what the Messiah will teach. If Jesus failed to teach this, then he was one of the many false Messiahs
Deut 13:1-5
If there arise in the midst of thee a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and he give thee a sign or a wonder,
and the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them;
thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or unto that dreamer of dreams: for Jehovah your God proveth you, to know whether ye love Jehovah your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
Ye shall walk after Jehovah your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him.
And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death, because he
hath spoken rebellion against Jehovah your God, who brought you out of the land of
Egypt, and redeemed thee out of the house of bondage, to draw thee aside out of
the way which Jehovah thy God commanded thee to walk in. So shalt thou put
away the evil from the midst of thee.
What did Jesus say about the Law (Torah)?
MATT 5:17-18
Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass away from the Law, until all is accomplished.
Another example would be when someone specifically asks what he must do to be saved “to inherit eternal life”
And behold, one came to him and said, Teacher, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?
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So, does he take out one of the Greek copies of the Four Spiritual Laws, or Billy’s Graham’s book Peace with God?
Nope.
Matt 19:17b-19
if thou wouldest enter into life, keep the commandments.
He saith unto him, Which? And Jesus said, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not commit
adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness,
Honor thy father and mother; and, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
I know, for years we have been taught a hundred different ways to read this. Most find a way of saying something like Jesus had to obey the Law and had to tell his followers to obey the Law, but he didn’t mean this as a long term situation.
Perhaps we can create some interpretation that says prior to the cross Jesus did not know of any other salvation. Perhaps, you could say that Jesus was making something specific to this young man. This young man had problems, so he and he alone had to do this. Perhaps you can shape the Scriptures any way you want, but eventually you are struck with the awkward situation that Jesus appears not to understand salvation. Either us or He is wrong about salvation…take a moment and ponder that a bit.
Jesus somehow believes that obedience to the Laws God laid down will lead to life (and really “Life eternal“).
Sharing a bit from my own life here. I was raised in an area that was highly Mormon. In fact, I did not know there were high schools that did not have a Mormon seminary attached to them until I arrived in Canada. I grew up about 6 hours from Salt Lake City, and my home town was filled with a huge Mormon population.
In that setting, a church (including my home church) pushed the importance of understanding that we don’t “work” for our Salvation. We are “saved by Grace, through faith. Not by works lest any man should boast“. Our children and teens (of whom I was one) were taught that it didn’t matter what you did, because we were saved by God’s grace. We were dedicated to the belief (in theological circles this would be called hyper-Calvinism), that what we did just didn’t matter. We could not “add anything” to our salvation but faith. We were saved by saying a specific prayer. This prayer would be the magic words that would give us eternal life. Could we be emotionally manipulated to recite the magic words? Sure? In fact, many would have been, but this was necessary to bring the “Gospel” (or our version of the Gospel) to the world.
Then the hope was that once someone said the magic words, then the Holy Spirit would enter them and then we would train them. We would find a bunch of goats have them say they were sheep and then teach them to act like sheep. Then we would be shocked to find out that our teaching wasn’t producing a lot of sheep. Go figure?!?
People are amazed to find my youth group (High school) had an amazingly high teen pregnancy rate. In fact, after one youth activity, the kids went out and illegally bought alcohol to celebrate. We (as teens) couldn’t even obey the laws of the land. We
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didn’t even follow the low moral standards of the masses. We (supposedly Godly, redeemed, spirit filled people), had this confidence that we were all Saved and Going to heaven, and we didn’t have to worry about anything else. We were taught verses so that we could be insulated from any sense of conviction. “No man can pluck us out of God’s hand”. We would say. In our deep Bible teaching, we found a way to even shut down the Holy Spirit so that we would never feel the pains of conviction.
In fact, likely the greatest sin was that of “legalism”. Legalism was the belief that we should act a certain way. It was a belief that God has a standard and we should follow it. In practice any action that one would do, or not do because they loved God was was seen as “legalism” (the greatest of all sins).
We were taught through words and actions that it didn’t matter how we lived, just that we “believed“, (something we translated as “giving mental assent”) and in the end, we actually lived like that. I don’t say this as an outsider. I was one of them. I had limited regard for the things of God. I was Christian and Republican. I appeared fairly moral. (Immoral things tend to be hidden). At the end of High School I would have been at the forefront of this group. I did not reject them. I embraced them. I was one of them.
So, over twenty years have passed, what became of these saints? I don’t know for sure. Some have stayed the course. I think it wasn’t because of the life we taught, but more in spite of what we taught. Some are gone, and I suspect I will never find them again. Some I have bumped into and have now gone their own way. There is no association with any church or any people of faith. But, I always know that they have been taught a false understanding of true Salvation, and are comfortably walking the path far away from God. Perhaps someday, by the grace of God, his Spirit will break through the protective false teachings and people will feel real conviction. Perhaps a truer salvation will come. We pray to that end.
The problem when we look at what Jesus says, is he doesn’t know this salvation. He doesn’t seem to recognise it. In fact, he seems to warn against it.
To the church in Revelation Jesus says this odd little piece:
REV 2:14
But I have a few things against you, because you have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam, who kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit acts of immorality.
Or back in the Gospels:
Mat 7:22-23 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy by thy name, and by thy name cast out demons, and by thy name do many mighty works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
The word “Iniquity” is a terrible translation. It gets the point across, but skips one very
important concept. What is “iniquity”? The word in Greek is anomia. My son just
walked in, so I asked if he knew what anomia was. No surprise. He didn’t know.
So, I asked him if he knew what a Theist was, and he did “someone who believes in
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God” OK, so what is an Atheist? The light bulb went on, “someone who doesn’t believe in God”. So, I asked him how is the Torah (The Law of God) translated in the New Testament? The word is Nomia. So, then if the A prefix means “not” what is anomia? Put simply, those who do great things for God (in their ministries) if they are without God’s Law are in a very difficult situation.
Just for the record, some Bibles translate this passage “away from me, you who practice Lawlessness” This is a better translation, unfortunately, from our modern mind (so far away from seeing value in God’s Law), we tend to think Lawlessness is about obeying the traffic rules of the road, or paying your taxes. We substitute our own law image.
Perhaps I will add one small concept. Back when I was growing up we were taught our own version of a evangelical catechism. One of the questions is “what is sin”. The answer I learned by rote and can still recite 25 years later is this “sin is any word, thought, or deed which goes against the will of God.” Sounds pretty good doesn’t it? However, when you stop and think about it you begin to see the subjective nature of the definition. What is the will of God? I have known fellow Bible school students who wandered for years (and are likely still wandering) looking for the answer to that question. It later dawned on me, that this answer, although sounding good was actually not Biblical. So, what would be the Biblical answer? The Biblical answer would be given by one of Jesus’ apostles (likely his closest friend in this world, John)
1Jn 3:4 Every one that doeth sin doeth also lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness.
So, you want to take a guess at what the Greek word used for “Lawlessness” is?
You got it. Anomia.
The Innovations of Jesus:
So, did Jesus just spout off the same old teaching everyone else at the time did? No. He had some different interpretations of God’s Law. We trust his interpretations to be true. With respect to some commandments, he was more liberal then his counterparts. With respect to other commandments he was far more conservative. But, again, I think we can conclude that as the one who gave the Law (God himself) what he says about interpreting these Laws would be most accurate. Any deviation from his interpretation would be a deviation from God’s intention. For example:
When God said simply: “Do not murder” in fact in Hebrew it is even more simple “no kill” Jesus expands on this.
Mat 5:21-22 Ye have heard that it was said to them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and
whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment:
but I say unto you, that every one who is angry with his brother shall be in danger
of the judgment; and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of
the council; and whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of the hell of fire.
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Jesus made no effort to void the earlier instruction, but actually gave it more definition. Murder was important to not do, but there was more to it then just murder. It was about the underlying attitude which can (and sometimes does) lead to murder. Jesus was intent on filling in the meaning. He did not come to destroy the Law. He came to fulfill (to give better definition, and application).
There were times where Jesus spoke against the attempts made by leaders to avoid doing what God’s word actually said. For example:
Mat 23:16-17 Woe unto you, ye blind guides, that say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor. Ye fools and blind: for which is greater, the gold, or the temple that hath sanctified the gold?
Another example of a more liberal interpretation then the religious leaders of the time would be with respect to Sabbath.
Luke 6:1-5 Now it came to pass on a sabbath, that he was going through the grainfields; and his disciples plucked the ears, and did eat, rubbing them in their hands.
But certain of the Pharisees said, Why do ye that which it is not lawful to do on the sabbath day?
And Jesus answering them said, Have ye not read even this, what David did, when he was hungry, he, and they that were with him;
how he entered into the house of God, and took and ate the showbread, and gave also to them that were with him; which it is not lawful to eat save for the priests alone?
And he said unto them, The Son of man is lord of the Sabbath.
There are many more examples, but I am just using these to suggest that Jesus was in a position to explain what was meant in the Torah (God‘s Law). He did not proposed his own completely different concepts, but did provide definition to confusing or misinterpreted passages.
So, what else did Jesus reveal?
If you have the backdrop that Jesus fully affirmed what God had said before then you have come a long way. Sadly sometimes people look at what Jesus says without regard that there were 36 Bible books written before his arrival. There are interpretations that are made without respect to the context in which Jesus spoke. He spoke to people who already knew the Bible and were already doing (to a lesser or greater degree) what was stated there.
I think sincerely, the greatest biblical interpretation error is seen in trying to pull Jesus out from the world he spoke and plop him into the Western world. We get a very different Jesus that way.
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A case in point, as a young man, I heard that the homosexual community in Boise, Idaho was going to have a “Gay pride March”. I decided as someone who loved God, that it was my duty to go there and protest. In the course of that time I met another pastor and he asked me to take some time and meet the people there. Do interviews and you will learn more about them. He thought conversations rather then protests might be more helpful, and so that’s what I did. I asked the marchers about their beliefs. I took a survey of the people I met and I asked them about the Bible.
To be honest, I was shocked. No one was offended by the Bible. They were offended by Christians, especially those who would sit on the sidelines and protest them “being the way they are”. Many told me, if Jesus were here today he’d be marching in support of them. I was stunned. But, their Jesus (without the context of the Old Testament) was just a loving, caring guy who stood up for the oppressed. He stood against the establishment to save the life of a woman in adultery (John 8).
Jesus did not have to address homosexuality because that was punishable by death at the time. Israel would not have practiced homosexuality. Jesus never took on the subject directly, because it was not an issue where he was. Had he went to Rome, then he likely would have addressed it. Jesus also never addressed directly idol worship, because Israel had been cured of that years ago. He did not address eating pork (since Jews didn’t do that). He didn’t address Sunday worship since no one did that at the time. There were many subjects that Jesus doesn’t deal with directly because they were not a part of a Torah observant culture in the 1st Century AD.
Obedience to God’s Law was important, but having said this, there were other things that were also vital. In fact, Jesus’ emphasis on these other things are so strong that it would not be too surprising en lieu of the importance Jesus placed on these items, to accidentally neglect the whole Law obedience within the Christian community. What does seem surprising is that many of the churches today also don’t emphasize either of the items that Jesus felt were important. Let’s take a look together.
Mat 25:31-46 But when the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the angels
with him, then shall he sit on the throne of his glory:
and before him shall be gathered all the nations: and he shall separate them
one from another, as the shepherd separateth the sheep from the goats;
and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
for I was hungry, and ye gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me
drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me in; naked, and ye clothed me; I
was sick, and ye visited me; I was in prison, and ye came unto me.
Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee hungry, and fed thee? or athirst, and gave thee drink?
And when saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?
And when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?
And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of these my brethren, even these least, ye
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did it unto me.
Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels:
for I was hungry, and ye did not give me to eat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me not in; naked, and ye clothed me not; sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. Then shall they also answer, saying, Lord, when saw we thee hungry, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?
Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not unto one of these least, ye did it not unto me.
And these shall go away into eternal punishment: but the righteous into eternal life.
Does anyone see a problem here? Going to heaven or not is not based on a theological test. It is not based on what we give mental assent to (what we call “believing”) It is our belief put into action. In fact, Jesus sets a plan for us. You want this Heaven, and eternal life? Here is how to get there.
1) I was hungry, and the solution was and ye gave me to eat;
2) I was thirsty, and the solution was and ye gave me drink;
3) I was a stranger, and the solution was and ye took me in;
4) I was naked, and the solution was and ye clothed me;
5) I was sick, and the solution was and ye visited me;
6) I was in prison, and the solution was and ye came unto me.
There is a ministry which Jesus felt was worthy of Heaven. It wasn’t 35 years of teaching Sunday school. It wasn’t being an usher. It wasn’t being a Trustee and taking care of a ancient building. It wasn’t providing moral entertainment for our own teens. In fact, it wasn’t even being a pastor and preaching heart warming sermons week after week. In fact, there is almost no talking involved. It is an action based Faith.
Go back to the budget of a church. Remember what percentage was used for these ministries? Can’t remember? You are right. Not a dime. Well, maybe one of those small slivers of “everything else” might bump into a couple pennies here and there to go to these things, but this stuff was vital. This was worthy of heaven or not! This was eternal life or not!
Remember back to my original contention that I think we have seriously missed the boat. This is it.
Now, someone might suggest this is just one passage. Admittedly, it is one very long and difficult passage to work through, but we can’t base our whole theology on one passage. Let’s look at others.
Remember our story of the Rich young ruler, who came to see Jesus and ask what he needed for eternal life. What did Jesus say? Do the commandments, but as you might recall that was not the rest of the story.
Mat 19:20-22 The young man saith unto him, All these things have I observed: what
lack I yet?
Jesus said unto him, If thou wouldest be perfect, go, sell that which thou hast, and
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give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me.
But when the young man heard the saying, he went away sorrowful; for he was
one that had great possessions.
Think about this, Jesus was tipping his hand. I think he really loved this young man. Jesus knew he wanted what Jesus could give and yet, when the offer was given, it was not taken.
I have to be honest, as a Bible student and a pastor, we tend to bend over backwards to try to make this passage say something that it doesn’t. We try to say, it was because this young man was unique and Jesus knew he loved stuff more then God, or we might say there was some reason why Jesus raised the bar so high for him, but didn’t for anyone else. The problem with this interpretation is that it isn’t there. The passage makes no effort to tell that “other part” of the story. Also, the disciples thought that Jesus was being serious. They asked some clarifying questions and got some affirmative answers. Yes, he was serious.
Well, this may have been Jesus’ talk at the time, but certainly the church, when it came, was very different. They didn’t all do this…right? WRONG
Acts 2:24-47 And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and the prayers. And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. And all that believed were together, and had all things common; and they sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all, according as any man had need. And day by day, continuing stedfastly with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread at home, they took their food with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God, and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to them day by day those that were saved.
Again, as a Bible student or as a pastor, we are taught that this sort of Communism was unique to the church. It was not seen again. It was likely an expression of the newly outpoured spirit. Although, I do agree with this in a historical sense. I think the implications are completely wrong. That sort of reckless disregard for materialism is completely consistent with Christianity, or at least the belief that Jesus spoke about.
Look further into the birth of the church. What was the first internal difficulty they dealt with? Church building project? Hiring a vocational pastor? Fund raising for missionaries? Absolutely not.
Act 6:1-2 Now in these days, when the number of the disciples was multiplying, there arose a murmuring of the Grecian Jews against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration.
And the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them, and said, It is not fit that we should forsake the word of God, and serve tables.
The first internal problem within the church was more of an administration one.
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With so many people coming to the faith there was a bit of a problem, it was feared (whether true or not), that non-Hebrew widows were being neglected in the provision of food. The disciples knew this was a problem, but they were so busy teaching the masses Jesus’ understanding of Scripture that they didn’t have time to be waiters. So they asked others to fill that role.
I have been involved with many churches, in various roles. Have you ever seen a ministry set to target making sure widows were cared for, and that they were being well fed? I haven’t. I am sure somewhere in this world it must exist, but I have never seen a church take that as a priority. Yet, this was the first “ministry” set up. How have we gone so far away from the early church’s priorities?
Look for yourself. You will find verse after verse which says the same thing. The more I look through God’s word the more I find myself in the unfortunate position that I may have wasted a great deal of my time, money and energy. I have pursued the things that I have been told was good for a husband and father. Yet, I walked a trail that did not go where I thought it would go.
Realizing that we are relatively new to this idea of taking Jesus’ words seriously, lets look at these ministries individually and see what we can find.
1) I was hungry, and the solution was and ye gave me to eat;
I live in Canada and have lived almost ½ my life in the United States. Sincerely, I have never gone hungry at any significant level. I have fasted from time to time, but even that concept is almost outdated to the Western world. I might skip a meal here or there, but I will generally snack if I skip even one meal. We are an indulgent society. We have a serious problem with obesity. I could stand to shed a few pounds. At my local grocery store there are foods from all over the world. To be honest, if I was hungry (and without resources) locally, I don’t even know where I would go?
In a larger urban centre we would find food banks, or soup kitchens, the Salvation Army or other centers but in our town of 2000 people, I don’t even know if we have such a thing. I can’t think of where it would be.
However, if we wanted to help “feed the hungry” where would I do that? I guess I could make a donation to the Salvation army, or an urban food bank or soup kitchen. If I knew the need was local, but not being filled, it would be wise for me to open my home to feed those in need.
Around the world there are many who are desperately hungry. My sister spent a couple years in Ethiopia. Most of us who are old enough will remember the images of starving Ethiopians that inspired musical groups to raise money for aid that area.
As I have been writing this, a significant Earthquake has hit the very poor nation of Haiti. That particular nation was very poor before the earthquake, but now will likely be in a much worse state. There is about nothing that these people don’t need.
What does it cost to sponsor a child overseas? I looked to World Vision Canada to see what it costs, and admittedly they provide much more then just food, they provide medicine and education and they do this for $10 a week ($520/year). That is slightly more then my favourite drink at Starbucks cost me (each drink).
What about a “one time contribution“. Is there anyway to provide for a family long term on an inexpensive one time gift? Absolutely. I ran across an organization called Canada Food for the Hungry. Their web site is:
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http://www.fhcanada.org/gift-guide/All-Gift-Guide-Items
A one time gift of $100 would provide a goat which villagers would milk and breed and would provide milk, cheese, and meat for usually 12 to 14 years. If that is far too much then what about 2 chickens? They lay eggs for food and for trading. They can let the eggs become chicks and eventually chickens for meat or for trade. 2 chickens would cost $35. Want to help someone get into raising cattle? that would run you $600. A full farm with a trained vet and medicine would get rolling for $1100. Wrap your mind around this stuff.
As a banker, I had about 7 nice suits that I would wear. Let’s say 30 ties. It was important to dress appropriately. I understand that, but if your suits (even cheap suits, and many of mine weren’t cheap) would run you at least a couple hundred dollars. Ties normally cost $10 to $20 a piece, a few even more. For the money I spent on suits and ties. I could have provided food for years for a whole village. Over the years, I simply wore out the suits and bought more. No problem, cost of doing business.
2) I was thirsty, and the solution was and ye gave me drink;
What was said of food is equally true of water. I have heard Canada is the country with the largest freshwater resources. Again, we are a people very well blessed. We don’t even think about how many people have don’t have enough to drink. Their water is poison. I took a look to find out what it would cost to fund a well of fresh water in a developing country.
According to Gospel for Asia (KP Yohannan’s organization) their wells cost $1000 and you can fund one by going to this site. http://www.gfa.org/jesuswells/
3) I was a stranger, and the solution was and ye took me in;
Emotionally, this does something different to me. I can send money. I was trained as a chef so I can cook for someone who is hungry, but inviting in a “total stranger” is more difficult. We are living in 2010. How do I know that I didn’t just bring a convicted child rapist into my house? How do I know that person is…safe.?
You see, things outside my home are easier, but if I invite someone to reside there, I am now losing a level of control. I can’t keep my eye on the stranger all the time. I will sleep at some point in time. The other possible consideration is if I invite in strangers, is there a sense that they would ever leave?
Perhaps you have been in that sort of situation when you helped out someone who was in need (between houses, or needed to be in the area for a short time), and then you find a few days stretches into a week or two or more. At some point you may have had to come to a decision whether you need to take action (kick these house guests out, nice or otherwise), or accept them as permanent additions to you family. That’s tough.
As I wrote this I was talking with a Pastor’s wife. He and her will often scoop up people in transition. Our town is on a major highway, so there are people who just wander through. I asked her about the “having a total stranger” come and stay the night. She said, it’s weird. You have to disconnect your rational mind and just “do” what Jesus said. So far, they have not been significantly harmed. Perhaps this is the unseen hand of protection of God.
4) I was naked, and the solution was and ye clothed me;
Again, I am writing this in Canada. The temperature outside right now is -24. If someone was out there without clothes. They likely did not survive the night. However, there is a real sense that there are many people who might not have adequate clothing. Or there are people, (more common in urban centres), who you
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see day in and day out wearing the same old ratted clothes. They are that group of street people. In Saskatoon, where I lived and worked, my office was in the downtown core. You were always “hit up” by pan handlers. Sometimes I would give. Sometimes I wouldn’t. It often depended on what I had on me at the time.
To be honest, these “street people” become invisible to the professional people over time. It becomes instinct to simply spot one or two and change sides of the street so that you don’t have to walk past them. At first, this is a conscious effort, but with enough time, it is just instinct. You don’t even have to think. You are simply avoiding things, like avoiding trash on the street.
When you enter a different urban centre your senses become more aware of these people. When we were in Vancouver this summer, I used “Google maps” to find the route to Stanley Park, and Google maps does know that you are going to be taken through some pretty rough parts of town. I, and my family, were taken aback by a large ghetto full of garbage, and crime and darkness. It was like a movie, but in fact, it was their life.
Of course, Vancouver is a much larger urban center, and the climate and exterior temperature is better if you happened to be someone on the very lowest end of the social strata.
For work, I also had to travel to our main office. Canada’s banks are generally centred within blocks of each other in Toronto. I was there on December and spotted people with sleeping bags setting up for the night on air vents, with a small pack next to them. These people weren’t begging (at least they weren’t when I was there). It wasn’t just a show. This was honestly where they were going to sleep.
5) I was sick, and the solution was and ye visited me;
Some close Christian brothers and sisters are going through a trend that all disease is spiritually caused and Health is a gift from God available for anyone. They argue that medicine is proof of our rejection of God. I am not completely on the same page with these people. Jesus, for the record, did not say “I was sick and you healed me”. Jesus did heal many. Jesus still does. Jesus’ disciples healed people as well. I think we should look more seriously at the role of the body of Christ in praying for healing.
However, Jesus’ comments here were not about healing the sick, or even treating the sick. It was about visiting the sick. Again, this is not something that comes naturally for me. If I have a close friend who has taken ill, then I am happy to drop by and see them. If a friend has had a baby, again we are eager to put in a brief visit (new mom’s need rest, we get that).
Back in Bible college, in my first year, I was assigned to be on a music ministry group. At first, I thought this was great. Who didn’t want to sing for their ministry experience? I thought, we’d arrive, and be the “special music”, or the highlight of the day. Unfortunately, we found out pretty quick that if our Bible college had 40 or so of these singing groups, then we were very unlikely to find a weekly venue. There just weren’t that many churches who needed that much special music.
Most of us then went to various care homes and senior centers. Some of these places had a location where we would perform, but some did not. If we were part of a group that did not have a performance center then we would join the visitation staff.
Seriously, unless you are really gifted in this, it’s a real challenge. Imagine, dropping in (well dressed) at a hospital and going from room to room to “visit”. Generally, you are supposed to be seriously spiritually impacting this group, but for
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the rookie, this is just a fumbling and looking at your watch hoping that it’s time to go home soon.
Yet, for those who did this week after week, they tended to get better at it. They tended to strike up conversations with people easier. For them it was less of a burden. You could also see that the “patients” were more at ease when they would see the same people over and over again. They actually looked forward to seeing these people dropping in and checking on them.
Having never been significantly sick, I can’t imagine how difficult it would be to spend week after week in a hospital. I was terribly bored just waiting for an oil change on my van yesterday. I might lose my mind in a setting like that. I could appreciate if some kind person dropped by for a visit, just to check up on me. Many of these people were at a point where they really got no visitors.
Any rate, that was 20 years ago, and I never really took up the challenge to become a regular hospital visitor. It was far easier for me to teach Sunday School, or lead youth groups or prepare a sermon then to “drop in” at the hospital.
6) I was in prison, and the solution was and ye came unto me.
My experience has never extended to prisons, but I think what is true of hospitals would likely be true of prisoners. I can’t imagine it would be easy to start up conversations with prisoners, out of the blue. We don’t share similar experiences. I am not confined. I have limited exposure to the legal system and/or the re-socialization system.
In fact, somewhere in my head, I wonder why would visiting prisoners be one of the “biggies” for Jesus? These people are in prison because they have committed crimes. They have broken, not just the Law of God (which all of us have), but even the much lower law of man. They have chosen to harm their fellow man/woman. They have chosen to deprive them of property, or threaten their physical safety.
I have a lot of sympathy for our Christian brothers and sisters who are suffering and imprisoned overseas for their faith. In some Muslim countries, Christians are tossed in prison to rot, or just killed, for the crime of spreading their “faith”. I have nothing but sympathy for that. If you are not familiar with this, I urge you to spend some time looking at this site. www.persecution.net/ It is the Voice of the Martyrs , an excellent group that tries to raise awareness about Christians brothers and sisters and what they face overseas. Get on their mailing list. You might find it will change your world.
I also understand, that as Jesus spoke this to his disciples, they would all spend some time in prison. If it wasn’t for Paul (a later apostle) in prison, we would have a much shorter New Testament. He wrote much of what we call the New Testament while in prison. I have no problem with the idea of visiting the saints in prison, but that (for the most part) is not what we can do locally.
I also understand people who go to the prisons to “witness” to the prisoners, and perhaps lead them to Christ, and perhaps help them grow spiritually. I like this idea, but again, I have no experience.
Even as I write this, I didn’t even know where the closest prison was. I have never had a reason to go there. I haven’t “done time”. My friends haven’t been jailed. I had to look and found there is a centre about ½ hour away. I couldn’t tell you whether
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they have a “visitation ministry” or not. I do know this is not the major penitentiary.
Values in Perspective:
The reason for this exploration and personal exposure is to say that my values do not line up with Jesus’ values. Jesus believed his followers would be obedient to the Law that was set before them (The Old Testament) and that they would be socially active in meeting very practical needs of people. To that end, almost all church experiences I have been a part of have only the smallest acknowledgement of the importance of either of these items.
The church has successfully become a social institution. It has become a education facility (with uncertain successes) almost no known graduates. It may or may not be a political entity. It is well-administered considering it runs mostly on volunteer labour. We are professional. We are middle class. We are orderly. We are not offensive. In short…we are something completely different then what Jesus seems to have suggested.
The Proposal:
My proposal is a completely new paradigm. I propose that we wipe out the old efforts to it’s foundation and start anew. I think if we did this we would find a new church, a better church, and one more like what Jesus proposes.
Plan part 1:
The first action that people can take is simply to choose not to engage in the old model of church. Are you a church member? You might do well to withdraw your membership, if your church is not following this type of pattern. Are you a regular attendee of a church fellowship, stop, if you don’t see these values fleshed out. These places are drains on your time and resources. We need to lay aside what doesn’t get us toward our goal.
Heb 12:1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
I do sincerely think some of these previous actions were sins in the classic sense, but many of them were not. They were simply substitutions. We substituted God’s design for one that we enjoyed more. We have done it so long ago, that we don’t recall even taking that action.
To do such a thing (abandoning your church) will immediately create a void in your world. Let’s be honest, we have done the same model of church our whole lives. We don’t know anything else. You will immediately feel guilty the first Sunday that rolls around and you don’t go. The feeling of void is necessary to inspire action.
Now, I should also acknowledge that you may attend a church which embodies these values. They may embrace the needs of the community around them. Perhaps
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the church is just an inexpensive location to fulfill this mission. If so, Praise God! Personally, at different stages of church planting we did find that we were no longer able to meet in homes because of the sheer size of our membership and the undo burden it was placing on the families that hosted. At that point, we did rent buildings. In our case, since we were also Sabbath observant, we were able to rent a traditional church. They stand empty most days of the week anyway. A sympathetic church would often open their door very inexpensively to a fellowship that needs a place to meet. However, there are sometimes other places that might be more helpful. I know of local community centres that charge a nominal fee to use their place and even some that are free (sponsored by local businesses). You might want to look around (if and when you arrive at the point that the home is just too small).
Plan part 2:
In fact, you can actually do this part before (or at the same time as part 1) find like-minded people. The body of Christ was intended to act together. There are many these days who see the old church model for what it is, and have refused to attend. I understand this. This makes sense. They don’t want to be involved with something very different then Christ set out, however, it’s a tough world out there. It is better to find someone to hold your hand.
The reason for this is two fold. First, I think it is Biblical.
Heb 10:25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.
Second, I think more can be accomplished by meeting with other brothers and sister, you can inspire each other to keep at the task. You can divide and conquer the tasks ahead. You can help your children see that this is acceptable. You can affirm one another in the work ahead. Alone, you tend to spend a lot of your time planning for someday. That someday is today.
Plan part 3:
Avoid titles and ranking at all costs.
Mat 23:8-12 But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren. And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven. Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ. But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant.
And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.
We don’t want to turn around and recreate the same product again with ourselves as the new pastor. God forbid! At some point in time there may be a need to have some defined leadership, but let this happen organically and try to avoid taking on
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traditional “church titles” and “roles” in an attempt to be seen as acceptable to them.
Remember, Jesus’ Sheep and Goats parable? It didn’t matter who was or wasn’t impressed by the “goats” on Earth. We answer to one master, and we live in fear of him, not of man. This includes the church.
The church (the way it was intended) was designed to be interactive. We were not designed for professional clergy doing the “ministries”.
1Cor 14:26 How is it then, brethren? when ye come together, every one of
you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation,
hath an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying
Plan Part 4:
Set “ministries” around what Jesus felt was important. Do we believe in teaching? Yes. But this is intended to reach a goal. We want people to be “fully trained”. We are not just teaching cycles and cycles of new, progressive Christian stuff while never encouraging action. The early disciples trained people what they had learned from Jesus. This was discipleship. The disciples were making disciples.
Mat 28:20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you…
So, beyond teaching what Jesus said about proper interpretation of God’s Law, and how to live this new life in Christ, what sort of things should we look to accomplish? Here’s a few to start-
1) I was hungry, and the solution was and ye gave me to eat;
2) I was thirsty, and the solution was and ye gave me drink;
3) I was a stranger, and the solution was and ye took me in;
4) I was naked, and the solution was and ye clothed me;
5) I was sick, and the solution was and ye visited me;
6) I was in prison, and the solution was and ye came unto me.
Using this as the test as to whether you are following what Jesus saw as important (in fact, worthy of heaven or not!!!) How are we doing?
Let’s not forget what happens to those who decide on their own “ministries”.
Mat 7:22-23 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
I think most of you will understand that much of our present ministries are far less exciting and Earth changing then what these people did. We teach Sunday school and provide moral entertainment for our teens. If these people were not known by Jesus, why is it that we think we would be?
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A question might be asked: “if one was to give to an organization that does this, which one should you give to?” This is a fair question, but the answer is easier then you think.
Any One.
Remember the Bible story of the Rich Young Ruler? He came to see Jesus and found that the Law was necessary for his salvation, and Jesus wanted him to abandon everything.
You already know that the ruler does not act on this and so he never finds what he is looking for. But think about this, does Jesus care where he sends the stuff? No, he just wants it to go to the poor. He doesn’t send it to any people (even the temple) to be distributed. From what we see, it doesn’t matter. The important thing is two fold. First, these things are to go to those in need, and second, these “things” are keeping him from God. It is a matter of getting rid of them.
Personally, if I am giving to an organization that is accomplishing these goals then I am happier to give to a Christian organization, but if the supposed Christian organization is not doing the work, or not doing so effectively, then I have no hesitation about working with any group which feels compelled to do this.
Again, remember when Jesus was entering Jerusalem and the people were all praising God and shouting, and the Pharisees told him to silence his followers, what did Jesus say?
Luke 19:40 And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.
I think the reason you see care organizations doing the work that the believers should be doing, is because WE HAVE FAILED. Jesus, was going to accomplish this with or without us. Far better to be doing the master’s work then to allow the United nations to do it for us.
Plan part 5:
As I have said, I think the church has lost it’s way. My hope is that everyone changes and embraces this new model, but I know that anyone who does will get persecution. In Canada and the US, it will be more subtle, then it might be in a Muslim nation, but the wounds of a friend do cut deep.
You will find friends that will question you actions, and imply that you have lost your faith. Share this with them. Challenge them. Encourage them to look seriously (not at what their church is doing, and how it makes them feel), but look at Jesus. Look at his Gospel. Look at the early church, not our customized (history revisionist model) that makes that church look like us wearing bathrobes. We need to look at a church that was concerned about feeding widows, and a church where people were throwing away their possessions to give to those in need, not to a new building project.
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Who knows? you may find you have won your brother.
Plan part 6:
Start at home. Your home (whether you rent or own) is your place. It can serve as the meeting place for fellow believers. It can be the starting place for these Jesus based ministries. It can be a storage place for goods to send away.
In fact, my house, unfortunately, is a storage place for a bunch of things that do not belong to me.
I think I have 2 coats, I will have to check.
That might sound a bit dramatic, but it’s not. We need to look closely at our home and decide what is necessary and what is not. In fact, much of what other people might find necessary is really just a luxury for us. We can stand to be down a few luxuries if in the end it would help the rest of the community of faith (or the people in need).
Take a walk around your house, in prayer and in faith and ask God. “What extras do we have that we don’t need?” If you are married, ask your spouse ‘what you should get rid of?’ Or perhaps assume an “extra” is not yours, and try to see if there is any reason why you would need that extra piece. The answer may be “yes”. For example, I have a few extra blankets and pillows. Why? We have guests who arrive with some degree of regularity and if we are to take seriously the desire to show hospitality to those in need then we felt we could use some extra bedding. However, in days gone by, we have closets of extra bedding and a couple boxes of more if we ever needed it. Of course, we never did. Those resources were never really ours. They were God’s and they are as much God’s when we give it to the Salvation Army as they were taking up space in our basement.
Plan part 7:
Celebrate each other’s successes. We are the people of God. If we are going about the Master’s business, then let each other know that you saw. Let people know that what they did mattered. Let them know that what they did was following God’s instruction. We need to exalt what is good. For years we have set up a system where we exalt what is “pretty”, or “professional” or even just gives us a warm feeling. That time has past. We need to uphold what is good, and allow this and the next generation to see this and desire to do likewise.
So What do we gain?
I think what we need to understand is what we gain with respect to this paradigm shift.
1- First and foremost is obedience. If we claim to be servants of God then we should be expected to be obedient. That is what servants are called to do.
Matt 24:45-47 Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season?
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Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing
Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods.
2- As I have gone into some length, the older church model is set up to be comfortable and encouraging, but in reality it is a burden to maintain. If we plan to be involved in the Master’s work then we need to put aside those “burdens” whatever they may be that fill our time, take our energy and resources.
3- This former model does create a sense of community, but I think in this new model you will find that this “community sense” to be deeper and more fulfilling. You are active not as a “participant”, or an audience, but as a true co-labourer. It is one thing to have some “connection” to something important. Our society has that even when we watch a sporting event. This is a whole new system to be a “player” on the field, doing the work and striving for the goal.
4- This makes eternal deposits.
Matt 6:19-20 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:
But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
This side of heaven it is very difficult to put things on deposit in heaven. Why not take some of our resources today and forward them on? Everything we have here is temporary.
5- For those who haven’t adopted the Full Bible (including the Old Testament) as counsel about how to live, this action alone will expand your vision. It will give you a better perspective on the God who created and set a standard for his people. We don’t have to fear being called people who practice Lawlessness.
6- This process, also allows you to actively see a small part of “healing the world”
Tikkun olam (Hebrew: תיקון עולם). Now there is a challenge that is worthy of the
people of God.
Again, I don’t claim to have all the answers. In fact, to date, I don’t even have a functioning model of this, but I believe this is where the Lord is leading and as for me and my household, where else would we want to be?
I invite your comments, and especially your criticism. Perhaps there are significant things I have missed, if so, I would love to incorporate that in updated additions. The Grace of God be to you and your household.
-Brother Bradley Avi
