February,
2002
Dear Disciple of Jesus,
This is a teaching
that needs to be written. It is "strong meat," so you
might need to chew on it a little while. I am addressing the condition
of Christianity in America. I recently read about another minister
who had a high profile, multi-million dollar a year ministry who
had an on-going immoral relationship and was stepping down from
his position. I also have observed a church with well over a million
dollar annual budget that is leading people into some of the most
bizarre and unscriptural practices in the name of being "cutting
edge" spiritually. And on my desk is a pile of a dozen fund-raising
letters from a highly televised minister that instead of
teaching Gods Word, just pressures people for money every
month with stuff in the envelopes like cornmeal packets, red cloth
for healing, pennies showing through the envelope, with radical
claims printed on the envelope which border on blasphemy. (It
obviously has produced millions of dollars annually for this ministry.)
What is going on, and what should you do about it?
Satan is aware of
the fact that over 90% of all missionary activity in the world
is financed in America. We have been the primary "factory
and warehouse" for Christianity in the last two hundred years.
The devil would do anything he could to "shut us down."
Satan is willing to do major frontal assaults when he thinks it
will work (like September 11th), but the slow and subtle approach
has often been more effective for him over the centuries. There
is an old story that if a frog is put in a pan of water, and the
heat is raised very slowly, the frog will not notice and
will eventually boil to death. Satan is trying to slowly "boil
to death" Christianity in America! Let me address some of
the major "battle fronts."
The word "doctrine"
sounds dry and theological, but this is actually the most important
issue to Christianity. The only thing that separates you from
a Moslem or Buddhist is what you believe. And God has provided
"a more sure word of prophecy" by giving
us the Bible (2nd
Peter 1:19). Everything needs to be checked against this holy
"yardstick" to see if it measures up. I pointed out
to a minister not long ago that something he was practicing didnt
line up with a clear statement from the New Testament. His reply
was, "Well, I guess Gods understanding of that verse
is different from ours." If that is true, then John
3:16 could mean we should all become Mormons! One church I
know of said its "revelations" were "cutting edge,"
but I think they were really "bleeding edge" because
of the people they hurt spiritually. Anything that leads people
away from studying and practicing the clear tenants of the Word
of God is a deception from the enemy which will eventually lead
to spiritual shipwreck. When there is a lot of emphasis on strange
new words and concepts, books with information not found in the
Bible, and other unique and rare "revelation" that you
can only get from a special source (usually at a fee) then
you need to pull away from that church or ministry. It was curiosity,
and the promise of hidden knowledge, that got Eve to eat the fruit!
If only she had stopped hanging around that tree.
One priority of Christianity
is sound spiritual information as discussed above. But another
important priority is solid moral character. One of the big (and
valid) criticisms of charismatic Christians is the lack of emphasis
on integrity. I once worked for a minister that doubled the number
of an important ministry statistic which made him look good. I
brought him the facts on paper showing otherwise, and found myself
not in his favor any longer. This kind of thing has happened far
more times than the average Christian has any idea. The Bible
says we are like "sheep" Ive been around
sheep, and theyre not very wise. Jesus said we need to be
as wise as a "serpent" and yes, I looked that
up in my concordance and it really means serpent! And as a counter-balance,
our motives are supposed to be as harmless as a dove (Matthew
10:16).
An important solution
to these problems is we need to do our financial giving carefully
and prayerfully, not just because we always give to the same place.
And sometimes, people have thrown away a dozen direct mail fund
appeals and now feel "guilty" that they have
not given, so they write a check even if they know other ministries
who are more deserving but pressure them less. And we should not
give just because a ministry is on television and "looks"
successful. I have been on television a half dozen times, so I
am not against television. I just know that many ministries have
a large staff of people who are in essence paid to make that minister
"look successful". I am also not against direct mail,
because it is a "highway" we can use to spread ministry.
But Jesus said to judge with "righteous" judgment
not snap decisions because the ministrys telemarketer calls
and you want to get back to dinner! In Luke
8:15, Jesus defined what good soil is to sow into those
with a "good and honest heart."
Jesus did not imply the size of the ministry was of any concern
for your giving, it was the quality of the ministers heart
that matters! If more believers gave to those with "good
and honest hearts," those ministries would soon grow very
large, and the ministers with secretly poor character, impure
motives like pride & greed, and/or gaudy marketing
would soon dry up and blow away and Christianity would be rescued
in America.
Why dont we
have better people involved in ministry? The heart of the answer
is an issue that has been "delicate" for way too long
pay scales for ministers. I had a ministry with over 30
employees contact me recently for help trying to fill an administrator
position they had been unable to fill for 6 months. When I found
out the pay was about $7 an hour, I wasnt surprised they
couldnt fill it. That would be fair pay for flipping hamburgers,
but why would God "punish" most talented and faithful
Christians with a pay level like that? Christian ministries have
had "brain drain" for too long, with the best and brightest
having to work secular jobs to provide for their families. It
was not Gods "sovereignty" that caused the spiritual
Levites to go back to working the fields as farmers in Nehemiah
13:10-12. It was the disobedience of the Israelites
for which Nehemiah rebuked them severely. Some years ago, I did
the math to calculate what I would have made over the last 20
years in the secular job I walked away from to answer the call
to ministry, as compared to the salaries I actually made working
in ministry. The difference was right at a million dollars. How
many people have enough commitment to do that? With low pay scales,
we have sometimes gotten people who should be flipping hamburgers
instead running million dollar ministries (look out!). We shouldnt
put up financial "hurdles" in front of good potential
Christian workers when the Bible says, "The harvest
is plentiful, but the laborers are few" and "The
laborer is worthy of his hire."
The bottom line is
that the condition of Christianity in America is the responsibility
of every Christian. There is nobody "minding the store"
somehow making sure that everything is OK because obviously
everything is not OK. Whether you realize it or not, you spiritually
vote every month with your feet and your checkbook. Where you
attend and what you do financially is your monthly "election"
that keeps or removes those "in office"
in Christianity. As a committed Christian, you must care. There
is no other moral alternative, and the continuance of real Christianity
depends on you. You must:
1) accept
personal responsibility for where you attend,
2) know the
character and soundness of the ministries you receive from, and
3) be faithful,
wise, and generous financially to see that the needs are met of
those you know are "good and honest" that minister to
you.
What you feed grows,
and what you starve will diminish. God does not want the condition
of Christianity in America to stay in the condition it currently
is. It is our job to do something about it. What we loose on earth
will be loosed, and what we bind will be bound.
Laboring for Real
Christianity,
Dale &
Judi Leander |