Are Pastors Abusing Their Power?

As the political season advances, it kills me to see how many Americans will vote against their own self interest. The saddest part, however, is that many will do so not because its what they want, but because it's what the guy standing at the front of the sanctuary on Sunday demands.

Pastors in America have done a deplorable job in politics. They know that many in their congregation are not thoroughly versed in Scripture. They take advantage of that. Ironically, in this day and age, the Reformation means nothing, as pastors in most churches are nothing more than "little popes", believing that they and they alone, possess the keys to Scriptural understanding and are called to deliver them to the little people. Instead of "equipping the saints for His Service", they have haughtily held back the keys to the kingdom by pretending that only through an anointing by man can Scripture be understood. And nowhere is this more clear than in politics.

Let's be clear: neither the Republican nor the Democratic Party presents a Christian approach to the problems our leaders face. Abortion is wrong, yes, but so is starving the poor and presenting a mother with no options. And so is judging someone without helping them find a way out.

I say this on the issue of abortion because it's the one I wrestle with the most. While I am politically prochoice, I am decidedly and unapologetically prolife on a personal and moral level. That means that I seek to make alternatives available, assurances that the fears of the mother considering won't be realized; that her child won't live today only to find death tomorrow through disease, starvation, or the rampant violence that fills our inner cities. In my belief, I take that further to include the guarantee that the child won't have to worry about living today to find death 20 years from now in a battlefield in some foreign country, or at the end of the executioner's needle.

That, to me, is what prolife means.

And at the same time pastors oppose moral evils, they oppose a living wage. I have seen pastors post some rather nasty memes criticizing the fight for $15, when they should be joining the fight. They insist that their congregants should stay underpaid, yet they lament when the coffers of the church aren't filled with the coins that the poor collect as their portion for a week's labor.

If the pastors will insist on allowing the wealthy to steal the wealth that the poor have earned, then I insist that the pastors should collect the tithes from the employer, not the employee, as the employer holds the pilfered wages of their employees. And I refuse to tithe to any church that does not advocate a living wage, as their teaching is heresy.

Pastors are called to lead their flock, not to manipulate and twist their minds. They are to present the WHOLE gospel, including the parts they don't like. Otherwise, they are quite definitely abusing their power.

It's past time to call theem on this.

Dear Pastor: It's Time We Had a Talk

I know that on this page, often my discussions come across as a bit harsh and abrasive. And you know what? Sometimes they are. I'm not really super at this communication thing and often choose less than imperfect means to express myself.

It's a fault, I admit it, and I am working to change that. I thank all of those patient enough to endure it.

So let's have a talk, shall we? A real one. About why it is that I keep hammering points home and going against the grain.

We've become a socially disconnected society, and the church, which once fulfilled a large role in the social structure of adults, has been a part of that. It's not the fault of pastors, even though it's tempting to say so. They're swimming hard against a cultural tide, and they endure massive criticism with scant praise. I get that part of it.

But if you will listen, if you will just TRY what I am about to say, I believe it will fundamentally change your ministry. And if it doesn't, just throw it away as one of those hair brained ideas, just as you would the book you bought off the discount rack at LifeWay and found less than fulfilling.

I'm speaking from a personal place here, so if you disagree with me, please do it respectfully. I will respond in kind.

Your congregants need to be heard. And not just the mental sticky notes, not just with a casserole delivered in time of need or the Christmas drive. Those things are great, yes, and they're essential, but not as essential as sitting down and finding out the things about your congregants that cannot be written down on paper.

Know them. Know their hopes, their dreams, their fears. Know their favorite baseball team, the kind of car they drive. And respect their politics even if you completely disagree. Every pastor I have ever known has learned the virtue of strategic silence. In getting to know your congregants, you may want to use that judiciously.

Realize that every congregant is a work in progress. If I have failed as a Christian, this has been my Achilles heel. I expect too much, expect everyone I encounter as a Christian to know the same things and have the same life experiences I do. That is an impossible expectation and is setting them up to fail.

Know WHY that person didn't put money in the offering plate. Know and understand the realities of people struggling to survive, who may remain silent because they don't want to be seen as complaining or begging. Know the reason why they didn't come to church, why they didn't give money when the missionaries came to town, why they couldn't buy that cake at the bake sale, or why their kids couldn't make it to summer. Know them, and encourage them. This doesn't have to be monetary support, sometimes the best thing you can do is just let them know that you care.

You are in a place to be powerful change agents, a position I wish I could have, but am increasingly understanding why I do not. In pursuing your doctorate, in meetings with deacons, in your outreach to the community, do not forget that young man who came in five minutes after the sermon started and left as the organist struck up the opening notes on the closing hymn because he has difficulty interacting with people and wanted to avoid the awkwardness.

He needs you. I need you. Jesus needs you.

And these things are far more important than the broken projector.

Blessings and peace.

Church Leaders: The Problem is Not the WORLD, The Problem is YOU! The Problem is Me!

I have weighed posting this. I realize that it will sever my relationship with the evangelical church fully and finally, and I realize the horrific cost if I am wrong. But watching the growing elephant in the room, I feel that I must speak, even at the risk of being wrong.

I have listened to numerous pastors lament declining membership, declining contributions within their churches. And always, always the blame has been cast on the congregants. They're not guided by faith, they're putting money before God, they're putting the world before church; I've heard them all. But I am going to tell you from firsthand experience why I believe with every fiber in my being that you are wrong, and that the problems emanate from the front of the church, rather than the back.

First, the most fundamental role of leadership is accountability. Satan cannot steal from a properly tended flock. Pastors have listened too much to experts that focus more on MBAs than they do on their relationships with Christ. Experts who make Jesus out to be a CEO and tell you to cut your least profitable elements.

They will tell you that those who walk away will walk away anyway, and that they are merely malcontents. They will tell you to cut the least profitable elements of your ministry. They will tell you that marketing and multimedia make a church.

But as the old rule goes, nobody has to advertise toilet paper. It is a needed product, and people WILL find it. The same goes for the church, if you are properly tending your flock.

People are hurting like no time in recent history. For many Americans the recession never ended, and for many more, wages have lost ground against inflation. You can judge them for their iGadgets and their cars, but the truth is, in an increasingly connected world, many of those gadgets are necessary, and since the only way for many folks to buy a car is through payments, they are buying newer cars in the hopes their cars can outlast their payments. There are too many variables for you to make those judgments, so don't.

Jesus railed AGAINST the status quo; He spoke out AGAINST the exploitation of the poor, yet modern ministers are enabling it. The very best seats in the church go to the biggest donors, and the church has done so much to dismantle social safety nets and shame the poor that it is becoming very clear who too many of these ministers are working for.

Want to find the problem with church leadership? Get up, walk down the hall and look in your bathroom mirror. You will find it. And I am saying this as much about myself as you, for I have known this for many years, but remained silent because I hoped at one point to actually be able to be a leader within the church and make change. I did not know that there was an entire system in place to keep people like me from ever inheriting the mantle of ministry.

We come from a church of simple faith, a church that didn't busy itself with political endorsements. A church that realized the role of the church and the role of the state had conflicting interests, and that taught its members to respect their authority, not to rebel against it, and certainly not to seize government land and force standoffs. A church that despised injustice.

Today's church leaders are as bought and sold as our politicians. Instead of guiding the church by faith, they have guided it by business principles. I understand that; it's hard to see a light at the end of the tunnel sometimes. But as I have discovered in my personal life, sometimes you have to believe.

I am closing this article with a purpose: I have wrestled long and hard against what I have to do. Today, I am officially beginning my personal ministry (appropriate, as I am writing this on the first day of Lent). I know the road ahead of me will come with many bumps, and I know that I will fall at least as often as I walk, but I know with God's guidance I will get there.

The service to the poor in our community has been abandoned to the "liberal" church, and they have been too long despised for doing the work that Jesus commanded. I intend to be about that business, and that alone, for as long as God allows me to remain on this planet. I am renouncing any material comforts beyond what is needed to communicate and to continue to do what I am called to do, and I am building my ministry without walls. I'm no longer complaining about it, I am setting about fixing it.

And you are free to join me. I hope you will. But if not, I will not wait for you to join, or to lead. I am open to instruction, I am open to Godly correction. But I am not open to anything or anyone that will derail me on this course. I will no longer be the problem. And I hope my words will inspire you in that direction as well.

Not Fitting In: It's What I Do Well

And so we prepare to move on yet again. As we've looked for a place to call "home", unfortunately, my tendency to speak my mind has cost me not a few friendships. If only I would shut up, I would get along much better.

I started this blog to blog my thoughts as I faced an increasing disconnect with the church, and with society. With every stop, we hope it will be our last, hope that we can find a place where we can just be who we are and find acceptance.

Sadly, in a world where "tolerance" is a catch phrase, we still haven't found it. Last year at this time, I told friends that if this year was like last year, we would find ourselves on the road, we just didn't know where.

Well, the preliminary numbers are in on 2015. And it's sobering. Our household income was 50% of the year before. My contract work was 25% of the year before. And with the older kids working, we have to count their income towards the household income for benefit purposes. So it's either charge them rent, kick them out, or tighten our belt because we don't qualify for certain programs. And honestly, I want my children to build for THEIR future, not mine.

An opportunity opened near OKC in early November. But it closed. But not before we had made the commitment to move. Having been rejected for the professional jobs in our small community, I began applying to the minimum wage jobs. Three places. One outright ignored me, the other never called me back after I spoke with the manager, the third kept claiming they had hired me, they just needed to get me put on the schedule. Then a trip to the store to the other day when the manager was telling someone else in the store that the previous manager was choosing between me and a current employee and chose the current employee.

Yet they never had the guts to tell me I didn't get the job.

And so, we're down the road a spell. Hoping beyond hope we can find a place where we belong for more than a few years.

I've often wondered what drove people to states of hopelessness and homelessness, and now I understand. The ultimate goal of being a social animal is to find a group in which you are truly, genuinely accepted. And unfortunately, the groups I keep finding accept you only conditionally.

But perhaps that's the reason for the journey: to understand.

In 2016, I Am Asking You This

John 3:30 "He must increase, but I must decrease".

First, to all of you armchair theologians, yes, using this as an instruction for all Christians is taking the passage WAY out of context. These words were spoken by John the Baptist, and apply specifically to his ministry. So please don't take what I am about to say as in any way superinterpreting Scripture.

Now, with that tidy little disclaimer out of the way, let me tell you that those words are NEVER wrong when spoken from the mouth of (or typed from the keyboard of, such as the case may be) a believing Christian.

So in 2016, I am asking you to think less of me. It is my goal that my words, my actions, and my thoughts become more closely conformed to those of Christ. That I become more of an image bearer, and more focused outwardly than inwardly.

Think less of me, and more of Christ. This is my admonition to you in the days and years to come. And I pray that my life be lived in such a manner as to make that much easier for you.

Blessings and peace in the coming year.

If We Make It Through December

WARNING: DO NOT READ if you feel that venting is the same as whining, or if you are inclined to condemn rather than console. I'm really not in the mood!

When I came to a saving faith in Christ back in 1988, I would describe myself as being a very enthusiastic convert. In the intervening years, a lot of the enthusiasm changed, but has not waned.

But right now, sitting here today, I am asking myself where the church is. Not just for me; my needs do not matter...but for the hurting world around me that we are called to serve.

I've heard miraculous stories of how someone was in need and that need was suddenly and inexplicably met by someone who didn't know them, or that need. I've heard that, but honestly rarely seen that. Yes, I have seen needs provided for, but never in the miraculous, mysterious manner we so often hear about. It is enough that I understand the skeptics' questioning the existence of God.

As I sit here typing this, we are in a world of turbulent financial uncertainty. We're planning a move, and we know that tax time is less than three months away (sooner, if our W2s get in time). But holidays and medical expenses have depleted our already lean emergency funds (our holiday spending was quite modest -- about $25 per person, but our shopping trip included an unexpected stay way from home due to some wild and unforecast weather....then the medical emergencies hit!)

But still, I know the God in whom I put my trust is able -- and I know that we will get through this, as everything else. I am finding it impossible to obtain work locally at any wage, and if it weren't for my wife's income, we would not have had a Christmas at all. In about 2 weeks' time, I will be staying 120 miles from home while I seek out work down there. Anything to keep the lights on.

But I'm honestly wondering about those "miracles". As I have driven a good amount, I've noticed people are less and less inclined to pull over for someone in need. We allow cynicism to guide our decisions rather than humanity, and it is small wonder why people are finding the Church as less and less an answer to their spiritual questions.

I am realizing in the midst of this that it is impossibly easy to be homeless in this culture. Yet we give token compassion to the homeless, we show up for photo op feeds on holidays and give our canned beets to the food banks thinking that our work is done. Yet somewhere between homeless and lower class, there exist scores of people for whom a major medical expense would be devastating. Our family is not one of those, but we're closer than I'd ever hoped to be.

The Merle Haggard song, "If We Make It Through December" seems stunningly appropriate right now.

Still, the heaters are running and we're able to keep the home modestly comfortable. But when those utility bills hit, it won't be quite so rosy. I don't even want to imagine what it's like for those worse off.

But I do, because I remember it is those people I am called to serve.

So have a blessed 2016 -- I know I will. But let's resolve this next year to focus less on the material and more on what matters. There are lives that hang in the balance.

A Sad Journey

It started innocently enough. A few oped pieces and cartoons that I admittedly found humorous even though they disagreed with my political ideology. And, of course, the flood of Facebook memes.

I knew being a political progressive in an evangelical church would be challenging. But, I would not sacrifice the sound doctrine, and besides, I felt that with a little perspective, there would be a change, where people realized that they don't need to abandon their faith to support programs to help the poor out of poverty, a living wage, universal healthcare, those kinds of things.

I could live with that. After all, we can disagree on some things. Still, it was an uphill battle.

The tipping point came when a man named Donald Trump entered the picture. Most people in the churches made it clear in 2012 that they no longer wanted a Christian candidate, but this was ridiculous. Thrice married, no political experience, his foreign policy experience comes from "Meet the Press". And his much touted business acumen includes a string of bankrutpcies.

He called Mexicans rapists and thieves. People roared. He said wages were too high, to thunderous applause. But when two people in California went on a shooting rampage, everything changed.

Suddenly, in the wake of that, it was no longer expedient to be silent. As Trump's fanbase insisted on a war on refugees, a war on Islam, the voices coming out seemed hauntingly familiar. And rather than decry this hate from the pulpit, the conservative church condoned it, and in some cases, encouraged it.

It became clear that the time to separate is now. The time for tolerating dissenting opinions ends when real threats are waged against people. The time for unity ends when The Great Commission and the Great Commandment are no longer relevant, but rather the Almighty Dollar becomes king. When Mammon is worshipped rather than God.

I would rather it not come to this end. I would rather have a home to worship. But until the Church regains its sanity, I will not be there. Until we serve unapologetically, unceasingly, and unwaveringly without fear, I will worship in my own way with those who believe as I do, that God's Syrian and Palestinian children are as important as His American and Israeli children.

I did not come to this position lightly, nor will I abandon it lightly. I love the Church, but I also love the children of God, and when there comes a conflict between the two, I will serve the latter.

I am still a part of the Church, still a part of the Body of Christ, just an outcast one that folks aren't going to recognize.

And I can dig it.