June 20, 2007
Nothing to Report
My church no longer subscribes to its weekly denominational magazine, but I remember at one time there was a column for reporting baptisms and transfers of membership. Individual churches submitted their statistics to the publisher, who then, along with the church name and her pastor, reported the stats. Personally, I always enjoyed reading the number of additions made in churches across the country. I felt it was a good indicator of where the Spirit was working in healthy, successful ministries. Recently an older pastor startled me by saying, “The reporting of baptisms and transfers is nothing but fuel for a preacher’s ego. It’s a way to tell others in the brotherhood, ‘Look at me and what a good job I’m doing’.” That thought hadn’t crossed my mind, but from a preacher’s perspective I see what he’s saying.
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Gail;
-----I try never to loose touch with the perspective that nothing of this temporal place is really homogenous. All things here seem to be a mixture of good and bad, or benefit and detriment. And there are so many different angles from which to see things that a person can be relatively sure there is always someone present to hold each opinion regarding whatever you have chosen to do. I suppose this is what makes life really tough for preachers and politicians, and profitable for lawyers.
-----I am also sure that this has much to do with Paul’s admonition, “Do not allow what you consider good to be spoken of as evil.” (Rom 14:16) There are times and places for different things. Times and places are like lenses, they enhance certain perspectives of whatever may be in their environment, and shade others. And to complicate matters, there are some people who seem to have been born with a built in pair of night-vision goggles. They are able to see according to a pre-determined view-point no matter how much the environment may enhance or conceal it.
-----So I have come to a frame of mind that doesn’t really see things in terms of “is this good?” or “is this bad?” I try to get a measure on how much benefit verse detriment something might hold, and in which situations might the benefit or detriment be most operative. I have come to believe that in this way I can relate to the most of my brothers and sisters and raise the most praise to Him.
-----But many times the observation made about me has been that I am wishy-washy. And I have to admit that appearance. However, I consider it humble to realize that since we live in an imperfect world, there will be no perfection found around us. Where there is no perfection there is taint. And two of all the areas of this life in which there is taint is in our vision and our logic. Therefore, when what my brother accepts appears to me as detrimental, as long as the Word of God has not clearly denounced it, then I give mind to either the possibility that my brother has found a beneficial facet of it, or that maybe my vision and logic may be askew regarding it. Either way, it is dark here, and we see dimly as through a mirror.
-----Confessing the Word of God to be the light shining in the darkness is of much benefit. But even that can be detrimental if abused. I generally scoff at new ideas firsthand, yet not so much as to disallow a bit of curious toying. The other day I picked up an LED flashlight from the counter display in a store. “Yah, right,” I thought, “another attack on the incandescent bulb.” Then I turned it on, “Yah! Right!” I thought, “What a great replacement for the incandescent bulb!” I bought it immediately. But when I first used it in the dark I noticed that it did not shine a concentrated beam of light like the conventional flashlight does. It shined a bright, yet soft and diffused light. I could see more in general with it, but the traditional flashlight allowed me to see less more sharply. The Word of God is like both lights. On some issues it shines a concentrated light, on other issues it shines a soft light. In the soft light we must be careful about what we are seeing.
-----There are few things that upset me more than one brother who thinks he has seen clearly enough by the diffuse light of the Word of God to feel he has then been given the authority to place his foot upon the throat of another brother and choke out his brother’s expressions to God. I assure you, that person has not been seeing by the concentrated light of the Word of God! For Paul said to accept one another as Christ has accepted you. And Christ accepts us while we are imperfect, in spite of our being a mix of good and bad, in order to give love to us, not to squash uniqueness from us. It saddens my heart that such a vibrant movement as what Rick Warren set in motion has not risen even to the lowest level of spiritual intelligence necessary to understand there is no excuse for denying your brothers and sisters the worshipful expressions of their hearts. His followers also love the numbers in the reports of those being baptized and joining the church. For numbers are a driving force to them. It can possibly be a work of pride, or it might be an expression of praise and celebration. The maker of that expression may intend one thing, yet each of many hearers of the expression will perceive different things. It has its benefit. It has its detriment. Until the Lord returns the benefits in this life must be extracted from amongst the detriments. But the doings in the diffuse light must not be interfered with, or even the benefits will be squashed. It is only regarding issues in the concentrated beam that we are given Scriptural place to say, “Brother, careful of your sin!“ So we need to be teaching one another to chill out a bit when in the diffuse light.
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