Musings from the Ozone

This has been something that has simmered in the back of my mind for years.  It has always troubled me to see a church go downhill---

How can I even write about something so sad as this?  To even muse on the subject of destroying a church makes me feel emotional pain.  I am not talking about the church building, by the way, for that is permissible.  I am talking about the destroying of a local assembly in a devastating manner.   I will try to write in the third person, or perhaps in as abstract a methodology as I can possibly write, because I would never want to be even remotely connected to the label of a church destroyer!

So, take this imaginary trip with me. Try to picture a young, spiritually ambitious, young man who decides to give his life to the Lord Jesus Christ.  He has sat patiently under a pastor, awaiting the day when he can preach the gospel himself.  He attends bible school and readies himself for a number of years, perhaps marrying a very good companion who will assist him in the work of the Lord.  The day comes when he 'sells out' and moves to a little town to start a church 'from scratch.'  This church will be a figment of his imagination for many months or even years, because he knows that he has to work furiously to even get the first bible study.  Finally, after several bible studies, or visits to homes, inviting people to join in a joint bible study, he reaches enough people to grow his first 'cell' group.  From this small nucleus, he envisions more exciting dreams of finding a building to house his small group.  If he has managed to generate enough enthusiasm in the group to support the renting of a small edifice for a church, he will be propelled on and on towards growth, bigger building, more growth, bigger building, and so on, until one day they reach a good size congregation of believers.  The community around the church takes notice of their presence.  People call the pastor for prayer and they come to church for fellowship.  The church has grown to be an important representation of  "Christ in the neighborhood.'

In larger cities, there are many more people to draw from, so, if he had started a church in a large enough city, he could hope to attract even more attention to the church as it would become a large 'salvation saving station.'   In its importance, it would attact many important community leaders; at least they would become aware of the church's existence.  Many of our larger churches today have had distinguished guests, such as a mayors, senators, or other government officials visit their services.

The prayer, the fasting, the self-sacrificing life of this preacher and his family can only be known, in totality, to God.  Sure, there are many old-timers that have stayed in the church until the present day and they know of the glorious vision their shepherd of the flock had laid out for them.  They also know, somewhat, of the tremendous personal sacrifice and burden that their pastor carried for the church, but only the pastor and God know of the great heaviness of that burden.

The pastor grows old.  The church grows older, and there arises a new generation who is not familiar with the early struggles.  Soon, the pastor begins to feel his age creep upon him and although he is not wishing to retire, he knows he must plan ahead.  He looks around to see how the 'under-shepherds' of his assembly are fairing.  This is a crisis in many churches, for there are men that are growing under their pastor and they are pretty much in the same boat as he himself had been years ago.  They are anxious  to start their own new church!  They do not want to appear as sitting around, waiting for the pastor to turn the church over to them; so they rush on, eager to make a start on their own.  They preach around, they become noticed by other pastors and many times they are offered another pastorate.  This is especially true when they are excellent preachers.  The local pastor begins to seek out someone to work with him. 

I might add that a pastor doesn't necessarily have to be old and ready to retire when he decides to give up his flock.  There are cases when a pastor gets a call from God to go somewhere else and he will find himself in the same situation of trying to find another pastor for his flock.

This can be the most dangerous time in the history of a church!  There are other religious denominations that switch pastors around like a change of clothes;  that is, they vote in a new pastor every year.  To my way of thinking, that is comparable to children who get shunted around to foster homes every few years.  Where there are children, there must be a long-term commitment to their emotional and physical health.  The foster parent tries hard to make up to the child what they need, but when someone actually adopts a child, they are telling the world that they have made a long term commitment to the child, out of love.  The congregations of such a program; where they have a new pastor every year, will tend to huddle together and consider a pastor as someone who merely feeds them diatribes on Sunday.  He will rarely become a part of their life.  Churches that are constantly changing pastors, voting them in and out like clockwork, are not looking for a pastor.  They want to be in charge of their church.  They want a pastor that will cater to their desires, a pastor who is a puppet for their maneuvers and a man they can run, rather than the other way around.  They are not seeking a man of God who will lead them.  The  man (pastor) who will play patty-cake with the people, rather than feed them the word of God and be led by the spirit of the Lord, will soon show what his true motivation is.  The bible speaks of these types of pastors; they are hirelings.  A hireling is someone that is motivated by money.  He or she is somebody who works only for money, especially somebody who will do menial or unpleasant tasks  for pay. 

When we think of a pastor, we generally revert to the ancient word of shepherd.  The pastor should be a spiritual guide and responsible for the caring of a group of people.  He must be vigilant, aware and pro-active for his people.  This true pastor, would never harm his group of people anymore than a shepherd would harm his sheep.  There is love, appreciation, nurture, trust and genuine caring in his nature. He should manifest the nature of the Lord Jesus.

Now, back to the imaginary young pastor, who has grown old or is moving to assume a new pastorate.  This wonderful pastor, who has become older, would like to think he has found someone that will care for the church that he loved so much.  He would like to think that although he will be laying down his burden, there will be someone just as loving and caring, who will pick up where he left off.  Imagine his dismay when a few months after he has turned this precious group of people over to another,  he learns  that the new pastor has no such feelings for God's people.  First, the poor old pastor tries to pray that God will intervene for the people, for if the new pastor is not just lousy, but is genuinely a hireling in sheep's clothing, the old pastor will hear more than he wants to hear and that most immediately! 

This new hireling (so-called pastor) does not like criticism.   He doesn't take people seriously and will make fun of them; sometimes right to their faces.  He will attack them privately and from the pulpit.  He will start pushing at them for a new building, although the present one is sufficient.  He will focus on the money issues foremost, for that is his motivation for being there.   Immediately, he will start changing things that irritate him.  Often times, it is not things that have bothered anyone else, for they are not things of any spiritual nature.  No, he will have to have new carpeting, new furniture, a new car, a new sound system, new lighting, new office. and many other things that give him pleasure.  He will never be satisfied with status quo when it comes to the physical building of the church.  The spirituality of the church will be intertwined with material things in his mind.  He can always bring in other preachers if the people want a revival or special seminar.  He will only have to think up a good sermon for Sundays.  That can always be found in books, or on tapes, can't it?

Sadly, the members of the church start feeling tired and neglected.  Sis. So-in-so is in dire straights with her out-of-the-church husband.  She could never pour out her heart to the new pastor; she feels he would never understand.  She is poor and nearly broke all the time.  It is all she can do to afford a little offering above her tithing.  She has been traveling across town for years, just because she felt the love from the old pastor and wife.  Now, she secretly thinks about visiting a church that is closer to her home.  After all, the new pastor has barely spoken to her.  He wouldn't miss a woman like her.  She had to come  church alone and the old pastor and wife made her feel special, but this pastor and wife makes her feel as an outcast.   She was taken in by the looks and demeanor of the new pastor, but now, upon closer scrutiny, she feels unwanted and unimportant to the church.  She leaves.

When the lady above left, there were a few close friends of hers in the church who begged her to stay a while longer and give the new pastor a chance.  Although they couldn't convince her to stay, something about her reasons for departing stayed in their minds.  It wasn't long until they began to feel what she had felt.  This pastor did not seem to care a whit about their family concerns.  They began to miss the old pastor's loving concern for their children.   They did not mean to get skeptical.  They tried to pray away their worries, but it felt like the facts started to add up.  The new pastor had cleaned out the church building, which by itself was a worthy cause; however, he did not consider the reasons why the items had been there in the first place.  In fact, he didn't ask anyone if they would object to his cleaning out the closets.  He didn't ask anyone if things belonged to anyone.  He just threw things out as he saw fit.  People stood off and worried a little.  They first noticed that the new pastor had even thrown out the prayer meeting night.  There was too much work to be done on the building, so it wouldn't serve to have a prayer meeting on that night.

The next thing was that he continued to focus on money.  No one would be allowed to buy anything for the church without his approval.  We are not talking about big things;  the people couldn’t have a say about something as mundane as the Sunday School picnic.  Their voices became silent, for they learned that when a complaint was made to the pastor, it was the same standard complaint and it was answered in kind.  The common denominator in their complaints was:  "But pastor so-in-so always allowed this or that!"  The new pastor would get red in the face and say something mean to them, such as; "Well, its too bad Pastor so-in-so is not here now!  I'm the new pastor now."  Shame, shame.  He showed his temper quickly in response to any provocation from the people.

One day the people became aware that any mention of the past; the former pastor or his family, seemed to be a forbidden subject.  The name of the church had to be changed according to the new pastor.  It was too old and outdated.  Get some new 'swinging and modern'  kind of name, thus banish all the memories of the old church.  Music became the next thing to work on.  Never mind that the church used to have a flourishing music department.  Who remembered old songs?  Not this 'young-minded' pastor-he didn't even ask about the past music program.  The programs had to all be changed. It was as if the church became a church without a past history of 30 + prior years!  The past was efficiently erased in the mind of the new pastor, just because he was now in position!

Suddenly, people of very good character, people taught well spiritually, by the former pastor decided they did not want to get a bad spirit on them by warring with their new pastor.  They begin to church-shop.  They even church-hopped.  They knew that was a bad trait.  They knew that the former pastor taught them against church hopping, for they might just hop right out of church before they got through with their hopping!  They were nervous about committing their loyalty so quickly to a new pastor anywhere, after being hurt so at this man.

There was still the old loyalists remaining, clinging to their memories of the church.  The fact that they were loyalists is not saying  that they were loyal to the new pastor.  They were just loyal to the memories of the church in years gone by.  They had seen their children married in that church.  Their babies were dedicated to the Lord in that church.  They were just loyal to the past.  They began to call other ministers in the district, seeking sympathy.  That does not always work, because generally speaking, the ministers try to remain loyal to other ministers; much as doctors and professional people remain loyal to others in their constituency.  The members who were still left in the church, felt more isolated and alienated than ever.  They needed advice about what they should or could do with this overpowering, pompous and proud dictator who had become their new pastor.  They never had reason to worry with their old pastor about issues like this!    Who should they run to, when a wolf in sheep's clothing was in their pulpit?  This thought caused many members to leave, rather than try to dislodge him.

Thankfully, this isn't something that happens every day.  In fact, most ministers are not even able to counsel with members from other churches because they do not know the proper procedure to oust a pastor from his pulpit.  If pastors have a hard time with this issue, how much more a problem will it be to a church group?  They had never had to worry about hypocrisy from their old pastor.   Under their old pastor they had become as big church babies, content in the fact that pastor-daddy would do everything for them.  That included all the worrying about bad things happening to the church.  Now, they were scared out of their cocoons and shocked beyond their senses that someone  could be so cruel, so unconcerned for them,  as to not feed them the sincere milk of the word.  There were many dignified oldsters who had prestige in the church before, but now they themselves were aging and unable to put up more than a timid fight.  They just didn't know how or what to do.

The ministers in the district , while seeming to distance themselves from the problems of the church people, did began to whisper among themselves.   They  realized that people from the church in question were showing up in their services.  Some pastors sent them back home without considering anything.  It was painful and humiliating  for the poor  members;  they had been in church all their lives, and now there was no place where they could just go and become a happy church member again.

The congregation was noticeably dwindling down.  A member usually does not leave the church all by himself;  generally, he takes at least 4 family members and even more extended members of his family, as well.  When a group leaves, it not only speaks a message to the renegade pastor, but it also comforts the person leaving.  They feel  like they are justified for leaving, when they have so much company upon their departure.

Does the new pastor have a change of heart when the congregation starts dwindling?  If he would have changed gears, he might have held onto even a few of the loyalists.   The question is, how can a person change if they won't listen to wise counsel?  Unfortunately, at least for this sad tale, it did not change.  The church continued to go down hill.  The emphasis continued to be about buildings and money.  Even if one wasn't a materialist, one would know that without people,( since it is people who give to the church,)  there will be no money coming into the church.  Aha!  A business must be started under the guise of the church!  What a monster was invented!  Using the church as a launching pad for a business, was not an idea given by God; it was the act of a desperate and proud person.    People suddenly saw that their new pastor was deeply absorbed in business adventures.  They innocently thought he had begun to worry about how to pay for the bills.  The truth is, he wanted to look the part of a church builder.  He launched out to build a building, but meanwhile, forgot that the true meaning of church is the people.  God will come back after his people, not their buildings!

So, how many have we come down to now?  Just to think, it has gone from a big church to a small group of maybe 25 people in a few short years.  Something that took at least 30 years to build; a church built up to a group of 250 with a record of 325, was torn apart in just a few years.  It makes one think of how fast a wrecking ball can destroy a building which took years to build.  In 10 minutes, things can be leveled quickly since destroying something takes no thought.  Planning and planting a church can take a lifetime, whereas, destroying a church can happen almost overnight. 

Few church members can come in and destroy a seasoned church very easily. There are always those that move around the country or a city, visiting churches until they find one that suits their fancy.  These people, while not a strength to any church, are not worrisome to a God-loving and God-fearing pastor.  In many cases, he can actually help the person to see that they need to put their roots down in a church.  They need to become committed to a group of believers.  Most God-fearing pastors do not immediately promote people that come to their churches, and especially  those coming in who claim to be preachers.  If they do recognize them, they have already sought out knowledge about them.  Most pastors  consult with other ministers in the organization and find out the background of preachers that come to their churches.  It is important that we know who it is that labors among us, as the bible says.  There are groups that can quickly cause division, but the pastor that is vigilant will watch closely for any problems in a new group of people.  He will be wise in his dealings with them. 

Getting a new pastor is a more serious and extremely delicate issue.  It is kin to getting married to someone.  While church boards try to learn all they can about the nominees who want to pastor their church,  there is just no substitute for listening to the advice from the outgoing, wise pastor.  He will try to bring to the church, qualified ministers that he knows.  There will be a multitude of preachers available, or so it seems, but they cannot all be the one that will best lead the flock.  There will also be no substitute  for the prayer and fasting and waiting on the Lord that should take place.  The district board must have a chance to express their opinions, and their advice should be taken to heart.  The things that are of an essential nature and criteria for choice of a new pastor, are all things of a spiritual nature.  Character cannot be immediately discerned over the nice smile or new tie.  One must pray that God will lead in the correct decision for filling the most important office of pastor.   It cannot be stressed enough that the pastor is someone who can make or break a church.  Watching a church fall apart is as painful as watching the twin towers fall.   Rebuilding buildings is nothing in comparison to rebuilding lives.