peo thyren

VOICE
AN INDEPENDENT CHURCH JOURNAL • JULY|AUGUST 2012
VOICE
AN INDEPENDENT CHURCH JOURNAL • JULY|AUGUST 2012
Editor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dr. Les Lofquist
Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jim Connelly Studio
Volume 91 Number 4
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Contents
FEATURE ARTICLES
7
11
16
18
20
28
29
32
35
When they Leave | Les Lofquist
How to Split Your Church| Robert Moeller
Relationships and the Fruit of the Spirit | Richard I. Gregory
When Your Church Loses Its Pastor | Paul G. Thyren
New Pastor, New Church | Steve Spacek
Measure Your Ministry |Mark Steiner
The Church and Educational Choices
Genesis, Submission & Modern Wives |Georgia Purdom
Ezekiel, The Watchman |Jim Thompson
IN EVERY ISSUE
37
38
39
40
41
42
44
Death of His Saints
Vision World
New Members
Community Care Today
Women’s Voice
Fellowship News
Chaplain’s Report
When They Leave
T
Les Lofquist
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Satan wants
to divide the
local church
and bring
shame upon
the local
testimony for
Christ.
.ension in church, even in the best of
churches, is to be expected. The church
where the Bible is faithfully taught at every
worship service and where the people are serious
about their love for Christ and where their commitment to serve Him is unwavering… yes, even
those churches go through episodes of tension.
The reasons are many and varied, but like
every family the local church will experience
stressful times. These times may involve differences of opinion (even arguments), financial
pressures and hardships, building programs,
changes in pastors or changes in programs or
changes in the way things have been done, questionable decisions by leaders in various church
ministries, differing preferences, sinful choices
of people in the church, and many, many other
circumstances. There is no doubt that tension in
church is to be expected.
Satan wants to divide the local church and
bring shame upon the local testimony for Christ.
Sometimes he stokes the fire of conflict when all
that was present was tension. Remember, tension
and problems in the church are not the same as
conflict. The wise pastor knows the difference
and he seeks whenever possible “to keep the unity
of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:3).
But what is most difficult for every local church
family is when people decide to leave the church.
That is a unique tension perhaps every congregation has to face. It is especially painful when those
people are loved and appreciated, and yet still decide
to go to another church. Their departure can be
heartbreaking, leaving the congregation with questions and their (former) church family reeling.
This is a tension few pastors like to address.
Reasons They Leave
According to God’s plan we are not called to
serve alone, but rather we are called together as a
local church in order to serve Christ together, as
a body. Yet serving together can be challenging,
stressful and often times exasperating. And most
of us would acknowledge that often the reasons
people in America have for leaving a church are
shallow and petty. Some people leave church
because they don’t like the new hymn books
or singing songs projected on a screen. Others
leave because the color of the new paint or carpet
was not their choice and they don’t like way the
decision was made (“no one listened to me”). I
know of people who left their church because the
starting times for Worship services and Sunday
School were moved half an hour (in one church,
the 30 minute change was earlier while in another church the 30 minute change was later).
Some left in anger over an issue long forgotten by all in the church, but them. Some were
forced out by heavy-handed and tyrannical leadership. Some leave out of boredom. I’ve heard all
kinds of reasons for people leaving a church.
But are there legitimate reasons for leaving a
church? As John MacArthur has written: “There
are times when it becomes necessary to leave a
church for the sake of one’s own conscience, or
out of a duty to obey God rather than men. Such
circumstances would include:
• If heresy on some fundamental truth is being
taught from the pulpit (Galatians 1:7-9).
• If the leaders of the church tolerate seriously
errant doctrine from any who are given teaching authority in the fellowship (Romans 16:17).
• If the church is characterized by a wanton
disregard for Scripture, such as a refusal to
discipline members who are sinning blatantly
(1 Corinthians 5:1-7).
• If unholy living is tolerated in the church
(1 Corinthians 5:9-11).
July|August 2012
7
• If the church is seriously out of step
with the biblical pattern for the
church (2 Thessalonians 3:6, 14).
• If the church is marked by gross
hypocrisy, giving lip service to biblical
Christianity but refusing to acknowledge its true power (2 Timothy 3:5).” 1
According to those New Testament
passages, there are legitimate reasons for
leaving a church.
For Those Left Behind
Speak ing from my own experience as a pastor, I can tell you how I
felt whenever people left our church.
My emotions ranged from sadness to
embarrassment to confusion to a sense
of betrayal to feelings of relief to a loss of
confidence and a lot of second-guessing.
As I quietly listened to the others in our
congregation, I know those emotions
were shared by many others as well.
Why did we feel those emotions,
and more? I think it’s because of love.
We loved those people, to a greater or
lesser degree, depending on who they
were and how long we shared our
lives together. We counted them as
important members of the body. We
worshipped together and prayed for
each other and worked together in min-
8 VOICE
grow. We rejoiced when they rejoiced
and cried when they cried, all because of
love. And when our love was unreturned
(at least that’s how it felt when they left
our church), it hurt badly.
I suppose we wouldn’t want it any other
way, would we? What does it say about a
church or a pastor when people can leave
the church and no one cares, no one notices? Sadly, that does happen. Stony silence
or cold indifference should never mark
a Bible-preaching church. But how can
pastors, leaders and people respond when
the inevitable occurs and folks leave the
church? What should we do?
Stony silence
or cold indifference
should never mark a
Bible-preaching church.
One pastor, after some people left
their church, quoted to the remaining
congregation 1 John 2:19 (“They went
out from us, but they were not of us; for
if they had been of us, they would have
continued with us”). Another pastor eloquently recited the Apostle Paul’s sad
report regarding Demas (“Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world,
and has departed” 2 Timothy 4:10).
Timothy 4:10 do apply to people who
leave the church, but often that is simply not the case. They were of us. They
didn’t love this present world. They
just dropped out and are now attending another church. Do they deserve
their former pastor saying “as far as
I’m concerned, it’s good riddance to
bad rubbish” (as one pastor said to his
Deacon Board, characterizing the people who left)?
How should we pastors respond in
these sad and awkward episodes?
A Lesson for Pastors
In my first full-time ministry after
graduating from seminary, I was a missionary church planter in Utah. Ours
was a congregation of less than twenty
people when I first arrived, so I had a
great deal of work to do in order to see
the church become self-supporting. And
I had a great deal to learn about being
a pastor, so God allowed me to receive
a ministry-altering lesson in my second
week. It came during an intimate conversation with one of the great young
couples of our church plant, Mark and
Mary Ann. 2
I went to Mark and Mary Ann’s
home for a get-acquainted evening. I
was their new pastor and like me, they
were in their late 20s and were new
parents. We had a number of shared
interests and we hit it off immediately!
Their story of a rather recent conversion to Christ (about five years earlier)
was especially compelling to me since
that’s why I was in Utah: to lead people
to Christ, disciple them, and establish
a vibrant local church. It caught my
attention that they heard the Gospel
from another church in town. Ours
was a suburb of a city with a metro area
close to 175,000 people. But despite
those numbers, there was a genuine
scarcity of Gospel-preaching, Bibleteaching churches. So their testimony
caught my attention.
I asked some more questions about
their involvement in that other church.
They not only came to know Christ
there, but they ultimately taught a
Sunday School class, served in the Youth
ministry, sang in the choir, and took
their turns as Nursery workers. Ours
was a church start-up, with hardly any
ministries besides Sunday services. I
quietly wondered, “why did they leave
their former, established church where they
came to Christ and served so faithfully to
become a part of our small, little start-up
church plant?”
Toward the end of the evening, I
made a passing comment about how
much that other church must have
missed them when they left. I said
something like, “good people like you
are so hard to find, especially out here
in Utah.” Mark gulped a few times and
Mary Ann just hung her head in sorrow.
Mark began, “They didn’t say a
thing when we left. We trusted Christ
in that church. We were there every
Sunday for five years in a row and we
did all those things, so we thought they
surely would have missed us… But they
made some changes in ministry direction and one Sunday we tried another
church [the mother church of our
church plant]. We liked it and we’ve
been gone now for almost two years. We
still have heard nothing from our former
church.” By that time Mark could hardly
talk and Mary Ann gently wiped tears
from her eyes.
This conversation put me on the
other side of church-leaving. I had been
a pastoral intern and a Youth Pastor,
so I was on the inside of discussions
about what to do when people left the
church. And those negative emotions
like sadness, embarrassment, and confusion were the ones I imagined Mark and
Mary Ann’s former church must have
felt. So I cautiously defended the lack of
communication.
But Mark and Mary Ann insisted
that somehow, someway their former
church should have reached out to them.
I asked, “But would it have made any
difference in you leaving?” and they said
no it wouldn’t. Surprised I asked, “Then
why should they have contacted you?”
And they said, “Because we wanted to
know they loved us and missed us like
we loved and missed them.”
Then I told them how pastors always
feel uncomfortable and awkward when
people leave the church and we’re unsure
what to do. They said that’s just how
they felt too. So I wondered, “Even
with all that difficult emotion, you still
think your former pastor should’ve communicated, even met with you?” Their
response was a quick and simple, “Yes!”
A Course of Action
Those questions and their answers
were burned into my mind and I have
never forgotten that lesson over all these
years. I promised myself that night in
Utah that whenever people left whatever church I was pastoring, I would
do everything I could to communicate
with them and extend a loving farewell
to them. I haven’t always been able to do
that for various reasons, but it became
one of those pastoral duties I tried my
best to faithfully discharge.
Often I would show
the farewell letter to the
elders and deacons so they
could be assured how the
ending was handled.
Over the years the manner of communication varied, and as I matured
as a pastor I think I got better at that
difficult task. But I learned from Mark
and Mary Ann that a pastor is still a
pastor even as his sheep wander into
another flock. And farewells are important among people who love each other.
Words spoken (or not spoken) at farewells are long remembered, even written
in granite.
After that night’s lesson in Utah,
here is the way I usually handled this
delicate situation. First, when I noticed
or heard about some people’s absence
from church, I would usually ask around
among the congregation about the status of the missing folks. Friends almost
always know when friends are gone on
vacation or are attending to family obligations. But if I heard a report that they
were thinking of leaving the church, I
paid special attention the next Sunday.
If they were still missing, I’ d call
them on the telephone the next week.
Immediately after the surprised (and
sometimes cold) initial greeting, I would
say (with as calm a voice as I could)
that I missed them in church over the
past couple weeks and I heard they were
thinking of going to another church and
I was just checking to see if that was
true. After some awkward silence, they
would confirm the report. I would then
ask if their decision was final. And if
they told me it was, that’s when my pastoral farewell began.
I would ask them the name of the
other church they were considering
attending. If it was a Bible-teaching
church, I would tell them how sad I
was that they were leaving our church
and that I would miss them personally
and our whole congregation would miss
them. Then I would remind them of
the areas of our church ministry where
they served and how grateful we were
for everything they had done through
the years. I would try to be as specific as
possible in this recitation of their service:
in the nursery or choir or youth ministry
or on the Missions Committee or as a
Deacon or as Sunday School teacher.
Then I would tell them I loved them and
encouraged them to continue to grow
in grace and serve Christ faithfully no
matter where they attended church. I
would carefully avoid unkind words and
an accusing, defensive attitude.
Then I would ask a very important
question: “Have I done anything to offend
or hurt you for which I should seek your
forgiveness?” I did not want them to harbor bitter feelings toward me if there was
an unresolved issue between us. I did not
want The Chief Shepherd to find me
guilty of mistreatment of His sheep.
After we hung up (usually with a
very positive response on the other side),
that day I would write them a personal
letter expressing similar sentiments as I
did on the phone. But I put those words
into writing because I wanted my letter to become a rock of remembrance in
their lives. They needed to know they
were loved in our church and we would
miss them. But as their (now former)
pastor, I was sending them off to continue in the lives I had urged them to
live all the time that I was their pastor.
The practical benefit of such a sendoff is that those left behind will hear
about that farewell (and they will!) and
they will be content knowing their
friends were given a loving farewell.
This can dispel lingering doubts about
the pastor’s leadership. Often I would
show the farewell letter to the elders
and deacons so they could be assured
how the ending was handled. Everyone
seemed to appreciate my efforts and I
was satisfied that I was attempting to be
a good shepherd of Christ’s sheep.
July|August 2012
9
Bad Partings
Of course, there are some cases in
church when such a loving farewell is
not possible. We had our share of church
discipline cases and we handled those
differently, according to Matthew 18:1518. When those people left, it was due
to sin and we prayed for their spiritual
restoration. There were other people
who left church simply to go fishing
or hunting every weekend or sleep all
day on Sunday or to pursue other nonspiritual activities. Because such choices
demonstrated a genuine spiritual deficiency in their lives, we continued to
reach out to those people to bring them
back to the flock. Many never returned.
But those left behind in church must
be certain that they handle the departure process in a godly fashion. Yet I
have heard about tremendous anger after
some church partings, with all sorts
of wreckage caused by the people who
left. But it also works both ways. The
sheep aren’t the only ones who leave
church with a bad parting. One pastor
felt wrongfully removed from the church
and as his final farewell, he trashed the
parsonage. No matter who does the
leaving, and no matter the circumstances of the leaving, it never gives anyone
the opportunity to dishonor the Lord
and disobey His commands.
Conclusion
Do you have a legitimate, Scriptural
reason for leaving your church? Check
over that list of reasons as cited by
MacArthur at the beginning of this article
and see if you are standing on the Bible or
on something less in your departure.
In an article entitled “Confessions
of a (Recovering) Church-hopper,” John
Fischer wrote: “In our free-market, commodity-rich society, it’s understandable
that we would approach church as we
would a shopping mall of spiritual products
and services. This is the way our culture
operates… As consumers we reserve the
right to pass judgment on the products and
services we use, and the companies that
service us begin to cater to our demands.
‘The customer is always right’ may work
well at McDonald’s, but in a church it
undermines the authority of the Word of
God and the leaders God has called to represent Him. We do not go to a particular
church to decide whether that church is
doing everything right, but to hear from
God and humbly find out where we went
wrong that week in our own lives and what
we need to do to make it right.” 3
Maybe they’re just church-hopping.
That is an American Christian behavior and it is not beneficial for anyone
involved. But whenever people decide to
leave the church, it is a unique tension.
It is especially painful when those people are loved and appreciated, and yet
still decide to leave. Their departure can
be heartbreaking, leaving the congregation with questions and their (former)
church family reeling.
This is a tension few pastors like to
address. But it nonetheless is an important pastoral duty that must not be
neglected.
END NOTES
1. John MacArthur, “When Should People Leave
Their Church?” http://www.gty.org/Resources/
Questions/QA120 (accessed May 10, 2012)
2. Mark and Mary Ann are not their real names.
I have changed them here to protect their anonymity.
3. John Fischer, “Confessions of a Recovering
Church Hopper,” New Man, Vol. 3, No. 1
(Jan./Feb. 1996), pp. 60-70.
.
.
.
10 VOICE
How to Split
Your Church
A
Robert Moeller
Bob Moeller pastored
for 25 years and is now
traveling the country
with a passion to say
that marriage is for
better for worse for
keeps. He is Executive
Director of For Better
For Worse For Keeps
Ministries.
church in the southern United States no
longer exists, due in part to an incident
that took place in the church kitchen
one Sunday afternoon.
A new family had arrived to take part in
their first potluck luncheon. The aroma of tuna
casseroles, baked beans, and tater-tot dishes
wafted through the building. The unsuspecting
wife cheerfully brought her red gelatin salad to
the kitchen, then headed back to the fellowship
hall to join her family.
The moment the pastor said “Amen,” hungry
parishioners politely charged for the serving line.
There were dozens of dishes to sample. “Where’s
our salad?” the woman’s husband asked innocently.
“There must be some mistake,” she said. “I’ll
find out what happened.” She reached the kitchen
door in time to witness the queen of the kitchen
ladling the last of her salad into the disposal.
“ W hat a re you doing” the newcomer
shrieked. “That’s my salad!”
Without batting an eye, the woman looked
up and said, “You’re new to this church. You’ll
soon learn we use only real whipped cream
around here, not Cool Whip.” She hit the
switch. The garbage disposal rumbled and gurgled and sucked the salad down the drain.
That one incident started a significant church
battle that escalated into all out war. It illustrates
the first of ten secrets in any church conf lict.
These ten steps can destroy any congregation.
Focus only on your own desires
“What causes f ights and quarrels among
you?” James asks. “Don’t they come from your
desires that battle within you? You want something but don’t get it” (4:1, 2).
The most basic way to split a church is to
focus exclusively on what you want and then
do what you must to get it. Perhaps you prefer praise choruses to hymns, or you believe
no church should go into debt for a building
project. There’s nothing wrong with expressing differing viewpoints on these issues. The
problems begin when we elevate our personal
convictions to the level of absolutes. It’s when
we insist on having things done our way, and
our way only, that factions start.
The most basic way to
split a church is to focus exclusively
on what you want and then do
what you must to get it.
Listen to every criticism
The next step in splitting a church is to give credence to every rumor, story, or criticism you happen
to hear. The morsel of gossip doesn’t have to be true
to be destructive. You just have to treat it as true.
On one occasion, word spread around our church
that I owned expensive, imported furniture. The
furniture was imported – from the top floor of J C
Penney, where all the closeout items were arranged.
Though it was a small, silly rumor that eventually
died out, it carried a sinister suggestion. It introduced
the notion that the pastor was living in luxury at the
expense of struggling parishioners. One trip to our
home would have dispelled the notion.
Solomon, perhaps the wisest ruler ever to
live, made this observation: “Without wood
a fire goes out; without gossip a quarrel dies
down” (Proverbs 26:20). Rumors need oxygen to
catch fire. If you deprive them of a listening ear,
they quickly die out. But if your goal is to split
a church, you should keep circulating the story
without ever verifying its accuracy. The longer
the rumor circulates, the more emotions become
inf lamed, the more groups will form stubborn
opinions, and the more hurt can be inflicted on
innocent people.
Focus on your pastor’s weaknesses,
not his strengths
One of my favorite “Far Side” cartoons shows
two deer standing in the woods talking. A large
circular target appears on the front of one of
July|August 2012 11
them. The other one says, “Bummer of a
birthmark, Ralph.”
In a sense every pastor carries around
a large target. He can quickly become
the focal point of everything that’s
wrong with the church.
A pastor from the West Coast
tells of a woman who arranged for an
appointment in his office. She brought
several typed pages of complaints: spelling errors in the bulletin, dates and
times when the off ice phones went
unanswered, and blunders made in the
Sunday morning announcements. The
pastor’s eyes glazed over. Are there really
people out there, he wondered, who make
it their life’s ambition to keep track of all
these things?
Pastors are human, which means
they make mistakes. But infallibility
has never been part of the biblical job
description for a shepherd. The writer
of Hebrews understood how difficult it
is to be a pastor. That’s why he wrote,
“Obey your leaders and submit to their
authority. They keep watch over you as
men who must give an account. Obey
them so that their work will be a joy, not
a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you” (Hebrews 13:17).
You will find no advantage in continually nit-picking fault-finding, and
criticizing your pastor – unless your goal
is to divide and demoralize the church.
Speak the truth or practice love, but
never combine the two
If I wanted to undermine the spiritual health of a local church. I wouldn’t
begin by introducing false teachings.
The more mat ure members would
quickly spot the problem. Instead, I
would emphasize truth or love, but never
balance the two.
Pastor Danielson was so concerned
about keeping the peace and offending no one that he rarely called anyone
to account. If volunteers handled the
financial affairs in a slipshod way, he
said nothing. He didn’t want them to
quit. If a Sunday school teacher led a
questionable life, he said nothing. If
staff members didn’t do their jobs, he
said little. Love, not criticism, is what
builds a church, he reasoned.
Over the years, problems accumulated like junk in a hall closet. Audits were
never done to ensure proper handling
12 VOICE
of the money. Parents were never called
to investigate their concerns about the
sponsors working with teenagers. Staff
members were allowed to run their own
fiefdoms with little or no accountability.
Because Pastor Danielson wanted to be known as a lover rather than
a fighter, he decided to take another
church rather than face the backlog of
problems. The pastor who followed him
never knew what hit him. The accumulated problems spilled over like suds
from a washing machine in an old I Love
Lucy episode.
Churches that emphasize
love, to the exclusion
of speaking truth, will
eventually collapse
on themselves.
Pastor Jacobs, on the other hand,
thrived on confrontation. He hadn’t put
in a full day until he called someone on
the carpet. His sermons often sounded
like scoldings. He berated people for
their lack of faith, prayer, and service.
He said he was preaching truth, but to
many people he came across as just plain
angry. When the church voted him out,
Pastor Jacobs felt betrayed. What he
didn’t realize is that he had trained his
people to be sharks.
Churches that emphasize love, to the
exclusion of speaking truth, will eventually collapse on themselves. The weight
of unaddressed problems and conf licts
will bring the ceiling down. Churches
that pound hard on truth, but fail to see
the value of love, will eventually devour
each other. The solution is to do what
the Scriptures plainly tell us: “Instead,
speaking the truth in love, we will in
all things grow up into him who is the
Head, that is, Christ” (Ephesians 4:15)
Store grievances for future use
One effective means of crippling a
church is to harbor secret resentments
against one another. The longer these
grievances are stored, the more powerful
they become.
One church fight eventually ended
up in a state court. Both sides had sued
the other to gain title to the building
and land. The high court refused to rule
on the case and instead referred it to the
denominational court. After a lengthy
investigation, the cause of the dispute was
supposedly traced to a church banquet
when one member had received a larger
slide of ham than the other one had.
Buried resentments can inf lict
enormous damage. One church leader
believes unresolved bitterness is behind
his church’s penchant for chewing up one
pastor after another. Somewhere, sometime, someone had allowed an injustice
to become deeply embedded in the soul.
Like barrels of toxic chemicals hidden in
the soil, it poisoned generations to come.
Hebrews warns us, “See to it that no
one misses the grace of God and that
no bitter root grows up to cause trouble
and defile many” (Hebrews 12:15). The
result of storing grievances is the corruption of many people.
Forgive only those who ask you to
(and only if they deserve it)
I once challenged a man to forgive
someone he had been holding a grudge
against for thirty years. “Why should I
forgive him?” he shouted. “He’s never
admitted that he was wrong.”
“Because Christ tells us to forgive
our enemies,” I replied. “No!” he said
trembling with anger. “Christ only forgave the thief on the cross who asked
Him for forgiveness. I won’t forgive
him until he asks me to.” The man had
invented a theological argument to justify his hatred.
Pastor Friedrich was undergoing an
annual review by a church committee.
He asked a simple question that turned
out to be spring-loaded. “What could I
do to better serve you this next year?”
Suddenly a man f lushed red, and with
a quivering voice said, “Pastor, my sister Margaret had gout last February,
and you never visited her. Not once! Is a
simple visit too much to ask?”
Pastor Friedrich was employed only
part-time at the church. He was not told
of Margaret’s condition for three weeks.
Then he tried to visit her, but unfamiliar
with the country roads, he had gotten
lost and had nearly ended up in a ditch.
“I apologize. I’m sorry I missed her.”
“Hmmph,” said the man, his arms
crossed and his expression an unrelenting scowl.
That’s the type of stubborn unforgiveness that will eventually spread like
a cancer through a church. Demanding
others beg for our pardon, requiring
them to prove they deserve it, are surefire ways to kill love and unity. But if
disharmony is your objective, never forgive, never forget.
Hide your own sin behind harsh
attitudes
A number of years ago, a well known
evangelist admitted he had battled with
lust. Though he hadn’t committed adultery, his thought life was plagued with
unhealthy images and desires. By his
admission, he railed against sexual sin to
hide his problem: “I was trying to shout
[lust] out of my life.”
It’s not wrong to denounce sin.
But when we use harsh denunciations
of others to camouf lage our own sin,
it’s wrong. This was the case with the
Pharisees in Jesus’ day. “Woe to you,”
He said, “teachers of the law and
Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the
outside of the cup and dish, but inside
they are full of greed and self-indulgence” (Matthew 23:25).
If you wish to divide a church, simply take precious and important truths,
wrap them in legalistic behavior and
harsh attitudes, then whip your opponents with them until the blood runs
down the aisle. It will not only give
your enemies what they deserve; it will
silence the convicting voice of God in
your own life.
It’s not wrong
to denounce sin. But when
we use harsh denunciations
of others to camouflage
our own sin, it’s wrong.
Use prayer to unite discontented
people (and spread inappropriate
information)
Are you looking for the perfect pretext to recruit other discontented people?
This method will not only cover your
tracks, but will also give you the appearance of spiritual maturity. Start a prayer
meeting, preferably in your home or the
home of another disgruntled member.
Use it as a cover to complain about the
pastor or about others in the church.
Serve refreshments. Perhaps even sing
a chorus or hymn. A brief Bible study
might help. But then get down to the real
business of the night. Discuss the pastor’s
obvious faults and the lack of true leadership in the congregation. Share stories
that illustrate the worst in others.
Should the tone become too ugly for
the faint at heart, refocus the remainder of the meeting on taking prayer
requests. That will keep people from
getting up to leave. “Let’s pray for Pastor
Jones, that God will help him to begin
to get his ego under control.”
“We should also remember to uphold
our elder chairman. He has a lot to contend with now that his wife is in clinical
depression.”
“I’d like you to pray for Bruce.
He says he’s about to quit as treasurer
because of the way the youth pastor handles money.”
These, of course, are not the only
type of prayer requests that can be used
to embarrass, belittle, or demean others. But they illustrate the principle of
taking something holy and using it for
July|August 2012 13
an unholy purpose. Here are the basic
rules: 1. Share information no one in the
room has a right to know. 2. Discuss
details that can’t be immediately verified
or denied. 3. Reveal just enough facts
to leave a questionable impression of
another person’s character.
Small groups have the potential to
be a vibrant place for people to experience spiritual refreshment, growth, and
accountability. But they can be subverted, and when they are, the results can be
devastating.
Do whatever it takes to win
The Persian Gulf conf lict illustrated the strategy of “total war.” We saw
missiles fired at random into civilian
populations, chemical weapons used to
exterminate minorities, oil wells dynamited in revenge. If your aim is to split
a congregation, I suggest that you also
adopt a total war strategy. It means
using every means available, regardless
of how ruthless or immoral, to win.
If you profess to be a Christian,
you will need some justif ication for
your behavior. Some Bible verses work
well when taken out of context: “Expel
the wicked man from among you” (1
Corinthians 5:13). “And one of them
struck the servant of the high priest,
cutting off his right ear” (Luke 22:50).
“I have nothing but hatred for them; I
count them my enemies” (Psalm 139:22).
Listen to these tactics described by
a pastor in Leadership journal: “One
Sunday morning, as I walked into the
sanctuary to prepare for the worship service, I saw several individuals welcoming
the arriving congregation by handing
out fliers, urging them to sign the petition [for my removal]. I went out and
said to one of them, ‘How can you do
this to people who are coming here to
worship and hear God’s Word?’
“ ‘This is our church, not yours,’ one
of them replied, ‘and it’s about time you
realized it!’ ”
The pastor soon resigned and left the
ministry.
How is it that members of a church
can reach the point where they will
resort to the lowest of tactics? “Rather
than recognizing personal motivations and differences, we attribute evil
motives to others,” the writer observed.
“Chu rch f ights become st r ug gles
14 VOICE
over right and wrong, good and evil,
orthodoxy and heresy. Opponents are
not merely antagonists but are instead
Satan’s emissaries.”
Of course, waging total war in the
congregation is a direct violation of how
we are told to act toward one another in
the church of Jesus Christ. “Be kind and
compassionate to one another, forgiving
each other, just as in Christ God forgave
you” (Ephesians 4:32).
If you really desire
to have the blessing and
backing of God in the midst
of a conflict, adopt the role
of a peacemaker.
Remember, you are on a mission
from God
The final step in splitting a church
is to declare that you are taking divisive
steps because God told you to. First, if
you are convinced that you are on a mission from God, you don’t have to follow
established procedures. You don’t have
to produce credible evidence to back up
your claim, verify information, or face
appropriate boards with your accusations.
Second, you can shame your opponents into silence. If someone happens
to ask, “How do you know God told you
to do it?” you simply reply, “IF you were
walking closer with God, you’d learn to
listen for instructions.”
Third, your claim is beyond verification. Who can possibly dispute your
action if God told you to do it? It is
far too easy for us to believe that we
are hearing the voice of God, when all
we are hearing is our own subconscious
selfish desires telling us what to do.
If you really desire to have the blessing and backing of God in the midst of a
conflict, adopt the role of a peacemaker.
Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God”
(Matthew 5:9). Expend your efforts on
restoring grace and truth and unity to
the church. Put away your selfish interests, hidden agendas, and need for
control. If you do all this, you can indeed
say you’re on a mission from God.
Otherwise, stif le yourself. God is
not on the side of the group who wants
blue carpet rather than beige in the
sanctuary, nor does He favor gravel over
asphalt in the new parking lot. He’s on
the side of those who seek to “keep the
unity of the Spirit through the bond of
peace” (Ephesians 4:3).
No Secret
There you have it. The top ten
secrets of splitting a church. Actually,
they aren’t much of a secret. They’ve
been used in church fights for about as
long as the church has been in existence.
My hope is that in reviewing them,
we all might see how destructive our
actions can be when our pride, anger,
and need for power blinds us to what we
are doing.
While I was in college, I was invited to serve on the administrative board
of my church. After one meeting that
had turned particularly nasty, I began
to weep. My heart was broken by what I
had witnessed. One of the board members approached me as I had my head
bowed. “Bob, I’m sorry about what happened tonight. Sometimes in the middle
of an argument, even Christians can get
carried away.”
I looked up at him, and he must have
seen the tears in my eyes. I appreciated
his comments, but the only one who
seemed to know what to do was my dad,
who was also a member of the board.
He walked over and simply put his arm
around me. “Take as long as you need to,
son,” he said. I suspect I wasn’t the only
one who wept that night. The problem
is, tears in heaven can’t be seen.
This is article is adapted from Love in Action
(Multnomah Books, 1994). Used by permission of
the author. Learn more about Bob Moeller’s ministry at www.forkeepsministries.com
Relationships and the
Fruit of the Spirit
T
Richard I. Gregory
Dr. Richard Gregory
served as IFCA
International Executive
Director for 13 years
from 1987 to 2000.
He is now IFCA
International Minister
at Large.
he ministry of the Holy Spirit is essential
in the life of the believer and understanding that ministry is vital to spiritual
stability. There is great misunderstanding about
the Holy Spirit and especially about the granting
and administration of the spiritual gifts.
When the believer ref lects the character of
the Lord Jesus Christ, it is the Holy Spirit who
must receive the credit. It is His task to conform every child of God to the image of Christ
(Romans 8:28-29) for it is the destiny of every
true believer to be like the Lord Jesus. John
speaks of this in 1 John 3:1-2 when he says,
“Behold, what manner of love the Father has
bestowed upon us, that we should be called the
sons of God; therefore, the world knows us not,
because it knew Him not. Beloved, now are we
the sons of God, and it does not yet appear what
we shall be, but we know that when He shall
appear, we shall be like Him.” The Holy Spirit
does His job in every true believer and there is of
necessity the evidence of His sanctifying work in
every true child of God.
One of the characteristics of the work of the
Holy Spirit is the development of relationships.
Paul defines the fruit produced by the Holy Spirit
in relational terms in Galatians 5:22. “But the
fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, faith, meekness, temperance…”
Relationship to God
It seems to me that the character qualities of
love, joy and peace are products of the Spirit’s
ministry in developing our relationship to God.
Love begins with God. In fact it is clearly stated
that “love is of God” (1 John 4:7). John clearly identifies the source of love when he writes
“Herein is love, not that we loved God but that
He loved us” (1 John 4:10). Paul further speaks
of the origin of love as “shed abroad in our hearts
by the Holy Spirit” (Romans 5:5). Our ability
to genuinely love God is the work of the Holy
Spirit as He builds a loving relationship between
a believer and his Redeemer.
16 VOICE
Joy is the by-product of spiritual obedience.
It is a characteristic of a believer’s disposition.
It is an inner warmth produced by the Holy
Spirit when one knows that he has pleased the
Lord through his heartfelt response to what God
commands or desires. It is a relationship of intimacy with God resulting in exalting expressions
of praise. As Nehemiah wrote, “the joy of the
Lord is your strength.” (Nehemiah 8:10).
One of the characteristics of
the work of the Holy Spirit is the
development of relationships.
Peace is obviously a characteristic of an
open and honest relationship with God. God
declares that there is peace between Himself and
the believer “through the blood of His Cross”
(Colossians 1:20). When the Holy Spirit assures
a believer that he is “accepted in the Beloved
One” (Ephesians 1:6) and when he is convinced
that no animosity exists between the Lord and
his soul, “the peace of God that passes all understanding guards his heart and mind through the
Lord Jesus Christ” (Philippians 4:7). It is the
ministry of the Holy Spirit that produces a fruitful relationship of love, joy and peace between
the Lord and His redeemed child.
Relationship to Others
The character traits of longsuffering, gentleness and goodness represent a believer’s
relationship to others, whether they are believers
or unbelievers. There is much teaching in God’s
Word about the responsibility of a believer to
others. It is through the fruit that is produced in
a believer by the Holy Spirit that one is enabled
to ref lect the character of Christ in relationships. Vine in his Expository Dictionary of New
Testament Words notes that “Longsuffering is that
quality of self-restraint in the face of provocation which does not hastily retaliate or promptly
punish; it is the opposite of anger, and
is associated with mercy, and is used of
God, Exodus 34:6 (Septuagint); Romans
2:4; 1 Peter 3:20. Patience is the quality
that does not surrender to circumstances
or succumb under trail; it is the opposite
of despondency and is associated with
hope, 1 Thessalonians 1:3; it is not used
of God.” Paul urges the Ephesians to
walk worthy of their calling by exhibiting “all lowliness and meekness, with
longsuffering, forbearing one another
in love; endeavoring to keep the unity
of the Spirit in the bond of peace”
(Ephesians 4:2-3).
Gentleness, or as better rendered
kindness, is contrasted with the vices
the Holy Spirit “puts away “ from the
believer in Ephesians 4:30-32. Paul
notes that it is the ministry of the Holy
Spirit that removes “all bitterness, and
wrath, and anger, and evil speaking. . .
with all malice.” The believer is called
upon not to resist this work of the Holy
Spirit but to cooperate by being “kind,
tender-hearted and forgiving. . . even
as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven
you.” It is in this that the Holy Spirit
produces the characteristic of kindness as Christ likeness appears in ones
relationship with others. Trench follows Jerome in distinguishing between
kindness and goodness in the follow-
ing manner. Kindness describes the
kindlier aspects of goodness, while the
goodness in Galatians 5:22 includes the
sterner qualities of doing good. This
can be illustrated by Christ denouncing
the Scribes and Pharisees in Matthew
23:21-29 and yet being tender with the
penitent woman in Luke 7:37-50. It is
only the Holy Spirit that enables one to
confront sin in another in such a manner
that he is doing good.
It is only when
the Holy Spirit’s ministry
has brought one to selflessness
that the radiance of
the character of Christ can
dominate a life.
Relationship to Self
Faithfulness, meekness and temperance are personal characteristics that
describe the disposition of a believer in
his relationship to himself. The character of faithfulness is reliability. Men
who are faithful are true to their convictions and are focused. They are men of
conviction, compassion and consistency.
It might be said of them that they are
single minded. Paul refers to them in 2
Timothy 2:2, “And the things that you
have heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit to faithful men,
who shall be able to teach others also.”
Meekness has been described by some
as strength under control. It is that inner
quality of a man that is closely related to
humility. One possesses this inner quality of heart and mind when he does not
think more highly of himself than he
ought to think but submits all that he is
to the controlling strength of the Lord.
It is in this sense that it is said of Moses
that he is the meekest of all men.
Self control is the capstone on the
pyramid of the fruit of the Spirit. Self
is the enemy of being controlled by the
Spirit. It is only when the Holy Spirit’s
ministry has brought one to self lessness that the radiance of the character
of Christ can dominate a life. Just as it
might be said that love is the tree upon
which all the aspects of the fruit of the
Spirit grow, self control is the all encompassing evidence of the fruit bearing
Christian.
When I was a child I used to sing a
chorus that went like this:
Jesus and others and you
What a wonderful way to spell joy.
Jesus and others and you
In the life of each girl and each boy.
J is for Jesus for He has first place.
O is for others we meet face to face.
Y is for you in whatever you do.
Put yourself last and spell joy.
This chorus illustrates the three
fold nature of the fruit of the Spirit as
it is manifested in our relationships.
When the Holy Spirit is producing in
and through the believer the fruit of
His control, the character of the Lord
Jesus is seen in his relationship to God,
response to the needs of others and
responsibility with respect to self. The
observable fruit of the Holy Spirit in the
life of the believer is an evidence of his
genuine faith.
Originally appeared in VOICE, March/April, 1996
July|August 2012 17
When Your Church
Loses Its Pastor
A
fter the initial shock of hearing the
words “. . . and my resignation is effective . . .” confusion is bound to reign for
awhile. What do we do after our pastor resigns?
Generally, a pastoral search committee is formed
to go about the task of finding another shepherd
for the flock. But the congregation needs to do
more than just seek another pastor. While it’s not
as easy as A B C, the information that follows
will help address other needs of the congregation.
A – Assessment
Paul G. Thyren
Dr. Paul Thyren is
pastor of Grace Bible
Church of Adell, WI
and a long time member
of IFCA International.
Assessment comes in the form of asking questions, even the hard ones. Where are we as a
congregation? Did the pastor leave under difficult circumstances? Were there moral, ethical
or other problems that damaged testimonies? Is
the congregation and/or board divided? What
are the vital signs of the fellowship? What are
the strengths and weaknesses? Does the church
need outside help to be objective and put things
back into perspective? Are there problems within
the congregation that need to be handled? What
will be the process? Are there relationships to be
reconciled outside the church?
B – Budget
In many churches, the pastor’s salary and
benefit package is a substantial part of the annual
budget. The expense budget changes when a pastor leaves. There are now new expense items such
as: possible interim pastor, pulpit supply, search
committee expenses, expense of bringing in pastoral candidates, moving the new pastor to your
community, fixing the parsonage, helping with
the down payment on a house, etc. Reasonable
effort should be made to anticipate these needs
so that money can be wisely used. It is not a time
that giving should drop off simply because the
need to pay the pastor is temporarily gone.
C – Communicate
Communication is one of the biggest problems
on earth today. Good communication is important
18 VOICE
in churches with or without pastors. It is especially crucial in churches looking for a pastor. The
leadership must communicate with the congregation and vice-versa. Communicate the following
information: who is in charge, whom to call with
a problem, what the plans are, in what timeframe
will things take place, what changes are being
made in plans previously made. Communication
of feelings, expectations, ideas, and assessments is
important. Ample communication with prospective candidates will help avoid problems. Don’t
make assumptions that things are understood or
agreed upon without talking about it.
While the times for securing
a pastor vary, it is a fairly
lengthy and tedious process.
Good communication is not gossip. Sharing
confidential information, pet issues that become
divisive, criticism or anything else that does not
edify is gossip.
D – Development
Develop a Biblical plan of action during the
time you are without a pastor. The plan should
be for a year or two. While the times for securing a pastor vary, it is a fairly lengthy and tedious
process. A plan of action for growth, outreach,
fellowship and worship will give the congregation direction and security. It will draw people
together for common goals and encourage the
use of spiritual gifts among the Body of Christ.
Obedience brings joy and enthusiasm. Joyful
churches are attractive churches.
E – Encouragement
Encourage one another through prayer and
fellowship. Encourage loyalty to Christ, the
church and to the Christian walk. Encourage
involvement in the church’s ministries.
F – Feelings
When a church loses a pastor for any
reason, “feelings” will be present. People
may have mixed feelings. There may be
a sense of grief, depression, anger, bitterness, joy, hurt, fear, bewilderment,
disappointment, disillusionment or other
emotions. People’s relationships to the
pastor vary and their feeling will differ
accordingly. If emotions are “stuffed”,
suppressed or incorrectly handled, deeper
problems will develop that will hinder
the next pastor’s ministry.
G – God
God ’s work does not stop with
the loss of a person, however important he or she may be. Verses normally
applied to individuals are equally true
for churches: “. . . My grace is sufficient
for you . . . I can do all things through
Christ who strengthens me . . . If any
man lack wisdom, let him ask of God.
. . .” The verses are too numerous to
list here. God is sovereign. His goal is a
glorious church made up of people who
are being conformed to the image of
Christ. The process of dealing with the
needs and problems of a congregation is
as important to God as the goal itself.
The commands in Scripture are God’s
process to move us in the direction of
His goal. During the time your church is
without a pastor, allow God to refine you
in the process of becoming Christ-like by
squarely facing the issues you would not
otherwise have to deal with if your pastor
were present.
July|August 2012 19
New Pastor,
New Church
A
ccording to Ray M. Oswald, in New
Beginnings: A Pastorate Start Up Workbook,
“Each pastorate start up should be
viewed as “a dangerous opportunity.’” 1 Trying
to negotiate the first couple of years in a new
ministry, we often discover “land mines” that we
never expected.
There are many things that could be suggested to help a pastor in a new church, but for
the sake of being concise the following thoughts
are offered.
Steve Spacek
Steve Spacek is the
Executive Director
of Help Ministries
(www.hm.org) and
the IFCA Regional
Representative for
Eastern Pennsylvania.
Adjust Expectations
One of the first things a new pastor must do
is to realistically readjust his expectations of the
congregation and help them readjust their expectations of him. Oswald remarks, “Each [church]
member harbors a secret hope that you will walk
on water and bring such energy and vitality to
the parish that they will have to hold people back
at the door. (They may not admit this openly,
but they all hope they will be remembered as
the group that made the super choice for their
church.)” Both church and pastor need to recognize and renounce this secret hope so that both
are freed from false expectations.
Show Love and Hospitality
Building relationships is an active endeavor
that you must initiate. You can’t wait for others
to reach out to you; you must reach out to them.
People can be lonely in a crowd and many are
looking for someone that says by word and life, “I
care for you.” Since ministry is about people, ask
God to give you a deepening love for your people.
Love is a self-sacrificing, caring commitment
that shows itself in seeking the highest good of
the one loved. “If I… do not have love, it profits
me nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:3).
Learn people’s names and remember each one
before the throne of grace. Open your heart, your
home, and your office for everyone to visit you –
your members should feel you are approachable.
Send birthday cards with a personal note. Make
20 VOICE
regular phone calls to keep in touch and ask for
personal prayer requests. Particularly visit the
elderly and shut-ins. They often become your
greatest prayer partners.
Demonstrate hospitality which is eagerly
sharing your family, home, finances, food, and
spiritual refreshment with those God brings
into your life. “Eagerly pursue hospitality”
(Romans 12:13). By inviting folks to your home,
sharing what you have with others, and offering
spiritual encouragement, you become a model
for them to follow.
One of the first things a
new pastor must do is to
realistically readjust his
expectations of the congregation
and help them readjust their
expectations of him.
Get acquainted with other pastors of like
faith. Yes, you too need the fellowship and
accountability of your peers. Build friendships
with leaders in your community. Don’t neglect
your immediate neighbors – they are your
“Jerusalem.” Show genuine interest in others and
pray for their specific needs.
Be Discerning and Sensitive
Learn to be discerning, not judgmental.
Discernment is the ability to see people and situations the way they really are, not merely as they
appear to be. “For God sees not as man sees, for
man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord
looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7). A discerning
person will examine himself before evaluating the
actions of others (Galatians 6:4), check the accuracy
of all the facts and related factors before reaching
a conclusion (1 Corinthians 2:15), and deal as privately as possible with the situations (1 Corinthians
6:5,6). One who is judgmental forms opinions on
first impressions or hearsay and publicly
condemns those he believes guilty.
Don’t believe everything you hear. In
fact, when people start to criticize, gently
redirect them by asking if they would
like to be part of the solution rather than
part of the problem. In time, folks will
know you do not encourage gossip. This
does not mean you should ignore those
who warn you about persistent problems.
Show a genuine interest in those who
share their concerns, and be careful that
you are not influenced by one person or
family. You hear that there are two sides
to every story; well, actually, there are
at least a dozen. Learn all you can from
godly believers and consider their insights.
Be a listener; do not answer until the
other person has finished talking (James
1:19). This demonstrates your concern
about the other person’s interests. It also
shows your sensitivity which is exercising
your senses so that you can perceive the
true spirit and emotions of others. “Rejoice
with them that do rejoice, and weep with
them that weep” (Romans 12:15).
Balance Convictions with Deference
Some confuse convictions (biblical
standards) with personal preferences.
Pastors must always uphold biblical
convictions – purposing to follow the
commands of Scripture, whatever the
cost. We should be like “Daniel [who]
purposed in his heart that he would not
defile himself…” (Daniel 1:8), and our
f locks should know that biblical standards must be maintained in our life.
However, we can cause dissension and
division if we don’t give deference – limiting your freedom so you do not offend
the tastes of others. As Paul teaches in
Romans 14:21, “It is good neither to eat
meat nor drink wine nor do anything by
which your brother stumbles [to be tripped
up] or is offended [to cause them to fall] or
is made weak [without strength].” In other
words, we don’t have the right to flaunt
our liberty. If there is anything in our lives
that draws a brother away from an internal intimacy with Christ then we need to
abstain from that practice.
Effect Change with Caution
Learning to defer without compromising your convictions will help
when promoting change in the church.
Distinguish between your own pet desires
and real biblical needs. If you make
changes just to suit yourself, you are being
selfish and shortsighted. Change should
be made for the good of the ministry, not
for the glory of the minister.
Unpleasant consequences can develop
through incompleteness and rashness.
Thoroughness knows what factors will
diminish the effectiveness of our work
or words if neglected. Proverbs 18:15
says, “The mind of the prudent acquires
knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks
knowledge.” Cautiousness knows how
important right timing is in accomplishing right actions. “It is not good for a
person to be without knowledge, and
he who makes haste with his feet errs”
(Proverbs 19:2). Time is needed to thoroughly investigate all the details and to
be cautious before effecting change.
If there is anything in our
lives that draws a brother
away from an internal
intimacy with Christ
then we need to abstain
from that practice.
Work on making small changes that
are supported by the leaders and congregation before attempting larger changes.
Field your ideas and plans to leaders privately first. This plants the seed idea
and gives you a feel for their response.
Introduce your plans with “we ought”
rather than “you ought,” and be careful
of using the big stick. If the sheep are
fed, they may be led; but, no sheep likes
to be driven.
Build Consensus
Seek to build unanimity and emphasize consensus. “Consensus” can be
defined as “finding a biblical decision,
solution or proposal acceptable enough
that all can support it – and that no one
can oppose it.” “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?” (Amos 3:3).
Although your constitution and bylaws
may require only a simple majority vote,
beware of potential division and dangerous conclusions. Voting by majority to
solve a problem sometimes creates new
and greater problems. A majority of spies
agreed that the land of Canaan was filled
with unconquerable giants and refused to
enter it. Only two voices contradicted the
majority (Numbers 13:26, 14:10). The
majority is not always right. Listen to the
concerns of the minority as well. This is
in keeping with your goal to maintain
unity – thinking and going in the same
direction together. Be “of one accord
[purpose] and of one mind [understanding]” (Philippians 2:2).
Lead By Serving
1 Peter 5:3 says, “Don’t lord it over
the people assigned to your care, but
lead them by your good example.” We
lead by love and humility, not by anger
and force. Forcing or imposing your way
will produce resistance. A pastor should
be a servant – one who is selflessly serving others by inf luencing, equipping,
and empowering them to accomplish
God’s goals. “The leader should be like
a servant” (Luke 22:26). This requires a
humble attitude that is more interested
in the good and success of others rather
than yourself.
We lead by accepting responsibility and being faithful. Show respect to
others by being early to appointments,
giving credit where it is due, and admitting mistakes. Be open to the opinions of
others, and allow for dialogue with those
you serve. It is a good sign when members can feel free to disagree with their
pastor in the right spirit.
Be a Peacemaker
Conf lict and opposition will come
sooner than later. The way you respond
to the first crisis will set the pattern and
expectation for how others will perceive
your dealing with problem situations.
Be a peacemaker – one who has made
peace with God, leads others to make
peace with God, and endeavors to maintain peace with others. “Blessed are the
peacemakers; for they shall be called the
sons of God” (Matthew 5:9).
In the name of harmony, you should
not avoid facing truth in your own life,
nor should you pull away from helping
others face the truth. If someone is in
serious error about a part of God’s truth,
he cannot have a right, peaceful relationship with others until the error is
confronted and corrected. As a pastor
and peacemaker, you have the responsibility to approach the conf lict in a
July|August 2012 21
biblical manner and to uphold truth and
righteousness in love – “Speaking the
truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15).
Learn how to work through conf lict resolution and teach it to your
people. This alone could save you and
your congregation much heartache in
years to come.
Exhort With Encouragement
Sometimes in their zeal, pastors are
too forceful and critical when exhorting people or trying to effect change.
Be careful not to be too harsh with your
sheep and scatter them in the process.
You should be conscious of exercising
biblical communication – the process
of conveying one’s thoughts, attitudes,
and actions to another in a manner that
ref lects Christ. “Be an example to all
believers in what you teach, in the way
you live, in your love, your faith, and
your purity” (1 Timothy 4:12 NLT).
Communication can be verbal or nonverbal, good or bad. It’s not only what you
say that is important, but how you say it.
To disarm critical members who
want to accuse you of preaching against
certain sins in the church, preach expository messages through books of the
Bible. Select your book carefully, and
consider preaching paragraphs rather
than verse by verse and phrase by phrase
to cover the book in a sensible length of
time. Don’t be lax in your preparations
just because you are using sermons you
preached before. Study and prepare for
each sermon so that it is tailored for your
congregation.
22 VOICE
Be careful about taking too much
time away from your pulpit in your first
year. Remember, you need to feed the
f lock God gave you. Do invite other
speakers from time to time. People need
to know you are not threatened by the
ministry of others and in the mouth of
two or three witnesses is every word
established.
Honor Your Home
Your home is part of your ministry
so don’t neglect it. A happy home and a
happy church are made up of the same
ingredients: love, discipline, sacrifice, the
Word, and prayer.
Guard your wife from being poured
into a mold by the church. Allow her to
fulfill the ministry God has given her.
Inform your church of your “day off ”
for the family and take it! Help your
family understand they are part of the
ministry, but don’t sacrifice your family for the sake of the church. Teach the
church that when you minister to your
family you minister to your church for a
successful Christian home is the greatest
strength of the local church.
Protect your home and church
by protecting yourself. Be alert to any
appearance of evil and “keep thyself
pure” (1 Timothy 5:22). A pastor does
not have to commit an immoral act to
ruin his testimony and ministry; he just
needs to be suspected.
Be Humble
Pride can affect your private and
public life. “Take heed unto thyself ” (1
Timothy 4:16) for “God is opposed to
the proud, but gives grace to the humble”
(James 4:6). Humility is recognizing that
God and others are actually responsible
for the achievements in our lives. The
only way to know God’s enabling grace to
accomplish His best is through humility.
Always be ready to confess wrong attitudes and actions and ask for forgiveness.
When someone gives you praise
accept it with thanks, but then def lect
it to God and those through whom He
has worked. People need to know that
God has used them in the ministry and
you are just part of the team. “For we
are laborers together with God” and
it is “God who gives the increase” (1
Corinthians 3:9, 6).
Uphold biblical ethics. If you find
yourself in opposition to the church’s
doctrinal position, philosophy of ministry, historic distinctive, or constitution
and bylaws you have an obligation to
share your differences with the church
leaders. If your differences are not
resolved you should be prepared to leave
rather than become the cause of dissension and division. The Lord hates
those who “sow discord among brethren”
(Proverbs 6:19).
Keep in mind you are building on the
foundation of others and, in particular,
the foundation that Jesus Christ has laid.
“Take heed how you build upon it” (1
Corinthians 3:10).
ENDNOTES
1. N
ew Beginnings: A Pastorate Start Up Workbook
by Roy M. Oswald (Washington, D.C.: Alban
Institute, 1989)
DISC I PLI NG CH I L D R E N
Measure Your
Ministry
E
Mark Steiner
Mark Steiner is
Founder & President of
DiscipleLand in Fort
Collins, Colorado. Visit
www.discipleland.com
where IFCA members
are entitled to discounts.
Or call 800.284.0158.
Mark led two seminars
at the 2012 IFCA
Convention.
ach week, your ministry team works
hard, building into the lives of children.
So, how are you doing? Now might be
a great time for a spiritual check-up! This article will explain “why” you should periodically
evaluate the effectiveness of your children’s ministries. At the end, I’ll direct you to a simple tool
(it’s free!) that will walk you through the process—the “how.” That survey has been designed
to empower you to assess your kids’ Christian
growth. The results will give you focus, direct
your decisions, and ensure that you are doing
your very best for the Lord.
Where Do I Start?
When evaluating your ministry to children,
begin with the end in mind—the children!
Churches often make the mistake of evaluating
curriculum before they answer these two pivotal
questions:
1. W hat is your goal? It is essential to determine
what you want the kids in your children’s
ministry to be like when they “graduate” to the
teen ministry. What is God’s desire for them?
What Bible knowledge, character traits, and
behaviors do you expect of them?
2. How are you doing? Figure out where the kids
in your ministry are at present. Establish an
initial benchmark so you can measure incremental progress towards your goal.
After you have addressed those two questions, you are ready to move on and assess your
present curriculum.
What Do I Measure?
Christ commissioned the Church with only
one task—“make disciples.” Disciplemaking is
the most pivotal ministry that churches can provide. For this reason, it makes sense to measure
your children’s ministry in terms of discipleship.
That’s the yardstick Jesus told us to use.
28 VOICE
In two concise commands, Jesus Christ
spelled out the first duty of every human being:
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart
[emotional], with all your soul [spiritual],
with all your mind [mental] and with all your
strength [physical]. Love your neighbor [relational] as yourself ” (Mark 12:30-31).
As a boy, Christ grew in these same ways:
“Jesus kept increasing in wisdom [mental], and
stature [physical], and in favor with God [spiritual] and favor with men [relational]” (Luke
2:52).
Throughout the Bible and Christian history,
three traits have marked God’s people:
• Knowledge: Growing disciples know God
intimately. [mental, spiritual] They develop
a reservoir of knowledge based on a Biblical
worldview.
• Character: Growing disciples love God passionately. [emotional, relational, spiritual] They
display Christlike character in every area of life.
• Conduct: Growing disciples serve God
self lessly. [physical, relational, spiritual] They
demonstrate faithful conduct that honors God
and helps people.
Effective discipleship interweaves these three
dimensions: knowledge + character + conduct.
Children’s ministry must measure and reinforce
all three components.
How Do My Kids Measure Up?
Now it’s time to find out how your kids are
doing in their Bible knowledge, Christlike character, and godly conduct. To help you assess the
spiritual status of your children, download the
free resource “Measure Your Ministry” at: www.
ifca.org/DLResource
May the Lord reward your efforts!
The Church and
Educational Choices
Introduction
Editors Note: The
issue of educating our
children (Christian
School? Public School?
Home School?) is an
important one facing our churches and
families. It can also be
a divisive issue. This
article demonstrates
how one of our IFCA
churches has addressed
this issue.
The purpose of this position statement is to
address the issue of God’s individual leading in
the families of our congregation with reference
to what educational methodology they deem
best for their children. We do not advance this
statement as a comprehensive treatment of each
position. The advantages and disadvantage of
each choice exceed what can be addressed here.
However, our purpose is to provide demonstration that each position has both advantages and
disadvantages with reference to seeing God’s
purposes fulfilled in our children’s lives. Since
children are a blessed stewardship with which
parents have been entrusted by God, each set of
parents has the individual responsibility before
the Lord to fulfill their stewardship in the fear
of God. Although God does not require uniformity among His people, He does command that
we strive for unity in the midst of our diversities.
Thus, regardless of the different choices that
individual families make regarding education,
there ought to be mutual respect and the diligent preservation of the unity of the Spirit in the
bond of peace. God can use different avenues
to adequately prepare His people for their lives
of service to Him. Throughout history, He has
chosen to bless through a variety of educational
methodologies to promote His purpose for individual servants. This statement looks at some of
the benefits as well as dangers of each approach
and provides a corresponding admonition as to
biblically responsible parenting.
Christian Education
We recognize that there are some believers whose choice of overseeing their children’s
education will include utilizing the Christian
school opportunities afforded by believers who
have established evangelical Christian schools.
It is the priority of many of these parents to
cooperate with the biblical principle taught
in Luke: “A pupil is not above his teacher,
but everyone, after he has been fully trained,
will be like his teacher” (Luke 6:40). These
parents see the advantages of placing their
children under teachers who share their values and convictions and who will promote
biblical truth in each discipline being taught.
Those who choose to educate their children
by using Christian schools must recognize
the critical need to be constantly engaged in
mentoring their children spiritually. Without
such parental mentoring, students in Christian
schools can respond to the pressure to conform while failing to internalize the truths
that ought to be transforming them. This can
contribute to a heart that is hardened to truth.
The Bible declares: “Therefore everyone who
hears these words of Mine and acts on them,
may be compared to a wise man who built his
house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the
f loods came, and the winds blew and slammed
against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it
had been founded on the rock. Everyone who
hears these words of Mine and does not act on
them, will be like a foolish man who built his
house on the sand. The rain fell, and the f loods
came, and the winds blew and slammed against
that house; and it fell—and great was its fall”
(Matthew 7:24-27). Thus the elders urge parents who feel directed by the Lord to delegate a
portion of their children’s academic training to
the Christian schools to remain aggressive in
providing spiritual leadership to their children.
We call on them to remain attentive to the
potential hardening of their children’s hearts
to the Holy Spirit by keeping Christ Jesus and
His Word central in the home – Deuteronomy
6:4-9. An illustration of a biblical character for
whom the value of this particular methodology is demonstrated is Saul (who later became
known as the Apostle Paul) who was reared in
the context of the rabbinical training afforded
to the children of the Rabbis and Pharisees.
God had a particular purpose for Paul to perform and prepared him for that purpose in the
institutions of Israel – cp. Acts 22:3.
July|August 2012 29
Home Education
We recognize that there are some
believers whose choice of overseeing
their children’s education will by conviction consolidate the process within
their own homes. Many of these parents believe that the biblical principle
that teaches that “you shall teach them
diligently to your sons and shall talk of
them when you sit in your house, and
when you walk by the way, and when
you lie down, and when you rise up”
(Deuteronomy 6:7) limits their freedom
to outsource their children’s education.
Those who choose to home educate
believe that the responsibility to train
their children includes academics as
they seek to “bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord”
(Ephesians 6:4b). Those who choose
to educate their children at home must
recognize the critical need that exists
to preser ve a dependency upon the
Holy Spirit to do the work of sanctifying their children. The danger of this
choice is a reliance upon protective care
and the absence of peer dependency to
insure the spiritual safety of their child.
Because of the protection afforded by
limiting the inf luences of peers and the
lures of culture, some parents may relax
their concerns for their children’s spiritual well-being, believing the dangers
to be external. However, as God’s Word
does declare: “God has not given us a
spirit of timidity, but of power and love
and disciple” (2 Timothy 1:7). As will
be demonstrated during the Millennial
Kingdom of Jesus Christ, even the most
30 VOICE
desirable settings will not produce genuine godliness. Thus, the elders urge
parents who feel directed by the Lord
to personally educate their children at
home to remain sensitive to the dangers
of developing an excess in withdrawing from others in order to protect a
child from negative inf luences. Such
excess can lead to a lack of passion in
reaching the lost and thereby hinder
the child’s ability to ultimately fulfill
God’s purpose for their lives (Matthew
28:19). Throughout most of the world’s
history, only the wealthy were able to
gain a formal education while the average man gained whatever education was
available through friends, parents and
self-motivation. Until the modern era,
home education was the most common
means by which the majority of people
were educated.
Public Education
We recognize that there are some
believers whose choice of overseeing
their children’s education will include
utilizing the public school opportunities afforded by local communities. It
is the priority of many of these parents
to cooperate with the biblical principle
that their family serves the Lord by representing Him within the community
through this educational method. The
Scriptures teach that it is the heart of
Christ Jesus that we serve as salt and
light; salt – in that we provide a means
by which lawlessness is restrained and
morality is preserved; and light – as a
means by which the Gospel message is
clearly seen in the contrasting lifestyles
of believers among those who do not
believe. Jesus stated in His prayer to the
Father just prior to His crucifixion that
His followers would be able to properly
represent Him in the world – “I do not
ask You to take them out of the world,
but to keep them from the evil one. They
are not of the world, even as I am not of
the world. Sanctify them in the truth;
Your word is truth. As You sent Me into
the world, I also have sent them into
the world” (John 17:15-18). Those who
choose to educate their children by using
the pubic schools must recognize the
critical need to be constantly engaged
in mentoring their children spiritually
– cp. Deuteronomy 6:4-9. The danger
of this choice is for the child to be overwhelmed by a secular culture that is
hostile to the holiness of God. The Bible
declares: “For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the
things of the f lesh, but those who are
according to the Spirit, the things of the
Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is
death, but the mind set on the Spirit is
life and peace” (Romans 8:5-6). Thus
the elders urge parents who feel directed by the Lord to represent Him in
the public schools to remain aggressive in providing spiritual leadership to
their children, remaining attentive to
the encroachments of the world in the
worldview of their children, keeping
Christ Jesus clearly central in the home.
An illustration of a biblical character
for whom the value of this particular
methodology is demonstrated is Moses
who was educated from his earliest days
in the secular institutions of Egypt (Acts
7:22). God clearly had a specific purpose
for Moses and therefore had him educated in a secular environment in order
to prepare him for that purpose.
Conclusion
It is the position of the elders that
the heart of a child is not shaped primarily by his or her environment. The
particular education choice that is
made is not the deciding inf luence in
the preparedness of a child to serve the
Lord. God can and does lead individual
families to pursue any of these methodologies depending on His purposes for
that family and the individual child. At
times, He may even lead one family to
utilize an assortment of these methods
depending upon the individual needs of
the children. The determining factor in
all three methods is the attentiveness of
the parent to the spiritual well-being of
the children that focuses on the Gospel.
Thus, the only genuine parental issue
that is indispensable to successful parenting and education of a child is the
integrity of the parent relying upon
God to produce godliness in the lives
of their child by pointing them to Jesus
Christ. Any methodology that replaces
one’s dependency upon God to produce
godliness in a child is not of faith and
is therefore deficient, regardless of its
technical merit. Scripture goes so far
to say that “whatever is not of faith is
sin” – Romans 14:23b. Therefore, if parents are truly relying upon the Lord and
providing spiritual leadership to their
children, God can and will bless. The
Holy Spirit will do the work necessary
to produce godliness in the lives of our
children regardless of the specific educational methodology used.
Since this is the case, we believe it
to be unacceptable for the leading of the
Lord in individual families to be called
into question by others. If a family feels
led by the Lord to utilize Christian education, other families ought to respect
God’s leading. If a family is led to use
home or public education, God’s leading
in their family should likewise be validated. No one method is a guaranteed
success. In addition, no one method is
a guaranteed failure. Division among
believers that is based on educational
choices is unacceptable and will be
rebuked. We are to accept one another
even as Romans 14:10 declares: “But
you, why do you judge your brother?
Or you again, why do you regard your
brother with contempt? For we will all
stand before the judgment seat of God.”
It is our prayer that the children in
all the families of our church will have
the benefit of parents who, regardless
of their education choice, will seek to
fulfill the admonitions of Deuteronomy
6:4-9 with faithfulness relying fully
upon the grace of God as they point
their children to the hope found solely
in Jesus Christ.
July|August 2012 31
Genesis, Submission
& Modern Wives
T
Georgia Purdom
Dr. Georgia Purdom is
a research scientist and
speaker for Answers in
Genesis. But she is first
and foremost a wife and
mother. She conducts
conferences, called
Answers for Women.
You can find out more
information about her
ministry and upcoming
conferences at www.
answersforwomen.org.
32 VOICE
he verses most commonly quoted concerning the wife’s role in relation to
the husband’s role are Ephesians 5:22
“Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the
Lord” and Colossians 3:18 “Wives, submit to
your own husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.”
Many women struggle with the concept of
submission in marriage because they mistakenly equate being submissive with being inferior.
From Genesis we know that men and women are
equal in God’s eyes because everyone, regardless
of gender, is made in God’s image. Genesis 1:27
states, “So God created man in His own image;
in the image of God He created him; male and
female He created them.”
Eve was made from a rib from Adam’s side
(Genesis 2:21), which also infers equality with
Adam. I really enjoy the way the famous 17th
century Bible commentator Matthew Henry
writes about Eve’s creation from Adam, “Not
made out of his head to rule over him, nor out of
his feet to be trampled upon by him, but out of
his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be
protected, and near his heart to be beloved.”1
Galatians 3:28 also makes clear that both
men and women are equal in their personal
worth before God. Jesus Christ came to save all
people who put their trust in Him, regardless of
their gender, nationality, or place in society.
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor
female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Here’s another way to think about it. John
6:38 and many other passages throughout
Scripture show Christ’s submission to God’s
authority. If being submissive means being inferior, then Christ, in being submissive to the
authority of God the Father, is inferior to God.
However, Scripture makes it clear that the
Father and Jesus are both equally God. Jesus
claims, “I and My Father are one” (John 10:30).
Jesus and God the Father have different roles
within the Trinity, but in their personhood they
are equally God. Likewise, a wife and husband
have different roles in marriage, but they are
equally loved by God and equally bear His image.
Another common misconception is that the
role of Adam as leader and Eve as helper was a
result of the Fall and not part of God’s original created roles for husbands and wives. Many
evangelical feminists, such as Rebecca Groothius,
assert this blatant misreading of God’s Word.
Many women struggle
with the concept of submission in
marriage because they mistakenly
equate being submissive with
being inferior.
In fact, there is no mention of either spouse ruling
over the other-until after their fall into sin, when
God declares to the woman that “he will rule over
you” (Gen. 3:16). This is stated by God not as a
command, but as a consequence of their sin.2
However, a plain reading of God’s Word
makes it clear that Adam’s original created role
was to be a leader in the family and Eve’s original created role was to be a helper to her husband
and family.
God created Adam first and gave him the
authority to not only name the animals (which
he and Eve were to have dominion over) but
also to name his wife [he first called her woman
(Genesis 2:23) before the Fall and then later Eve
(Genesis 3:20) after the Fall]. In Old Testament
times, this was considered a sign of authority for
the person doing the naming.
God signified that He was going to make
a “helper comparable to him [Adam]” (Genesis
2:18). The role of helper would be understood as
someone who helps the person doing the leading.
Paul considered the order of creation of Adam and
Eve significant and used it as a reason insisting on
male leadership in the church (1 Timothy 2:12–
13). Paul affirms male headship in the home in 1
Corinthians 11:9 by reminding readers of
Genesis 1, “Nor was man created for the
woman, but woman for the man.”
The original created roles of husband/leader and wife/helper can also be
understood from the curse on Adam and
Eve as a result of the Fall. God said to
Eve: “I will greatly multiply your sorrow
and your conception; In pain you shall
bring forth children; Your desire shall be
for your husband, And he shall rule you”
(Genesis 3:16).
What does it mean that Eve would
“desire” her husband? The same grammatical construction is used in Genesis
4:7 when God says to Cain: “If you do
well, will you not be accepted? And if
you do not do well, sin lies at the door.
And its desire is for you, but you should
rule over it.”
God is saying to Cain that sin will
want to rule him (“desire is for you”)
but that Cain should rule over sin
instead. Applied to Genesis 3:16, Eve
will want to rule over Adam (“your
desire shall be for your husband”) as a
part of the curse. So, if the curse is that
Eve would want to rule or lead Adam,
then that must not have been Eve’s role
before the Fall and she was originally created to be a helper not a leader.
Otherwise, it’s not much of a curse-Eve
originally led and she’s to keep on leading?! In response to Eve’s wrong desire
to lead, Adam would react sinfully by
leading harshly instead of lovingly. Eve
would desire to reverse roles of leader
and helper, and Adam would react by
wrongly distorting his leadership role. 3
A nother impor tant suppor t for
the original created roles of husband/
leader and wife/helper is found in
the attribution of sin to Adam not to
Eve. How many times have you heard
someone say, “It was all the woman’s
(meaning Eve) fault,” or “We wouldn’t
be in this mess (cursed world) if it
weren’t for a woman”? I always cringe
when I hear statements such as that
because they are not biblical!
It is true that Eve was the first one
to sin but whom did God question first
after Adam and Eve sinned? Adam
was questioned first because he was the
leader of the family. To whom is sin
attributed throughout all of Scripture?
Adam (see 1 Corinthians 15:22, 15:45;
Romans 5:15). Why? Because as the
leader, Adam was responsible for his
wife Eve; he shirked that responsibility
by following her leading in disobedience
to God and eating the forbidden fruit.
Interestingly, when God tells Adam
and Eve His plan to redeem mankind
(Genesis 3:15), He says the Redeemer
will be “her Seed.” So, even though Eve
was the first to sin, through her descendants would come mankind’s Redeemer,
Jesus Christ. Sin is attributed to Adam
(because of his leadership role), and so
spreads to all people, men and women.
Redemption comes through the offspring of Eve: the Messiah.
So, if the curse is
that Eve would want to
rule or lead Adam, then
that must not have been
Eve’s role before the Fall
and she was originally
created to be a helper
not a leader.
Scripture makes it clear, beginning
in Genesis that Adam was created to
be the leader, and Eve was created to
be the helper in the marriage relationship. Both men and women are equal
before God as His image-bearers. But
they have different roles in marriage,
much like the differing roles yet equality
within the Trinity.
Why Do Modern Wives Struggle
with This Issue Today?
The number one reason is sin.
Through Eve, all women bear the
weight of the Curse in this specif ic
area, so we will always struggle with
this issue to some extent. The passages
in Ephesians and Colossians instruct
husbands and wives on their original created roles in marriage to bring
restoration to marriage that has been
marred by sin.
How many of you ever saw the TV
show Jon and Kate Plus Eight? I’m sure
many of you did, and even if you didn’t,
you’ve perhaps heard about it. The show
is part of the reality TV genre depicting the life of a married couple, Jon and
Kate, and their children comprised of a
set of twins and a set of sextuplets. Jon
and Kate decided to divorce, and there
was a lot of speculation as to why they
were having problems and made this
decision. In an episode aired earlier, Jon
and Kate discuss whether to continue
the show for another season.
Kate: “I’m loving what we’re doing so
we just have to figure it out.”
Jon: “Yeah it’s really difficult, for me,
on my end.”
Kate: “And I’m very happy.”
Jon: “So there you go, there’s your
conflict.” 4
The conf lict in and of itself is not
bad, but how they were handling it is.
Kate makes it clear (in this episode and
others) that she wants to be the leader in the family and will not submit to
Jon’s authority. Jon tends to be very passive and doesn’t take the leadership role.
They have reversed their roles, and as
a result they are miserable. Instead of
seeking divorce, they need to read God’s
Word and understand the cause of their
problem and the solution.
Another reason women struggle
today with submission to their husbands
is the differences between the role of
women in the workplace and in the
home. More women today work outside
the home than ever before, and often
they are in male-dominated fields like
science, engineering, and business.
I know the struggles these women
face. I was the only woman in my class
to complete a PhD. I was the only
female biology professor at the Christian
college where I taught. I am one of very
few female creation scientists and the
only one in the U.S. who I am aware of
speaking and researching on creation
full-time.
Women often feel that they have to
work hard to be seen as equal to men
in many professions. Women have
achieved success and leadership roles.
However, some of us tend to view life as
a continuum and don’t separate our professional and personal lives like men do.
The leadership mentality in the workplace tends to carry over into marriage
and problems arise. Women (including
myself) need to do a better job at recognizing and separating their roles in the
workplace from their roles in the home.
Wifely submission is not an indication that women are inferior to men, nor
July|August 2012 33
is it a result of sin and the Fall. Instead,
husbands and wives are equal as imagebearers of God with distinct roles in
marriage as leaders (husbands) and helpers (wives). When we accept the authority
of God’s Word and fulfill those roles, our
marriages can thrive and—for those that
need it—can be restored.
This article originally appeared in the November
24, 2009 issue of Answers magazine, Copyright
© 2009 Answers in Genesis – USA – All Rights
Reserved.
END NOTES
1. M atthew Henry, “Notes on Genesis 2:21–25,”
Commentar y on the W hole Bible, vol. I,
(Genesis to Deuteronomy).
2. R ebecca Groothuis, Good News For Women:
A Biblical Picture of Gender Equality (Grand
Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1997), p. 123.
3. Some people interpret this passage differently.
4. Jon and Kate Plus Eight, “Family Outing,” Aired
March 23, 2009 (Season 4, Episode 41).
34 VOICE
Ezekiel,
The Watchman
N
Jim Thompson
Jim Thompson is Senior
Pastor of Bible Baptist
Church in Wilton, Alabama
just south of Birmingham
in the Gulf States Regional.
Jim has served as a church
planter and pastor in
two previous churches in
Indiana. He is on the IFCA
International Board of
Directors.
o prophet of the Old Testament has
impacted my life more than Ezekiel. I
first began studying Ezekiel over ten
years ago and continue to learn more and more
each time I read this prophet. I have taught this
book in both ladies’ and men’s Bible studies, out
of the USA in Guyana and have preached sermons using insights and passages from Ezekiel.
Every teacher of the Bible should find hope in
the book of Ezekiel because often times a teacher can be misunderstood by his/her students.
Ezekiel was asked to do some strange things, to
give some very pointed messages and to sacrifice
his personal desires and pleasures so that the
message of God could be given. No one today has
had to humble himself to the degree that we find
in Ezekiel. Ezekiel’s very name, which means
God strengthens, should also encourage us.
If I have learned anything from Ezekiel, and
I have learned much, it can be summarized in
one statement: A teacher is only as effective as the
people are teachable. This becomes the encouragement for all Bible teachers not to faint and give
up. Remember the words of the Apostle Paul
to the Corinthians church, “I planted, Apollos
watered, but it is God who gives the increase” (1
Corinthians 3:6). As we are faithful to do what
God has called us to do, He will be faithful to do
what He has promised to do.
Background to the Book
Ezekiel, at thirty years of age, was a prophet of God during the time of the Babylonian
captivity (1:1). Ninety-three times in his book
he is called “Son of Man” by God, which was
also Christ’s favorite self-descriptive title in the
Gospels. Ezekiel was a priest (1:3) but never
served in that capacity, probably due to the captivity. From this, we can be assured that the
reference to the “thirtieth year” as found in 1:1 is
a reference to the age of Ezekiel.1
We know that his father’s name was Buzi
(1:3) but we know very little about this man since
this verse is the only reference we have of him.
Ezekiel was a contemporary to Jeremiah who was
twenty years older and a contemporary to Daniel,
who was just a few years older. In fact, Daniel is
mentioned as one of the righteous men in Ezekiel
chapter fourteen. When Daniel was taken captive,
he was taken to the palace of the king (Daniel
1:4), whereas when Ezekiel was taken captive, he
was taken to the rivers of Babylon (Ezekiel 1:3, cf.
Psalm 137:1). We have no record that Ezekiel and
Daniel ever met face-to-face.
Ezekiel was asked to do
some strange things, to give
some very pointed messages and
to sacrifice his personal desires
and pleasures so that the message
of God could be given.
Ezekiel’s message has been named by some
as the most spiritual of all the prophets simply
because he dealt particularly with the Person
of God. 2 As already noted, Ezekiel began his
ministry at the age of thirty, which was the fifth
year of King Jehoiachin’s captivity. Jehoiachin
came to the throne in December 597 B.C. and
after three months he was taken captive by
Nebuchadnezzar and deported to Babylon.
Ezekiel ministered to the captives during a
time when many false prophets were claiming
a quick return to Jerusalem. He had to counter
the false hope given by these prophets and the
indifference and despondency that was prevalent
in the days of sin and disaster. Among many discouragements encountered by Ezekiel was that
the people would not listen. Ezekiel resorted to
new methods of teaching; instead of straight forward preaching, he would “act out” his sermons.3
Many have said that Ezekiel is the most difficult book to understand. John Calvin wrote in his
commentary on Ezekiel: “If anyone asks whether
the vision is lucid, I confess its obscurity, and
July|August 2012 35
that I can scarcely understand it.” 4 H. A.
Ironside wrote: “Of ALL the prophetic
books, Ezekiel is the one that has been
neglected most.” 5
The message is of God’s judgment
upon the nation of Israel for their sins.
The purpose was to bring them to
repentance. What we learn from Ezekiel
is that the validity of God’s truth does
not depend upon results. As you read
through this wonderful book, search
your own heart and ask God to reveal
any unconfessed sin that would hinder
you from fully serving the Lord with all
the blessings God has to offer.
Standing Firm for Truth
When one studies any great battle
of history, you find that it is the captain
who fights until the bitter end. While
others may retreat, the captain is the one
who is holding the front line and fights
to the death. Like any great captain,
Ezekiel is found committed to standing
firm for the truth of the Word of God
and is holding the front lines.
In the days of Ezekiel, the cities
were protected by great walls. It was the
watchmen who were posted on these
walls to watch for approaching danger
and to warn both those who are outside
the protection of those walls as well as
those who were on the inside. According
to Isaiah 56:10-11 a watchman was a
leader or shepherd. Jeremiah 6:17 tells us
their purpose was to warn. Psalm 127:1
states: “Unless the LORD builds the
house, they labor in vain who build it;
unless the LORD guards the city, the
watchman stays awake in vain.” To get a
clear illustration of the work of a watchman, read 2 Samuel 18:24ff.
Serving As Watchman
It was seven days after Ezekiel’s initial
vision, that the Lord appointed Ezekiel
to be the watchman over Israel. God had
appointed Ezekiel to be a watchman for
the purpose of warning Israel of their sin
and of their need to repent. “His function
as a watchman over the city was preeminently to warn of impending disaster;
the prophet as a watchman was to call to
repentance and faith.” 6
Ezekiel 3:18-19 give us the details
of Ezek iel ’s responsibilities to the
unrighteous, here referred to as the
“wicked.” To refuse to warn not only
36 VOICE
meant the wicked’s death, but Ezekiel
was to suffer a consequence as well.
This speaks wealth to any pastor or
church leader in that we have a responsibility to warn those who are unsaved
of the eternal damnation they face. It
should be noted that the exhortation
given here is to warn, not to achieve
results. It is comparable to Christians
today who are commanded to “preach
the Gospel to every creature” (Mark
16:15). We are not commanded to
focus on results, only on the going.
The results are because of the Lord’s
work, not ours (1 Corinthians 3:6). The
watchman who neglects this responsibility will be held accountable and
in a sense, be considered a manslayer.7 But in a positive note, Ezekiel 3:19
states that when a watchman delivers
the message of God, the listener will be
held accountable but the prophet will
have delivered his own soul.
Like any great captain,
Ezekiel is found committed
to standing firm for the truth
of the Word of God and is
holding the front lines.
There is great responsibility upon the
one who delivers the message of God. In
1 Corinthians 4:2 Paul tells us that it is
required that a steward be found faithful.
Ezekiel reminds us of the consequences
we face if we are not faithful to proclaim
the message of hope and love from God.
It was Robert Murray McCheyne who
said, “I preach as never to preach again;
as a dying man to dying men.” 8
Other Lessons from the Book
Ezekiel 3:20-21 reminds us that
the righteous man also needed to be
warned of his sin. These verses have
been misinterpreted by some as referring to one who loses his salvation.
Feinburg believed this man to be one
who is an unbeliever merely displaying acts of righteousness.9 This may
be hard to prove as the text is clearly showing a distinction between the
unrighteous and the righteous. The
Lord is teaching Ezekiel that no matter who is in sin, whether they belong
to the family of God or not, he was
responsible to warn them and there is
a consequence for those being warned
as well as for those doing the warning. Hebrews 13:7 implies that preachers
today are held accountable for what they
do with the Word of God. We are
clearly to warn the unsaved of eternal
damnation (Romans 6:23) and the saved
of future accountability at the Bema (2
Corinthians 5:10).
God spoke to Ezekiel in 3:22-23 and
told Ezekiel to go into the plain and
wait for the Him to talk with Ezekiel.
Wasting no time, Ezekiel went immediately and there saw the glory of the
Lord, just as he witnessed in chapter one. His response was the same as
everyone else in the Bible when confronted with the glory of the Lord: he
fell on his face. Those are two lessons
for us today: Ezekiel obeyed immediately. Ezekiel fell in awe at God’s glory.
Ezekiel was “speechless” in 3:2627. He was to speak only when given
permission by the Lord and he was
to speak only the words of the Lord.
God caused his tongue to cling to the
roof of his mouth. The significance is
that Ezekiel was to make sure it was
God ’s message that he proclaimed.
And neither are Bible teachers today
free to say what they will, to embellish
or add to the Word of God. They are
free to proclaim all that God has spoken in His Word, and so they should.
Preachers are to preach the Word as
Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:2.
Ezekiel 3:27 ends by telling Ezekiel
that whoever hears will hear, and whoever refuses will refuse. The implication
is that a person’s reception or rejection
of Ezekiel’s message was determined
by his openness or lack of it to God.
These are similar words as found at the
close of each of the letters to the seven
churches in Revelation 2 – 3.
We do know that Ezekiel was fearful of going to the captives (Ezekiel
2:6). Three times the Lord told him to
not be afraid. The Lord also cautions
Ezekiel to not be like them (Ezekiel
2:8). It is true, the messenger can kill
the message. And if Ezekiel were to
be rebellious and refuse to obey, Israel
would not hear the Word of the Lord,
and Ezekiel would be guilty of being
just like them.
Conclusion
There are many principles to learn
from Ezekiel, too many to enumerate
in this article. I would leave you with
this: we are to obey the Lord’s command, no matter how much it may hurt
and no matter who listens, because there
is greater joy is obedience and serving
the Lord. Results are not the reason we
do what we do. We should seek to be
faithful to God for it is faithfulness that
God desires. “Moreover it is required
in stewards that one be found faithful”
(1 Corinthians 4:2). Let every believer
become a “watchman” for the Lord and
remember, A teacher is only as effective as
the people are teachable.
END NOTES
1. Read Numbers 4:3 for a clearer understanding
of the age of a priest.
2. J. Vernon McGee, Ezekiel (Nashville: Thomas
Nelson, 1991), p. viii of introduction
3. Read Ezekiel 4 & 5 for an example of this
4. John Calvin, Calvin’s Bible Commentaries:
Ezekiel, Part 1 translated by John K ing.
Originally published in 1847. (Forgotten
Books, 2007 available online at www.forgottenbooks.org) p. 43.
5. H.A Ironside, Expository Notes on Ezekiel the
Prophet (Neptune, NJ: Loizeaux Brothers,
1949), p. xi.
6. Charles Lee Feinburg, The Prophecy of Ezekiel
(Moody Press, Chicago, IL), p. 29
7 Feinburg, p. 29
8. As cited by Mark Rooker, Holman Old Testament
Commentary, Ezekiel (Broadman & Holman
Publishers, Nashville, TN), p. 55
9. Feinburg, pp. 29-30
P
5
Death of His Saints
Cecil William
Tanner
Cecil William Tanner,
aged 98, entered the
presence of his Savior on September 29,
2001. He was a resident of Kankakee,
Illinois at the time of his death. Cecil
was born May 10, 1913 and was raised
in a Christian home. He trusted Christ
as his Savior at the age of 11. He graduated from High School in 1932 and
worked in many different farm related
businesses. He then moved and took
a job at a bank in downtown Chicago
for sixteen years before returning to the
farm in Lebanon, Missouri. He met
his wife while in Chicago. His wife
Bess came to know Christ through the
ministry of Dr. William McCarrell
at Cicero Bible Church and they were
married there in 1947. Bess preceded
Cecil in death after nearly 53 years
of marriage. Together they served in
IFCA churches in Kankakee, Chicago
(East Side Bible Church), Orland Park,
and Lebanon, MO. He was a faithful
member of the IFCA Laymen’s League
in the 1950s before he was able to join
the IFCA as a full-fledged member in
1986. He attended many conventions
through the years.
Cecil loved to tell others about Jesus
Christ and led many souls to Him, even
in his advanced age in a nursing home
in Kankakee. He wrote a small autobiography entitled “Jesus Led Me All
the Way.” It concludes with this quotation from Adrian Rogers: “If you are a
Christian and have never led a soul to
Christ, you’re missing one of the greatest
blessings of the Lord.” He wrote his last
letter to the IFCA Home Office at age 94
which included these words: “When I go
to heaven, I am not going to have a funeral. I will have a Going Home Celebration.
I expect 100 souls to get saved.” Even as
he planned his memorial service, he was
praying for the salvation of many people.
What an example Cecil was for all of us
in IFCA International.
Joel R ansom Fenn
Joel Fenn of Melrose,
Oregon, was born June
22, 1910. He passed
peacefully into glory on Saturday, March
24, 2012 at the age of 101. He served in
church leadership since 1935 and was a
member of IFCA since 1985. He was the
oldest continuous Gideon member in the
world, having joined the Gideons in 1935.
And he was the oldest living member of
IFCA International.
P
July|August 2012 37
VISION WORLD
A Spark for Missions
W
Shawn DeJong
Shawn is Senior
Pastor of Jamestown
(MI) Baptist Church
and a member of
IFCA International
Ministries Committee.
38 VOICE
hen the bel ievers of ou r loca l
assembly perceived their individual
responsibility to carry out the marching orders Christ gave in Acts 1:8, their view
of missions, evangelism, and other local and
global outreach ministries changed dramatically.
Beginning with our annual mission’s conference,
we accepted a commitment to Vision World’s
four basic commitments and embraced the challenge to pray for and train a missionary who
would emerge from our assembly. Subsequently,
we have seen the Lord set in motion the process
that will fulfill these goals. And in doing so, He
has been transforming our fellowship.
Often the work of missions is confined to
a church’s missions committee and is focused
on individual missionaries on a global level.
However, this tradition is a far cry from the commissioning we read about in Matthew 28 and
Acts 1. In our multi-ethnic culture we should not
accept such a lazy approach to missions.
For our mission’s conference this past year,
we decided we would not accept a participationfree weekend. We decided to engage the local
community with the wisdom and instruction
gleaned from years of faithful ministry by our
three missionary families. We did not want the
conference to be merely a reunion of missionaries
and congregation, so we asked our missionaries to disciple us to reach the culturally diverse
people in our own community. We wanted to
learn what our missionaries are learning in their
cultures. We wanted to know how they witness
to their cultures and how they break down the
boundaries they encounter. In other words, we
wanted to bring missions home, to end the cycle
of disconnected prayer support, financial support, and the occasional furlough visit.
The result of seriously taking up the challenge of Vision World led to something quite
unexpected. By bringing missions home,
a renewed passion for cross-cultural ministry
was ignited. With the help of our missionaries,
we shared the gospel in and to our community
through a series of fun and engaging outreaches.
This involvement in the community sparked the
desire to be engaged in local and global missions instead of simply supporting missions with
prayer and finances. Some members of our youth
group saw the potential effect of missions internationally. Others saw the potential of staying
“home” and impacting our small town with the
gospel. As evidence, an interesting ethnic shift
has taken place in the youth group. Although
our adult fellowship is 95 percent white and
the community is 78 percent white, our youth
group is now about 55 percent white, 25 percent
Hispanic, and 20 percent African American.
In other words, we wanted
to bring missions home,
to end the cycle of disconnected
prayer support, financial support,
and the occasional furlough visit.
Although our congregation is still in the
beginning stages of this new perception of missions, our adults, like our youth, are developing
a strong desire to reach our community with the
gospel. Along with this has come the desire to
visit our missionaries across the world. Also, our
adults want to be open to opportunities they can
seize at home to share the gospel.
Obviously, more must be done to honor our
Lord’s marching orders, but here, in wheat country, our congregation understands that the fields
are ripe for harvest.
IFC A COMMUNIT Y C ARE T ODAY
Friends of Friends
of Trees
I
Pastor Toby Beck
EVERGREEN BIBLE CHURCH
VANCOUVER, WA
40 VOICE
t started with a phone call from Jesse, a project director with Friends of Trees. They were
looking for a place to host a planting day
and wondered if we at Evergreen Bible Church
would be willing to do so.
A week later the church’s Leadership Team
talked through the idea at our meeting. “So,
what is Friends of Trees all about?” one elder
asked, a bit skeptical. There was genuine concern
about the possibility of aiding a radical environmental group. But this was easy to answer from
their simple and clear mission statement: “To
bring people in the Portland-Vancouver metro
area together to plant and care for city trees and
green spaces.” Nothing wrong with that. They
just want to help citizens work together to make
our community prettier and healthier.
However, the bigger issue concerned purpose. “How does hosting a planting day fit in
with our mission to make disciples of Jesus
Christ?” At first glance, it didn’t seem to fit at
all. They work to save trees and we work to save
souls. Those are two totally different goals.
But then the idea arose that assisting them
with their purpose could give us a unique opportunity to better accomplish ours. What if we
hosted this group with the goal of serving them
so well in the name of Jesus, that seeds of the
gospel would be planted in their hearts? In the
end, that’s what we agreed to do.
We contacted Jesse at Friends of Trees to say
we would be delighted to host the planting day
and graciously explained that our ultimate hope
was that participants in the event would become
interested in finding out more about our church
and the Savior we serve. I held my breath a bit
as I waited for his response. “That sounds great,”
he said. “How about if we give you a few minutes
when everyone is gathered to share what you
guys are all about?” Deal!
We sowed seeds all day as we helped set up
tables, serve coffee and thaw some unexpectedly frozen bagels. We sowed as we worked with
their promo and registration people and sat in
with them to learn how to properly plant a tree.
And we sowed seeds as Pastor Corey winsomely
shared with the group that Jesus Christ is what
makes Evergreen Bible Church “truly green.”
What if we hosted
this group with the goal
of serving them so well in the
name of Jesus, that seeds of
the gospel would be planted
in their hearts?
We finished the day with great joy in our
hearts. The evidence was overwhelming that
The Sower had been very busy in our church and
in our community that day. Pray with us for lasting fruit from this opportunity.
WOMEN’S VOICE
Word Pictures of
God’s Care for Us
I
have the very special privilege of teaching a let go and slowly begin to enjoy themselves. That
Sunday School class of special needs adults. I is a picture of how our wonderful, loving God
find myself often explaining spiritual truths holds us.
by using word pictures.
When circumstances come into our lives
A truth often taught in my class is that God that make us fear and hold on to Him with
holds us, His children, in His hand and He white knuckles, we hear God’s sweet whisper
won’t let us go (John
to us from His word,
10:29 “My Father,
Proverbs 3:5, 6 “Trust
who has given them
in the Lord with all
to Me, is greater than
your heart, and lean
all; and no one is able
not unto your own
to snatch them out of
understanding. In all
My Father’s hand”).
your ways acknowlI use my hands as an
edge Him, and He
illustration, one hand
sha ll direct your
by itself to show how
paths.” And 1 Peter
God does not hold us,
5:7 “Casting all your
and one hand clasped
cares upon Him: for
over the other to show
He cares for you.”
how God does hold
Our arms begin to
us (Isaiah 41:10 “Fear
loosen and our fear
not, for I am with
becomes faith. Again
you; Be not dismayed,
God lovingly whisfor I am your God. I
pers in John 14:27
will strengthen you,
“Peace I leave with
Yes, I will help you, I
you, my peace I give
will uphold you with
unto you. L et not
My righteous right
your heart be trouhand.” God watches
bled, neither let it be
— Isaiah 41:10
over us and we can
afraid.” And f inally
trust him.
in Hebrews 13:5 He
A not her w ay I
tells of His always
illustrate this truth
being with us “I will
is through this word
never leave you nor
picture. We have a
forsake you.”
swimming pool in our
Slowly by fa it h
back yard. Our grandkids love it, but when each we loosen our grip on trying to control things
of them were little, we would carry them into ourselves and by faith trust God and His
the pool. At first they were very scared. Their Word in the mountains and valleys of our
little arms would hold us around our necks very lives’ circumstances.
tightly with their face buried in our necks. You
get the picture. All the while we would be telling
them, “It’s ok, it’s ok, I’ve got you, I won’t drop
you, I won’t let go.” Slowly they would begin to
h
Cynthia Beach
Cynthia Beach is the
wife of Jerry Beach,
Associate Pastor at
Mayfair Bible Church,
Flint, MI. She is
mother of four and
grandmother of twelve.
She loves fishing and
hunting with her
husband.
Fear not, for I am
with you; Be not
dismayed, for I am
your God. I will
strengthen you, Yes,
I will help you, I will
uphold you with My
righteous right hand.
h
July|August 2012 41