As a child on I grew up in the church. Actually, it was two churches. One was the CCNA (Italian Pentecostal), and the other was an Assembly of God church that was also Pentecostal, although a bit more structured.
I’ll be 65 this October and my wife and I have lived in 6 states over the course of the 33 years we’ve been married. Before I get into the subject that I’d like to share a little about myself, just for the sake of perspective.
I attended a small Bible college in Rochester NY. I was one of three youth pastors at a large church there as well. At the counsel of my mentor, Rev. Charles Gay in Albany NY and through much prayer, I took a position as the pastor of a small Pentecostal church in nearby Schenectady. During that time, I worked as a carpenter to help offset my expenses, along with taking a few classes at the local community college. It was at this school that I met my young, beautiful bride to be, Kelly.
About a year after we were married my wife gave birth to the first of our two daughters. And we were off and moving wherever the Lord was leading. I estimate over the years we’ve must have been members or visited well over 300 churches. When I tell you I’ve seen it all, I’ve seen it all. Both good and bad. God would call us to a particular church, and we’ve always were willing to help the ministry whatever way they needed help. We would help in both in the formal ministry, such as preaching and teaching, to helping with the homeless, to scrubbing toilets. On an aside note, I feel strongly that if you think you’re above scrubbing the church toilets you have no business behind the church pulpit. We are called to serve.
One other thing I’ll share with you, and I’m not sharing it for the purpose of puffing myself up, but again it’s for perspective with regard to the subject. I’m an Ordained licensed minister of the Gospel. I’ve both married and buried people. Although I’m not in full time ministry now, I’ve preached and taught in a lot of the churches God has led us to. Additionally, I’ve been on many worship teams both singing and playing the drums. And of course, I write, or try to.
My wife and myself have always been close to the ministry leadership where we were called. We always loved having them over and fellowshipping with them. Just recently, my wife reminded me that when we were in Schenectady, Pastor Bookout would often doze off on our sofa after a good meal. We considered it an honor that he felt that comfortable at our house.
Now for the subject at hand. The last few years I’ve seen some things that seemed very odd to me. Definitely not in accordance with what I’ve been accustomed.
First, there seems to be a chasm between the church leadership and the congratulation. And never the twain shall meet. It’s like “we’re the leadership and you’re the congratulation. You can’t possibly get to where we are. And we’re not coming down there”. It’s like once “the ministry” is set there’s no room for you. No matter what your gift or giftings are. It’s been particularly true with several of the churches here in South Texas. I’ve observed that many of these ministry positions are reserved for family members, close friends and/or those that are significant financial contributors.
One church we were part of soon after first arriving in San Antonio the pastor flat out said, “no one other than my wife or myself will ever get a hold of one of these microphones.” And that was after my wife, and I helped clean the church for several months along with assisting in their community food distribution. I was just asking about sharing a testimony. Hey, I get “lay hands-on man suddenly.” You have to be careful and get to know someone before you let them minister. But the Bible says, “So, we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now!” II Cor 5:16 NLB We should have some discernment. Don’t you think?
To the above point, it seems like the pastors here and church leadership don’t have much of a desire to get to know you. And if they, do it have to be in a formal class. It wasn’t just one church here, it was several. That’s something foreign to me.
Something else that’s odd to me is a lack of informal fellowship. When I was growing up it was a common practice for church members to gather in groups talking with each other after the service. You’d see them in the vestibule or in the parking lot, talking, laughing or praying for each other. Then many would go and have lunch together at a local restaurant. However, now, as soon as the service is over there’s a mass exodus to the door. However, I’ve observed, some churches have what I refer to as an “intermission” after the worship and just before the sermon. The only problem with this is it interrupts the flow of the spirit. Let me explain. The goal of the worship team is to help usher the congregation into the presence of God. When we have this intermission that flow is interrupted.
When we were in Ohio our church closed down because the pastor, a dear friend of ours, felt that God was calling him out of the area, so we began looking for a new church. I was, for lack of a better word, was his right-hand man. Often filling in for him when he was out evangelizing. For his primary office was that of an evangelist.
One day my wife and I were out for a motorcycle ride when we came across a little country church having a wiener roast in front yard. We thought we’d stop and check it out. We greeted some of the people and then the pastor and his wife asked that we’d please stay and fellowship. We gladly obliged.
The pastor and his wife sat with us and asked all about ourselves and then shared about themselves and their church. Long story short, I was asked to minister in Bible teaching and speaking from time to time. They also had an active men’s fellowship. We would go shooting and camping together.
Okay, I’ll get to my main point. I apologize for rambling.
Most churches that we’ve either visited or became a part of, especially in Texas, do not operate like Paul describes, “Well, my brothers and sisters, let’s summarize. When you meet together, one will sing, another will teach, another will tell some special revelation God has given, one will speak in tongues, and another will interpret what is said. But everything that is done must strengthen all of you.” I Cor 14:26
Everyone should have an opportunity to exercise their particular gift or gifts for the edification of the body. Sadly, this rarely happens. When I asked one pastor why he doesn’t permit testimonials he told me that it’s because we need to maintain order. I said that’s true insofar as Paul said, “let everything be done decently and in order”, but that doesn’t mean that there shouldn’t be opportunity to do so. We are all part of “the family of God.” Can you imagine a family that only the father got to share anything? And the wife and children were to just keep quiet and keep their thoughts to themselves? Of course not! That would just be weird.
Recently, my youngest daughter just attained her teacher’s certification here in Texas. She had to pass two behemoth exams. They were both 150-200 question tests. She had to get an 80 or better. She had a contingent job offer on the table. Failure of one of these would have put her out of contention. She studied weeks and weeks for each, along with fasting and praying. The material she had to know was so comprehensive it seemed impossible in the natural. Plus because of time, she needed to pass them on the first attempt. She was told that most do not pass the first time. And that it’s most likely that you’ll pass on your second or third time around.
While she was waiting on the results there were several courses for first year teachers that she had to take. She took them all in faith that she had passed the exams. Well, her hard work and faith paid off! She passed both. She was praising God and could not wait to share with everyone how God came through for her. Imagine how her testimony could have encouraged those in church who may be facing similar challenges. Sad to say that the opportunity to share was not part of our church’s procedure.
Let me conclude with what my pastor/friend use to say all the time to us. “If you want Bible results, do things the Bible way ”
The operation of the church service today is far beneath what it should be. There may be order in the church, but there sure isn’t opportunity. And that my friends, is just sad.