If you have never witnessed a church split, then part of me hopes you never do but another part of me honestly thinks it is good to see one, just so that you will never be surprised at the depth of sin and ugliness that Christians are capable of.

When a church splits, it is always ugly and painful. Some people eventually bounce back from it and move on in their walk with Christ. Others never quite recover, and the split becomes the defining moment in not only their Christian journey, but their entire life. The hurt and frustration, and the unspeakable disappointment, fester into resentment and bitterness.

There are some good reasons for a church to split, and I will mention them in a later post. But for today’s purpose, I want to talk about the most common reason churches fall apart. It usually revolves around two words that are kissing cousins…POWER AND CONTROL.

It seems that my post on Restoring Honor touched a nerve. I have moderated more comments on that one than any other I have ever written, and I only posted a fraction because some of them were just to raw. Others decided to email me for privacy. But what blew me away was how many pastors and their wives, and get this…their kids, were emailing me about being hurt and wounded in a church split.

This is a plague that is killing the church, and it is destroying lives by the thousands. I have a theory on why most (not all) church splits occur and it goes like this…

After WW2, the American evangelical movement hit full swing. Churches popped up all over the place, people were going back to church, Patriotism was at an all time high, largely in part to the threat of Communism in the U.S.S.R. as it crept as close to us as Cuba. Billy Graham (my personal hero) became the most recognized face on earth, and several professing born again Christians and a few Southern Baptists even became President (Carter, Reagan, Clinton). And what the evangelical church did was give people, mostly, what they wanted in a church experience. Lots of programs, short and sweet worship services, tons of weekly events to choose from, and musical styles that suited their preferences.

And so now what we have in the evangelical church (I speak generically, not specifically) is a generation of baby boomers, and even some Gen Xers, who are used to getting what they want, how they want it, when they want it. And when we don’t get what we want, we pitch a fit. But not like a little kid, because children don’t have much weight to throw around when they are told “NO, WE ARE NOT DOING IT YOUR WAY.”

Adults, on the other hand, have expendable income, a weekly tithe check, relationships with other influential people, or a vote on the deacon board to throw around. So when a new pastor takes the pulpit and realizes the church is getting older, new people are not coming, nobody is being saved, the old Sunday School system is doing nothing but fostering cliques, the community around the church is growing by leaps and bounds but the church is actually dwindling in attendance, and he wants to do things differently to reach the lost, you can pretty much set your clock. A power struggle is coming, and a split is likely.

I have seen this happen 3 times in my life, once when I was only 14, once in my 20’s and once in my 30’s. And the destruction that was left in the wake of a few arrogant baby boomers who did not like the new pastor messing with “their church” or “their music” was akin to nuclear holocaust. One gentleman actually went as far as to say “we have a graveyard outside this church full of our ancestors, and we have a legacy to protect.” This kind of statement needs no comment from me. If you cannot see what is wrong in this kind of thinking, then I would be wasting my time and yours trying to explain it to you.

The church belongs to Jesus Christ. The real question is, “Will I set aside my personal preferences in order to see the body of Christ grow and mature, reaching the lost in our community and building the kingdom worldwide?” If I am unwilling to set aside my personal preferences, that attitude will transform into an ugly, evil sense of entitlement, which will lead me to get rid of anyone I disagree with.

Welcome to the world of church splits, friends. Let us pray fervently for the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, that our generation will be known more for love than power struggles, more for serving the world than for killing each other. And let’s pray, honor,and support those we know who have lost a job, a family, or their soul in a church split. And, if you have never been through one, consider yourself lucky. I pray that you never have to.

I am lit up like a school bus right now, because in just a few short weeks, the 4th installment of the Indiana Jones movie adventurefest will be seen by millions.  And rightly so.  It should be seen, by the entire planet.  What excites me the most is that an entire generation of rookies not raised on the original trilogy, innaugurated by “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” will have their chance to be introduced to the greatest action hero in history.  That’s right, I said it.  GREATEST ACTION HERO IN HISTORY.  Then, if they have not seen the original 3 movies, they will be compelled to.  Then, as a result, their lives will be changed, like mine was as a little boy watching this semi-awkward, every-man-turns-into-a-death-defying-damsel-rescuing-hero.

And this is something that plagues the church today.  We need some heroes.  NOT CELEBRITIES.  Got enough of those.  NOT SUCCESSFUL AUTHORS OR STARS.  Plenty of those to go around.  We need some honest to goodness women and men that are not flashy, funny, or fantastic to look up to, to model, and to admire.  And the Christian merchandise machine cannot give us these heroes.  The local church is the only supply chain where we can find these much needed examples of faith, simplicity, and character.

Our culture manufactures heroes because they want to sell us stuff.  In order to sell us stuff, huge companies create stars out of athletes, movies stars, or ordinary people.  Consider the phenomenon of American Idol.  Carrie Underwood was just a plain farm girl from Oklahoma who could sing until she “made it to Hollywood!”  Now, everytime I am in a tight spot or my kids are driving me nuts, I just whisper “Jesus, take the wheel” and I feel better.  Hollywood created that “hero” for us.  And I like Carrie.  But if there was no money to be made, none of us would have ever heard of her.  (But man, can she sing!)

The family of God right now in the 50 states we call America really could use some local, low key role models.  Heroes we can look up to.  Like Randy Satterfield.  He was a volunteer at my church growing up who took all the boys camping and fishing.  He was a man’s man who knew the outdoors, how to start a fire, and how to catch bass on a Carolina rig.  All the boys idolized Randy.  He died of cancer a few years ago, but he left such an impression on me that I named my black lab after him, and I still remember things he said and things he taught me.

I wonder if the church is still creating heroes for a younger generation?  Do we even have time to get to know people from a different generation?  One of my favorite and most life-shaping memories as a child was hearing the older men at my church tell stories about World War 2.  Most of those men are dead now, but I worshipped the ground they walked on.

Maybe it’s not so much that we don’t have as many heroes as we need, maybe it’s more about being too busy or pre-occupied with other things to get to know each other.  Our schedules are full, ball practice and papers and sermons to prepare, grass to cut and clothes to wash, you know the drill.  But if everything I am reading about the generation that has abandoned the church is true, they are all saying the same thing.  They want meaningful relationships with real people.  They want older women and men to care about them, invest time in their lives, teach them how to be married and how to raise kids. 

But I have learned this.  It takes 2 people to have a relationship.  So if my generation is going to whine about not having mentors and heroes and complain about how the older generation never invested in them or does not care about them, then just remember this.  Older people have more time on their hands, work less, sit around more, and struggle with loneliness and isolation more than any other age group.  So if you, like me, are young and busy, and need a hero, then look no further than the senior citizens in your church.  Ask them to lunch.  Go pick them up and take a walk in the park with them.  Take your kids to their house and watch their face light up in the presence of children.  And ASK QUESTIONS.  Let them talk to you, and write down what they say, record it, lean over in your seat and notice the emotion on their face when they talk about using an outhouse, bringing water from a spring in a bucket, or taking a bath on Saturday  nights in tin tub.

Why would we not want advice and life experience from those who already have it because they have already lived it?  So to my generation I say, there is no real hero shortage.  There is a time shortage and a will shortage.  If we have the will to say no to unnecessary things that clutter up our lives, then we can make the time to get close to some of these unknown heroes on our communities.  I would give a year off my life to have another day with my grandfather and hear him tell about the day they found out Hitler had committed suicide and the Germans had surrendered.  He was on a ship in the South Pacific, and he said that grown men fell on their faces and cried like babies because they knew they would be going home soon. 

And who knows?  They may have some stories that would make Indiana Jones look like Big Bird.

I am sure that a post of this sort offers itself to misunderstanding.  I write it nonetheless, in hopes that you will hear my heart and glean the good from it.

The church in America seems to have lost the ancient, and dare I even say Biblical understanding of correctly honoring the man of God; one who dedicates his life to service to God and God’s people (this could be the worship leader, youth minister, or most often the pastor).  We have confused honor with obsession, treat our ministers like hired hands, and become addicted to personalities on TV or the internet and swallow anything they try to sell us while starving our local pastor on a salary that allows him to qualify for food stamps.

There is a distrust and skepticism afoot that is a result of the hideous scandals of the 1980’s.  And I do believe that the Swaggart and Baker scandals were, in the long run, good for the family of God.  That bubble had to burst, and the scripture had to come true that judgement must first begin in the house of God.  There have been plenty more, even the Ted Haggard scandal of recent days, that have caused the world to view us with a cynical eye.  We should expect this and live our lives accordingly so that the world can see a true Christian witness.  But in the wake of these scandals, not to mention Enron and WorldCom, there is a “mood” where it seems that churches treat pastors as expendable, replaceable, for hire and for fire.  We almost automatically distrust anyone in leadership now.

I am not advocating that the church makes the pastor a little king of a little kingdom with freedom to do or say whatever he wants.  That is insanity.  I am advocating for a return to honoring the man of God, not worshipping him, but understanding the heavy burden laid upon him, the struggles and pressures he faces on a daily basis that NOBODY else experiences, and the specific needs the pastor faces that are uncommon to all other people in the church.

Perhaps this is the reason so many pastors burn out and quit ministry.  The statistics are staggering, so much so that the Eli Lilly Foundation is pumping hundreds of millions of dollars into churches, seminaries, and other non-profits to try and figure out why pastors walk away and how they can help stop the mass exit.  When questioned as to this reality, pastors who quit most often say that a lack of support from the church and lack of understanding from the members as to the stresses and pressures of the job is the largest contributing factor to pastoral burnout.

Can we regain a sense of honoring the man of God without becoming obsessed with personalities or worshipping personas?  Of course we can.  Pray for your pastor.  Slip a $100 bill in his hand after church.  Send him and his wife on a cruise.  Give them gift certificates to their favorite restaurants.  Babysit their kids so they can have a night out to watch a movie and eat a good meal.  Stand up for them when you hear gossip.  Get their back when they cannot defend themselves against the untrue accusations of others.  Encourage the deacons or the elders to take up a special love offering for your pastors family once a year, honoring them with respect and generosity.

When I was a young boy, my daddy and I got our hair cut  every other Saturday morning at Garrett’s barbershop in Fountain Inn.  And everytime that a local pastor would come in the barbershop to get a haircut, all the men waiting would stand up, take off their hats, shake hands with the pastor, and it made a heavy impression on me as a little boy.  Since then, I have made it a personal goal to always honor the pastor when I go somewhere to preach, to always honor him from the stage, to tell him publicly how much I appreciate him and his family and their sacrifice for the church, and then to tell him personally and privately how much I look up to him.  This simple practice has opened up friendships between me and hundreds of pastors over the years.  Sometimes, they just need to know that we believe in them and that we’ve got their back when they need us.  Let’s restore honor, correctly, to the man of God in the church.

A 16 year old waitress spoke volumes to me and and some friends last night at Sonny’s BBQ in Powdersville, SC, and I want to share her wisdom with you today.

Among the many things that plague the church in America is a mass confusion concerning what it really means to be in ministry; i.e. to be a pastor, a minister, a vocational servant of Christ. This is a very personal and passionate pursuit of mine, considering that my life, for the past 21 years, has been guided by a fierce and unrelenting sense that God has placed some sort of yoke, or harness, as it were, around my soul, and though at times I am unwilling or obstinate, I just can’t seem to escape this Ghost that follows me daily. I have been CALLED BY GOD to ministry, to preach the gospel to the ends of the earth.

Sadly, this traditional sense of being called by God into service to the church and the world has been replaced by a more cancerous idea that “going into ministry” is a good “career choice.” May I not be misunderstood here…ministry is a great career, I would not be happy in any other line of work, and ministers must choose to obey the calling into ministry (not to mention that having an enjoyable and stable career should be a major life goal of every able-bodied person in this country.) But somehow, this dangerous concept has crept into the church that preaching the gospel, shepherding the flock, and pastoring the parishioners is nothing more than a career choice, that if for some reason does not work out, can be abandonded for a better career choice.

Why do I consider this a plague upon the church? Good question, glad you asked. Here is the answer, or actually, several answers.

1. A minister who feels called by God will ride out storms that career ministers would avoid. If ministry is nothing but a career, then I can bail out when the bullets start flying and take another job with less stress and more money.
2. A minister driven by a calling from God is more likely to say, teach and preach what God has told him to than one who is in it to advance his own career. Preaching hard against sin, selfishness, excess and waste will not endear you to the affluent in a congregation who need to hear such a message, and could endanger your “career.” The temptation is to preach for your career advancement instead of Kingdom advancement.
3. A man or woman obedient to a calling is less likely to appeal to other career options. A pastor once told me that if preaching did not work out, he could always use his engineering degree to get a better job. While this is technically true, it is also frightening. What if I went into my marriage with the idea that if things went poorly, I could trade in my wife for a new one? I would be reluctant to invest my life in a community of faith where I knew the pastor was eyeballing other career opprtunities and could leave at any moment to pursue them.

The young lady that inspired this little reflection was an intelligent and compelling teenager who brought us our food last night at Sonny’s. Some of the workers recognized me as the Teaching Pastor at Newspring in Anderson, SC and our conversation turned toward spiritual matters. When our waitress, Shelby Dakota, asked me about my job, I told her that I felt compelled by God at age 14 to preach the gospel for the rest of my life. She asked me if I liked my job and I told her that I LOVED IT! And what she said next was so ripe with wisdom that I promised her she would read her words here, since they begged to be repeated.

“I understand what you mean because we have been talking about that in my psychology class. If you just have a JOB, then you usually hate it. If you have a CAREER, you probably like it. But if you have a CALLING, then you LOVE IT.”

And to that I say AMEN!

For the past 6 years, Crossroads has partnered with Native Gospel Outreach, Faith Bible Church, and Nazlini Church of the Nazarene to serve the people of the Navajo Nation and proclaim the gospel on the reservation in Arizona. The reason I have not posted a blog in over a week is that where we were, there was literally no cell service, no internet connection, and, to our joy, very few distractions.

Here are some of the highlights of our time together among our Navajo friends:
-12 hours roundtrip from Phoenix singing Petra, Gavin DeGraw, and Hillsongs United
-Listening to my 5 year old preach the gospel to a van full of Navajo children
-Hiking 3 miles into Canyon DeChelly National Park
-Finding a pile of real arrowheads at an old ruin
-Seeing ancient cave paintings, untouched for hundreds of years
-Being invited into Navajo homes to pray for the sick
-Strengthening the relationships we have established with Tribal leaders and elders
-Being able to spend a week with my wife and son doing missions for Christ
-Standing in a snow storm 1,000 feet above the Nazlini river looking at a cliff dwelling
-Climbing to the top of the Nazlini canyon with my son & singing praise songs to Jesus
-Seeing our missions director Justin Brock lead our team with excellence
-Debating / discussing Calvinism and Arminianism for 2 hours one night with the team
-Eating an authentic Navajo hot tamale (good + hot)

If you are interested in serving the Navajo people on a future Crossroads trip, call our office and speak with Justin

704-434-2920
www.crossroadsworldwide.com

**If you missed our lively discussion on scripture, make sure to visit the comments from the last post. And just like my last post was NOT about getting people to tote their Bibles to church, this one is NOT about getting Christians to remove their bumper stickers. It’s about a much harder task; loving people.**

To be honest, I didn’t come up with this catchy phrase, though I wish I had. John Fischer recently captured many of my thoughts on what ails us evangelicals (and has been saying what needs to be said for many, many decades before his recent thoughts on bumper stickers at www.fischtank.com)

I love my small town and most of what comes along with it (cue John Cougar Mellencamp). But my quaint southern village is much like many others in the south (of which I am a proud resident). It is filled with religion, and this is not necessarily negative. But when those of us “on this inside” attempt to encapsulate the deep and historical elements of our Christian convictions on a church sign or a bumper sticker, our “religiosity” becomes an inside joke that no one gets but us. It ends up defeating the purpose by minimizing the gospel to a slogan and marginalizing the community of Chist as a bunch of sarcastic jerks who only care about getting to heaven because we “got a mansion in glory.”

Illustration, you ask? Certainly. One popular bumper sticker that has stood the test of time (I saw my first one back in the mid 1980’s) states, “In case of rapture, this care will be unmanned.”

Wow. Let’s unpack this a little bit. First, how many lost people know what “the rapture” is? (They would not be able to even find the word “rapture” in their Bible, by the way). And how many normal folks would read that and be drawn to the gospel by it’s clever quip about an eschatological event? And worst of all, will the average guy or gal feel like there is a cheekiness to our faith that we need to broadcast on the rear end of our car?

Or consider this one, commonly seen on church signs in the Bible belt. “Stop, Drop, and Roll won’t work in hell.”

Oh, bless my soul. Technically, I guess this statement is correct, but why would a church put that on their sign? Will this really endear anyone to Jesus? The sign is there, evidently, to communicate who that church is, what they believe, and what events are happening in that community. So why put something on a sign so smug, hateful, and mean-spirited? If that slogan is aimed at non-believers to get them to think about eternity, then it ain’t working. All it does is make them think we’re religious rednecks. If it is aimed at Christians (which is actually my theory) then it makes us feel more superior to those who will one day, apparently, wind up in hell, the very people we are supposed to care about and love. See the logic? The sign does not communicate the love of Christ. The messages we convey oftentimes communicate a spiritual smugness, a theological superiority, an insider mentality where we get the joke and they don’t.

So when a lost person reads our clever bumper stickers, maybe we should ask ourselves if they will understand. Is that church sign for them, or us? And is the slogan a cheap replacement for the more difficult task of loving them to Christ?

If they miss our miss-guided point, then the joke is on us. And it’s not funny. God, save us from the PLAGUE of thinking we can sum up something as big as your Gospel on a bumber sticker.

I am all about being relevant and edge-y. I believe that we should employ the same tactics in reaching cynical post-moderns that we use in reaching other cultures. If we are willing to spend 3 years to learn Russian at seminary to go to Russia to reach Russians, then we should at least admit that those here in our own backyard are worth as much to Jesus as unreached people groups, so we should do whatever it takes to learn to “speak their language,” if you will.

But if all our creative efforts leave God’s Word in the dust, or covered with it, we are crippling ourselves and we will never win anyone to Christ. PERIOD. God’s word never fails. We do. Alot. (This is NOT an attempt to get people to go old school Sunday school and make sure they tote their Bible with them to church, because that in itself can be a meaningless religious ritual. This is about placing VALUE on scripture).

Remember as I share this, I am not the pastor of a church (though I am the Teaching Pastor at Newspring). I travel for a living, hundreds of times a year for 21 years. Trust me when I say that the evangelical church in America is not just Biblically illiterate. We are Biblically un-interested! Just compare how much time in a typcial sermon is spent in the actual Word versus spent using comedy, illustrations, or telling stories.

And this is not just about the student rallies, youth camps and college campuses I speak at. Oh no! Adults are just as bad, actually worse, because grown-up Christians ought to know better. We say that we love the Bible, believe the Bible, adhere to inerrancy, blah blah blah, but never in the history of the church has scripture been so minimalized in corporate gatherings. I really do know what I am talking about.

Here is the thought process…let’s see what things we can do to get more people here, draw bigger crowds, be a little less formal, and make people feel a little less church-y and a little more relaxed. Good ideas. We have come up with dramas, interpretive dance, testimony time, cool video loops, live worship bands, mimes and Carman skits (in the late 80’s). All of these are fantastic. But it seems like we forgot the place of scripture in the church, not just today, but historically. I see this played out in the pews, chairs, and theatre seats that my audiences sit in everytime I preach somewhere.

Often I will take a survey just to make sure I am not making a snap judgement when it seems nobody is flipping pages when I tell them the text of my sermon. So I will ask everyone to hold up their copy of the Bible. On the average, it’s about 1 out of 4 that has a Bible with them. Am I being reactionary here? Not even close! Because this happens to me 200 times a year, in Charismatic and Pentecostal churches, Presbyterian and Methodist youth camps, and (gasp) Southern Baptist events. This is ironic because Southern Baptists (I am one, proudly) are THE denomination in the West that has (said) we stand for the Bible. You would never know it by the number of Southern Baptists who even bring a Bible to corporate worship. (Dang, I am preaching GOOD!).

Several years ago I was at a large youth rally and the youth pastor got up to make some announcements and introduce me. He had a thought, on the spot I guess, and wanted to quote a scripture as part of my introduction. He could not remember the exact verse, so he said, “I need a Bible, somebody!” He waited. And waited. Waited some more. No Bible. He said, “Really guys, I need someone to get me a Bible so I can find this verse. Mine is at home.” Nice. He left his at home, but he could have just forgotten it. We waited. All of us. Crickets chirping in the silence.

“Has ANYONE seen a Bible?” Nothing but silence.

“Well, since nobody has a Bible tonight, nevermind. Here’s Clayton.”

EXACTLY. If God’s Word has no place of prominence or importance in what we say we are doing for God, our sermons, our corporate and private worship, then nevermind. Let’s all go to a movie, because that is all our rallies and services and camps and conferences are. ENTERTAINMENT. As a mentor recently reminded me, without God’s inspiration and revelation from scripture, all I am doing is giving a speech. And if the Bible means nothing to us, as preachers or parishioners, then what we are left with are personalities we elevate to the authoritative place where the Holy Writ should be. And God save us all, if all we have is…”here’s Clayton.”