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 “Really?”
you may think. “Doesn’t that sound kinda radical?”
Sure
hope so.
But
by the time you’ve reached this section of this book, you’ve probably
realized that I am fiercely radical in regards to what is right and just,
and I do have a tendency to put forth some… well, how would you say… uh,
strange, different and somewhat unconventional solutions to the systemic
Love Jesus, Hate Church cesspool we’re slowly drowning in. Please
understand that I make no apologies for my radical stance or my
black-and-white way of viewing the things of God. I see it, quite
honestly, as the ministry entrusted to me by the Lord.
This
is just one of those radical ideas that will hopefully spur you on to some
deeper thinking and serious soul searching about the “thing we call
church” and our co-dependent relationship with it.
Let
me give you the background for “church busters”.
Peril in Paradise
All
across America, in our vested, lukewarm church culture, there are
literally tens of thousands of churches that are land-locked.
Well,
maybe “land-locked” isn’t totally accurate. It doesn’t seem like the right
phrase.
It
would probably be more accurate to say they’re Holy Spirit-locked.
Yeah,
that’s it. More descriptive.
Holy
Spirit-locked.
These
Holy Spirit-locked churches that dot our landscape are nothing more
than spiritually boarded-up centers of supposed worship and ministry with
a No Trespassing sign posted firmly on the front lawn.
And
there are thousands of them— maybe even tens of thousands.
I’m
sure you’ve seen them all over the town in which you live. In fact, if you
live in a town like the one I live in, you can’t drive over five miles
without running into a dozen or so of them.
“How
do you recognize these churches?” you ask.
Simple.
You recognize them by their conspicuous lack of fruit.
Because
of the absence of the Holy Spirit, these are the churches that are
never going to grow in number, significant ministry or spiritual
depth. They’re the churches that are never going to be innovative
in regards to their mission, their vision or their passion. They’re the
churches that will never fulfill the Great Commission Jesus gave
them, even if they could remember what that commission was. And, quite
honestly, they’re the churches that are never going to stand aside
and allow the Holy Spirit freedom to move among them in His profound, hand
raising, “give God the glory” sort of way.
Did
you ever wonder why?
Did
you ever wonder why these churches never achieve anything remotely close
to what God designed and equipped them for?
Did
you ever wonder why they’re even there— taking up space and draining
resources?
Did
you ever ask yourself what the people in those churches must be thinking?
Or, if they are even thinking at all?
have. And the answer is both sobering and eye opening.
My Four, No More, Shut the Door
In
each of these pitifully sad excuses for a New Testament church there
always seems to be a group of people, a family, or a ruling body, that has
taken upon themselves the self-proclaimed, prophetic mantel of being the
resident church gatekeeper.
Every
church has to have one.
It’s
in the Bible.
And
if you don’t think that it is, just go and ask one of them and they’ll be
more than happy to set you straight. Pronto.
The
single purpose of a gatekeeper, the very reason they get out of bed
each morning to mess up a new day, is their driving, all-consuming passion
to keep the Holy Spirit out of their church and their traditions in.
They’re
the keepers of the glorious past.
The
sentries of the status quo.
The
nagging, non-change element.
Gatekeepers
have this uncanny ability to manifest themselves into all sorts of
different shapes and sizes. They can be young or old, male or female,
retired or employed, well educated or dumber than a brick. Their ranks
draw from all segments of church society. They’re incredibly gifted at
being able to conform to their surroundings, much like the way a chameleon
is able to change its color at will in order to blend in and remain
hidden, unnoticed to the naked eye.
So
it is with the gatekeepers.
These
gatekeepers may be deacons or elders or former pastors, or they can
take on a variety of hybrid forms and personalities. But more often than
not, they usually tend to manifest themselves in the fertile soil of a
single extended family, or a group of families, that have rooted
themselves into a congregation like kudzu and refuse to be deterred.
“Once
they’re in, heck, you might as well just sell the farm!”
They
may be led by a matriarchal family figure or by an old, retired pastor who
has a vested interest to see that things stay the same. Whenever a new
pastor, youth pastor, or worship leader comes to serve in the church,
they’re the ones who vehemently hold on to the way things used to be. To
the past. It somehow affirms their ministry or their very existence to see
that nothing ever changes.
Change
is bad, evil and of the devil. Well, it’s hard to argue with that.
“No,
we’re not going to sing those songs here as long as I’m in this church.”
“I
don’t like to stand during the worship songs. My legs get tired.”
“Why
do we keep projecting the words on the wall? What’s wrong with our
hymnals?”
“These
kids need to be more respectful in church. Why do they keep running
around?”
“I’ll
tell you when I was a young person, I would never dress that way. It’s
shameful.”
“What’s
wrong with the King James?”
Usually
they work behind the scenes. In the shadows. Just under the radar.
They
have this well organized, underground network of church members who never
attend anymore and haven’t since the late sixties. They’re the ones who
just sit at home and read the weekly church newsletter to see what’s going
on, complain about what they don’t like, gossip about what they would
change if they were there, and generally moan about the current state of
things— especially when compared to the wondrous times of constant revival
they experienced week after week when they were at the helm, back in their
heyday, in the good ‘ol days. You know, before the new guys showed up and
everything began to change.
Ah,
the limitless resources of the gatekeepers.
When
do you see those people?
Most
often at an annual church budget meeting. For some reason the allure and
enticement of a church business meeting irresistibly draws them out into
the open like a porch light does to fireflies. The pastor stands up to
present the budget to the congregation when all of a sudden, instead of
the usual 100 or so in attendance, the crowd that Sunday has swelled to
175 or more, 50 of which he’s never even seen before. The sanctuary is
overflowing, filled to the brim with those obscure people on the church
membership role, like the son or grandson that joined when he was 9 years
old during a VBS push and has lived like hell ever since. Twenty-six years
later he shows up at the annual church business meeting, at his mom’s
request, to vote with her constituency voting block either yea or
nea on a certain hot, “flavor of the day” political issue. Then, like
the homeless, he’ll just drift away into the shadows until he is once
again called upon to do his family church duty.
Ah,
the gatekeepers.
“You
know, the Pastor makes too much money. He only works two days a week.”
“We
don’t need a full-time youth director. We’ve got too many kids runnin’
‘round here anyway.”
“What’s
wrong with the old pipe organ? We’ve had it for years. Why in the world do
they want to go out and buy a new keyboard? Seems like a waste of money to
me.”
“Hey
Pastor, who told you that you can do that, say that, preach that, print
that, pray for that, go to that, buy that... ad nauseaum.”
Whew!
Are you beginning to get the point?
Pastors
and other church leaders find themselves habitually frustrated, grossly
outmanned, and hopelessly outgunned by the rapid mobilization and
deployment capabilities of the gatekeepers. And because of the
government structures of most churches, they’re frankly unable to do
anything about it.
When
you find yourself continually faced with the “no win” situations described
above—
When
it doesn’t look like things will ever improve—
When
yesterday you’ve reached the end of your rope—
And
today you find yourself desperately trying to hang on to thin air—
When
you’ve seriously considered resigning from the pastorate to sell used
cars—
What
do you do?
Where
do you go?
Who
you gonna call?
ChurchBusters!
“Who You Gonna Call?”
Now,
here’s an idea, a truly radical solution to all of this.
Suppose
in each community there was a group of Believers who were genuinely
sold-out to Jesus Christ. Their sole desire, focus, passion and mission in
life was to see Jesus magnified.
That’s
Jesus.
Just
Jesus.
Then
let’s say this group of committed followers viewed themselves as traveling
vigilantes and would move from church to church, as the need arose, in
order to restore order and to set things straight. Their ministry would be
to weed out the dead wood, to remove the gatekeepers, and to let
the Holy Spirit flow.
Personal
Note: I had this illustrated to me in a rather riveting way
several years ago when, upon considering accepting the pastorate of a
Baptist church in Gastonia, NC, I had the Director of Missions (that’s the
local Southern Baptist guy that acts as a paid liaison between the
Convention and the local churches) tell me that “the only thing holding
that church back from being what God wants it to be could be satisfied
with a couple of well-placed funerals.”
I’m
sure he wasn’t actually praying for literal funerals... but I did get his
point.
He
recognized, in other words, that as soon as the gatekeepers left,
or were removed, or died, or were voted out of power, or the governmental
structure of the church somehow changed, the formidable roadblocks and
hidden landmines that land-locked the church in spiritual apathy would be
gone and God would be able to freely move within the congregation.
Now,
I know God can do anything He desires and that “He is in His heavens and
does what He pleases.” But my experience has been, and probably so has
yours, that He is more prone to move in a glorious fashion when His people
are focused on Him and His glory— and not on their own petty,
self-seeking, inward-focused agendas.
Anyway,
the Director of Missions was trying to warn me that God was not likely to
move in this particular church under the current setting because the
membership deck was stacked with experienced, seasoned, battle-hardened
gatekeepers who would tirelessly recruit virtual strangers to achieve
their pre-determined ends.
“They
would,” he warned, “spare no expense and leave no stone unturned to
accomplish what they want.”
These
gatekeepers would fan out in all directions to shake the bushes,
drum-up support, and trade whatever political favors were necessary to
ensure a packed house at the next church business meeting. They wanted to
flood the pews with “their” people, like-minded zealots, the current and
future gatekeepers.
Their
goal: To stand in mass and shout their opinions and declare as
loudly as permissible what they collectively agreed or disagreed
with...uh, usually the latter. (The Director of Missions was right. Maybe
I should have listened to him.)
That’s
when you call for the Churchbusters.
The
pastor, after having experienced a series of set-up shut-downs at the
church conference or the annual business meeting, finds himself in the sad
and pathetic situation of not knowing what to do or where to turn.
Traditional Seminary training is enormously, incalculably deficient in
regards to this aspect of ministry life.
Bang!
One vote and the Youth Pastor’s salary went from full-time to part-time
for no apparent reason.
Bang
Again! Another show of hands and foreign mission money is slashed in
favor of buying a new van to take the seniors out on their “greet and eat”
meetings.
What
am I going to do?
Who
am I going to call?
So,
in dire desperation, the pastor picks up the phone and dials:
1-800-CHURCHBUSTERS
Who Needs a Bible, We've Got a Constitution and By-Laws
The
constitution and by-laws, for example, of most Baptist churches were
written by the gatekeepers. It’s true. They were the ones that
wanted to make sure that they, or their descendants, always served on all
the important, policy dictating, committees.
Think
about it.
They’re the Chairman of your Finance Committee placed there to
control the money, funding, and direction of the church.
They’re
the Chairman of the Personnel Committee strategically positioned to
control the pastor, the staff, their salaries, raises, vacation time, and
to write out job evaluations and descriptions.
They’re
the ones that make up the majority of the membership on the Youth
Committee to guarantee that their children and grandchildren are first
and foremost leaders in the Youth Group.
They’re
the ones usually in charge of the Worship Committee whose purpose
is to make sure that, even though the church voted to hire the new “Willow
Creek” style worship leader, he still must sing the old hymns from the
old, outdated hymnals.
They’re
also the ones in charge of the Building and Grounds Committee. They
are there to determine whether the church builds a ball field as an
outreach to attract families within the community or if we install park
benches up and down the church property so the members can have a place to
sit.
Well,
you’ve met the gatekeepers. What do you think?
Been There, Done That
Several
years ago I was officiating one of the infamous annual church budget
meetings in the very church the Director of Missions warned me not to
take. Remember him? Shows you how hard-headed I can be, doesn’t it?
Anyway,
in this particular church there was a group of people, no... it was more
like a gang of people, like an al-Qaida sleeper cell... that really
had their panties twisted in a wad towards the Youth Pastor and wanted him
gone. No mercy. Vamoose. “Outta here, bub.”
In
late November we had our budget planning committee meeting to formulate
the actual budget that was to be presented to the church right after
Christmas. The budget planning committee was made up of all the various
department heads— finance, stewardship, worship, personnel, building and
grounds, and the like. As expected, many of the gatekeepers served as
department heads and committee chairmen and had done so without
interruption since the end of the Vietnam War.
What
amazed me then, and still does today when I think about it, is that each
of the gatekeeper committee heads that were responsible, by virtue
of their leadership position, to help formulate the budget simply refused
to attend and, in effect, boycotted the planning meeting. This left the
remaining committee members in the awkward position of having to create
and submit a budget based on their input alone. Why? Because the
gatekeepers were absent. AWOL. Little did I know they were planning their
own December 7th, 1941. They neglected their duty, treated the budget
others had prepared in their absence as taboo, vehemently refused to have
any input into the process and then began a systematic “rape and burn”
campaign against the Youth Pastor in the hopes of building support for a
reduction in his salary (he was making less than $8,000 a year as it was)
and his ultimate demise.
Wow!
And people wonder why we Love Jesus and Hate Church.
Finally,
the anticipated night of the Annual Church Budget Meeting came and
the budget was presented to the church for passage.
“We
have a motion to accept the budget as presented. Do we have a second?”
“Second.”
“Is
there any discussion on this budget before we place it before the body for
a vote?”
Man, what a mess! The best way I could describe it to you is to say that
all Hell broke loose on planet earth. You would of thought we were saying
Professional Wrestling was fake or something!
Out
of nowhere people I had never seen before, the obvious spawns and
offspring of the gatekeepers who had been kept under wraps until
the opportune time, presented themselves, and began to initiate a
well-rehearsed slander campaign against the Youth Pastor, saying things
that were simply not true. Making irritating innuendoes and blatantly
false statements about things and situations they had heard from the
gatekeepers and had no knowledge of personally.
In
fact, the majority of the obscure offspring had never even met the Youth
Pastor and couldn’t have picked him out of a police lineup if their lives
depended on it.
The
whole meeting was rapidly digressing into a distressing situation.
As
moderator, it was my responsibility to facilitate the meeting and not act
as an active participant. I was, to the best of my ability, to remain
neutral. Which was getting harder and harder to do.
Edmond
Burke’s famous quote began playing in my mind:
All that is necessary for evil to flourish is for good men to do nothing.
No
problem, I thought.
There
are plenty of people— good, honest, God-fearing people— who know the truth
and won’t let this stuff go unchallenged. The good people will do
something to stop this evil from flourishing.
Boy,
was I naive. Wet behind the ears. Just plain stupid.
I
looked around at the other people in the church who supported the Youth
Pastor, those I personally knew to be spiritually minded and who were
appalled and sickened at what was happening. I looked at each one, eye to
eye, waiting, hoping, longing for them to stand and counter the
accusations— praying for someone, anyone, to have the courage to
speak the truth and to stand for what was right.
Did
I ever learn a lesson about the powers of the gatekeepers!
The
“good men” as Edmond Burke would say, “did nothing”— and evil flourished.
They just shook their heads in disgust. Disgust veiled as resignation and
apathy. A couple of them, leaders in the church, actually got up and left
the meeting as some sort of lame protest which did nothing more than
further dilute the impact of the spiritual members in that meeting.
Somehow they felt they were serving God by doing nothing. What were they
thinking?
The
budget wasn’t passed. It went back to the table.
The
Youth Pastor left. Probably the best thing for him.
And
I experienced the crowning blow in my graduate level life lesson of how to
Love Jesus and Hate Church. I resigned the following month
and have never set foot in a traditional church since. Never! And you know
what, I haven’t missed the stuff at all. In fact, my spiritual life has
been blessed by not attending. Try to teach that truth in
Seminary, why don’t ya?
But
that’s a topic for another time and another chapter.
Pick Up That Phone and Make That Call!
What
should I have done?
Simple.
I should’ve called the ChurchBusters.
I
should’ve picked up the phone and dialed:
1-800-CHURCHBUSTERS
Or,
I could’ve logged on to their website, www.ChurchBusters.com, and
explained the problem. (Oh yes. There’s actually a ChurchBusters
website. Check it out at www.ChurchBusters.com)
My
conversation may have gone something like this.
“When
is the next church business meeting?”
“Two
weeks from this coming Sunday.”
“Great.
How many do you think you'll need?”
“Well,
probably 50 will do. No, let’s make it 60 just to be sure.”
“OK.
See you Sunday morning.”
The
following Sunday we have sixty visitors show up in our church. That’s
sixty people who passionately, in word and deed, love the Lord with all
their heart. Sixty committed people who are on a quest to see Church:
Jesus Style— the way He intended it to be. Sixty praying Believers who
are following the ministry God called them to without reservation. Sixty
people who have a vested interest to root out church gatekeepers at
any cost. Sixty people who want to see the church as a place where
Christ is glorified and people are affirmed, strengthened, and encouraged—
not a place of pain, deceit, and hurt.
Sixty
people who Love Jesus and Hate Church.
hink
of it, sixty new people— husbands, wives, children— all sitting in church.
Many
of the members of the church swear that revival has broken out. “I can’t
believe that all these people are here. It’s amazing!”
And
at the close of the service, at the invitation, these sixty people come
forward and join the church. They become active, participating, voting
members right on the spot.
Two
weeks later there’s a business meeting. Who shows up? You got it! The
sixty ChurchBusters! All of a sudden, in the twinkling of an eye,
the gatekeepers are out-numbered and it’s a brand new ballgame.
The
budget’s passed.
The
Youth Pastor’s retained.
The
gatekeepers are removed from their hereditary leadership positions
and vital changes are made that were long overdue. Decades overdue.
Bottom
Line: The church moves on in the Spirit of the Lord and becomes,
unhindered, what He wants it to be.
Strange
idea, don’t you think?
Maybe
too radical?
Well,
if you’re one of the “good men” who are doing “nothing”— shame on you!
And
if you’re one of the gatekeepers— why would you be reading a book
like this?
Either
way, it should show us how people who Love Jesus and Hate Church
got their beginning. Where their genesis really lies.
And
why they feel like they do.
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