A pastor friend of mine shared with me of a difficult time he just had at the church he leads. Turns out there was a small group of folks who thought the church should move in another direction (by ‘another’ they meant ‘Their’ direction). This isn’t exactly rare (sad to say) but no matter how common place it is the results are always the same. The Bride of Christ is wounded and sometimes killed.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve sat and listened to hurting ministers tell their story of betrayal and devastation at the hands of a few grossly misguided, control freaks. Lately it has made me search for patterns of behavior and signs we pastors can be aware of in order to head these things off before they blow up in our face. Turns out there are several characteristics these people and situations share and I thought I’d pass a couple on to the ministers who read this blog for whatever it’s worth.

• One is that a group you were formerly close to begins to shut down. They withdraw from ministries and serving the body of Christ and begin to occupy their newly freed up time with get-togethers for gossip. It’s almost as though they’ve joined a sort of spiritually dysfunctional Amway or something and they now seem driven to ‘reshape the future’ at their church.
• Another is that, as the church grows, these people see it as a bad thing and fight for more and more of the pastor’s time (this creates an obvious tension as the pastor of a growing church has less and less time to spend with the original few folks).
• There is a sense of entitlement that can develop in pockets of like-minded people. Even though these folks usually opt to go into a form of early spiritual retirement (i.e. They no longer serve) they still feel the church owes them a kind of spiritual tenure when it comes to important decisions and leadership issues.
• There is a critical spirit toward both leadership and new people perceived as ‘taking over’ their coveted former positions.
• There is a paranoia that warts and flaws they have—and/or pains they’ve shared will be used against them if they ever try anything (read: attempt to cause disunity).

There are a lot of other signs, but, in the days ahead, I want to focus on the one that may seem out of place on this list—the one that you (the reader) might be the most confused about. It’s the last one.

I admit, I never really paid attention to it much myself until I noticed a definite pattern not only from hearing so many other pastors describe their ordeals but also with some who have behaved this way at Southbrook.

We’ll call this last one, Knowing Too Much.

Stay tuned.

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Ok, don’t shoot.

I need to take at least a week off from the old blog if it’s okay with all you faithful readers. Not only do I have three major events to speak at this weekend, but also, I’m just a bit fried for things to say right now. My mind is on the three very different venues.

I understand that I have two series to wrap up and promise to get to those first.

Wanted to let you know I did not forget.

So, see you next week!

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Let’s start here.

Read Mark 7:14-23

 ¹⁴ Then Jesus called to the crowd to come and hear. “All of you listen,” he said, “and try to understand. ¹⁵ It’s not what goes into your body that defiles you; you are defiled by what comes from your heart.^a]’>[a]”

 ¹⁷ Then Jesus went into a house to get away from the crowd, and his disciples asked him what he meant by the parable he had just used. ¹⁸ “Don’t you understand either?” he asked. “Can’t you see that the food you put into your body cannot defile you? ¹⁹ Food doesn’t go into your heart, but only passes through the stomach and then goes into the sewer.” (By saying this, he declared that every kind of food is acceptable in God’s eyes.)

 ²⁰ And then he added, “It is what comes from inside that defiles you. ²¹ For from within, out of a person’s heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, ²² adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. ²³ All these vile things come from within; they are what defile you.”

We go to incredible extremes and spend untold millions on cures for things like, “heat disease.” And we should. Heart disease kills millions. But what about spiritual heart disease?

Spiritual heart disease has killed billions!

But it gets little attention, and little financing for a cure. That’s okay—the best cure (as it turns out) costs nothing. It’s just a matter of adjusting what you put in your mouth (for physical heart disease).

You are what you eat — as they say.

Same goes for spiritual heart disease only it’s not what you put in your mouth but what you put in your mind (and ultimately, your heart) that determines whether or not you will develop the full blown disease or live a healthy, vibrant spiritual life.

Now, though we know this, most of us continue to eat junk food, bad carbs and drink diet sodas and chug the beer on the weekends believing the line that weekends were actually made for Michalob.

But it’s also killing you.

And the same thing is happening to your soul.

Stay tuned. We need to talk about this.

* Hey, anyone want to join me in Monroe this weekend? I love visiting our Monroe campus from time to time and this weekend is one of those times!

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