“You foolish Galatians! Who has done a number on you–you before whose very eyes the Lord Jesus was vividly portrayed as crucifed? Tell me this: Did you receive the Holy Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?” (Galatians 3:1-2)

I had just sketched the young single mother and she was telling me about her life. She doesn’t go to church anywhere, she said, but her mom has been pressuring her to attend her church. And what kind of church does her mother have?

“She’s started her own religion.”

That got my attention as few other things will. She’s started her own religion?

Just what this world needs, another variety of religion.

“And what is that all about?” I asked.

“Well, she’s reading the Old Testament and the New Testament.”

“Okay. No problem there,” I said.

She said, “She’s given up pork. And she said we can’t have any birthdays or specific holidays because they aren’t biblical.”

Uh oh.  This woman has started on a slippery slope which can lead her into an abyss of legalism and law-keeping.

I said, “If she keeps on this way, you can expect your mother to start keeping the Sabbath as her day of worship. And it will get worse after that.”

I took a notepad and wrote: “Acts 15–You don’t have to become a Jew to be saved” and “Colossians 3–let no one judge you on the basis of what you eat or the sabbath.” (Note: I had it wrong. It’s Colossians 2.)

I said, “The note is for you, not your mom. She might not appreciate the discussion we are having. But as you read these and think about them, they might provide the answers you want to give her.”

“But the best answer you can give your mother when she pressures you to attend her church is to already be attending a good strong church and tell her that.”

Continue reading “Spiritual Maturity: “You Do Not Want to Go Back to That!”” »

“…knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance….” (James 1:3)

Pity the church with an immature pastor. He can drive good people crazy.

His ego is always out there seeking a caress, his stubborness could put a mule to shame, and his unteachable spirit frustrates even the saintliest. He thinks of himself first of all, what effect something will have on his career secondly, and of the church a distant third.

A few days after Hurricane Katrina went through our part of the world and left New Orleans flooded and hundreds of thousands of people homeless and vast numbers of churches destroyed, I had a phone call from one of our young pastors. His church had come through fine, but his members were scattered and some were not coming back.  He said, “Joe, I worry about the effect this will have on my future prospects. I mean, this will not look good on my resume’.”

Yes, he actually said that.

I replied, “My friend, you don’t have a resume’. You’re still in seminary.” I let that soak in, then added, “If you will do this right and be faithful, you will someday look back on this as one of the finest things the Lord ever did for you.”

He could not hang around long enough to see that, however, and soon had moved out of state.

Continue reading “A Crash Course in Spiritual Maturity” »

Immaturity and sin have one big thing in common: they’re more obvious in others than in ourselves.

At a state Baptist convention attended by a thousand or more church leaders, during a business session when anyone is free to walk to a microphone and express an opinion about the motion on the floor, I noticed the same young pastors kept rushing to address the messengers. At times what they said was pertinent, but one got the feeling they liked the sound of their own voice reverberating off the walls of that majestic worship center.

Returning home, I wrote a letter to the editor of our state paper–in hope that some of these guys might recognize themselves–suggesting that these youngsters could save themselves a lot of embarrassment and the rest of us considerable time if they would attend a few meetings before speaking out. That way, they might know what they were talking about instead of having the chair gently inform them that they were misinformed or out of order or clueless on this issue.  (In the next issue of the paper, the mother of two young preachers took me to task for my insolence. “McKeever was young once,” she said. I was then 44.)

I have indeed been young and I have been green and ignorant, and I possess lots of experience with immaturity.

In my first church following seminary, I can still recall (painfully, I might add) the way I was critical of one of our state convention workers who would plan the annual youth evangelism meeting a few days after Christmas.  Since my church was doing well and our youth were excited and the numbers growing, all the evidence proved I was an authority on working with youth. To my thinking, it did. I could have written a book on what that guy was doing wrong and how he could get it right.

And then, something happened.

Continue reading “Immature Pastors (Part 2)” »

“Let no one look down on your youthfulness, but rather in speech, conduct, love, faith and purity, show yourself an example of those who believe” (I Timothy 4:12).

Recently after one of our writings on the subject of spiritual immaturity, a young friend in the ministry wrote to tell of a painful experience he’d had with a longtime buddy who was pastoring a church. I’ll summarize his story.

After his team lost in the Super Bowl, Pastor Kent went to his Facebook page and slammed the winning team. He griped about the city, its people, its reputation, and said every bad thing he could think to say. He was an unhappy camper.

His friend, telling the story–we’ll call him Tommy–sent him a private note to say it was not very gracious for a pastor to be speaking that way just because his team had lost. Perhaps Kent would like to soften his words somewhat.

Pastor Ken responded harshly, insisting he had been joking and that he was offended at being reprimanded in public this way.

Since they were longtime friends and he felt he could speak plainly, Tommy pointed out that he had not rebuked him in public but this was a private communication. He added that the city whose team had just won the championship had undergone some very difficult times lately and this victory had given them a much needed lift, that sort of thing.

That day, Kent cut off all further communication with Tommy and  “unfriended” him and his family on Facebook. They’ve had no contact since.

The experience hurt Tommy. He told me, “I really miss my old friend.”

An immature pastor can be a problem for all who know him.

Pray for his church. Pray God will give the church a few mature leaders who can speak plainly with him (that’s a euphemism for “take him to the woodshed when necessary”). He will be lost without such friends.

Continue reading “Help! Our Pastor is Immature!” »

“Now consider how great this man was…. Now, beyond all contradiction the lesser is blessed by the better.”(Hebrews 7:4,7)

I’m going to start this reflection without a clear understanding on where we will end up.  It should go without saying that nothing that follows is the last word on anything. But perhaps it will get us to thinking.

The one who blesses is greater than the one blessed.

According to the anonymous writer of Hebrews, Melchizedek was greater than Abraham since it was he who blessed the patriarch and not vice versa.  The blessor is greater than the blessee, to paraphrase 7:7.

I’ve been reading a new biography of Thomas Beckett, the archbishop of Canterbury who was martyred in the 12th century. One issue that surfaced regularly in those days was whether the king of a country had the right to “invest” the new archbishop with the symbols of his position, implying that the king himself was granting powers to the spiritual leader.  The symbolism meant a great deal. The pope, to no one’s surprise, wanted to end this practice, insisting that the church is autonomous and beholden to no earthly power. Kings fought to keep all evidence in place that the church existed under their authority and its leaders should obey them above the pope.

The dispute illustrates Hebrews 7:7 perfectly. If the one giving the blessing is greater than the one receiving it, he is then the top dog. Such symbolism meant everything in medieval times.

Scripture informs us of numerous other such truisms worth our consideration. Let’s try these on for size.

Continue reading “What Being Strong in the Lord Really Means” »