Unity: how to recognize it, how to get it, how to keep it in your church

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“…with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing forbearance to one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” (Ephesians 4:2-3)

“And beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.” (Colossians 3:14)

The joke about both art and porn is that “I can’t tell you what it is, but I know it when I see it.”

That may be how it is with church unity. There is nothing else like it. When a church is unified and moves forward as a healthy body for Christ, the rest of the Christian world stands back in awe. Something inside us calls out “Now, that is what I’m talking about!”

To paraphrase Tolstoy on families, all unified churches are alike but divided churches are each divided in their own way.

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Seven cautions before you preach on money, Pastor.

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“Prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation; among whom you appear as lights in the world.” (Philippians 2:15)

The worst time to preach on money is when you need some, pastor. The second worst time is when the church needs some.

The best time to preach on money is all the other times.

That said, here are a number of cautions for you to consider before walking into that lions’ den to tame the monster called greed.

1) Get your own house in order. Now, it’s possible to preach on prayer while knowing you have a long way to go in that respect. You can preach on good works and witnessing even if your record is spotty. You can do so because everyone has room for improvement in these areas. But when it comes to giving/stewardship, you can know when you are doing well.

The Christian is to be a giver. That means a hefty portion of his/her income will go into the church offering (whether you call it a tithe or something else), and believers will also be generous to the poor, to the needy around them, even to their enemies (Luke 6:30-35).

So, unless you are faithful in giving to your church, kind to the beggars you meet on the street, and generous in your tips to waiters and waitresses, hold off about preaching on stewardship. You have a bit of catching up to do.

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How I learned to love preaching on money. Well, almost.

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“Beware of preaching on money.”

That’s not in the Bible, but it ought to be.

And somewhere in the Proverbs we could insert this one:

“He who preaches on money to a new congregation should expect the honeymoon to end abruptly.”

Few subjects are as fraught with danger for the unsuspecting pastor than preaching on stewardship (money, giving, tithing, contributions to the Lord’s work, greed, materialism, however you want to put it).

As a new pastor of a church that had broken ground for a $5 million sanctuary just before I arrived, I found we were running behind the budget and were facing some hard financial decisions quickly. So, I did what I had always done in previous churches with a fair amount of success: I preached on giving.

It seemed the logical thing to do.

In fairness to myself, I wasn’t harsh or demanding, legalistic or judgmental. I thought my approach was balanced and scriptural.

Almost immediately, I began receiving anonymous notes from longtime members, all saying pretty much the same: “We are not used to our pastor preaching on money all the time. Please stop.”

I got the message.

There is no use in doing something the congregation is rejecting.

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Help! I’m a Pastor!

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“In a multitude of counselors there is victory.” (Proverbs 11:14 and 24:6)

I said to Pastor Marion, “I’m glad to exchange notes with you like this. But you need a couple of mentors–older guys with long histories in the ministry–whom you can sit across the table from and talk about these things.”

He named two such, a seminary professor and someone else.

Good.

It’s tough knowing what to do in certain situations pastors find themselves in.  Right now, Pastor Marion is leading his church in a massive building campaign, and working night and day to minister to his growing flock.  In the five years he has been at his church, they have doubled or more in attendance. And then, this happens….

A deacon who is used to getting his way in the church calls a meeting of the key leadership. He is upset about some of the sermons Marion has been preaching, he says. Furthermore–it will not surprise you if you have ever been the target of this kind of abuse–“many others in the church feel the same way.”

He threatened Pastor Marion that steps may be taken to remove him from the pulpit.

What is a pastor to do?

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What to say when your church members ask about those hard Scriptures

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“This is a difficult statement; who can listen to it?” (John 6:60)

Young pastors struggle with questions that arise from the congregation in the middle of their teachings. You’re holding forth on some rich teaching and someone blurts out, “But pastor, doesn’t Paul say such-and-so?”

Sure enough, Paul did say such and so, and said it in two or three places so strongly and clearly no one but the most resistant can deny. However, what he said does not fit with the point you were trying to make. Now, you have no choice but to deal with it.

Until that moment, you always liked the Apostle Paul and considered him one of your favorites.

You find yourself remembering–treasuring even–something the Apostle Peter said about Paul: “In all (Paul’s) letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.” (II Peter 3:16)

That’s a good verse to remember, young pastor. The time will come when you will need to refer an insistent questioner to it. After reading it–never quote it; the heckler  (smiley-face goes here) needs to see it in black and white in his own Bible–you will then say, “If Peter had difficulty getting a handle on some of Paul’s writings, it’s no stretch to think you and I might.”

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Some people cannot be reasoned with. Don’t try.

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A few millennia ago, Solomon said, “Do not speak in the ears of a fool, for he will despise the wisdom of your words.”

My wife was in the left turn lane of a busy boulevard in our community, a suburb of New Orleans. A driver who insisted on maneuvering his car across five lanes of traffic–he was crossing the street!–managed to hit her car on the side, just behind the right front tire. Then, he had the audacity to sue her, saying she had hit him.

In court, the judge noted our photos showing the front of the man’s car smashed and the side of my wife’s car dented.

“Mr. Davis,” the judge said, “Don’t you mean you hit her car?”

“Oh, no sir, judge. She hit me.”

Even when the magistrate pointed out that for this to occur, her car would have had to be moving sideways, the man kept insisting that she had hit him.

The case was thrown out.

There’s more to this.

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Welcome to the human race, pastor!

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“For He Himself knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust.” (Psalm 103:14)

So, pastor, you have been feeling inadequate for the work given you by the Lord? You feel unable to measure up to the expectations of the Lord’s people toward you? You wonder what the Lord was thinking when He called you into such a strategic ministry?

Good. Welcome to the human race.

You were not chosen by HIm and called into this sacred work because you were good enough, smart enough, mature enough, or godly enough.

You are not patient enough, focused enough, or sufficiently spiritual.

It’s not about you.

Unless you can get that through your skull and imbedded in your soul, you will be forever frustrated in this work.

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The sermon pastors shy away from preaching

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“Will a man rob God?” (Malachi 3:8)

Some people are going to be mighty upset with their pastors one day.

When, standing before the Lord, it becomes obvious that Jesus was not speaking metaphorically when He said that in giving to Him we are “laying up treasure in Heaven” (Matthew 6:20), many who were never taught to do that on earth are going to be pointing the finger of accusation at the preachers who failed them.

Why would a pastor shy away from preaching a message on giving? The answers are many and complex, but most boil down to one: He’s afraid.

He is a coward.

Pastors do not like criticism and nothing will get him criticized quicker than a rousing sermon on turning loose of the almighty dollar and rerouting it into the offering plate.

Pastors do not like anonymous letters and nothing will fill his mailbox sooner with these orphan missives than declaring the whole counsel of God against materialism and greed.

The cowardly in any congregation enjoy anonymous carping at their spiritual leaders. If the preacher is silenced before he even begins, they have won.

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Come on and laugh with me.

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“God has made laughter for me.” (Genesis 21:6)

Some laughter will do us both good.

The best thing in The Advocate, the Baton Rouge daily which has supplanted the Times-Picayune as our newspaper of choice in recent months, is Smiley Anders’ column. Smiley loads his space with items of humor, curiosity, or insight. I didn’t subscribe to the paper for this column, but it’s a nice bonus.

One:  Smiley tells about a city in Germany that was being overrun by loose dogs. A factory owner called city hall one day to complain that those wild dogs were destroying his business. He said, “The mills are alive with the hounds of Munich.”

That’s what I mean. You can’t get good stuff like that just anywhere!

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Do not do a New Year’s Resolution. There’s a better way.

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When I was 8 years old, using the new Bible my dad had given me for Christmas, I began reading a chapter each night before going to bed. And, I stayed with the program for several years.(I bogged down in the major prophets. Just too heavy going for a kid.)

When I was about 12 or 13, under the influence of older cousin Billy Chadwick who seemed to know a great many things the rest of the world was clueless about, I quit using a pillow at night. For years, I slept without a pillow because Billy said using one produced poor posture.

Several times in recent years, I have started on January 1 and read the Bible through, marking up the Scriptures in order to present to one of our eight grands.  One year, in order to present Bibles to twins Abby and Erin, I alternated with two Bibles, but made sure to mark them both alike.

So, I’m not at all against making resolutions and keeping them.

It’s just that a lot of people shy away from making commitments for a full 365 days. It’s so intimidating. So, rather than begin something they cannot complete, they do nothing.

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