Church Battles

Our discussion of James and the troubles he predicted for the church because of their excessive deference to "rich" men reminded me of some church battles I have experienced. Most of the churches I have attended were chosen after a careful, diligent search. Well, maybe two exceptions. My home church was chosen by my Grandad, actually. I am not sure if he was in on the founding of the church, but he was there for a long time.

My Dad went there all his life, and when Jimmy boy came along he went too. I had a drug problem. I was drug to church twice on Sunday, once on Wednesday, and often other days if the doors were open.

The second exception to church choice was the one I attended in college. I did not go to the Big Baptist (Southern, if you please), which most of the college chose. But there was a smaller Alliance church within walking distance and that was the denomination of Home (Dad and Grandad's)  church. The church I attended in Longview, Texas, did not, to my knowledge have any difficulties–while I was there, anyway.

The Pastor had just overseen a building program and they seemed to have come through unscathed. He was a great pastor. He left about the time that I graduated and joined Campus Crusade. Coincidentally, he was assigned to Illinois State University and ministered to the woman who would later become my wife. We both have great memories of him.

As an aside, most church battles I am aware of, both personally and though information, have involved very active and effective churches. They were making a difference for the kingdom.  It seems like Satan attacks them to blunt their effectiveness for the Kingdom.

How this church escaped might be a good study for church leaders to study. It was very active when I was attending there. We went into the neighborhood on Sunday afternoons to find "unchurched" families. If they indicated that they did not attend church, we invited them to ours.

It was close to them because we did our visiting on foot, being limited by the school and later by finances from having motor vehicles. We did not even have bicycles. I guess someone else invented that method of getting around. The church was strong and making an impact in the neighborhood and city.

My next stop was Iowa City and the church I attended there was another "smaller" church with about 300 attending the morning services on Sunday. Nearly 200 of them were college students from the U of Iowa and other smaller institutions in the area. Again, it had a fantastic pastor and was very influential in the community. He was called to another church, one in Minneapolis, and had an effective ministry there.

The replacement was not a good choice. Several of us voted not to call him, but were overridden by the rest of the church body. He had a great personality and everyone really loved him. But, he did not prepare for his sermons and they were, to be frank, atrocious. The college students, by and large, went other places. The 300 became 100 and to be honest, I was not unhappy to leave when I graduated. Eventually he divided what was left of the church.

My next church was in Peoria, Illinois, and it was a strong, vibrant church. While I was there, it seemed to have minimal, if any problems. Praise the Lord.

Our next church started very strong and was probably averaging over 2000 a week. Long story short, things went badly, and one of the mistakes was putting a "new" member in charge of a special promotion. That went well, but it gave him cachet with a group and that group was largely led into some poor choices. Other factors were leading to a decline in attendance and that was exacerbated by the divisive nature, including a lawsuit, of this guys' approach.

 Eventually the church split. It had, by then, dwindled to about 900 and the pastor retired. A new pastor was called to replace him and the replacement proceeded to further divide and destroy the church. He terminated the outreach ministry which had prospered and brought many people both to the church and to the Lord during the time of trouble. He explained that it was "too intrusive to actually call and go to peoples' homes." Other factors also weighed on the situation.

We decided not to be divisive and chose to go elsewhere, as many of our friends had done. It was about 600 when we left, but that was with a claimed 300 new members who joined after the church went "contemporary" and pretty much abandoned expository preaching. Math equates to 900 when he came, plus 300 added, equals a total of 600. That means he drove about 600 away to gain 300.

Back to James. One of the factors in this and many church failure was the preference afforded to a "rich man." The guy just referenced was a businessman and seemingly successful. I wondered that a new member would be given charge of the all-church program, Rick Warren's 40 days.

Now let's turn our attention to my home church. As I mentioned in an earlier post, it had problems also. From the time I was aware of "church business" I noted that no pastor had stayed more than four years. They went on to other churches and were amazingly successful. Dad did not tell us kids much about church affairs, but we were able to keep track of progress as we attended the business meetings. (Remember that I went whenever the doors were open? That included business meetings as well as special events and SingSpirations.)

The church "voted" whether to "extend the call" of the pastor. (Aside: I always wondered at that. If God had called the pastor, why did we have to vote? Wouldn't the Lord tell him when it was time to move? The votes invariably went from almost unanimous to abut 2/3's to less than half.) At that point the pastor would begin to candidate at other churches and left.

We had one guy, after I left for college, who refused to go. There were several members who were quite vocal and even overt in their opposition. One in particular kept coming to services, but would not even speak to him. Stratton was a small town, so it was literally impossible not to encounter people in the post office, drug store, grocery store, and even on the street. Their behavior was obvious and ugly.

One day, they were out in their yard digging a hole. They lived close to the church and the pastor happened by. (It was a small town, as I mentioned. Everyone was "close" except those of us who lived out on farms.) He asked what they were doing, and they told him that the water main to their house had broken. The "city"(big town) would charge them to dig it up and replace it.

So they were digging it themselves to save the money. Pastor went home, got his shovel and came back to help. He jumped into the hole and was digging right along with the man. Nothing was said. When they finished, they said, "Thank you."

Next Sunday, you would have thought that they were best buddies. They complimented him on the sermon and were effusive in praise for how great a pastor the church had. I guess Pastor Knick had read the sermon about "doing unto others." He quoted every verse that he preached on, and honestly his sermons were mostly Scripture. "Scripture explains Scripture," he told me one time when I was back. "So there is not much I need to say."

His life said a lot. Maybe our church battles need a few "broken water mains" to help resolve matters. The Lord is grieved when we fight. 1 Corinthians 6 summarizes what James was saying.
    Does any one of you, when he has a case against his neighbor, dare to go to law before the unrighteous and not before the saints? 2 Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? If the world is judged by you, are you not competent to constitute the smallest law courts? 3 Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more matters of this life?

That does not require any explanation. Paul is horrified that they could not resolve church matters in the church. He continues. They were turning to outsiders to resolve family issues. Ones who have no understanding or authority in the church.
    4 So if you have law courts dealing with matters of this life, do you appoint them as judges who are of no account in the church? 5 I say this to your shame. Is it so, that there is not among you one wise man who will be able to decide between his brethren, 6 but brother goes to law with brother, and that before unbelievers?

Can't you just hear the irony and sarcasm? And his broken heart continued.
    7 Actually, then, it is already a defeat for you, that you have lawsuits with one another. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded? 8 On the contrary, you yourselves wrong and defraud. You do this even to your brethren.

Church battles are not pleasing to the Lord, nor do they promote the Kingdom. Maybe they like they needed a broken water main or two. And the problems probably stem from showing favoritism.