Who’s Your Daddy?

My wife and I traveled to a southern state for our honeymoon. We stayed at a cabin in the mountains. When we saw a large insect that looked like a cricket by the fireplace, I performed my “manly” duties and dispatched the intruder. As we examined the remains, we saw it had a cricket’s body and a scorpion’s stinger. A friend later shared she had had a similar incident, but was stung and her arm went numb. She also killed the culprit, and when she looked closely at it and saw the same odd mixture of species, she took the offender to the local university entomologist (bug-ologist). The scientist explained that scorpions were migrating and occasionally interbred with crickets and the result was what she brought in. The daddy of this aberation was an aggressive, virulent intruder who mixed his genes with an unsuspecting, peace loving local. The result of this union wounded our friend.

A few years ago, I became close to a fellow leader at our local church. I enjoyed him and respected him immensely. He also had a very responsible position at the corporation for which he had worked at for many years. One evening his wife shared with great pride that he had learned many things from his management position at work and he was looking forward to implementing them in his responsibilities at church.

Unfortunately, he did act on what he had learned. I’m confident that his intentions were good, but incorporating corporate “wisdom” and giving it equal or greater weight than biblical wisdom ended up causing great harm. In a time of crisis for our church, his response was that we immediately needed to do something. A number of people strongly agreed. Others said; “Pray! Seek God! And after we’ve done that, we’ll make a plan of action.” We came to a bitter impasse. Both groups wanted the church to overcome adversity and thrive, but the “father” of the first mindset was human wisdom and the “father” of the second mindset was God as the source of wisdom. Sadly, we are routinely ruled by mindsets and principles that do not come from this side of the Cross.

For example, who and what is the pastor? Is this minister an individual who serves at the pleasure of people, and so must, first and foremost, be a politician. Or is he, or she, a shepherd who is allotted responsibility to care for some of the Chief Shepherd’s sheep? Is pastoral ministry a job or a calling? Boards and congregations have tended to regard the pastor as an “at will” employee who can be dismissed based on a lack of popularity. They don’t understand that, in the short term, unpopularity is often the result of following God closely. (Think “Jesus.”) They don’t understand the difference between a job and a God given calling.

A genuine calling results in devotion to ministry, and giving far beyond what is “required.” To the ones called to pastoral ministry, the cost of sacrifice to themselves and their families is secondary to their passion for Christ and for those for whom He died. But there is sacrifice too painful to bear. Having their high calling treated as only a job that can easily be filled by another imparts to those in ministry a sense of personal dishonor and disrespect for the office of pastor. Too many have been so grievously wounded by this that they are lost to ministry. And sometimes, they are even lost to themselves.

There are broader implications. Few mourn the loss of the wounded left to suffer in their solitude, and fewer still turn aside from their busy lives to care for the hurting. In doing this, we deny that we, the strong and the weak, the rich and the poor, the well and the hurting, are the Body of Christ, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. We deny that what we do for the least of these hurting ones, we do for Jesus Himself. And I’m terrified by the knowledge that some believe they have served God well in their mutiny from God’s seemingly impractical ways. Those who devalue their pastor for the sake of growth in numbers or finances, or who shut their ears to the cry of wounded so they can accomplish their goals believe they can serve God better in the manner of their own choosing rather than in the ways that He mandates. The father of their understanding is no longer God but human wisdom. I’d much rather face a giant mutant scorpion-cricket hybrid than Biblical purpose crossbred with worldly perspectives.

Galatians 3:3 Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?

Romans 12:2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will

Colossians 2:20 Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules:

I John 2:15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.