2
Timothy 4:10
"Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this
present world"
Like
every American I've always wanted to be successful. So when God called me to be
a preacher I naturally wanted to be successful in the ministry. I went to college
to learn doctrine and pastoring skills. Early on I began subscribing to
journals, papers and other periodicals to learn what made for a successful
ministry. I attended pastor's meetings, hanging on every word that was spoken,
especially by those I perceived to be successful pastors. I read surveys, polls
and studies on what made churches grow. I recorded plans in the flyleaf of my
Bible so I would be reminded to work the plan every day. I read up on why
people go to church, attempting to implement as many compelling tools to bring
people in as I could.
As time
went on I also read the studies about why people leave churches. If we open the
front door to let them in, it makes sense we would want to close the back door
to keep them from quitting. I've wanted to keep the seniors who just love the
old school way of doing things. I've wanted to keep the young couples who have
vision and energy and drive and I've wanted to keep the teens and young adults
who are just beginning to try their own wings and tend to question things. What
I have noticed now is a trend among members of churches (and not just the
pollsters) to establish blame for those who leave churches upon some flaw in
the church or church leadership. It's not just the church leaders who are
trying to figure out how to keep people in church (and blaming themselves for
not succeeding) it's the church members blaming the church and its leaders for
the failure.
To be
sure there is plenty of failure and therefore plenty of room for blame. No one
does ministry perfectly. No one has, no one ever will. But this blaming
mentality, I think, is very much related to the victim mentality that is taking
over America .
We blame all of our problems on someone else: our parents, our teachers, our peers
and our economy; you name it, if we have a problem, it's someone else's
fault.
I notice
that when Demas forsook Paul, Paul blamed it on Demas. It wasn't Paul's
leadership style. It wasn't a problem of structure in the administration of his
evangelistic team. Paul did not even blame the problem on the circumstances of
his being in prison and upcoming execution. Paul said Demas forsook him because
Demas loved something else.
What if
that is to blame for those who leave church? What if the problem is not the
failure to pass on our vision, or the failure to communicate to a younger
generation, or the failure to adequately anticipate and answer their questions?
What if the real problem is not that we failed to plan or failed to work our
plan? What if the trouble was not that we did not effectively admin ister a Sunday school program for all ages? What
if it wasn't because we were perceived to lack compassion while they were sick?
What if a better discipleship class and follow up ministry isn't the reason
they quit coming? What if they quit coming because they loved something else
more?
What if
they just didn't believe?
I have
followed Christ now for over thirty for years. I never began following because
I liked the church programs. The church I began in didn't have any. I didn't
begin because I thought church would help my marriage. I was single. I didn't
start going to church to overcome an addiction or sin problem, though I had them.
I began attending church because I believed.
- I believed I was a
sinner
- I believed all
sinners would go to hell
- I believed God
loved me enough that Christ died to pay for my sins
- I believed that
when I called upon Him, He in fact saved me from my sins
- I believed I was,
and still am a debtor to Christ for that
I
believed when I made my faith public and entered into the covenant with other
members in a local church, I was making a life long commitment
I
believed.
I still
believe.
There
is a problem with my proposition; while faith is passed from one person to the
next, I cannot make anyone believe. There are no classes that can teach how to
convince someone to believe. There is no conference that can show us how to so
order circumstances that those involved with believe. That a person believes is
a gift of God. I can present my faith to them. I can pray for them. I can urge
them to come to Christ for salvation. But I can't call them to believe.
And
that doesn't sell well in the success game.
The
answer as I see it is not an easy one to swallow. We must accept that the vast
majority of people attending our churches are, in fact, not genuine believers.
They came to church and to their "faith" for all the wrong reasons
and have trusted in all the wrong things. They attend church and practice faith
because of what they love:
- They love a sense
of community
- They love a solid
family
- They love the
security of a dynamic pastor
But sometimes those things fail
them. Sometimes those things are less satisfying that they originally thought
they would be. Sometimes their children, their spouse, their most valued
friends turn out to love others things more.
We must redefine to our
congregations what we mean by faith. We must lead them to Christ and not to the
supposed benefits of being saved.
Because when a person believes in
Christ, he or she has nowhere else to go. Only Jesus has the words of eternal life.[1]
