I Double Dare You!
(An open letter to
Pastors)
I double dare you to read this letter! I must warn you though, you may think it
silly and misguided. However, scarier to
you is that, upon reading this, you
may find yourself in a position of having to choose between the safe,
predictable, self-styled “Christianity” you’ve come to love and a paradigm that
leaves you on uncertain, risky ground for the rest of your life.
Who am I? I’m
nobody. I am the son of nobody, and the
father of nobody. I’m uneducated,
inexperienced, and largely unproven. Why
should you listen to me? Actually, I
don’t want you to listen to me. What I
want is for you to, after reading this, listen to God. If I’m wrong, you will not find agreement
with me, so you can then press on to the next thing in your life. However, this is not to say that if you don’t
find yourself in agreement that I am the one who is wrong. By definition, assuming a thoughtful, honest
inquiry of God, if agreement is not found, at least one of us is wrong. It
might be you. Sadly, because I’m
addressing this to pastors, some of the men who read it will not get it because
they don’t have the Holy Spirit living inside.
It’s sad for any to be lost, but for a pastor…
I’m deeply saddened by the election results from this past
November. Not so much about who was
elected, but about who elected him.
Americans. I personally have been
a bit over-zealous in my nationalistic stance, but have sought to change. I have repented of my error, but am still saddened by ours. I feel that this
nation has been blessed by God for a purpose and that we have squandered that
opportunity. More than any other nation
before us, we have had opportunity through freedom, wealth, and technology to
spread the Gospel and to be salt and light.
Collectively, we have failed. A
cursory glance at the Church might give you all that you need to understand how
we have failed. Then again, it might
not. THAT is what this letter is
about. I’m hoping that some of you men will
be spurred to action.
The Church has played the harlot with many of the blessings
our Lord has given. Like a foolish,
unprincipled woman, the Church has invited in strange doctrines and lain with
them. Somehow, we, like such a woman,
might think that we have become popular because of our generous acceptance of
these brutal strangers. Instead, we are
sullied and impure, and it is a shame!
We dress our children like gang members and wonder why they
have a bad attitude. We dress like
“casual Friday” in the pulpit and wonder why our flock isn’t more serious about
God. We repeat the world’s mantras:
“Don’t judge”; “Never discuss religion and politics” and “One can
witness without words”. We play “biker” and even have our pastors who “bless”
motorcycles. We use euphemistic swear
words and edgy language at church and even from the pulpit. We prop our feet up, drag in food and drinks,
all the while hoping that the hand-held video game will be enough to entertain
little Johnny, and call all of this worship.
We excuse immaturity in the faith because “they are volunteers, we can’t
expect things from them!” We tell ourselves that it would be wrong to
tell our brother that he is in error because, after all, “He may not be at the
same place in his walk”. We label things
such as drinking, smoking, bingo and lottery as “questionable things” and trade
our core beliefs for “peace at any price”.
Most of this silliness is probably due to the fact that our “churches”
are run by deacons, boards, committees, and elders, but no longer by pastors. (In my denomination we do have it as a part
of our doctrinal statement, The Baptist Faith and Message, that we should
operate our churches in a democratic fashion.
I used to believe that, but cannot find it in scripture. I do, however, find that doing it this way is
tearing down the denomination.) Following the wrong leadership has led us
astray. Personal holiness is, these
days, unheard of, while slick, nifty, and seeker-friendly are the way it’s done now.
Somewhere along the line we became convinced that we need to
be relevant to the culture around us, when actually, we are to be counter cultural. Regrettably, being relevant to the culture
puts us in opposition to what the Church should be. That puts us counter to our
own church if we become (correctly) counter to the world.
At this point, let me be very clear that I am all too aware
that at least 50% of the Church as we know it, (by conservative estimates) is
not saved. Deciding who is and isn’t
saved is not really our job, but measuring deeds (fruit) is. How many
in our midst are lost is not as important as what we intend to do about it.
Now the answer to all of this, as it has been presented to me
over the years, is: “You can’t change it overnight. It (the Church) is a big entity and must be
turned slowly” and “You can’t just tell people what to do!” To all of this I pose the question made
famous by Dr. Phil: How is that working for you? Many pastors that I love and respect shared
these things with me over the years. At
the time, I thought that I agreed, but, I’m sorry, now I really don’t. How are
these things working for us? They are
NOT! Not at all! We need to forsake the insanity of doing the
same thing and expecting a different result.
Here is my recommendation.
First, stop what you are doing, get in your closet, and surrender all of
this to The Lord. We must be willing to
do His will, to do the right thing, regardless of the personal cost. We must obey even if it means losing job,
position, status, or standing in our denomination. Stay in your closet until there is no longer
”your” way of doing things and all you have is your walk with Jesus.
Next, gather your flock together and have a “family meeting”. Explain your errors, confess any
misdirection, or explain the enlightenment.
Whatever you want to call it, get with your people and let them know
that things will be very different, then send them to their prayer closets.
In my mind I can hear every man reading this saying: “It doesn’t work this way!”. However, I say, “No, it doesn’t work the way
we’ve been doing it. We’re failing.” I know it sounds crazy, but let’s try
personal holiness and a deeper relationship with God. Let’s get really whacko and trust Him with
everything and risk it all. We need to
get back to being a community of accountability and disciple making, and it
needs to happen now.
If you find yourself agreeing with me, spread the word. If you feel that I’m totally off my rocker,
go ahead and share that with a friend and give them the letter, maybe they can
use it. I may have said some things that
are wrong, and I will gladly recant if such things are discovered. However, and more importantly, I definitely said some things that were
right. Furthermore, I guarantee I’m headed in the right
direction, the direction back to Jesus!
So, even if your intent is to mock or belittle, the word will get
out. I even began to feel a bit foolish
in writing this, as it is quite simplistic and almost childish. However, I finished it because we need to get better. We MUST get better!
Now, if your response is:
“Well, duh! Everyone knows that!”
or “I’m already doing great, thank you.”, then you need to be reminded that it
is not enough to understand the problem.
To be counted a fit servant, we must put hand to plough and not look
back. We need to be strong and
courageous.
So my three main points are these: We need to develop a
culture within our churches that allows for exhortation. (The de facto rule is:
No.) We need to learn to trust God
enough to follow the leadership of our Pastors instead of treating them like
employees. And finally, we need to
recapture the reverence for the things of God instead of the existing culture
of: “I’m so spiritual I can be lackadaisical about it all!”
Regardless of how you feel about me or this letter, be man
enough to make whatever radical changes are necessary to turn this thing
around, because, THIS is the way out!
Glory be to God on high. We praise
Thee, we bless Thee, we worship Thee, for Thy great glory. Lord, I uttered that
I understood not; things too wonderful for me which I knew not. I heard of Thee
by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth Thee and I abhor myself in
dust and ashes. O Lord, I will lay my hand upon my mouth. Once have I spoken,
yea, twice, but I will proceed no further. But while I was musing the fire
burned. Lord, I must speak of Thee, lest by my silence I offend against the
generation of Thy children. Behold, Thou has chosen the foolish things of the
world to confound the wise, and the weak things of the world to confound the
mighty. O Lord, forsake me not. Let me show forth Thy power to everyone that
is to come. Raise up prophets and seers
in Thy Church who shall magnify Thy glory and through Thine almighty Spirit
restore to Thy people the knowledge of the holy. Amen. – A.W. Tozer
Sincerely,
Robert C. Jackman
210-865-5133
60 Southland Dr.
Decatur, IL 62521
(address as of May 1, 2013)
131 Elm St.
Latham, IL 62543
Twitter:#JackmanRobert
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/robert.jackman.52
Recommended
Reading:
Hard to Believe; John Mac Arthur
The Knowledge of the Holy; A.W. Tozer
In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day; Mark Batterson
https://www.facebook.com/notifications#!/DenisonForum
http://marc5solas.wordpress.com/2013/02/08/top-10-reasons-our-kids-leave-church/
