Reflecting on His Word: I Double Dare You!

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!”

I do not fancy myself above any of you. I guess I kind of see myself as the boy pointing at the emperor in his “new clothes” and saying: “The emperor is not wearing any clothes!” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Emperor's_New_Clothes

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

http://reflectingonhisword.blogspot.com/

robert.c.jackman@gmail.com

210-865-5133

60 Southland Dr.
Decatur, IL 62521
(address as of May 1, 2013)
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Latham, IL 62543

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