5 Annoyances With How Christians Talk About Spiritual Gifts

Love is the theme of 1 Corinthians 13. About 75% of the time I’ve heard 1 Corinthians 13 mentioned is in the context of marriage. Seemingly every wedding has it read, which is fine, it’s the most redeeming aspect of most weddings.

But the context is not at all about weddings or marriage.

1 Corinthians 12 is about spiritual gifts. 1 Corinthians 14 is about using spiritual gifts within a church gathering.

The theme of love is brought up in the middle of those chapters.

If you don’t have love, all your spiritual gift does is cause problems.

This isn’t a weakness or fault with spiritual gifts; it’s a fault of ours. We are proud. Pride warps spiritual gifts.

Spiritual gifts are for the benefit of the church, but proud people turn them into, “Hey everyone! Look at me! Look at me!” This causes division and confusion. This is especially true if there are multiple arrogant people who think they have spiritual gifts.

The first three chapters of 1 Corinthians are about division in the church. Pride was the cause. Lack of love and pride go together. Love thinks about other people; pride thinks about me, me, me.

Throughout my years as a pastor there were many needs in the church. I thought of people who could help meet those needs. I asked them to help.

Guess what I heard approximately 98% of the time?

“It’s not my gift.”

Oh gag.

I have some thoughts about the people who say, “It’s not my gift.”

1. People who say “it’s not my gift,” never exercise any gift. They don’t do anything. If a person had a discernible gift that they were using regularly, I’d be happier hearing “it’s not my gift.” But that’s not what happened. “It’s not my gift” was said by those who never did anything.

2. “It’s not my gift” is a most sanctimonious excuse for Christian laziness. The bottom line is that you don’t feel like doing what is needed. Just say that. Just say you don’t want to do it. Be honest. I don’t want to. I don’t have the time. I don’t have the money. I can’t stand those people. Don’t put some fake spiritual veneer on top of you apathy. Don’t spiritualize laziness.

3. Love is the motivation for the use of spiritual gifts. Love thinks about the other person. If you love the people in your church you will look for ways you can help them. Whenever you help someone in the church, that’s you exercising a spiritual gift. People who never find a spiritual gift, are simply people who don’t love people in their church.

4. Paul says to “covet earnestly the best gifts,” which makes it sound like you can get as many spiritual gifts as you want. The idea you are locked into one or two gifts is nonsense. This is especially true if you see many needs in your church. Why not be the person who develops the gift the church needs right now?

5. There’s a notion that spiritual gifts are things we naturally enjoy doing. Spiritual gifts often get confused with natural ability or pleasure. This is nonsense. Spiritual gifts must at some level be spiritual; they can’t just be natural talents or things you were born enjoying. Biblical love includes sacrifice. Love hurts. Yet people in churches seem to think that if my service inconveniences me or costs me something, it must not be my gift. I think they assume people with a spiritual gift just love using that gift all the time and are always happy and free of sacrifice. This isn’t the case. I’d suggest that you know you’re exercising a spiritual gift when you are laying down your life for someone, as Christ did for us, which doesn’t always feel great.

That’s not to say that spiritual gifts must feel terrible. There are people who are good at things, but it must be discerned whether they are naturally talented or spiritually gifted. Lots of good speakers speak in churches, yet the content of their speeches let you know they don’t have the spiritual gift of preaching or teaching.

The proof of a spiritual gift is that people are edified and helped, not whether the person who did it is good at it.

In the end, all the times I was told “it’s not my gift,” guess who ended up doing that stuff? I did. I can attest to you not all these things were my spiritual gift. But I did it anyway because it had to be done I loved the people who needed the help.

That’s not me patting myself on the back. This was hard. It stretched me, but it also made me better at exercising spiritual gifts. I learned a ton and I think was able to help people. I wanted others to get this same great experience.

But I couldn’t get them off their butts to go help.

Spiritual gifts are not determined by you looking at yourself and seeing what your pride thinks you’re good at.

Spiritual gifts are determined by what needs your church has and by how your love responds to those needs.

The church has really messed this issue up and most Christians, instead of seeing spiritual gifts as reason to be helpful, instead use them as excuses to be lazy.

This shouldn’t be so.

There is a more excellent way: LOVE. Love people and spiritual gifts will take care of themselves.

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If you’d like to hear more of my annoyance with how churches are completely blowing it, I wrote a book. CLICK HERE to get a copy of it. There are 9 tips for how to not grow your church for only $3.50!

Fathers and Priests

A priest, in the biblical sense of the word, is someone who intercedes on behalf of someone else before God.

Not all priests were official priests. Take Job for instance.

Job probably lived during the time of the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Job was probably the first written book of the Bible.

Melchizedek was out there at this time too, and is referred to as a priest, so he seems to be the first official priestly office holder (Genesis 14:18).

But Job made sacrifices for his kids and interceded for them in case they cursed God in their hearts (Job 1:5).

There is no explanation of this behavior, no mention as to whether it “worked.” But it is mentioned in part as proof of the uprightness of Job. It certainly wasn’t a bad thing.

That role is similar to what a priest does.

Perhaps fathers were the first priests. Any good dad will petition God on behalf of his kids. Good dads are aware of their children’s sins and weaknesses, the areas of life they will have trouble in.

I have prayed many, many times for my children. I did this when they were little when they had no real notion of God or prayer. They aren’t living in conscious awareness of God, and I know it needs to occur, so I did it for them.

When they were and are older, I pray for them because I know they are out there on their own doing who knows what. I don’t really know their heart. I know they are in a young part of life where they get busy and might not be thinking about God or prioritizing life in light of Him as well as they could. So I pray for them.

My kids do not need me as a mediator between them and God. Christ is the one mediator. I’m not saying I’m actually their priest, I’m saying that the father role is priest-like!

I don’t know if any of my prayers for my kids have made an actual difference. I don’t know if God is more merciful to them on account of my prayers for them.

I guess I don’t really care, in one sense. It’s a natural outflow of loving my kids. I do know that things are working out ok for me and them, and part of that has to at least be on account of my loving concern for their spiritual health. I can’t imagine things would be better if I hadn’t done all that on their behalf.

The priest knew more about God and saw more about God than the children of Israel did. They knew, or were supposed to know, more and were to take their increased knowledge of God, plus their responsibility as leaders of the people, seriously and intercede.

Parents do the same thing. They know more than their kids. They know more of God and the spiritual needs of their kids if they are paying attention. How can a parent not intercede on behalf of their kids?

One way is if the parents are spiritually dead themselves and simply not concerned for spiritual things. Another way is when parents get their kids saved by forcing them in so many ways to “say the prayer.” Once they “get them saved,” they cease worrying about the eternal state of their children.

This is not good parenting or priesting.

Parents have a critical role in the spiritual health of their children. Kids reflect their parents. There are always exceptions to the rule, but they are pretty rare.

Be spiritually concerned for your kids, no matter how old they are or whether or not you think they are saved. It’s sort of the job of being a parent. This is especially true if you are a pastor. The Apostle Paul says if you’re not a good father you shouldn’t be a pastor (1 Timothy 3:4-5). I imagine this means something.

In all your concern for the spiritual health of people in your church, start with the people in your family.

Is Giving Money to Church, Giving Money to God?

I’ve been told many times in many ways in many churches that if I give them money, that’s me giving money to God.

That is one astounding statement.

Getting yourself confused with God is the essence of pride. It is what Satan did that resulted in his fall. It’s the temptation he subsequently used to get humanity to fall—you will be like God (Genesis 3:5). He hasn’t changed tactics.

The Catholic Church historically took this notion further than anyone, blatantly saying that giving them money resulted in forgiveness of sins. Martin Luther quipped that chief Catholic money-raiser, Johann Tetzel, acted on the principle that, “As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, another soul from purgatory springs.”

Protestants love bashing on Catholics; it’s one of our favorite things to do. There’s good reason for doing so, but there’s also good reason to heed Paul’s warning when confronting other people’s sins: confront humbly, considering yourself, lest you also be tempted (Galatians 6:1).

The more we point out the fault in other people, the cloudier our vision of ourselves becomes. Yes, the Catholic Church thought they were in the place of God. The idea that Protestant churches are free from this error is laughable.

Any church that tells you that giving them money is how you give God money, is falling into the same trap.

Sure, we don’t say that exact thing, and most Protestants stop short of saying that giving them money leads to forgiveness of sins, we don’t copy the exact error, but boy howdy do we like telling people our church is in the place of God.

Protestants also like to go on about Sola Scriptura, the idea that the Bible is our sole authority for life and doctrine. This is said a lot. Way more than it’s acted on.

For instance, how many verses in the Bible tell us to give money to church?

Google, “Bible verses that say to give money to church.” You’ll come up with several results. Click on one that seems promising. Read those verses. Note how none of them say to give money to church!

2 Corinthians is often used as the go-to source for guilting people into giving money to church. That is because one reason 2 Corinthians was written was to guilt the Corinthian church into giving money!

Why did Paul want them to give money?

The church in Corinth was filthy rich. Many churches in Paul’s day were struggling and getting beat up in persecution. In 1 Corinthians Paul told them to gather up some money “for the saints” (1 Corinthians 16:1). The saints were the poor saints in Jerusalem. Paul brings up their need in Romans 15:26 also.

Poorer churches gave. Corinth did not. Paul writes 2 Corinthians to guilt them into giving their money for the poor saints. He already told other churches they would (2 Corinthians 9:1-5), and they promised they would (2 Corinthians 8:10-11), but they didn’t. Paul compels them to do what they promised.

Many people will partially quote 1 Corinthians 16:2 that we should take up a collection on the first day of the week, Sunday. Obviously this refers to taking up an offering in a church service on Sundays.

Yes, indeed, that’s what it says to do. The money, however, was to be used for the poor saints in Jerusalem. That’s the entire context of giving money in 1 and 2 Corinthians.

This is not Paul telling churches to take up an offering for salaries and buildings. It’s for the poor.

The only verse that remotely comes close to telling people to give money to church is 1 Timothy 5:17, “Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially they who labor in the word and doctrine.”

Allow me to make two opinionated points:

1. All usages of giving money in the New Testament are for helping the poor. 1 Timothy 5:17 probably assumes that the elders were poor. That was probably due to the fact they were laboring in the word and doctrine, and that time commitment cut into their billable hours at a regular job.

2. There are very few elders who were supposed to be given double honor, especially in our day. I have known and do know many pastors. There are very few who are laboring in the word and doctrine. Mostly they are running a business labeled a church and putting on social programs. Yet in our day, the vast majority of all church budgets go for salaries and benefits.

OK, my two opinionated points are over.

Even 1 Timothy 5:17 doesn’t tell you to give money to a church; it says to give it to an elder who is helping you spiritually.

All other usages of giving money in the New Testament are about giving money for the poor.

The word “alms,” which Jesus uses for giving money, refers to giving money to the poor. Matthew 6 says to give your alms discreetly so no one, not even your left hand, knows about it. He’s talking about giving to the poor, not putting money in the church offering to update the furnace. You can update the furnace if it needs it, but don’t tell people that’s giving alms or giving money to God!

In Acts 2 and 4 we are told that the early church had all things in common. Members sold their personal property and took care of each other’s needs. Meeting the needs of others was the whole point of selling their stuff (Acts 2:45 and 4:34).

Luke 12:33 says we are to lay up treasures in heaven. The way to do that, based on this very same verse, is by giving alms, sometimes translated “charity.” It means giving to the poor or someone in need.

The rich, young ruler was told to sell all he had and give to the church building fund. Oh wait, I read that wrong. He was also told to give to the poor (Matthew 19:21).

Mark 12:42-44 is often used by churches to get the last drop out of their people. The widow gave her last mites into the temple treasury. The temple treasury was used for purchasing sacrifices, wood for the fires, upkeep of the temple, and also for the priests. Doesn’t this mean giving for the temporal running of the church is giving to God?

It might, it’s probably the best verse to prove that. It should be noted that the temple is not the church though. We, the individual and collective members of the Body of Christ are the temple in the NT. This fits quite nicely with the idea that giving money means giving to other people, not the running of an institution in between us and God.

The New Testament temple is not an institution or a building; it’s people. People say this all the time, but few act as though it was true.

The Old Covenant stressed the physical. The New Covenant stresses the spiritual. Christ died so we wouldn’t have to pay for animal sacrifices, and priests, and altars, and silver bowls and spoons for temple service. He freed us from that so now we can actually use our physical money and stuff for helping people. Unfortunately, most churches accumulate stuff and buildings and go right back into slavery keeping them from helping those in need.

Many who tell you that giving to the church is giving to God will use Old Testament Scriptures. Since we don’t have elders who have given themselves to the word and doctrine, very few people understand the distinctions between the two testaments in their Bible. This has lots of bad results.

Many in the Health and Wealth movement base their notions of money on the Old Testament. The Old Testament said if you obey God you will get physical blessings; if you disobeyed you would get physical curses. Deuteronomy 28 is probably the best passage to illustrate that.

The law was given to the physical race of Israel. It was written on a physical rock. All the 600+ laws were about how they physically handled physical stuff. If the physical people of Israel kept their physical laws written on a physical rock dealing with their physical stuff, God would physically bless them in their physical land (Read Deuteronomy).

The New Covenant (Testament) does away with all this (Read Hebrews).

If the verses being used to convince you that giving money to a church equals giving money to God are from the Old Testament, be careful!

There are no verses in the Bible that say you should give money to a church. All verses in the New Testament about giving money specifically say to give your money to other people: elders, the saints, and the poor or those in need.

If your church is giving to the elders, the saints, and the poor, then feel free to give to it. And yes, all churches have expenses dealing with physical things, but any church viewing their responsibility before the Lord with any seriousness, will endeavor to keep those expenses as low as possible.

I have known many pastors and I have known many churches. Very few churches are giving to the poor. Most are giving to the elders and most of those elders are not laboring in the word and doctrine. Most of the rest of the money goes for the building. And, unfortunately, many of those churches have a significant amount of their money going to a bank in interest payments.

The church today is not following the New Testament and has more or less fallen into the same unbiblical ways as the Catholic Church we so love to bash.

Money and power go together. When a church tells you that giving money to them is what it means to give to God, they are falling into the trap of money and power. Humility and meekness are much easier if you don’t have money!

If your church routinely tells you that giving to them is giving to God, this is a huge warning sign.

Be careful out there.

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If you’d like to hear more about my views I think are biblical that no one likes, I wrote a book. CLICK HERE to get a copy of it. There are 9 tips for how to not grow your church for only $3.50!

Why Are You A Pastor?

In my talks with pastors over the years, I’m not sure why many of them are in the ministry. Some are pretty blunt that they have to make money and they don’t know what else to do. One of the downsides of seminary education is that you are not qualified to do anything. Although, that appears to be the point of all education at this point, but I digress.

When I was preparing for pastoral ministry, my main motivation was thinking I could make the church better. I was judgmental about how churches did stuff. Instead of just complaining about the church, get in there and help if you know so much.

That was my thinking at the time. There was a bit of a Messiah Complex going on, not gonna lie. The church that showed interest in my help was in sort of a desperate situation, a perfect place for a messiah to go. It was a perfect fit.

And, as you can imagine, worked out terribly.

I know other pastors who approached ministry this way as well. They were honestly trying to help the church, but by “help the church” we mean “do church the way that makes me comfortable.”

I think this is the impulse behind 97% of church planting efforts: Let’s finally get a church that does everything how we want it done.

Yes, I know, I’m cynical, I’m also pretty observant and that sure looks like what’s going on.

The Apostle Paul in 1 Timothy 2 explains why he is in the ministry. It’s slightly different from my reason:

God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the ma Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time. For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle. (1 Timothy 2:3b-7a)

It appears as though Paul entered the ministry to make much of Christ and let people know Christ was the way and means of salvation. His preaching ministry was to make Christ known.

What a weirdo.

Obviously we all know this is the reason to go into ministry. Duh. In fact, most of us would probably even say it if we were asked, or at least something pretty close. Yet anytime a guy says this is his reason for being in ministry, I’ma go ahead and judge him. “Yeah right. I bet, you sanctimonious fruitcake.”

We know it’s the right answer and that actually it’s the only answer, yet we also know the thoughts and intents of our heart.

Is that really why I’m doing this?
Would I do this if I weren’t getting paid?
Would I do it on my “day off?”

What about to those annoying people I’m sick of talking to?

But wait, does that mean I don’t have to do hospital visits then because I’m too busy preaching about Jesus, because if so, I’d totally make more of Christ then.

What we say we believe is best revealed by what we do. You can say all day long that you are a pastor to glorify Christ, but what do you actually do?

Paul said he was in ministry to proclaim salvation and sufficiency in Christ. That’s the right answer. Is it your answer? Is it your answer in words, or is that actually what you’re doing?

Think about it, and act accordingly.

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If you’d like to hear more about my failed Messiahship of a ministry, I wrote a book. CLICK HERE to get a copy of it. There are 9 tips for how to not grow your church for only $3.50!

Good Preaching Annoys Bad Sinners

I am working my way through the Pastoral Epistles one post at a time. The next section is 1 Timothy 1:8-11, which says that the law is to be used correctly. People who don’t have sound doctrine will always say weird things about the law.

Legalists add to it and constantly bash people into the ground over scruples, most of which can be seen. There’s always an external something you’re supposed to do to conform, and if you don’t show that external thing they pounce on you.

Some go the other way and stretch grace and love so far that it leads to lasciviousness. They find ways to eliminate all law, and often endeavor to explain how we can do all the things the law says we can’t and that God is cool with this.

Both are wrong.

Paul said the law is not made for a righteous person, but for a long list of sinner types. Read the list sometime. It’s in 1 Timothy 1:9-10. He lists 14 sinful types of people and then adds “and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine.”

I imagine that includes a lot of stuff.

I’ve often heard people whine that doctrine is impractical and irrelevant; it just gets in the way of unity. It’s just arguing about theories of the atonement or theories of the trinity and other issues that have nothing to do with, like, real life, man.

This is incredibly stupid.

The reason people don’t like doctrine is because sound doctrine always leads to sound behavior. When you’re taught right; you act right. People enjoy their sin, that’s why there’s so much bad doctrine in the church today.

Sound doctrine, according to 1 Timothy 1:11, is in accordance with the Gospel.

There are many warped gospels in the church: Easy Believism, the Health and Wealth Gospel, Universalism, Fatalistic Calvinism, etc. All of these exist because people don’t have right doctrine because they would rather sin and get away with it.

One of the main jobs of a pastor is the preaching of the Word. This preaching should be according to sound doctrine, which will put you at odds with sinners and the sins they enjoy.

Many pastors cave here. They feel the desire to preserve or manufacture unity trumps the teaching of sound doctrine. Some cave because they know their church can’t afford to lose more donors. Some don’t mention right doctrine and wrong sins because they themselves are in bondage to sins.

There are many reasons for preaching bad doctrine and none of those reasons are good.

There is one reason to preach sound doctrine and that’s because God says to do it! I suggest you go ahead and do that regardless of how many people it bothers or how much humility or repentance it might require in you.

People like to sin. If you preach against sin, people will not like you. Tough. Deal with it. It’s the job. If you’re not willing to do that, then get a different job.

Make sure you’re doing it in love though! Some pastors turn into massive jerks here. Speak the truth in love. The desired outcome is the salvation of souls and the edification of believers, not an uber-powerful pastor who slams everyone around.

If you’re not willing to preach the truth in love, then get a different job.

Sound doctrine is what people need. In order to help them get it, the pastor has to have it. Sound doctrine is always shown by righteous living, which is why the qualifications for church leadership are all based on righteous living.

This is a big deal. Get this right.

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Pastors Should Be Poor

Let me begin by saying that I was a pastor for 21 years and for most of those years I was poor. And, just so we’re clear, my family and I were in the 0% tax bracket. And that’s not because we were playing games with taxes; that’s because we were poor.

And let me also say that the “richest” I was, the time when I was paid the most, was in the first couple years of my ministry. My salary shrunk over time and that was mostly due to my voluntary pay cuts.

The reason I mention this is because I am fully aware of the common assumption that what I personally did is the best and only way to do things. Since I was a poor pastor, therefore, any pastor who wants to be spiritual like me should also be poor.

That probably plays into my opinion some, but I like to think Scripture plays into it more.

The time in my career when I was paid the most was also the time when I was preaching what people wanted to hear. I mostly did this because I didn’t know what else to say. I was preaching the party line, which is pretty much the only line I knew. People were happy and the church grew and I got paid more.

I began to feel terrible about this. The fact I was getting paid a lot, while honestly having no idea what I was talking about, ate at my soul.

To remedy this I began reading the Bible consistently. Over my 21 years of pastoral ministry I read the Bible over 40 times, again, not saying this to sound uber-spiritual, just pointing out what I did to remedy my lack of knowledge.

As I began reading the Bible I began to see that the party line I was taught was not biblical. Being a person with the Holy Spirit, an awareness of my responsibility and accountability before God, and a measure of self-respect, I had to preach what I was learning.

People did not like this. People want their pastors to be sure of themselves, not shifting or changing beliefs. In other words: people don’t want their pastors to grow.

I also noticed how often money was an issue in the Bible. 1 Timothy 6 is pretty much the only passage you’d need to see how dangerous money is to spiritual health, but there are many more.

1 Timothy 6 is in what we call “the Pastoral Epistles.” I imagine there’s a reason for this. Money is dangerous to spiritual health. Going after and getting money leads to spiritual shipwreck. That’s not me; read 1 Timothy 6.

Pastors should be poor for several reasons:

1) The Bible

The Book is pretty clear. You can’t serve two masters, you cannot serve God and mammon (money and all it can get you). This idea was not taught in a corner; it’s all over the place in the Bible once you see it.

2) The Church

The pastor will affect the church. A pastor who is rich, or desires to be rich, will teach false doctrine. To attract people, which is how you get paid more, you will teach what keeps people coming, and you primarily need rich people coming. One of the miraculous signs of the Messiah is not only healing people and raising the dead, but that He would preach to the poor (Matthew 11:5). It’s that astounding and acted as a unique sign. Preaching to the poor doesn’t pay well. Rich pastors don’t bother with such wastes of time.

3) The Judgment

Pastors will give an account for what they said and did in front of a church. You lead by example, whether you want to or not. People will follow. If the pastor has money, people will assume it’s ok. The rich pastor will not preach on the multitude of Scriptures that say money is dangerous. Having money will make your stand before the Lord potentially terrible. Ezekiel 34 is a huge warning to the spiritual leaders of Israel who did their shepherding for their own gain. There is a warning here for New Testament shepherds as well. OT shepherds have already gotten judgment dropped on them, what do you think similar shepherds in the NT will get?

4) The Pastoral Office

Pastoral ministry has an eternal component to it, a spiritual burden if you will. If pastoral jobs pay well, it will attract people who want money rather than those with a spiritual burden to serve. It will be harder to tell who really has spiritual priorities if the pay is good. Benefit packages should not be why a pastor wants a job.

5) The Pastor

The Bible is clear that money has the potential to destroy your soul. It will choke out fruitfulness. As a pastor gets paid more, spiritual vigor will decline and focus on material things will increase. Good soldiers of Jesus Christ endure hardness. Rich people get soft. You’ll lose more battles. Your soul is at stake.

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I’m not saying churches should slash pastoral salaries tomorrow. I’m not praising churches that underpay their pastors out of their own stinginess, or to “teach him a lesson in trusting God.”

What I’d prefer, what I’d recommend, is that all pastors consider this very carefully. Decide between you and the Lord how much money you actually need. If necessary, take a pay cut. Not out of arrogance or to be seen, but out of a faithful accountability to God. Pastors should be people who don’t mind being poor and prefer it to be so. That’s the point.

Money is a huge issue in the Bible. It doesn’t get taken seriously in our affluent age. Luckily for us, our affluent age is about to take a hit, whether you choose it or not! This will work out just fine for everyone who already knows money is a sham anyway. Lead the way, pastors!

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If you’d like to hear more of my accumulated pastoral “wisdom” that shrunk my church, I wrote a book. CLICK HERE to get a copy of it. There are 9 tips for how to not grow your church for only $3.50! And, in a consistent effort to remain poor even while not a pastor anymore, I only get $1 of profit from each book sold!

“Some Plant, Some Water, God Gives the Increase” Has Nothing to do With How Big Your Church Is

Many times over the years of pastoring a small, rural church that never really grew, I was told that “some plant, some water, but God gives the increase.”

This was told to me by people with larger churches, and the idea behind the quote is that large churches got large because God gave them the increase, implying that God likes them better, approves of their doctrine more, likes the pastor more, etc.

“Increase,” in most people’s minds, means numerical growth. This is why anytime a church grows people will say that “God has blessed them.” People also assume “increase” means larger buildings. Again I’ve been told, “God is really blessing us, we just built a new addition to the church.”

Although it’s possible “increase” means physical things (number of people, bank balance, square footage, etc.), I find it unlikely.

“Increase” is used here as an agricultural term. If you plant and water, a plant will grow. The point of a plant growing is not to see how big it can get, but to bring forth fruit. In fact, the bigger the plant the less energy goes into fruit production, that’s why pruning is a thing. The point of the farmer in planting and watering is to have something to eat. The New Testament emphasizes spiritual fruit quite a bit and rarely mentions physical fruit (number of people, bank balances, square footage, etc.).

Paul was the first one in Corinth. Apollos came next and watered the seeds that Paul put in the ground. Any spiritual growth that occurred from the efforts of these two men was credited to God. It wasn’t a competition between Paul and Apollos.

Many in Corinth thought it was a competition and took sides. “I’m of Apollos,” “I’m of Paul,” “I’m of Cephas.” They were loyal to the man who brought them to faith. Paul told them to knock it off! They were all on the same team and God gets the credit for anything spiritually beneficial.

Several verses after talking about God giving the increase, Paul says everyone will build on the foundation of the church laid by the apostles. All will give an account before God for how they built on it.

I take this passage not to be about our general stand before the Lord as a believer and our personal conduct (every man will give an account for every deed done in the body whether good or bad), but specifically about what they did in the church.

Lots of stuff goes on in churches. Many people think they did or are doing a great thing for the Lord. But after the fire of judgment, lots of this work will be burned up.

This has to mean that there will be many people who will do many worthless things in the church. Now, what would those worthless things be? What would be the things that won’t last for eternity?

Here are a couple things it might mean—number of people sitting in pews, bank balances, square footage, etc.

The fact that your church is bigger in people or square footage and busier and richer, doesn’t mean you did anything that will pass the test of God’s judgment.

Growth in the Bible always refers to spiritual growth. In fact, Paul is not happy with the church in Corinth. They brag because they are big and rich and yet Paul has a problem with pretty much everything they are doing.

The church in Corinth sounds a lot like the American church. We’re rich and proud and loyal to “our guys,” but we are also adulterous, immoral, spiritually illiterate, and carnal babes in Christ that are next to impossible to get spiritual things across to.

But they were sure proud of their awesomeness! Look how big and impressive we are! God has surely blessed us.

Paul disagreed and feared for their souls.

Some plant, some water, and God gives the increase. God, through the work of the Holy Spirit, the Gospel, and the preaching of the Word, causes people to grow in Christ and bring forth spiritual fruit.

The church in Corinth majored on the wrong things and took sides. They lost sight of the supremacy of Christ and instead gloried in the efforts of people and the material, countable results they saw.

But all that would be burned up. Growth in Christ lasts for eternity.

God gives the increase and the increase He gives is always spiritual growth into Christ. The New Testament is pretty clear that the more we grow into Christ-likeness, the more the world will hate us. Don’t count on Christ-likeness to draw in crowds and increased bank balances and square footage.

When God gives the increase people become like Christ. That’s what happens. Material or countable results are never mentioned in the New Testament as a thing a church should worry about. They are irrelevant.

Christ is the head. We all serve Him. Serve Him well as He is the Judge. Don’t have a ministry that ends up as an ash heap.

If you want to hear more about my ideas to not worry about growing your church, I wrote a book about it. CLICK HERE to get a copy, because I went through the trouble of writing it!

What is A Fruitful Ministry?

Pastors are praised for having “fruitful ministries.” I’ve often wondered what that means.

Based on how people use the phrase I think it has to do with how big the church gets under their tenure. How many people are coming, how many additions were made to the building, maybe it will get into how many were baptized or “saved.”

The constant of these things is numbers. “Fruitful” means more numbers. Numbers can only represent physical things. A “fruitful ministry” then seems to mean by common usage: more physical things.

I find this disturbing.

It’s one thing for the book of Acts to say “many were added to their numbers.” Acts was written under the inspiration of the Spirit. The Spirit knows the heart and knew when people were saved and truly added to their numbers.

Our estimation of who is saved is suspect. We don’t know the heart of others, in fact, our own heart is deceitful, which you better believe will skew our counting!

Fruitful ministry isn’t about numbers and counted objects. Here’s what I think fruitful ministry is based on how the Bible describes ministry.

–By the way, when I use the word “minister” I’m not using it like the formal word for pastor. I mean anyone who serves someone else for Christ. The one doing ministry, whatever that ministry looks like.

The fruit of the minister
The Bible puts high moral qualifications for someone taking upon themselves an official role in the church. Paul tells Timothy that his growth should be seen by others in the church. If love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance are not increasingly seen in the minister, then that minister does not have a fruitful ministry.

The fruit of the minister’s family
Provided the minister has a family, the family members should be growing in spiritual fruit. One of the qualifications for official church roles according to Paul is that the marriage is sound and the kids are in subjection. If the family of the minister is not growing love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance, then that minister does not have a fruitful ministry.

The fruit of those being ministered to
Fruitful ministry is not measured by how many people showed up to be ministered to. Fruitful ministry is measured by how much spiritual fruit is developed in those ministered to. In other words, if 500 people go to a church and are entertained and fed donuts yet none have gotten anywhere close to edification resulting in fruit, then no fruitful ministry occurred. However, if you minister to one person and that person receives edification resulting in fruit, then that is a fruitful ministry.

The fruit continues to grow
A true sign of fruitful ministry is that fruit continues to grow long after the minister is gone. Growing fruit is a process and is not dependent on a specific person. A pastor who serves faithfully for 40 years and retires should still bring forth spiritual fruit. If all spiritual interest disappears when the official ministry spotlight is turned off, there wasn’t a fruitful ministry. If the one ministering to you leaves and your life falls apart, it’s questionable whether you were part of a spiritual ministry.

True spiritual fruit is dependent upon the Holy Spirit. The Body of Christ and those gifted to serve it by the Spirit are an essential aspect of spiritual growth. But at no point should your spiritual growth be dependent on one individual. If you only “grow” under one specific person’s ministry, you’re probably in a cult more than a fruitful ministry.

A true minister leads people to Christ and the Holy Spirit. You‘ll continue to grow long after the person is gone.

Spiritual fruit doesn’t stop. The new life of Christ doesn’t retire. The Spirit doesn’t finish His work in you at some point down here on earth. You’re never done. Truly saved people are like a cedar of Lebanon and “will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green.”

If love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance are not resulting from what you think is your “ministry,” then it’s not fruitful. It might be big, it might be impressive, and you might have people tell you it’s fruitful, but if there’s no spiritual fruit, it’s not fruitful!

I feel a need to add:
The Spirit can work through not-so-spiritual ministers. I’ve learned incredible spiritual lessons from terrible examples! It can happen, but should not be the model. “Well, if God can use Balaam’s ass, guess I’ll be an ass for Jesus.” The desire should be to grow fruit so others will be built up to grow fruit. Do your part. It should also be added: you may grow tremendously and yet be surrounded by people who don’t seem to grow at all. There is nuance in the entire discussion. Be nuanced in your thinking about it, but not for the sake of finding loopholes for immaturity!

Blind People Want Blind Pastors

People only see in the Bible what they want to see. People are massively adept at ignoring Scripture.

People will gravitate to those passages that make them feel how they desire to feel about their sin. Some want all grace and love and happy. Some want all judgment, holiness, and heavy dread. Some just want everything on an even keel and will ignore the “extreme” passages.

The Bible speaks of believers being “enlightened.” Having our eyes opened. Not being blind. There’s a reason God uses this imagery concerning us. It’s because we aren’t naturally seeing things for what they are. We aren’t seeing the verses right in front of our faces.

Christians gravitate toward the denominations or churches that are blind in the right spots. Therefore, blind Christians desire blind pastors. Or, as Paul says, people desire teachers who will scratch their ears and tell them what they already agree with.

Just as it was in the days of Jesus Christ dealing with the scribes and Pharisees, the blind lead the blind.

All the while the blind think they are seeing perfectly.

Blindness sounds like this:

“I only believe what the Bible says.”
“I believe what Jesus believed.”
“My supernatural experience proves I believe right doctrine.”
“Anyone who disagrees with me is a heretic.”
“If you don’t go to our church/adhere to our doctrine, you are going to hell.”

I hear such statements, to varying degrees of bluntness, frequently by Christians. It’s scary. If you honestly think you believe exactly what the Bible says, you aren’t believing what the Bible says! If you think you believe absolutely everything Jesus taught, then you didn’t hear His warnings about people who thought they believed everything God said. “We have one father and that is God.” “Your father is the devil.”

Let him who thinks he stands take heed, lest he fall.

There’s a reason the Bible tells us to ask for wisdom: it’s because you don’t have it all yet. If you think you do, welcome to the Job’s Friends’ Club.

The Bible tells us to ask that our eyes might see and our ears might hear. As soon as you think you’ve arrived and see everything; you begin the long, slow decent into massive error.

Doctrinal cliques have a feeling of security and rightness. They also go a long way in making people twice the children of hell.

Make sure the church under your care is not getting uppity about “having right doctrine.” Watch out for the party spirit that assumes we are the people and wisdom will die with us.

Humility is what faith looks like. Knowledge puffs up, even right knowledge. It’s what knowledge does. Keep the humility to continue to know how much you don’t know and keep asking in dependence for more wisdom. He gives to those who ask. If you’ve stopped asking for wisdom because you feel you’re already wise, beware!

The Failing Pastor’s “Encouragement” to Struggling Pastors

Earlier this week I wrote a post about not being sure how long I can continue being a pastor. It received quite a bit of response publicly and privately.

Although it is nice to know I am not alone, how discouraging that this is the place so many pastors are in.

Some pastors are living large and don’t have these feelings or frustrations. Others are frustrated for reasons other than those I expressed. I don’t know what to say about those situations.

I would like to talk to those pastors who are doing what they can to faithfully preach the Word, teach and disciple individuals, and otherwise attempt to fulfill the biblical qualifications and expectations of the pastoral role, and yet are met with apathy, rejection, and mockery.

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I think most pastoral frustration, certainly mine, is not a tiredness of work or the church, but just the sheer pointlessness of it. I do my best to faithfully preach God’s Word and it appears the more I endeavor to do this, the more people leave.

My faith does not require the approval of others, but my sincere desires to help people are constantly thwarted. The lives of people who have dropped out of church do not go well. I hurt for them. I don’t know what to do.

This is the time that the happy pastors tell me “There’s nothing you can do. It’s all God.” Which helps nothing, but appears to be top-drawer advice from most.

This advice only adds to my frustration. God is growing everyone else’s church but not mine? Nice to know He’s so helpful. Can I even trust Him? If He’s not on my side, should I even be doing this? Many have told me “no.”

Thanks.

The gates of hell will not prevail against God’s Kingdom. God does not need me to keep the Church alive.

At the same time I have been called to care for one little part of it, to give my life for it, to sacrifice for it, to let my progress in the faith be seen by all, to take heed to my life and my doctrine so that I and my hearers will be saved.

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