REALIZATIONS & WARNINGS
AFTER 40 YEARS OF MINISTRY
ARTICLE
Over 44 years have passed since my rebirth, with as many years in ministry. It is from this juncture that I write this article. My purpose is not to share 44 years of in depth insights or experiences, but to share only certain, particular realizations and warnings. The realizations and warnings below are to help safeguard you, as a genuine born again believer, who must navigate the plethora of doctrines, experiences and personalities comprising the church world in America today.
Through Understanding His Way Ministry (Bible Studies & Bookstore and on Amazon), we offer books, studies, videos and other materials for the purpose of presenting scripturally sound, liberating teachings for sure passage and safe navigation in this postmodern church world with its surging doctrinal seas. In these scripturally unsound days, God intends to afford His saints sound scriptural salvation and Spirit-filled Christian life which faithful proven saints have upheld throughout the church age. For more bio, read on our website.
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WE CAN’T BUILD DEEPER LIFE
ON DIRTY HEARTS
1) If a person doesn't want to get his or her heart clean with God, all the preaching and teaching on love, faith, forgiveness, grace or other areas pertaining to true regeneration or the genuine Spirit-filled victorious Christian life, will either fall on deaf ears—or be perverted.
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REGARDING LOST PEOPLE
IN THE CHURCH
1) It is futile to try to teach scriptural truths which require spiritual understanding to un-regenerated, natural minded “professing believers”. Jesus told Peter to feed “His sheep”. Jesus tells us not to cast our pearls before “swine” and Proverbs warns us that if we reprove a “scorner,” we'll get a blot.
2) If we try to give people the benefit of the doubt regarding their salvation, regardless how shaky their testimony, how faulty their fruit or how shallow their interest only leads to confusion and contradiction—for ourselves and for them.
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REGARDING REVIVAL
1) It is both frustrating and futile to attempt to ground ”professing Christians” in God's Word, if they have no fervent interest in having individual personal revival.
2) Nothing can come from preaching corporate revival to a church full of folk who are unconcerned and obstinate regarding their own personal revival.
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REGARDING FELLOWSHIP
1) It won’t work when truly born again believers try to maintain relationships with sold out “Babylonians” or lukewarm “Laodiceans” in hopes that maybe they’ll change or that they can just be "loved into the Kingdom”. Do this long and close enough and eventually the devil can deceive and lure us into somehow compromising our convictions, even if ever so little. The Jews had this axiom: “Do business with a thief today and you will be a thief tomorrow.” Making compromise is all downhill with God until we repent–regardless of the cost.
2) Beware of keeping relationship bridges which God wants to burn or burning ones God wants to keep. This always requires much prayer.
3) Social gatherings are totally different from genuine believers’ fellowship. Be careful not to confuse the two. Unfortunately, today in America, many church services fall under the heading of religious, social gatherings.
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REGARDING PREACHERS
1) There is never ”spiritual” nourishment when:
a. the preacher reminds you of a politician.
b. the message is naturalistic and preaching is delivered in a predictable homiletic fashion, punctuated by spiritually meaningless stories or examples.
c. the preaching is doctrinally accurate, but is unanointed and flatline to your spirit. When this happens, it usually means something’s not spiritually right with the preacher. Of course, any sin can cause this, but quite often the message is merely mental, rational
truth delivered in the flesh, traveling head to head, not heart to heart.
d. all a preacher brings is inspirational messages. Regardless how complimented by the congregation, true believers soon find themselves spiritually anemic and famished.
e. the preacher is only ”motivational.”
f. the preacher strives for emotional response.
g. the preacher has come to entertain.
2) Beware of the “clown” preacher, the comedian “wannabe”.
3) Beware of preachers whose sermon delivery reminds you of someone on a busy street corner selling a gadget with a gimmick.
4) Beware of the preacher who beckons like a barker in a carnival side show.
5) Beware when empty words are spoken in false humility from a prideful and arrogant preacher.
6) Flee the narcissist, the preacher enamored with himself, his achievements, his preaching and everything accompanying the narcissistic personality disorder. Church pulpits today are teeming with such preachers. Churches have become a hotbed for these “love the limelight” attention grabbers, whose gullible audience feeds and satisfies this personality disorder.
Certainly, we all recognize the prevalence of narcissism in celebrity circles. What is often not realized is how prevalent narcissism is in the pulpit. Just google “narcissism” and you’ll see the prevalence of the common narcissistic traits in church pulpits today.
The church pulpit and pastorate make an attractive “career choice” for a narcissist. Opportunities afforded to pastors can feed hidden characteristics like deceit or sexual lusts. More obvious is the opportunity for authority and control. The pulpit feeds the narcissist’s desire to receive men’s homage. Look carefully. This can be subtle. The narcissist loves center stage. Often, a narcissist has grown up feeling insecure, but this produced delusions of grandeur about himself and his importance. As a pastor, he may portray himself as humble and unworthy, while inwardly he is proud and crafty. He can act quite confident and secure while, in fact, feeling threatened and plagued with paranoia.
We could go on, but just know that the narcissist, regardless how he may try to portray himself as unselfish and humble, is
always looking out for Number One.
The sad thing is that some people actually love to have a narcissist as their leader. For them, control feels secure; they seem to have a blind eye regarding the unscriptural tip offs and behavior which would disturb truly born again believers. For whatever the reasons, they either admire what they see and believe it to be spiritual or for some reason choose to be passively satisfied and choose to stay in the situation.
Over these 44 years of ministry, I have had some close involvements with controlling and narcissistic pastors. I have also observed many situations in which churches were under pastors and leaders of this sort. Without going into further detail regarding my own experiences with such personalities, I will simply mention four common denominators which I’ve observed in them all: 1) control, 2) deceit, 3) money, and 4) women.
But, everything in life is a trade off and those who choose to stay under a narcissist, regardless how it is justified, are also making a choice not to sit under what is genuine and godly spiritual leadership. Instead, it is choosing to sit under someone with a far reaching personality disorder and whose salvation is definitely suspect.
7) Beware if the preacher is an actor, who loves drama in the pulpit.
8) Beware if the preacher loves to hear the sound of his own voice.
9) We must ask ourselves why those televangelists whose demonstrations of character and preaching so contradict the character of Christ and conflict with a genuine biblically balanced understanding of Scripture, can’t see the error of their ways?
After struggling for the answer to this for many years and exhausting every imaginable justification, I finally concluded: They simply do not have a love for the truth.
10) Beware of the “smoothie”. With smooth tongued subtlety, he calls for minimal to no accountability to God’s Word and will not preach for personal application and accountability.
11) Beware of the preacher who preaches conversion without conviction, sin without repentance, grace without accountability or Savior without Lordship.
12) Beware of the preacher who preaches faith without heart purity.
13) Beware of the preacher who preaches love without holiness.
14) It may be a healthy thing to sell vitamins, a helpful thing to supply end time food packages and a noble and benevolent cause to drill fresh water wells in the third world, but this isn't preaching the gospel. A preacher may be a social activist and champion the cause of the downtrodden, but this in itself isn’t preaching the gospel. The core of the gospel is spiritual and carries the message of every man's fallen and lost condition in sin and his need to by grace through faith alone receive Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and Savior. Then, out of this, God may direct believers to do good work.
15) Over the years, most of so called Christian radio has grown to be aggravating and spiritually grieving. Most of the music has followed secular pop with repetitious melodies and shallow, predictable lyrics. In lock step with the music are the hollow, twangy “Christian” radio talk shows with silly sounding DJ’s. This is accompanied by the dramatized, unanointed preaching which seldom brings a clear salvation message. Instead there is spiritually contentless preaching that rambles on with predictable statements and dramatic inflections, a bland babble which only garbles the gospel.
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REGARDING SUPERNATURAL DECEPTION
1) Just because something “supernatural” takes place in a church setting does not mean it is necessarily of God. Remember Jannes and Jambres, Pharoah’s magicians did supernatural feats but “lacked the power thereof.”
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REGARDING BIBLICAL BALANCE/ERROR
1) Truth out of balance is error.
2) Be open to any genuine ”move” of God, but be careful of the many new ”movements” afoot. Be especially discerning of any hidden motive or spirit behind the movement, as well as the spiritual character of the movement’s leaders. Ask: Is the movement is scripturally imbalanced and off center? Does it have a spin or a driving, rather than drawing, force to it?
In these past 44 years as a Christian, I have seen a number of movements come and go. There has been the charismatic, the shepherding, the fathering, the latter rain, the restoration, the reconstruction, the transparency, the moral majority… to name a few. One dwindles off; another comes along. My advice is to be very cautious, careful and prayerful.
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REGARDING MUSIC
1) A church’s music should adjunct the Word, not become the church’s drawing card.
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REGARDING CHURCH & FINANCES
1) Leave Madison Avenue to Madison Avenue. Discard their hallmark features of enticement and manipulation. The gospel of Jesus Christ has no affinity to Madison Avenue. I once attended a seminary chapel service to hear a respected preacher who had been invited to speak about finances and Christian ministry. George Mueller, and his renowned example of faith, had been my 19th Century hero of the faith. George Mueller trusted God by faith alone to establish orphanages to house and support 2000 destitute orphans, and he never made any solicitation. Imagine my disappointment (and disgust) when I realized this preacher was straight from Madison Avenue. His opening financial premise was: “Just imagine how much more money George Mueller could have raised if he’d used some of the methods we have today”. Alas, poor George, he only trusted God.
Brethren, Madison Avenue not only pervades the church today, it actually reigns. It reigns under the subterfuge of “faith”. Faith is credited for raising mega church and television millions, even billions, but it is actually through Madison Avenue tactics. It's a travesty to God and flies in the face of faith. Flee Madison Avenue marketing philosophies and any church or ministry that advocates its tactics.
2) Beware of preachers who cater to “nickels, numbers and noses.” These are preachers who preach sermons designed to make churches bigger, finances fatter, salaries higher and sinners comfortable.
3) Peter and Paul didn’t get rich from preaching the gospel; if any preacher is, he must be preaching a different gospel.