Shooting the Wolves

As I prepare to move away from my Spiritual children there has been a very clear picture sitting in my brain. I am going to speak very frankly about occurances in ministry because the only person I feel like I might offend is the wolf himself. As I'll point out I think we've been too kind for too long to this sneaky pack.

In ministry, lots of people want to tell you what you should be doing to do ministry "right". Many of the ideas that people brought to us had very little to do with reaching the lost and much to do with creating an appearance of success. One particular person made our lives miserable for a short time. So as we prepared to "go home" to my little country church to minister, I began to worry about who would take care of our sheep.

This person repeatedly came up to Nic and told him exactly how to reach people as if we could have never done ministry without him. He started treating his suggestions as nonnegotiables. He began using speech such as, "I'm part of the church so that means you work for me." He would frequently exert power and authority that he didn't actually have. Wolf Red Flag #1: Assigning himself/herself power.

We responded saying that we'd pray over his suggestions and seek the Lord as to whether or not he would have us to start any of those things. In the meanwhile, we asked he and his wife (who had a lot to say as well) to pray about whether they should volunteer their time to be a part of making a difference in the lives of teenagers and see first hand what the ministry might need. After praying we added a few more game/hang out nights since we tend to focus on the more serious side of things. We definitely did fun things but adding more would only build relationships as long as we didn't sacrifice Gospel-centeredness to do so. We tried to follow up with this couple to no avail.

Soon after, we heard from our head Pastor that they had met with him to bring their complaints. (Keep in mind that this couple has no children old enough to be in the youth group.) After hearing their issues with our "performance" our Pastor just told us to make sure we were meeting the congregants needs and assumed they'd go away. Wolf Red Flag #2: A wolf will not stop until he/she has caused distruction.

We noticed this person still acting suspiciously but we weren't sure what he was up to. We would soon find out that he had contacted several board members to complain about the same performance inadequacies he felt we had and tacked on some issues he had with our appearance and (are you ready for this) that he didn't like one of my facebook posts! We would have never known, except that several board members in he hit one that had the courage to come to us. He boldly (and clearly, YAYYY!) listed all of the things the wolf was unhappy with. We explained our process of praying over things, that we'd tried to follow up and of course easily dismissed his other nitpicky issues. That conversation took place on a friday. When we showed up for church on Sunday he shook Nic's hand and simply said, "You're good to go, thank you for serving." Wolf Red Flag #3: Kill or be killed.

Since this couple would no longer be a problem for us, I had kind of forgotten about them. But as we prepared to leave God game me the MOST CLEAR IMAGE, it's amazing. I'm not really an artist but I finally told my husband I was going to have to draw it just to get it out of my head. All I could see was that same guy with the hide of a sheep draped over his body like a Native hunter would wear a wolf hide to scare buffalo. God was reminding me that although someone was strong of to subdue the wolf, no one had the leadership skills and strength it took to shoot him.

Often in today's church culture, we can't even shoot the wolves without a disguise. So when they are clever enough to come in sheep's clothing, maybe even with lambs in tow, we feed, water and strengthen them to our own injury. The longer they hang around, the more people trust and accept them and the more damage is does to the flock with they eventually do either get shot or destroy it all together.

Why am I sharing this with all of you? This is why:

Have you ever had someone surprise you as deceptive after you'd known them for a long time? What might you do now to remain aware that the enemy wants to use people you know to seek, kill and destroy?

And will you join me in praying for our Spiritual leaders to have discernment and strength to see and shoot the wolves that would try and trap their sheep?

There Are Many Paths to Heaven

     I'm a good person and my kids are good people. Everyone takes a different road in this life. As long as you're not a bad person, God will let you in. I mean, what kind of God wouldn't?

     Well, a just one.

A fair one.

A perfect one.

     I work in a scurrying business. All professionals know that you're supposed to avoid discussing personal, political and religious topics at work. But in many places of business, even the most professional, those standards are drastically lowered. In some they have been tossed out the window. Everything is legal, even welcome. From a recent People magazine cover story to the latest local gossip, if you have to lower your voice it must be worth lending an ear. Every few months or so the conversation turns toward eternal matters. It usually starts when someone's beloved adult child has done something appalling and mom defends, "He's a good boy. He'll be over this phase in no time. We're good people." And then all of a sudden she must defend his place in heaven; game on.

     In 2009 an ABCnews poll reflected that 83% of American's considered themselves Christians. From what I see in our customers and employess, I would guess that of the 83% of the people who think they are going to heaven 60% think it's because they are good. And that's all God can ask right? In order to be perfect God has to have grace, mercy, compassion and forgiveness. But there must also be justice and consequences for actions. That means that God has to set a completely clear standard of what is expected, and then a set of consequences for both good and bad behavior. Every parent can understand this concept, God happens to be the only one capable of applying it perfectly.

     The standard is perfection. For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.  No one makes it, and in compassion God gives us a second chance. Ultimate redemption. Jesus dies in our place. It only works because He lived a perfect life. He made the cut, but suffered our consequences for us. This makes Him the only way. He said, "I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the father except through me."  Not only that but the book of Romans says that anyone who does the right thing would only be earning God's duty to forgive them. But the only way grace works is if it is a free gift. So that accomplishes nothing. Those who believe in the justification through Christ are those whose faith is accounted for righteousness.

     It's not a gray area. You don't have to wonder what's going to happen when you reach the pearly gates. No one has to hope they're good enough. We're not. God has laid out the expectations from the beginning. We don't meet them. He laid out the consequences. Jesus took them for us. The only way to spend eternity with Him is to give up our selves as we know it and begin a relationship with our Creator.