How to Get the Most Out of Church

“Abide in me, and I in you.” John 15:4

Do you feel like you’re not really a part of things? Like you’re the odd man out? Are you always the fifth wheel, the loner, the misfit, the klutz or maverick? Do you consider yourself overlooked, under-utilized or under-appreciated? Maybe you need to have a basic understanding of how the church works. Jesus set forth the functionality of the church as resembling the vine, branches and fruit in John 15:1-8.

There are definite roles for each operant. Jesus is the Vine (plant, the essence of the tree). God (The Holy Spirit) takes care of the vineyard. We, the individual members are branches that grow out of the vine, we get all our instructions and nutrients from the vine, and we bear (produce) fruit.

Specific expectations and assignments are given to the branches . Branches that don’t bear fruit are taken away. Branches that do produce fruit are purged. Branches that produce fruit are expected to produce even more fruit. Branches are expected to abide (stay plugged in) in the Vine.

God maintains the branches. The Holy Spirit purges the branches, the Word makes the branches clean and branches that don’t produce fruit are cast out. Branches that are cast out wither and are burned.

Good things happen to branches that stay in the vine. According to this illustration, prayers get answered, God gets glorified, we bear much fruit and we will be Christ’s disciples. Let’s now translate this into practical applications.

It is the responsibility of every church member to stay a part of the church and stay involved. It rarely happens by itself. It takes work. How? Attending regularly is a great start. Then, know what is going on. Typical excuses for not knowing are a) “I don’t like announcements!” b) “I don’t care about all the different ministries.” c) “I’m too busy to keep up with everything.” d) “Who’s that?” These statements are telltale signs that a person is unplugged. Electricity only flows through the plugged-in device. You also stay involved by going out of your way to be friendly. You may think, “Nobody talks to me.” Remedy: Talk to them! Talk is more than Hi and Bye. Carry on a conversation. Ask questions. Show interest. If you sit there like the proverbial bump on a log, expect to be treated like one!

When you commit to a ministry, be faithful. Let your leader or your team know if you can’t make it to a practice or an activity. If practice is required, then PRACTICE IS REQUIRED! Your job is not fulfilled by just saying you can’t make it. If you can’t make it, you don’t just forget it. Your job is to take care of the responsibility. Also, recognize that there are qualification requirements to do ministry. At our church, we ask for a six month waiting period because the scriptures teach us not to promote a novice. We require discipleship training. We ask for agreement and alignment with all the expectations of a holiness church. We request a positive and supportive attitude.

Please note: No one has been commissioned to put the church on trial! For example, some may think “I’m not going to show up for a while to see if anyone will notice.” Or, “I’m just going to sit here and count how many people actually come up and speak to me.” Not a good idea. If you want people to know and care about what’s going on in your life, you must originate the communication. Call the pastor. Call the church to make sure the pastor knows. If you want to be missed, do something that truly edifies the church. The branches that produce fruit get missed if they don’t show up!

There are certain responsibilities and obligations toward your local church. a) Take care of your tithes, offerings and financial obligations. (Just as U. S. citizens can’t pay their taxes to Canada just as long as they pay taxes somewhere, so you can’t pay tithes anywhere, just as long as you pay tithes.) b) Speak positive, helpful, encouraging words about the church and its ministries. c) Recruit toward the church, not away from it. e) Grow where you’re planted.

Understand who you are and where your gifts and abilities lie. If you can sing, sing. If you can’t, be content to make a joyful noise in the congregation, without being obnoxious. If you haven’t been asked to sing or play, there may be a reason. (Maybe you really can’t sing or play; maybe you’re not qualified in other ways.) If you have a ministry, let the leader know, but be prepared to have it judged. (1 Corinthians 14:29). Do not attempt to do something you are not equipped to do. (Even a positive mental attitude can’t make up for an abysmal lack of talent.)

Pour yourself into whatever ministry God has given you. Read, study, pray, work. Don’t get frustrated because others don’t have your vision. Don’t whine and complain that nobody cares. If you do your job with excitement and enthusiasm, you will generate interest. 1 Corinthians 12:12-31. When you function in the church according to Bible guidelines, you enjoy a beautiful and fulfilling relationship.

Bon Appetit

“…a good report maketh the bones fat.” Proverbs 15:30

Excuse me, but you probably eat too much, and your diet likely contains too much fat, too many carbohydrates and you sit around way too much. Okay, me too. Anyway, our obesity dominates the news these days. At least 64 million Americans — nearly a third of adults age 20 and older — meet the federal government’s criteria for the excess weight, and the rate approaches 50 percent among the elderly. The percentage of overweight children and adolescents more than doubled since the 1970s, making about 15 percent of them now overweight. Authorities identify the primary causes as fast food, junk food and the lack of proper exercise.

Ironically, for being a nation of fatties, we probably spend more money on weight loss programs than any country in history. Weight loss strategies run the gamut from aggressive treatment like stomach stapling or liposuction to the more passive restricted-intake diets. Diet pills, dietary supplements, shots and fasting fill up the middle ground. Those who need more help can seek out clinics, clubs, therapy and even hypnosis practitioners. And, after calorically-challenged people finally achieve their optimum weight, their ultimate goal is to curb their out-of-control appetite. Most agree that they could keep their weight down if they just didn’t love to eat so much, or at least eat so much food that was bad for them.

From a spiritual perspective, a healthy appetite for good food remains the best way to a strong inner man. David said, “As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.” Psalms 42:1. The soul thrives on an insatiable appetite for God. In fact, we can accurately measure our spiritual health by gauging the degree of desire we have for godliness. Jesus forever established this standard when he taught, “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.” Matthew 5:6. He differentiated between appetite for anything and appetite for righteousness. Filling up on non-nutritious food may suppress the hunger and thirst for awhile, but eventually, it leads to a breakdown in health.

Given these spiritual realities, one of the most effective strategies Satan can use against us is to either to fill us up on junk food or subdue our appetite altogether. His first ploy can easily be seen in our growing preference for fun, entertainment, materialism and pleasure. It is less a matter of what than how much. Reference Paul’s warning to Timothy, “lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God.” Whatever surpasses our love for God will eventually replace it.

The second prong of the satanic strategy is much more insidious: appetite loss. In the physical world, when people lose their appetite, food becomes irrelevant. Succulent steak, chocolate cake, ice cream…nothing sounds good. Likewise, if people lose their appetite for spiritual things, then the gospel, the church and God become irrelevant. Indeed, we can see this pattern taking shape in the world. The enemies of Christ have discovered that they need not destroy Christianity; they only need to diminish the sense that salvation is necessary. “Therefore they say unto God, ‘Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways.’” Job 21:14 . Without an understanding of sin, there is no discernable need for Calvary . If there is no judgment, there is no need for a savior. Rick Lawrence writes in Group Magazine,

“What strategies are deployed against us? One is to make faith in Christ irrelevant to the “real lives” of children and teenagers. There’s evidence this strategy is working. Results from the National Study of Youth and Religion have just been released. In the broadest, deepest exploration into teenagers’ religious beliefs and behaviors that’s ever been done, the picture that emerges portrays kids’ collective relationship with God as shallow at best. While one out of 10-or-so adolescents have a living, vibrant, everyday relationship with God, nine out of 10 see God as a ‘divine butler or cosmic therapist’ who exists only in the background of their lives, waiting to be summoned when they have a problem. For the vast majority of teenagers, God is irrelevant to their everyday lives.”

Appetite loss happens by the onset of sickness or by tricking the body into feeling full. Thus, people do not always recognize the danger of spiritual appetite loss. When passion for God dissipates, the slumbering soul may be oblivious to the crisis.

The most significant job facing the church today is to keep Generation X, Generation Y—-those born between 1976 and 1995—-maintain a healthy appetite for God. This will take a renewed commitment to teach the most basic of spiritual laws: sin and salvation. The world needs to know more than just the how of doctrine. We must constantly and effectively teach them the why.

When You Need a Miracle…and When You Don’t

Man can’t cause them and the laws of nature can’t stop them. They look like manna falling from heaven, water gushing from a rock, a man rising from the dead four days after he was buried, and five loaves and two fishes multiplied to feed five thousand. They show up in the disappearance of cancerous tumors, bags of groceries found on doorsteps and cocaine addictions gone within seconds. Who wouldn’t want a miracle?

Apostolic people believe that Biblical miracles were real, and that God works miracles today. The New Testament teaches us to pray for miracles, to expect miracles to happen and that believers can even have the gift of the working of miracles. All of us have encountered problems that could only be resolved through the mighty power of God. When this happens, we should not hesitate to pray for a miracle. Indeed, we have plenty of witnesses among us who have personally experienced miracles from God.

To expect God to perform miracle for any reason, however, is an abuse of his eternal purpose. Not only does it result from a gross misunderstanding of man’s relationship with God, it forces people to make wrong decisions and causes them to be bitter against God. It is sad when people become angry and bitter against God because he didn’t do something that he never intended to do in the first place.

The human side of me wishes that God would have performed a lot of miracles that he didn’t. I wish God would have kept the three Hebrews from going into the fiery furnace; that he would have stopped Daniel from being thrown into the lion’s den; that he would have prevented Peter from cursing Jesus; that he would have stopped Judas from betraying him; that he would have spared the life of Stephen who was stoned to death; that he would have delivered Paul from the thorn in the flesh. God, in his wisdom, chose not to perform any of these feats. Strangely, we believe we are entitled to a bubble around us to keep us from cuts, bumps or bruises. We think that anything stressful, dangerous or inconvenient should summon the miraculous power of God to make it peaceful, safe and convenient. But God has never worked this way. He purposes are higher than our myopic vision can see. (Ephesians 3:11). In our carnality, we pray shortsighted and selfish prayers that ironically seek to circumvent the will of God by means of the power of God! There are at least five circumstances in which you don’t need a miracle.

Preparation . God is not going to deliver you from a trial that will prepare you for a greater purpose to be fulfilled in your life. All of us are works in progress. God continues to shape us, whether he uses the potter’s wheel or the refiner’s fire. To stop would abort his plan. 1 Peter 1:7 says, “That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.” Refusing God’s test means rejecting his design for your life.

Reaping . God is not going to keep you from reaping the consequences of your actions. “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” Galatians 6:7-9. If you make foolish decisions, you cannot pray for a miracle to get you off the hook.

Establishment of truth. God is not going to subvert his own Word. Why should he undermine that which is perfect and forever settled in heaven? Instead of praying for a miracle that calls for God to alter his Word, we simply need to follow the precepts of the Word. “With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments. Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.” Psalm 119:9-16. We have no excuse to live and think outside the parameters of the Bible.

Obedience. God is not going to enable disobedience. If he has already forbidden something in his Word, he cannot grant permission for it. “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.” Isaiah 1:18-20.

Responsibility . God is not going to do something for you that you need to do for yourself. It is up to us, for example, to keep our own hearts clean. “Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” 2 Corinthians 7:1. He wants us to grow and growing involves learning, strengthening and mastering vital components of our lives. Helping the chick to hatch or forcing the rose to bloom destroys nascent life. A miracle of intervention may temporarily stop your pain, but it will also destroy the eternal purpose of God.

Pray for a miracle when you genuinely need one. When you don’t, pray for grace.

Atonement by Bomb?

Sometimes, stories couldn’t hit you any harder than if someone punched you in the solar plexus. That’s the way I felt when I read this:

JERUSALEM — A Palestinian mother of two small children, who killed four Israelis by blowing herself up at a border crossing, carried out the suicide bombing to atone for having committed adultery…Raiyshi left her 18-month-old daughter, Doha, and her 3-year-old son, Obedia, and blew herself up at the Erez crossing between the Gaza Strip and Israel, killing three soldiers and a private Israeli security guard. The Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot first reported that the woman was compelled to carry out the attack as atonement for betraying her husband with another man. (WT, 1-20-04 )

I cannot describe the infinite sadness that rolled in on my heart at learning of this tragedy. Had someone told me that this woman was deranged, or that she blew herself up over revenge, hatred, sacrifice or even a barbarous brand of politics, I would have shaken my head and turned the page. In our post-9/11 world, we have come to expect such things. Her motive, however, was none of these. She was attempting to erase the guilt of sin by eradicating herself.

Raiyshi’s religion forced her to admit her sin, but gave her no Savior to confess. When she sinned—-and we must not dismiss the gravity of adultery—-she did not meet with the message of grace. There was no rugged tree planted at the end of her wrongdoing. Instead, she felt anguish and despair. Her only answer was to inflict pain and suffering upon herself, and end her life in an act of savagery. Few incidents in my recent memory have so contrasted the magnificence of Calvary with the horrors of sin. Raiyshi’s suicide should provoke us to much thought.

Can you imagine the sequence of events that led up to this bombing? First, the woman was confronted by her accusers. There must have been a flood of tears, fits of grief and loud wailings, but no one backed off. The inescapable question now became what she would do to atone for her sin. After awhile, someone suggested a suicide bombing. Everyone approved. The experts at terrorism came with their devices and outfitted her. As they strapped the bomb onto her, they must have told her that since she was going to die for her sin anyway, maybe God would have mercy on her if she if she killed a few of their hated enemies along with her. It was grim, sadistic and cold. And this was the best they could do for her!

For those of us schooled in the concepts of grace and love, these proceedings seem twisted and warped. And yet, I wonder how much we piously intone the marvels of grace ourselves, and then proceed to strap on bombs of a different kind…bombs just as deadly as those of explosives and shrapnel? Constructed from shards of guilt, clouds of shame, destructive agents of bitterness and biting words of condemnation, these bombs wipe out individuals, families and entire congregations. Many times our unforgiving attitudes effectively kill people who have sinned.

Often, however, it is the guilty parties themselves who experience such profound remorse that they become their own executioners. They convince themselves that they deserve to die, or at least, to suffer. Spin-offs from such reasoning are numerous. Some sink into depression. Some commit suicide. Others throw themselves with abandon into lives of sin, thinking that they may as well make a total mess of their lives. Some sabotage their own successes. They feel hollow, cheap, phony and hypocritical. “I don’t deserve God’s grace” they continually groan from deep within.

How many times have we heard the message thundered from our pulpits, sung from our choir risers or methodically taught in our weekly bible studies? “You cannot pay for your own sins!” “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.” Ephesians 2:8. And we raise our hands to rejoice over the thought. But the only reality we may feel as we leave our hallowed sanctuaries on Sunday is the shame that creeps back into our consciousness on Monday.

A critical gap exists between humbly accepting the atoning power of Christ’s blood and the desperate acknowledgement of our sin. Far too many people vacillate between the two positions. They are fully aware of their sins and the shedding of sinless blood to wash the guilt away, but they cannot forgive themselves for committing the sins in the first place. Actually, it all comes down to faith. It takes faith to accept God’s grace.

Did anyone ever tell Raiyshi that bombs cannot atone for sin? I think not. But, neither can self-destructive behavior compensate for sins committed in the life of a believer. Only the blood of Jesus takes away sin. “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us…” Titus 3:5. No, self-righteousness will not atone for sin. Nor can unrighteousness. God wants each of us to put our absolute faith in the blood of Jesus alone, and leave it there…forever.

Just How Old a Dog Are You?

“And brought with them one Mnason of Cyprus , an old disciple.” Acts 21:16

If the well-known cliché is true, you can’t teach old dogs new tricks. The real trick, though, is finding out how old the dog is. In terms of people, not dogs, we are reminded by our senior citizens’ group, “Young At Heart”, that getting up in years should be no barrier to high achievement. Golda Meir was seventy-one when she became Prime Minister of Israel. Michelangelo was seventy-one when he painted the Sistine Chapel. Benjamin Franklin helped frame the U. S. Constitution when he was eighty-one. Our beloved Brother Fred Kinzie, Pastor Emeritus, was seventy years old when he wrote his first of many books, and he did them all on his computer word processor. He still uses the computer every day at the age of ninety-three.

Obviously, chronological age has no relevance to learning. Anyone with a voracious appetite for mastering new things and has a zest for life can continue to learn at an age when many head for the nearest rocker or lazy-boy. On the other hand, I have known those who stopped learning before they got out of high school. They fight every attempt to goad them into some educational venture. If a training program involves more than learning how to operate a DVD player or a microwave oven, they run the other way.

All of my life, I have heard that the true disciple of Jesus has a teachable spirit and yields himself as clay in the hands of the Potter. But, if an individual has no desire to learn, what difference does a teachable spirit make? The very meaning of disciple is to be a learner. It follows, then, that anyone who intends to please God must have an overwhelming drive to take in as much knowledge as possible and then use that knowledge to expand his usefulness and skills to benefit the Kingdom of God .

In my ongoing research into leadership strategies, I have found that three huge jobs of a leader are to teach, train and coach. Teaching transfers an understanding of concepts and knowledge of a subject to a learner. Training structures a program to help a learner actually apply the concepts to his life in a real and practical way. Coaching offers the subject encouragement, analysis and motivation to succeed. From the disciple’s point of view, the challenge is to receive the teaching, training and coaching. This is where the question comes into play, “Just how old a dog are you, anyway?”

You have to be teachable. A teachable student listens. He opens his mind up to new concepts. He lays aside traditions, preconceived ideas, prejudices, pride and intellectual inertia and allows his thinking to be reshaped. He doesn’t argue petty points. He doesn’t insist on his own way. He permits the persuasiveness of his teacher to convince him.

You have to be trainable. To be trainable is to submit to the commands of the trainer. All trainees must learn to obey the simplest of commands. Although he may not fully understand why he is asked to do certain things, a trainable disciple trusts the guiding hand and voice of the trainer. He faithfully adheres to rules and schedules imposed upon him, despite any pain and discomfort they cause. Knowing that old habits die hard, he “mortifies the deeds of the body.” The person in training understands that he is growing stronger, healthier and more balanced. He has the end goal in mind and doesn’t deviate from the program.

You have to be coachable. A coachable person permits his attitude to be managed by his coach. He swallows his touchiness, his petulance, and his natural resistance to instructions in order to increase his sensitivity to the coach’s words. He forms a bond with his coach and believes that the strategies and methods of the coach will work. When the relationship between a coach and his team gels, it produces a spiritual dynamic that unites everyone and moves the team forward. The coachable person does not strive to be his own man or to assert his will against the coach. Something larger than himself drives him.

A recent development in colleges and universities is the advent of the adult student. People no longer buy the old notion that school is only for the young. They have found that older persons can go back to school and learn something totally different than the trade or profession they may have worked in all of their lives. It’s not unusual these days to hear that a retiree or an octogenarian has earned a bachelor’s degree. The early church also knew that whenever one started to be a disciple, he never stopped. It’s time we embraced this concept all over again. I believe it is significant that Mnason was designated as an old disciple. He kept learning beyond the point of conventional expectations.

Teachable, trainable and coachable. These are mandatory discipleship parameters. It doesn’t matter if you’re old, young or somewhere in between. Get started…again.

Thoughts I Have Chased…But Never Caught

(Some thoughts never grow into articles or sermons, but they won’t go away. Try these.)

• Conveniences.  The more we indulge in conveniences to save time and reduce the mundane activities of life, the more we spend our time servicing those conveniences, ultimately making our lives more complex. This is why we must never allow gadgetry to define our church mission, drive our burden or govern our relationship with God. When we do, our success will only last as long as an electronic circuit or a AA battery or the service contract.
• Learning.  As long as we insist on learning everything the hard way, we will never achieve true progress. True progress is predicated upon the tiered learning experiences of those older than ourselves. Herein lies the value of reading and gathering advice from as many people as possible. You gain the experience of others without having to suffer their pain.
• Caring.  Caring for and spending time with those you love remain the most fulfilling activities of life. Regardless of how important all others make you feel, or of how necessary they say you are to them, never overindulge in their praise. In the end, it is hollow. Your loved ones alone can provide the special satisfaction and contentment in life that you can take to your grave.
• Enjoyment.  Why do we insist on thinking of God as a mysterious, remote, awesome being when he has made it abundantly clear that he is close, relevant and intimate with humans? He made small flowers to grow in out-of-the-way places, designed the impish and mischievous monkeys to do silly things, and filled the forest with the ceaseless, empty chatter of birds and bugs. He placed these elements into his creation for us to enjoy. If you have ever had someone pull you aside at some festive occasion and launch into a serious or morbid discussion, you know the meaning of exasperation. God desires his people to celebrate life, at least some of the time.
• Thoughts.  Desires, compulsions, inspirations and surmisings are all hands extending out of our thoughts and shaping our ideas, much like a potter who has many hands to sculpt his clay on the wheel. Few of these ideas are based in reality. The leaders among us are people who cut the fat, the falsehoods and the futile elements out of their ideas and hone them into something workable.
• Retirement.  Retirement’s greatest shock is the impression that one is no longer needed. In the human economy, we value something or someone in direct proportion to need. Whenever something is deemed unnecessary, it loses its value. On a larger scale, we must never believe that God does not need us. Saying that God does not need us is a self-destructive, hypothetical statement. Of course, God can exist, survive, and create whatever and whomever he wants, but that is beside the point. He did make us and put us in our places. Why did he do this if not because he needed us?
• Perspective.  Perspective may be the most important concept we have in living for God. Perspective is the ability to see the world from a particular vantage point. It puts everything in the right relationship with everything else in the picture. Your linear perspective tells you whether an object is a huge mountain or a tiny bump on the horizon. Your spatial perspective determines whether the sun is a firestorm of nuclear fission or a distant, insignificant star. Your youth perspective decides whether romance is just puppy-love or a heart-wrenching drama. Your age perspective says that Social Security is the most important financial concern in your life or a meaningless statistic. Spiritually, nothing in your life’s picture will work until and unless you put Jesus Christ into the right perspective—-the center of it all!

We Are Different

“For if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.” Galatians 1:10.

Does being different mean discomfort to you? It does for many Apostolics. In fact, the fear of being different is one of the most paralyzing mindsets that can seize the church. While fear wears many masks, our old nemesis intimidates the church body most effectively with this insidious brand. Whenever media types, talk-show hosts, writers, or others, ridicule us for being out of the mainstream, panic forms in the pit of our collective stomach. Often, it provokes us into full-blown defensiveness. “No, no! You’re misjudging us,” we protest. “We’re really not that different.” As a result of this fear, we become a bland, garden variety kind of Christian group. It seems we would rather enjoy sitting at the table of denominations, purring with pride and contentment, than reach the world with a unique gospel message, the same one that energized the church of the book of Acts. I contend, however, that if we fear to be different, we fail to be different. We are not here to be accepted but to be a light in a dark place.

This phenomenon of fear did not start with us. Nicodemus came to talk to Jesus at night for fear of the Jews. All four gospels record that Peter denied his involvement with Christ three times. This fearless man who jumped out of a boat to walk on water and who wielded a sword against Malchus, did not distance himself from Jesus because he was afraid for his life, but rather because he was afraid for his reputation. The Judaizers in Acts and Galatians clamored to retain certain practices of the Jewish religion, not only because those traditions were so ingrained within them, but also so they would not be considered too different from their friends and families. (Acts 15:1; Galatians 2:12).

Since its beginning, the United Pentecostal Church , International has undergone countless attacks. Several years ago, a mainline denomination and a major Christian magazine declared that we were a cult. They based their charge on our doctrines of the oneness of God, baptism in Jesus’ name, the new birth and our holiness lifestyle, claiming that these doctrines made us so different from general Christianity that we had to be classified as a cult. Their assault went beyond mere name-calling. It appeared to be a calculated attempt to hurt us and to serve as a warning to their people to avoid us. The charges galvanized our organization into a massive defensive reaction. We insisted that we were not a cult. In an avalanche of articles, letters, sermons and bible studies, we tried to convince people that we had been unjustifiably tagged with this label by those who wanted to make us seem freakish to the world. Looking back, I now wonder if our fear of being perceived as different, rather than a pure defense of the truth caused much of this reaction. The substance of our defense was correct, but this question remains: Would we have been better served to have ignored the charge and simply redoubled our efforts to get the message out to the unchurched and lost of the world? Indignation over false accusations consumes far too much of our energy, and it seldom works. Very little has changed in how our detractors view us.

Recently, a friend shared some intriguing data with me about the Mormons. No group has been more maligned as a cult than the LDS. While they defend themselves against nefarious charges that they feel mischaracterize them, they focus primarily on offense, not defense. For example, according to a report put out by the National Baptist Convention, the “Mormons are the ‘church’ doing the most evangelizing through TV commercials. Within twenty-four hours of a person’s response, missionary will show up with the Mormon Bible. In a shocking trend, Mormons are converting 155 Baptists to Mormonism every week. The average-sized Baptist church in America is 150 members. That equals about fifty-two Baptist churches that are lost to the LDS religion every year.” Now, if any group fits the definition of a cult, the Mormon Church certainly does. They have discovered, however, that the strategy of ignoring the charge and continuing to push their agenda works best.

I understand that the cries of cultism need to be rebutted because they are untrue, and because they conjure up negative images of us. Neither our theology nor our lifestyle supports the charge. The driving force behind our response, however, must not be the fear of being different. As long as we allow ourselves to be overly sensitive to the opinions of “mainstream” Christianity, we sabotage our calling. We are different, but the differences we have with the world’s brand of Christianity do not speak of weakness, but strength. If we accept and celebrate the fact that we are indeed different, we will find ourselves much farther down the road than if we continually chafe under a perceived negative, or worse, if we let the fear of being different neutralize us in our mission. The only standard we should accept is the Word of God, and the only approval we should seek is that of our Lord’s.

The Smiles of June

Graduation time triggers thoughts about success and goals in life. Typical…and boring…commencement speeches will repeat in stadiums and gymnasiums across the country that graduation is not the end, but the beginning. Grinning graduates, excited about finishing school but nervous about the next step, need to know what they are going to do with their lives. I know it’s too big to think about—-but it is too important not to. 

The only specific reference to success in the KJV Bible is Joshua 1:8: “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.”  The concept of success, however, runs throughout the scriptures.

I offer here some random thoughts about success: Some people think of success as achieving one’s goals, but this definition is far too simplistic. A hit-man for the mob may be judged successful if he kills someone without leaving a trace of evidence. A junkie who has just cut into a pure batch of cocaine may feel successful. A rogue corporate officer may define success as destroying one company to benefit another. Although they committed suicide in their evil act, nineteen Islamic militants considered themselves successful when they caused the carnage and devastation of 9/11.

But success is far too personal to be defined across the board. First, what a person does to become a success must be acceptable in our society, it must be consistent with one’s own identity and it must match our understanding of God’s will through his Word. Second, success may never be an achievable goal. It changes so often that it renders many attempts to define it as ridiculous.

On the other hand, if we can’t truly define success, can we truly define failure? And, is failing to succeed succeeding to fail? Is failure ever a success or can success be failure? These seem like silly questions, but they help us to think more critically about what we are doing with our time, resources and lives. For example, if one succeeds at being a lawyer when he or she really wanted to be a doctor, is it success? If you ultimately fail in achieving a noble goal, are you a failure? Is true success found in the process or the outcome of a project? Can we succeed and fail simultaneously or on different levels of the same project or in differing roles in life? Is the man who succeeds in business but fails in his marriage a success or failure? Is the woman who gets what she wants in life but loses her soul a success? If we factor in all the successes and failures of individual lives, does a calculus exist whereby we can crown them as an overall success or pronounce them as a decided failure? Is the perception of success or failure in the eyes of the world more relevant than some arbitrary or objective measure?

Obviously, we can wander all over the philosophical and academic definitions of success with nothing to show for it but confusion. How can we arrive at a useful definition of spiritual success? This may only be done by looking at the world around us, by understanding the person within us and by measuring ourselves according to the divine plan revealed to us. We can’t do this in a single session, but we may be able to at least identify some major areas of concern and start the process.

The failures of Abraham Lincoln have been widely publicized. He did not win an election to public office until he became president in 1860. Yet, by most accounts, history acknowledges him as one of the greatest presidents ever to occupy the Oval Office. Thomas Edison failed over a thousand times before he found the right filament for incandescent lighting. We remember King David as one of the most beloved and successful of all biblical characters, yet he also represents the most miserable moral failure in scripture. Jesus Christ, in the strict terms of his contemporary society, was a colossal failure.

Have you ever tried to challenge some of your own ideas of success? Although you may pick these perceptions apart intellectually, you will find it extremely difficult to rid your minds and heart of their lingering effects. Do you want to make a lot of money? Do you want academic degrees? What kind of car, house or other possessions do you want? Do you want financial security? Do you want to get married, and to whom? If you have children, what do you want them to become? Where do you want to live? Do you want a particular job? Do you want a promotion to a certain position? Do you want out from under someone else’s control? Do you just want a change in the circumstances of your life? Do you want people to think highly of you? Do you want to achieve a certain thing? (i.e., invention, justice or victory?) All of these things may be elements of success, but all of them fail if they stand alone. The best definition of success is this: “Success is something that happens on the way to fulfilling the will of God in your life.”

In the final analysis, success is not something you can achieve as a single goal. You cannot simply go out into the world and get success, even if you achieve all your goals! All your achievements must be reconciled with the will of God in your life. That alone represents the totality of success.