I Don’t Even Need a Pass!

I’m out.

I had an email exchange with the pastor of my former church, and I expressed the following concerns, among others:

1. I don’t trust Steve Munsey or his methods. The “seven blessings” stuff came straight from Munsey’s imagination.

2. The congregation suffers from “astonishing” ignorance, because we get them saved and then don’t follow up. I put quotation marks around “astonishing” because I used that word. We are focusing on salvation and ignoring everything that comes after it.

3. The presence of God is no longer perceptible in the church, as it used to be.

4. The secular stuff–positivity and so on–is taking over. Well, let’s be honest. It HAS taken over. We hear about God’s miraculous power to reward burdensome cash offerings, but we don’t hear about the other things he claims he’ll do.

The response can be distilled, pretty fairly, into this:

1. If you are upset because you don’t sense God’s presence, you’re following signs, which is wrong. You should have faith anyway.

2. Lots of rabbis back up the “seven blessings” stuff.

3. Salvation is really important.

I quit the Armorbearer team last night, and I’m done with the church. As always, the church member’s opinions are wrong, and everything the church is doing is just, well, not even “right,” but NEATO! NIFTY! WOWEE!

I am reminded of a hilarious cartoon I will probably ruin via description. There are three glasses of water, filled halfway. The first has a caption: “The Pessimist.” A word balloon says something like, “The glass is half empty.” The second says, “The Optimist,” and “The glass is half full.” The third says, “The Publicist,” and something like, “OH MY GOD THE GLASS IS SO FULL IT’S OVERFLOWING!!!!!!!”

That’s my church.

Former church.

Check this guy out. This is Steve Munsey, the man who invented the “seven blessings” doctrine. Really, you have to see it to believe it.

This man runs a church we’re fervently imitating. We haven’t heard, “Jesus wants your tax refunds,” yet, but I guess it will come. After that, “Open wide so Jesus can have those gold teeth. How much you got on you right now? You holding out on Jesus? Jesus wants his money, man. Oh, you got money for gas, but nothing for Jesus. So it’s like that. You PLAYING Jesus. What’s this? What’s this? Deacon D-Pain done found a twenty in your shoe! I guess you forgot! Now it’s ON. Jesus gonna make an example out of you!”

Sorry, I get carried away.

I leave you to judge the “seven blessings” stuff for yourselves. I think you can handle the mental challenge. For some things, you need the Holy Spirit, but the wrongness of this mess should be obvious to the unaided mind.

Here’s how I would address the points that have been raised (or evaded).

1. God’s presence is EXTREMELY important, and when it leaves, you should know you have a major problem. Christians tend to think the Jews didn’t get much supernatural activity out of God once Malachi was done, but that isn’t true. The glory of God lit up the Holy of Holies every year on Yom Kippur, and the red thread on the temple door turned white. The showbread in the Temple stayed hot and fresh for a week at a stretch, and one pinch was as filling as a meal. Even when the Jews went through a dry spell, God confirmed himself as a matter of routine.

God was present in the Ark of the Covenant, and the Jews carried it into battle, and provided they weren’t in bad odor with the Almighty, God gave them victory. When the Ark was captured, it caused horrible problems for the Philistines.

God’s presence rested on Samson. When he left, Samson was blinded and enslaved.

It’s kind of astounding that anyone could suggest that God’s presence isn’t important.

Also, I do not follow signs. They follow me. There’s a difference. You shouldn’t follow signs, but if they’re not following you, you’re doing something wrong.

2. Rabbis do not back up the “seven blessings” stuff. That’s a crock. There is no point in saying it more respectfully. We have never been under the Jewish law, and even had we been, Gentiles were never required to give holiday offerings, and were that not true, the offerings were not cash offerings, and there were no lists of blessings associated with them. The “seven blessings” doctrine is a desperate ploy to squeeze money out of people who are not feeling the unction of the Holy Spirit because their churches are a mess.

3. Salvation is important, but Jesus made it clear that he doesn’t want a church that does a half-assed job. He criticized a big, rich church for being lukewarm. A lukewarm church will attract lots of people, and it will get people saved, so what was his problem? His problem was that a generation of lukewarm believers will not do much to get the next generation saved. He called his body a temple, and he called us his body. A temple is made of bricks or stones, and we are those stones. One layer has to rest on the layers beneath it. If the lower layers are weak, the upper layers will collapse. This generation isn’t just a harvest. It’s the seed corn for the next generation. Ignorant Christians are not going to produce a lasting church.

This is all obvious.

Look at Eli’s sons. They were seeker-sensitive. They were inclusive. They were lukewarm. Like the sons of many pastors, including my former pastor, they were handed jobs in ministry. God killed them and took the priesthood away from them.

What I take away from this is that all the things I did not want to believe about my church and my pastor are being confirmed. Over and over, people will tell you what they are and what they believe, if you have ears to listen. I am beginning to believe what my pastor has been telling me about himself, and I’m starting to accept my church’s self-incriminating testimony. I believe in the supernatural power of God, and that it is available to every believer. It seems pretty clear that my pastor doesn’t feel that way. I doubt he even believes we’ll be rewarded financially. The church is always in debt. How can you believe the prosperity gospel, if it doesn’t work for you?

I think he believes in salvation, but that’s about it. I think the church’s theology is about like that of a mainstream church in 1950, only with a pile of prosperity teaching added.

The fortunate thing about all this–one of the many fortunate things–is that now I can speak my mind with confidence. I want to be humble, and I want what I say to be productive, but if I was critical before, I will be ruthless in the future. I’m tired of seeing good people march over a cliff.