The Lord knew what He was doing when He kept me out of the preaching ministry. If I had gone into that high calling, I more than likely would have ended up as a pastor of a congregation, Pentecostal of course as that was my “inherited” belief. And I would have inherited, as my father did before me in the years circa 1915, some of the sincerely held wrong opinions of my generation, which were the years between 1940 and '50. I was in my twenties at the time and possibly would have had a small congregation of my own.
But God decreed I was not to be preacher or pastor because I would have seriously been instructing my parishioners with some of the ill-conceived Pentecostal ideas of the time. I know whereof I speak because I have seen or heard of my father’s experiences along that line. One example that stood out like an impenitent sinner in heaven was the flap over the marriage-divorce issue. That was a major problem.
I don’t have the space or time to get into details, but the early Holiness fathers had some dogmas that were weird, unscriptural, highly impractical and largely impracticable. But let me throw this in to take some of the bite out of my acerbic words: Those pastors and laypersons who were sincere in their worship and service to God had an openness that was largely lacking in the denominational ranks. I might add that it was also lacking in some of the Pentecostal leaders.
Humankind has a tendency to “play church.” That is, they go through the motions of worship and service to God while seriously lacking the “heartbeat” that should go with them. They want the security attending such worship and service, but they cannot bring themselves to give up the pleasures of the carnal life. Many church members don’t have a prayer life; some don’t know how to get their teeth into such a life and the communion and worship that are components of a good prayer life. (For more information, go here: http://bit.ly/h2FJjo .)
God has said to me in effect (no, I didn’t hear actual words), “I don’t want you in a “glory” job. I want you to go out and write the vision and make it plain. I want you, along with others like you, to be small voices in the wilderness, reaching people who do not have the teaching they need. You will not receive great acclaim except from Me. Now go!”
Since I am not a pastor or leader in the Church, I don’t have to set about undoing the wrong things I picked up in my earlier years. Frankly there have been some glitches in my writing efforts I have had to undo here and there as God gave me more knowledge and understanding of His Word and His way of operating, but there so far have been no major issues I have had to publicly disavow.
A pastor of a congregation is constantly making public pronouncements and drawing conclusions from what he understands of God’s Word and God’s will. It is more difficult for him to root out the wrong ideas, minor though they may be, that he has in all sincerity given his congregation. These wrong ideas are usually not of such proportions that the pastor has to call an assembly to get the people back on the right track. He can simply, without fanfare, switch the “train” smoothly onto the right track. No harm, no foul.
I can recall a time or two – or three – when I have admitted in my writings that a statement I had made previously was in error, although there was no need for a public penance. But a writer is supposedly allowed greater latitude in his/her theology simply because he or she is not a great leader. Now of course this makes for an uneven playing field. So why am I complaining? It’s in the writers’ favor!
While on this subject I have to say this: I have seen men who were very influential and who gave large monetary amounts to good causes, go unchastened for their major shifts away from the “Pentecostal” doctrine. I am not talking now about men of this generation. Others who were not so well-known or did not have the money to strew around on this or that good project were severely reprimanded or worse for similar doctrinal lapses. This too makes for an uneven playing field.
To get down to brass tacks (I guess the term today is “Get to where the rubber meets the road” or get to hard facts) we are all required to dispense knowledge to those who have not been blessed with good spiritual teaching. We don’t have to flaunt our knowledge – we didn’t attain it on our own – nor should we throw our pearls before swine, who will ignore the pearls and turn and rend us.
If we are in a community of believers who have lesser knowledge of God than we, we should not bombard our “inferiors” with our superior knowledge. We should quietly live what we know among these brothers and sisters and, if the opportunity is presented us, tell them, one on one or in pairs or classes, what we know, in meekness instructing the ones that will accept our teaching. (2Tim. 3.2; Jas. 3.13; 1 Peter 3.15) And, above all, never contradict the pastor of the congregation. That can lead only to confusion, and God is not the author of confusion.
Do all things “with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love.” (Eph. 4.2)
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