Do Not Worry...but Do Worship!

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? - Matt. 6:25

If you're like me you worry. Worry is like a bad tenant who rented out some space in my brain years ago and although I've evicted him several times he keeps sneaking back in and stinking up the place. The first part of this year was perhaps the biggest struggle with worry I've ever experienced. The source was a growing understanding of our country's fragile financial solvency as a result of the Quantitative Easing policies of the Federal Reserve, and a growing concern that this IS in fact the biggest threat our nation has ever faced. You could say I became obsessed with learning what in the world was going on here. April and other friends tried to pull me out of the pit but in the end I had to climb out myself and find a place of peace, giving the worry to God. In my defense, a good part of my anxiety was in fact ongoing intercessory prayer. But a larger part was good ole fashion fear. And that's where my Father was trying to comfort me.

I appreciate Christ's command to "not worry about your life" but it's just so natural it seems. I mean we all have to work, right? The scripture also says, "If you don't work you shouldn't eat" (2 Thess 3:10) and "talk" without "hard work" leads to poverty (Prov. 14:23). It seems natural to worry that our hard work will be stollen by forces we cannot control. And you know what? It just might. Corrupt leaders have taken from weaker "subjects" for all of human history. So how do we not worry when there really is something to worry about?! Here's what I've rediscovered.

I can't say I'm cured by any means. That dirty, dangerous tenant likes to bang on the walls of my mind nearly everyday. But what I've rediscovered is that when the worry man comes knocking it's time to bang right back... with worship! We MUST remember we are MADE to worship. It's fine to seek understanding and prepare for what the world may fire at us. But it's not fine to get lost in that preparedness and forget that we aren't even citizens of this world. We are -- right now -- in fact "citizens of heaven" (Philippians 3:10). And what are they doing in Heaven? Worship. Praise. Honoring God day after day. So why would we not celebrate the realm we actually live in ... along with all the multitudes in heaven who are doing the same?

You alone are the Lord. You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to everything, and the multitudes of heaven worship you. - Nehemiah 9:5-7

We are meant to worship. In the first half of this year I obsessed about the world, America, and the dollar. So I promised God a few months back that I would spend the last half of the year obsessing more about Him, His scriptures, His people, and His Kingdom. In keeping that promise I've read through Romans a few more times, taught my kids new praise and worship, and pressed into deeper fellowship with friends in the Kingdom of God. Each of these things are worship. And each of them are not only healing, they bring focus, balance, security, and purpose. We are MADE to worship. When we worship we escape the clutches of this dark place and ascend On High with our Maker! We are made to worship.

So if you're like me... it's hard not to worry. But when we are tempted to worry we should worship instead. For me that means worshipping all day long, just as it should be. 

Do Not Worry...but Do Worship

Mercy Homes, SALT, and the future of helping kids in India!

Mercy Homes are about creating families not orphanages. That's what gets me most excited. 

Yesterday Pastor Daniel and Jacob visited our home. We talked about India's children for a couple of hours, us asking question after question, and the two of them patiently educating us on the nature of the needs there. Our dream is to not only help more ourselves but organize many others to help. 

Mercy Homes place children in a stable family with a mother and father with up to 10 children per family. 

As a result, the lives of the children are forever changed, most of them adopting the Christian faith of the parents. Unlike the national orphanage system kids don't get lost in the pool of displaced homeless children. These kids are given far more than a bed, food, and a roof over head. They receive the most important of all development needs: LOVE. The love of a family alters their course and secures for them a future.

There are now 59 Mercy Homes and growing. Imagine the impact as these children become old enough to get married and run their own Mercy Homes! The impact on lives could increase exponentially! So we're jumping in. 

One more thing: Mercy Homes in America! Pastor Daniel and I talk each time about the possibility of legal custody transfers, taking the story of kid in "The Blind Side" and making it a well-known way to take kids into stable homes. The key is connecting the stable and willing families in churches with the biological mothers in in poverty who desire for their children to have a completely different upbringing.

Finally, they told us about new program called SALT -- Save a Life Today. By the grace of God there is now an opportunity to save the lives of HIV invected children. The ministry is now contacted by the doctors in the city of Tissur whenever a child shows up there from the surrounding villages to receive medical care. These kids are normally identified and then exiled. But with SALT they are given a sufficient protein diet to combat and even be healed of AIDS!! As we learn more (and hopefully visit there some day) we would like to make this ministry widely known in America! 

Today I'm proud of my kids for giving Pastor Daniel any money they had, proud of my awesome wife for signing us up to sponsor two children. But I'm mostly excited about partnering with Mercy Homes and SALT! So we're dreaming and praying. 

God’s Plan of Salvation Starts with God's Sacrifice for US [from Bible.org]

The following is a copy of God’s Plan of Salvation from http://bible.org/article/gods-plan-salvation. Although I believe there is an ongoing growth in the Spirit, specifically in the fruits of the Spirit, that come from obeying God's commandments to LOVE, forgive, etc., this is the beginning point of all of it. The scriptures below are not taken out of context. They mean what they mean -- God DID in fact send His SON to die FOR our sins. This is the starting point of our faith. Without this believe there is no start. So I encourage you to read the Bible for yourself. Don't just take your church leader's word for it. (He might be teaching a form of salvation by works  and you will only know it if you do your own study). You have the SAME Holy Spirit that he does. And the same Holy Spirit can and will speak to you directly! 
~~~~~~

God's Plan of Salvation: 

1 John 5:11-12 And the witness is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.

This passage tells us that God has given us eternal life and this life is in His Son, Jesus Christ. In other words, the way to possess eternal life is to possess God’s Son. The question is, how can a person have the Son of God?

Man’s Problem

Separation From God

Isaiah 59:2 But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, And your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He does not hear.

Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

According to Romans 5:8, God demonstrated His love for us through the death of His Son. Why did Christ have to die for us? Because Scripture declares all men to be sinful. To “sin” means to miss the mark. The Bible declares “all have sinned and fall short of the glory (the perfect holiness) of God” (Rom. 3:23). In other words, our sin separates us from God who is perfect holiness (righteousness and justice) and God must therefore judge sinful man.

Habakkuk 1:13a Thine eyes are too pure to approve evil, And Thou canst not look on wickedness with favor.

The Futility of Our Works

Scripture also teaches that no amount of human goodness, human works, human morality, or religious activity can gain acceptance with God or get anyone into heaven. The moral man, the religious man, and the immoral and non-religious are all in the same boat. They all fall short of God’s perfect righteousness. After discussing the immoral man, the moral man, and the religious man in Romans 1:18-3:8, the Apostle Paul declares that both Jews and Greeks are under sin, that “there is none righteous, not even one” (Rom. 3:9-10). Added to this are the declarations of the following verses of Scripture:

Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, that no one should boast.

Titus 3:5-7 He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, 6 whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 that being justified by His grace we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

Romans 4:1-5 What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has found? 2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about; but not before God. 3 For what does the Scripture say? “And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.” 4 Now to the one who works, his wage is not reckoned as a favor, but as what is due. 5 But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness,

No amount of human goodness is as good as God. God is perfect righteousness. Because of this, Habakkuk 1:13 tells us God cannot have fellowship with anyone who does not have perfect righteousness. In order to be accepted by God, we must be as good as God is. Before God, we all stand naked, helpless, and hopeless in ourselves. No amount of good living will get us to heaven or give us eternal life. What then is the solution?

God’s Solution

God is not only perfect holiness (whose holy character we can never attain to on our own or by our works of righteousness) but He is also perfect love and full of grace and mercy. Because of His love and grace, He has not left us without hope and a solution.

Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

This is the good news of the Bible, the message of the gospel. It’s the message of the gift of God’s own Son who became man (the God-man), lived a sinless life, died on the cross for our sin, and was raised from the grave proving both the fact He is God’s Son and the value of His death for us as our substitute.

Romans 1:4 who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord,

Romans 4:25 He who was delivered up because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification.

2 Corinthians 5:21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

1 Peter 3:18 For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, in order that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit;

How Do We Receive God’s Son?

Because of what Jesus Christ accomplished for us on the cross, the Bible states “He that has the Son has life.” We can receive the Son, Jesus Christ, as our Savior by personal faith, by trusting in the person of Christ and His death for our sins.

John 1:12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, {even} to those who believe in His name. 

John 3:16-18 For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

This means we must each come to God the same way: (1) as a sinner who recognizes his sinfulness, (2) realizes no human works can result in salvation, and (3) relies totally on Christ alone by faith alone for our salva-tion.

Favorite Scriptures: Romans 5

Romans 5

New International Version (NIV)

Peace and Hope

5 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! 10 For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! 11 Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

Religious Shunning Comes from False Teachings

In the previous post I outlined how religious shunning often grows out of insecurity and sin and is about creating fear in the remaining church members. In this post we'll take a look at the scriptures that are sometimes used as proof texts to create false teachings about shunning. The distorted, sinful practice of shunning most often comes from false teachings and mis-interpretation of scripture. Here is the first: 

1. "Warn a divisive person once, and then warn them a second time. After that, have nothing to do with them." Titus 3:10 

This verse, if taken out of context, allows a church leader or teacher to name anyone a "divisive person." However, in the context of the entire chapter this is about a person who is trying to force arguments about the "law" instead focusing on "justification by grace." Let's back up and look at the context.

Verses 3-8 detail how we are "justified by his grace" and therefore should be "devoted to doing what is good." With this in mind we all should "avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law, because these are unprofitable and useless." If a person is not willing to avoid arguing about the law, then we should warn them twice, then have "nothing to do with them." This comes after an attempt to get them to stop discontinue arguments and quarrels about the law. 

This makes perfect sense to me. Salvation by grace is the essence of our faith. A huge portion of the New Testament is about the problem with people teaching something other than salvation by grace, specifically the problem of Jews still teaching the Law. But unfortunately, this verse is used by abusive leaderships when their own control over their church is threatened. They widen the meaning of "divisive" to include anyone who threatens their control and anyone who questions their authority. This false teaching leads to spiritual abuse. And it's ironic that in some churches the church leadership itself might be continually arguing about "the law" by laying down rules and when someone steps up from within the church to suggest we are "justified by grace and not by works" that person is labeled divisive. It's the opposite meaning of the passage. If you apply the passage rightly the leader should be shunned for pushing salvation by works.

In short, a church should in fact shun someone IF that person is running around arguing about the "foolish things and quarreling about the law." The church leadership should have a solid foundation laid within the church of justification by grace, making the foolish, law-pushing, divisive person obvious to all. Then the command should be followed to twice warn the person. If they will not stop going against the firm teachings on justification by grace then that person must go. It is not spiritually healthy to allow anyone within a church to teach something other than justification by grace.

Here's another:

2. "They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us." 1 John 2:19

 The logic used with this passage is simply this: They left us, so they never belonged to us. And since the church (i.e. "Our church") is Christ, they never belonged to Christ. If they belonged to Christ they would not have left us, because the church is Christ.

This false teaching requires a very strong, centralized view of ones own church, which is in fact, pretty common. There is no shortage of church leaderships teaching their own church is the "best" representation of Christ on the Earth, with the correct doctrine and traditions. This prideful position yields itself quite easily to the idea that those who are "in our church" are saved and those who are not are not. Of course, many might say, we don't believe that we are only ones going to heaven, or the only right way to "do" or "be" the church. But if this were true there would zero shunning within your church, because your so-called beliefs about others not in your church would be backed up by your practice of including them as brothers and sisters in Christ, even though they are not members of your particular church. 

In addition to this faulty, unbiblical, and unGodly logic, in order to distort this passage completely, one also has to remove it from context, as usual. Reading just a couple verses down the true meaning of this section of scripture is revealed: 

22 Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist—denying the Father and the Son. 23 No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.

These are a couple scriptures used to distort the True message of spiritual inclusion, established by he unconditional love of God in Christ. What should you do if your church is participating in this sort of shunning or has done so in the past? First repent if you have participated and second fight for what is right.

It is very important to get right with God spiritually. If you have cut off those whom God has chosen then you likely are walking around with a damaged spirituality. Repent for before God and then make it right with those you have shown. Secondly, fight for what is right. Don't be afraid to go up against your churches leadership if they are practicing shining have done so in the past. True it may mean that you yourself get shunned but spiritually this is far better. It is better to be shunned for Christ than to participate and shunning others. You may lose friends or even family if you do what is right. But as you lay up treasures in heaven your reward will be eternal, and the spiritual benefit will start now!!

The Practice and Nature of Religious Shunning

As part of a series of posts on spiritual abuse I add a few on the practice of shunning. 

Shunning in a church is when a person or a family leaves a church and is told by a church leader or church leadership that people remaining in the church should avoid them. Shunning has been around as long as there have been churches. It's nothing new. It can be very discouraging to the persons being shunned. In my opinion it is even more destructive to the spirituality of those who are doing the shunning. There are times when we are actually commanded to shun which I will cover in future posts. But as we will see these are in regards to attacks on the core faith or denial of Christ. More often, unfortunately, the practice of shunning is done in order to create fear. 

• Shunning is most often about striking fear in the hearts of those who are STILL in the church. 

We should not be mislead here. Shunning is most often NOT about the person or the family who has left. Church shunning is really about maintaining the status quo and the control over those who are still in the church. This is done by making them afraid to buck the system or question set doctrines. More specifically, the goal of shunning is to make people still in the church afraid of loosing their friends, family, and reputation. 

In most cases the church network is a tight network of friends and family and often the primary source of socializing and community. Since most legalistic churches have set doctrines, practices, and traditions that have been handed down from one generation to the next, if a person questions these they are often times threatening the central power of the church's hierarchy. If the person will not conform to the status quo and give up the fight they are forced out by rejection, or openly "disfellowshipped" (asked to leave). 

Once the rebel is gone the real engine of religious shunning kicks in with the goal of making sure those who remain are not tempted to also question the church's doctrines, practices, or traditions. The people still in the church take note of what has happened to the "rebel" of the church. They see how they are shunned, how they lost their friends and how the slander has damaged their reputation. If shunning works the remaining members are afraid of the same thing happening to them. So they most often remain quiet. Even if they believe something different than the leaders of the church they will not risk being cut off from friends and family. Shunning has accomplished its goal of striking fear in the hearts of those who remain in the church. 

• Shunning is practiced in churches because the church members, and the church leader or leadership are insecure. 

If a church leader or church leadership is teaching the unconditional love of God and the ultimate sacrifice of Christ on the cross for the sins of mankind, which makes us all brothers and sisters in Christ, then there is nothing to be insecure about. But if a church leader is not holding up the atonement as central, of if he is teaching that his church is better then other churches because "we believe this" or "we don't believe that," or "we do this" or "we don't do this," then he is leading his church into sinking sand. 

Make no mistake, if a church leader is NOT teaching "God so loved the world he gave his only Son" then he is teaching salvation by works. There is no middle ground. Either God has made us right by the blood of Christ or WE are trying to make ourselves right with God by what we do, don't do, think, or believe. 

At the heart of all shunning is an insecure church leader or church leadership that has not built a foundation on the solid rock of Christ's sacrifice but on some form or works-righteousness.  In many cases this works-based "gospel" sounds quite good, noble, or right. It might be service, sacrifice, disciple making, or rigorous Bible study. It might be church reform such as house churching or community. But it is still works-based and not simply a teaching of "Christ and Him crucified" as Paul emphasized (1 Cor. 2:2).

The result of promoting a form of works-righteousness is insecure church members who focus on performance. And so the sinking sand is under foot and the church leader or leadership is constantly battling to keep the church together. This in turn makes the church leader incredibly insecure. And so this insecurity leads to the practice of shunning. 

• Shunning is often times a very subtle shifting of sin. 

Religious shunning is not just the dramatic, obvious stories.  More often church shunning is quite subtle and is often times the shifting of the church leader's sins onto another. This is known in secular circles as psychological projection. Sometimes a church leader himself can be heavily involved in gossip, slander, or character assassinations but not see his own faults. Or he may justify these practices and attitudes in his mind somehow. Then he might project his own sin onto others, believing this is going on with members of his church. He is shifting - or projecting - his own sins onto others. 

In an effort to protect himself from guilt he teaches the church to shun those who threaten his power or who might expose his sin. If people within the church do not study the scriptures for themselves and stand up against the leader or leaders the abuse can go on indefinitely. There are those called to fight within a church. If the abuse goes on the person most spiritually hurt in the process are not the ones being shunned but the church authority themselves. 

In the next post we'll take a look at where the false teaching on shunning comes from. 

Arguing with a Church Leader about Shunning & the Prodigal Son Story

Last night April and I took the kids to Memphis to see Chris Tomlin in concert. Half way through some amazing worship (dancing and light show included!) we heard Louie Giglio give one of the most amazing teachings about the prodigal son. Prodigal means extravagant spender. He suggested the title chosen for this story might be better applied to the Father who, once his son came home, threw a huge party! 

The father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate!  

This was after a hug and kiss spectacle in the street where the father was likely out of breath from running!

And while he was still a long distance away, his father saw him coming, and was filled with loving pity and ran and embraced him and kissed him.

As I listened with tears in my eyes I thanked God for His extravagant grace. He sees us coming home and he runs to embrace and kiss us! This story truly is about the Father's unconditional love for us! It's about the party He throws when we come home! 

This morning I'm so filled with peace and thankfulness. But I also can't stop thinking about an argument I had with a church pastor one time. I had gone to speak with him about his church's practice of shunning people who leave his church. Here's the story. 

A single young adult in the church had come to believe God was wanting her to move away, to experience Him in another city, and so the Pastor told the church they were to not have any contact with her after she left. He taught his church that the rejection and loneliness would create in her a repentance leading her back to his church. I decided to challenge his doctrine of shunning by using the story of the prodigal son. 

I tend to get really excited and worked up about this story. I came home to my God and Father at age 21, after four years of rebellion. I have a picture on my office wall of the prodigal son coming home. I have a poem I wrote to God taped to the back of the picture. I've read books about this story. But mostly I've leaned into this Father of grace and forgiveness clearly portrayed in this story. As I got into my reasons why this pastor should not shun this teenager I felt filled with the Spirit. I said, "Why did the father go ahead and give his boy the money and let him leave? Why did the son think to return home? I suggest he had a picture in his head the entire time he was gone. That image was of his father, arms open wide on the front porch, or staring through the window. The attitude of the father is supposed to be our attitude as well, toward those who might leave us!" 

As I got more wound up the pastor's face got more frowned up...or down. But I continued. "What if, instead of allowing this girl to go out under heavy rejection, gossip, and slander, we send her out with an inheritance? What if, instead of telling the church to shun her -- to not talk to her or see her off, or invite her back -- we have a meeting and gather around her and bless her? What if we lay hands on her, give her gifts, tell her we'll miss her and she can always return home? What if we show her the same mercy that God shows us?!" At this point he couldn't listen to me any longer and so he exploded with anger. 

     "YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND ANYTHING ABOUT THE FEAR OF THE LORD!!" he shouted at me. Then, with a red face, he described a God that, frankly, well... I don't know the God he was describing. 

It's sad how people can get off track, thinking God doesn't love them. I think somewhere deep down this pastor doesn't really feel the love and forgiveness of God. I continued to describe the loving Father whom I have come to know but I could tell I was attempting to cut through years and years of legalism. So I bowed out of the argument. But I have never stopped praying for him. Everyone - especially church leaders - should know and feel the unconditional love of the Father that allows us to call HIM - our God -- "Father." What is available to one is available to all who are justified by faith -- peace with God. 

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Romans 5:1-2

Fortunately, I heard the girl's family and friends did not follow the pastor's plea for shunning and reached out to her anyway while she was gone. They made sure she knew she was loved, accepted, and forgiven. So she returned to the church. Unfortunately, the same is not true for many others that were shunned by this pastor. But there's always hope. 

I'm working on some posts about church shunning. It's a topic that I wish no one had to write about. But many have. I'm not the first. Nor am I the expert. I have opinions just like everyone else. Most of my opinions I'm willing to budge on. But there is one opinion I hold to pretty strongly -- God LOVES us! 

God LOVES you! HE loves YOU with a love that our feeble hearts cannot understand. So HE sent HIS son to put on human flesh, to become just "like the children", where he told some amazing stories (like the prodigal son story), all of which reveal the TRUTH about God's amazing love. If that were not enough this Lord of Lords and King of Kings washed the dirty, stinky feet of his followers in an upper room. He did this to show them HOW to love others - others they would soon lead!  

Then this God in a man's body voluntarily died on a cross for our sins, making it possible for us to have peace with God. He didn't stay in the cold ground long. Three days. He then went back home to be with His Father, where He now sits at God's right hand and intercedes for us, where I'm convinced He points right down at you and me, elbows his Father, and says, "Look, there's one of your children right there! And there's another one! And look!! There's one coming home to you RIGHT NOW!!!" At which point the Father jumps to his feet with excitement and a party begins in the temple courts! 

There is NO love like the LOVE of our God. And there is NO greater point to this life than to surrender to HIS Spirit and allow that same supernatural love to somehow eek out of us, through our own natural forms. We are simply HIS vessels on Earth now, placed here to show the Father's love. But first we must come home running. Come home running. He understands. His name is Jesus! And He understands. 

To my pastor friend...you don't have to shun people anymore. God has not shunned you. Your past no longer matters. If you were to repent to those you've hurt they would forgive you and accept you, just like our God. God accepts you and loves you with all HIS heart. You cannot earn His love or a better place in heaven. His love for you cannot increase nor can it decrease. It is, and always has been, at its max... for you. So come home running. He understands. His name is Jesus! And He understands. 

This is for you: 



PS - There are SO many more than a mere 7000 gonna be partying in paradise!  ;-)

Spiritually abusive ministries…

Here's another good list, this time from Mary DeMuth's blog. These are sure-fire ways of recognizing spiritual abuse and the leaders who perpetrate it. I'm adding this post to several posts on spiritual abuse. Spiritual abusive ministries...

 

1. Have a distorted view of respect. They forget the simple adage that respect is earned, not granted. Abusive leaders demand respect without having earned it by good, honest living.
2. Demand allegiance as proof of the follower’s allegiance to Christ. It’s either his/her way or no way. And if a follower deviates, he is guilty of deviating from Jesus.
3. Use exclusive language. “We’re the only ministry really following Jesus.” “We have all the right theology.” Believe their way of doing things, thinking theologically, or handling ministry and church is the only correct way. Everyone else is wrong, misguided, or stupidly naive.
4. Create a culture of fear and shame. Often there is no grace for someone who fails to live up to the church’s or ministry’s expectation. And if someone steps outside of the often-unspoken rules, leaders shame them into compliance. Can’t admit failure but often searches out failure in others and uses that knowledge to hold others in fear and captivity. They often quote scriptures about not touching God’s anointed, or bringing accusations against an elder. Yet they often confront sin in others, particularly ones who bring up legitimate biblical issues. Or they have their circle of influence take on this task, silencing critics.
5. Often have a charismatic leader at the helm who starts off well, but slips into arrogance, protectionism and pride. Where a leader might start off being personable and interested in others’ issues, he/she eventually withdraws to a small group of “yes people” and isolates from the needs of others. Harbors a cult of personality, meaning if the central figure of the ministry or church left, the entity would collapse, as it was entirely dependent on one person to hold the place together.
6. Cultivate a dependence on one leader or leaders for spiritual information. Personal discipleship isn’t encouraged. Often the Bible gets pushed away to the fringes unless the main leader is teaching it.
7. Demand servanthood of their followers, but live prestigious, privileged lives.They live aloof from their followers and justify their extravagance as God’s favor and approval on their ministry. Unlike Jesus’ instructions to take the last seat, they often take the first seat at events and court others to grant them privileges.
8. Buffer him/herself from criticism by placing people around themselves whose only allegiance is to the leader. Views those who bring up issues as enemies. Those who were once friends/allies swiftly become enemies once a concern is raised. Sometimes these folks are banished, told to be silent, or shamed into submission.
9. Hold to outward performance but rejects authentic spirituality. Places burdens on followers to act a certain way, dress an acceptable way, and have an acceptable lifestyle.
10. Use exclusivity for allegiance. Followers close to the leader or leaders feel like insiders. Everyone else is on the outside, though they long to be in that inner circle.

If you see any of these signs in the church you are in or from a church leader... it's time to RUN AWAY!!! 

(Unless, of course, God is calling you to fight back against it. Do so if you have a chance of change and can protect your own spiritual health in the process. NEVER forget WHO you are in CHRIST.)