Called to health
Larry Smith’s ethic in “Balance or Sloth?” (Spring 1999) troubles me as much as Gary Preston’s “Get a (Balanced) Life!” (Fall 1998) troubled Mr. Smith.
Like doctors and business owners, pastors are on call 24-7-365. Ministry never goes on break. We’re only one phone call away from being robbed of rest, recreation, and relationship time. We don’t have the option to go away for the occasional weekend on the spur of the moment or sleep in on Sunday like nearly every lay person does.
But unlike most doctors, few pastors make six-figure incomes from 24-7-365 call time. Unlike business owners, we don’t get to choose our work force. Like waitresses, pastors have multiple bosses. We juggle conflicting and sometimes unfair expectations from “customers.”
It’s unfair to expect clergy to take on the pains of clergy work life and not receive the chief perk: the flexibility to pursue balance in life.
Furthermore, I owe it to lay people to model a healthy lifestyle. If I am sick in my soul, then my ministry is sick, and my effectiveness diminished.
In most careers, you can “buck up” and do the job no matter your personal struggles. If I am a dentist, no one will notice that my marriage is falling apart by my teeth-cleaning effectiveness. In ministry, everything I am impacts my effectiveness.
This doesn’t mean that I cannot minister through my problems. It does mean, however, that I cannot succumb to greed-driven performance that drives so many societal ills. People need healthy pastors. Ministry is not my only calling. God calls me to be whole as a person, husband, father, and as pastor.
—Sean Robinson Peachtree City, Georgia
How strong “the force”?
“When the Force Is Against You” (Winter 1999) was thought provoking, and at some points I found agreement. Yet Roger Barrier suggests, at least as I understand him, that Christians can be overwhelmed by evil. He wrote of the effects on his life of a curse by those practicing witchcraft.
I have encountered this same teaching in books by notable authors. What troubles me most is how this veers from Scripture. In Colossians we learn believers have been rescued from the authority of darkness. If our safety is so uncertain we must fear curses or demonic attack, what good is Christianity?
Why should people have doubt sown in their minds about the safety the Spirit provides? Do we endanger ourselves by indulging in sin? Surely we do. Are we so ill protected that Satan or his emissaries can overcome us, whether we are aware of the nature of the attack or not? Such teachings are dangerous to your readers, many of whom are under tremendous pressure in their churches.
—Edmond Long Westview Baptist Church Chattanooga, Tennessee
When Judas goes free
Though “The Judas Touch” (Winter 1999) had a happy ending, the vast majority of embezzlement cases do not.
The previous pastor of one church here in Palm Desert embezzled approximately $900,000 from the church, and when extensive legal papers were turned over to the District Attorney, he said they have no time to pursue cases like this.
Authorities view embezzlement as a civil (versus criminal) matter, and to go after these folks in civil court is usually a waste of time financially. The money is already spent (usually gambled away).
In only four years, following the disaster of the previous pastor in the area church, we had one former member who embezzled at least $2 million from folks inside and outside the church (including his own children), another member whose secretary stole $120,000 from his small business, and yet another former member who, as a bank officer, stole $2 million from his employer. All three are free, and the authorities refuse to do anything.
A member of my church who is a Sheriff’s Investigator for the Riverside County D.A. said it best: “If someone steals $1 million from your grandmother and ruins her, we will do nothing. If he slaps her in the face, the full force of the law will come against him. We do not have the time to pursue financial wrongdoing; we only have time to pursue violent crime.” At least in California, there is almost no threat of going to jail for embezzlement.
Bottom line: in most instances of church embezzlement, kiss the funds goodbye. “The Judas Touch” was a wonderful story. But more churches need to hear the message of careful controls and oversight that deter embezzlement in the first place.
—Kevin N. Springer Desert Springs Church Palm Desert, California
Copyright © 1999 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal. Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal.
