'Con Man' Confab - Christianity Today

James Walters felt led by God to move across the country to join a church staff and start a new ministry. Three years later, nothing had turned out as James had hoped, and he wondered why God led him into that wilderness. In his estimation, it was a con. A con with a holy purpose, but still a con. And if so, that would make God a “celestial Con Man,” in James’s words. If you haven’t read it, his Insight is posted here.

As expected, that drew a lot of response from Leadership Weekly readers. Here are some excerpts from the mailbag.

To: Eric Reed, Managing Editor: If, in fact, you “are not sure I want to call God a ‘con man,’ then why would you provide a forum for a “guest columnist” to propose such an absurd analogy? As the Managing Editor, I question what you might have been managing and where was your editing? … There is no divine con; we con ourselves when we do not recognize the scriptural declaration that God’s ways are not our ways! —PH

Hi, James, Man, the article you wrote is something I’ve needed to read for about two years. Your story is so similar to mine that it is amazing. We left our place of joy and ministry to plant a church in our hometown. And though our families lived here, we did not really have much support. … At the end of five years, I burned out. And in the end, the church closed its doors. But the question we’ve raised so many times is: Why the “con”? Why lead us away from a fruitful and enjoyable ministry to only fail? In fact, I can’t even get back into a church ministry. (I’ve been looking for 18 months, but to no avail) But one thing I think we have learned is how spoiled we were (in our previous ministry). We had everything going our way, except that, looking back, our faith was shallow and weak. God uses our times of struggle and doubting in great ways. I know that, in some way, God will redeem this time. —BP

Oh, please! This has to be the tritest explanation for not paying attention that I have seen published by a mainline magazine. Mr. Walters puts the onus on God for the failure of his move and ministry. … Perhaps Mr. Walters should have paid a bit more attention in the first place and inquired in more detail on his potential ministry under the church’s leadership. This type of “blame God” mentality is frequent in modern day faith. We want something so bad that we convince ourselves that God is “leading us” to a new land, a new ministry, a new job. Then when we get there and things do not go according to the blessings we expect, we conclude that God must have been conning us. Perhaps Mr. Walters was merely conning himself into believing the move was “God’s will.” —NM

I truly want to thank Minister James Walters for his article. First I want to thank him for being transparent, allowing others in the faith community to see him. Second I wish to thank him for allowing the zeal of the Gospel, move him. Last I’d like to thank him for not allowing this to take him to a place of despair, such that God could not continue to use him. Brother, like Job you realized that God has sovereign right to use his own according to His good pleasure. —VCM

I was intrigued by the essay on “the celestial Con Man.” I saw a disconnect between “accepting a call” with the attendant thought that “a call” comes from God…OK, through a church…but from God. The disconnect came with the statement, “it wasn’t really what we wanted to do after all.” As one who has spent more than 30 years as a pastor, and having “accepted a call” to a place where I didn’t like the way I was treated by a few and had to deal with some things “I really didn’t want to do after all,” the “call” was the only thing that held me steady. I knew that God had “spoken” clearly to me about going to this place and that I shouldn’t expect everyone to accept or agree with what God does and leads. —RCS

I know this is supposed to be (and is) thought provoking, but I just can’t agree to the terminology. G-d is not a con man. Not to quibble, but actually not any kind of man for that matter. If we occasionally feel set up or misled, it’s more of a comment on our expectations. If the real point of this article is that when we feel G-d motivate us to do something, then our expectations take over and we may feel let down when the result is nothing like those. I agree that what He has in store is often much deeper and more character building than what success might look like in our imagination. When facing the reality of those results, we can feel disappointed and even misled. Still, G-d delivers what He promises. The problem is that we often perceive his promises as entirely different from what He communicates. —Bill

I’m not ready to declare God a “con Man”, but I do agree with the author that God is up to something bigger and greater than our understanding of success in ministry. It seems as though the Lord will “hook” us with a promise, then take us through process to bring us into His purpose. His purpose is always bigger and greater than His promise. —GH

although I’m not quite ready to adopt James Walters’ new paradigm, I did enjoy his insight about God’s good purposes. Each of us may interpret her or his own journey differently, yet a common theme is this: God is powerfully at work in us—while He is also at work through us. Many of us are prone to what Walters’ calls “practical idolatry.” By whatever method and through whatever means, God is gracious and kind to rescue us from false values and to ground us more deeply in His own integrity. Here’s to fewer years in the wilderness, and more time in the Promised Land. —DF

Did I ever need to hear that article. Thanks for sharing your story. My husband and I are looking at the same thing, and we are learning to hear His voice in the desert. —SR

That’s the hard part isn’t it? To keep on learning that God is in charge. —JG

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