During the Thanksgiving weekend I read an article in Vanity Fair magazine, the source of much good journalism, titled on the cover, “Inside the Murdoch-family Fortress.” It had all the earmarks of a good thriller: the father patriarch, conniving daughter and spouse, a son aspiring for the father’s media empire, a wife with undue influence, and much money at stake.

It might just as well been titled, “Inside the Schuller-family Fortress,” that just a week prior saw Robert H. Schuller’s Crystal Cathedral sold off by the bankruptcy court to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Orange to cover some $50 million in debts the 56-year-old ministry owed to vendors and others.

The congregation may sustain itself in a diminished way, elsewhere, but the television ministry won’t likely survive. The four daughters and their spouses share the blame for a great congregation’s demise. But interestingly, if there are any bright spots in the sordid mess, it is with the grandchildren, the adult son and daughter of Robert Anthony and Donna Schuller.

Three years ago I interviewed Bobby Schuller and was immediately struck by his character and intelligence; if anyone in the family had a chance of making a success of succeeding his grandfather, it was Bobby, but it wasn’t to be his timing. He formed his own congregation near Garden Grove that continues today.

The daughter, Angie Schuller Wyatt, is an author, motivation speaker, and businesswoman. She brought an incisive intelligence and open mind when she wrote for Christian Post in November about the bankruptcy decision: “I liken my grief of the Crystal Cathedral’s death to grieving a loved one with a terminal illness.”

Her transparency on the issue is refreshing: “There was nothing I could do to stop my misguided family members. Others in the family seemed to be holding on to ‘a miracle’ that would come just in time. I knew better. Something that defined my life, something I hoped would define my children’s lives, was about to die …

“Eventually the madness worsened to the point that death itself signaled relief. If you’ve ever held the hand of a dying loved one, you know that death becomes the final blessing. Yet, during that final moment, you pause in respect. It’s a holy moment to reflect on what was and to grieve what shall never be again. Yesterday [Nov. 17], Crystal Cathedral Ministries died.”

Angie wrote: “Its problems were not terminal. They could have been solved. My father attempted to fix these problems during his short tenure as senior pastor. He saw the Crystal Cathedral was headed toward bankruptcy. He attempted to restructure the board, cut his siblings’ salaries and establish fiscal responsibility. For these actions, he was fired by the board [July 9, 2008] which consisted of, you guessed it, his siblings.”

A daughter’s love for her father aside, there is a ring of truth to her testimony. Sometimes truth skips a generation.

There was a book written some years back about the administration of President Lyndon Johnson, called “The Tragedy of Lyndon Johnson.” When challenged on the meaning of the word tragedy, the author said he meant it not as “Oh, how terrible,” but rather as “Oh, what it could have been.” The Crystal Cathedral had a long run and did much good, but oh, how much more it could have been.

Got a question or comment? Email Ron@ChurchExecutive.com

“People don’t have a giving problem; they have a giving to their church problem. Some simply never developed that habit.” People increasingly choose designated giving.

I once attended a Lutheran ELCA church and I still receive The Lutheran magazine, one of the best among denominations. Its editor wrote about the trends in the ELCA’s statistical reports, many of them on a downward line when it comes to funding. It’s not an uncommon story for most denominations.

But it was the last sentence that caught my attention, when he spoke of “a decline in undesignated giving represents one of the top challenges facing the entire ELCA.” When you parse those words, it’s a pretty disturbing observation. “Donations sent directly to causes and campaigns,” he also said, “result in less money moving on as mission support to synods and the churchwide organization.”

“To say that undesignated giving is under fire is an understatement at best,” says Ben Stroup, an author and writer on stewardship, in commenting to Church Executive. “It seems that church leaders are the last to recognize the shift in giving taking place among the people in the pew. When Passing the Plate (Oxford, 2008) announced that 20 percent of American Christians give nothing to the church, why are we surprised that undesignated giving amounts are falling among regular churchgoers? The church may be losing ground on traditional giving techniques, but people have not stopped giving.”

It wasn’t until the Industrial Revolution, he says, when people were paid at a predictable frequency, and the New Deal, when labor laws were enacted to protect income and jobs. This created a sustainable income stream for churches who quickly adapted their tactics to match the consistent income streams of their parishioners. Such a change is taking place again.

Stroup says, “Given the tumultuous economic realities for everyone, this ‘new normal’ has created a more empowered giver who is asking more questions, expecting more say in how funds are used, and are more demanding of the results. This is the antithesis of the traditional church’s approach to undesignated giving which believes the giver gives to God, while the leader disburses the funds with limited accountability from the person in the pew.”

Well, that rather describes my wife and I in our giving pattern. We make up our minds each week whether our offering will go to operating, building, or benevolence. And other weeks we also give to BGEA, Samaritan’s Purse, Open Doors and Voice of the Martyrs.

Stroup knocks it out of the ballpark when he observes: “People don’t have a giving problem; they have a giving to their church problem.

Some simply never developed that habit. Their parents didn’t do it. They’ve never done it.

“The bottom line is this: American Christians see their money as theirs, not God’s. This fundamental shift in perspective moves the decision from a disciplined response informed by principles of stewardship to arbitrary generosity acted upon in the midst of an emotional experience.

This puts churches in direct competition with traditional nonprofits, who are – quite frankly – more skilled at talking about money, connecting dollars to impact, and calling people to action. In the absence of the practice and belief in storehouse tithing, undesignated giving disappears,” says Stroup.

“The challenge for church leaders is to borrow the time-tested techniques of the traditional nonprofit world and translate that into the language and practice of the church,” he says. (See Stroup’s article on capital campaigns in this issue too.)

When Bill Hybels came to the podium and told the Global Leadership Summit in August that he had bad news and good news, one might guess there was a cancellation (and replacement) in the conference lineup. There was, but the reasons were unexpected.

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz had cancelled out because a gay rights group said it was inappropriate for him to be speaking at an “anti-gay church,” that is, Willow Creek.

Hybels shared that his team and the management of Starbucks had been in conversations over the matter during the week, but that in the end, Schultz decided not to speak.

The gay rights group said that “it is unacceptable” that Schultz would appear on the stage, saying “the church has long practiced dangerous conversion therapy to ‘cure’ people of their sexual orientation … Not denouncing these practices is tacit approval.”

Hybels was gracious and generous in his explanation about the Starbucks CEO’s decision. But others, judging from the Christianity
Today blog, saw it differently.

Said one, “At some point the pro-gay movement is going to be called out for its blatant hyprocrisy and agenda against evangelicals. They’re overplaying their hand and almost forcing anyone who might appear to not automatically acquiesce to their agenda to bow down to them.”

“Well, let’s face it folks,” wrote another, “The guy [Schultz] did the best thing for his position. He knows full well that there won’t be blowback from his backing out of an event at a Christian church because of the protest.”

Well, that aside, is this just a one-time irritant, or does it hold deeper meaning, especially in view of other such challenges by the gay community? There are three implications to consider:

First, the gay community isn’t interested in being accepted by the culture — they want approval, a vastly different thing. We’ve reached the point where churches are being pushed to not simply tolerate their lifestyle, but to approve it — and all that comes with that, including marriage.

Second, the confrontation of the gays is a larger movement against Christian businesses and organizations. Now it is Starbucks, earlier it was the Chick-fil-A restaurant chain, where one incident with the chicken sandwich firm is all about, said one observer, “controlling the narrative.”

Third, biblical authority is at stake. Some churches aren’t talking about the issues that affect their own denominations. I asked one Lutheran (ELCA) pastor what his congregation was going to do about the denomination’s acceptance of gay clergy two years ago, and in so many words, he said: “Most in my church aren’t following the issue, don’t have strong feelings about it, and I’m not likely to raise it with them, if I don’t need to do so.” It’s called avoidance.

A friend in the media told me, “Have we reached a point where a serious Christian [read that, one who believes that the gay lifestyle is sin] will never be able to achieve public office? Issues like marriage, submission, evil, and plenty of other things are not just disapproved of, they are made out to look ridiculous [by the media and gay community].”

He went on: “It does not bode well, and I’m not sure I see a way out of it. Christians are increasingly being marginalized to the point where anyone who seriously tried to defend these values is becoming ostracized. At what point do we start getting hunted?”

Maggie Gallagher, writing in the National Review in August, said, “Gay-marriage advocates have successfully shut down most public avenues for opposition: In entertainment, media, and the academy, opposition to gay marriage is considered suicidal.

“Ordinary Americans hear messages in support of marriage as the union of husband and wife in only two ways at this point: at church or synagogue, and in politics,” Gallagher wrote.

Seminary president Al Mohler  reminds us: “Our greatest fear is not that homosexuality will be normalized and accepted, but that homosexuals will not come to know of their own need for Christ and the forgiveness of their sins.”

Elsewhere he commented: “It is not the world around us that is being tested, so much as the believing church. We are about to find out just how much we believe the Gospel we so eagerly preach.”

COMMENTS?  RON@CHURCHEXECUTIVE.COM

By Ron Keener

Church members are wise to check out “a too good to be true” investment, that could dash their trust in those who are their fellow Christians.

Larry and Shirley Lee thought they were investing their life savings with trusted acquaintances – the music director at their church and a long-time member of the church – when they put $400,000 into what they thought was a fund that promised (in a brochure) “Safety, Strength, Stability” and a “locked-in” interest rate of 7.9 percent to investors who would put in a minimum of $25,000.

Moreover, not only did the Ohio Lees find their trust violated, but 89 other investors were cheated of $9 million. Elsewhere, in February an Amish man – yes, Amish – age 77, in Sugarcreek, OH, was charged with stealing $33 million from mostly Amish investors in an affinity fraud case.

Affinity fraud is when a shyster takes advantage of a special kind of bond, such as membership in the same church, to cheat or steal from someone. It happened this year to three families in the City on the Hill Church in Boulder, CO in a $750,000 Ponzi scheme. Kevin Lauritsen, 50, in cahoots with the former pastor and another former member of the church, were convicted; Lauritsen was not a member of the church.

Said one of the victims, who lost $275,000 in the scheme, to the local newspaper, “They represented themselves as Christians. They gained our trust. This is breaching trust at the most basic level.” The judge on the case said, “It is not a simple theft for them. It was a theft of their faith in God, which is profound.”

It is all too easy to say it happens all the time, with fraudsters preying on members of the deaf community, religious groups, and minority groups. The schemer violates the trust of his or her own community by falsely promising high returns and little or no risk. You would think that is enough to make any investor think twice, but it happens too often in churches to turn a blind eye to it.

It happens in a variety of settings other than churches: country clubs, senior centers, neighborhood groups. Says one observer, “The hallmark of the fraud is that the scammer looks like or talks like a member of that group. He may be a member of the congregation or a country club golf pro.” It could be an Asian person preying on Asian people, or an African American scamming other African Americans.

In churches, the con man may be “the most Christian of all” in his talk and presentations. Security expert Jeffrey Hawkins tells the story of another kind of fraud:

“What would you do if a woman walks into your church and describes herself as a single mother who needed money to support her two kids. She says she gave her son a $5 bill to put in the collection basket, but realized it was a $50 bill and needed the money back.

“Turns out a couple churches in Florida gave her the money; later police arrested three people in connection with these thefts and for planning to do this to many more churches for gas, cigarettes and ‘pills,’” Hawkins relates.

Hawkins tells too of a man caught sending fake invoices to churches for different services said to have been rendered for electrical work, plumbing, supplies or printing. None of the “invoices” were for large amounts of money, he says, and many churches paid them because they looked genuine — and they were services that churches would normally incur.

“The one thing about ‘scam artists’ or criminals that use deception as a means of theft, is that they are very smart, manipulative and don’t often follow the same methods — they adapt,” Hawkins says. “Where you can take some basic measures to keep out a burglar, more awareness needs to be asserted when dealing with fraudsters.”

I serve on the benevolence team of my congregation, each week making decisions about whether to help on rent or pay for utility bills to individuals really hurting from the down economy. We are guided by a policy we’ve adapted from the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability. In a year’s time the church probably provides $50,000 to those in need, taking up a mercy offering once a month to replenish the fund.

Con artists are targeting the church and its members. Common sense should prevail, but often isn’t enough. Ronald Reagan said it, in another context, but it is still good advice: “Trust, but verify.”

COMMENTS? RON@CHURCHEXECUTIVE.COM

In a church known for its peace stance, a “hearing process” proved useful in testing a controversial issue and keeping the cohesion of the body.

American churches, at least those of a denominational stripe, are increasingly being divided between “gay churches” (those voting to accept gay clergy and adopting an inclusive stance on sexuality) and “straight churches” (those who still see homosexuality as sin and trust to the New Testament understanding). A crude distinction, to be sure, but illustrative.

So when the Lutherans (ELCA) two years ago voted to accept gay, if chaste, pastors, those congregations who objected moved their affiliation to the North American Lutheran Church, a new group. Presbyterian(USA) churches, disagreeing with the move this year by the national body to accept gay clergy, can affiliate with the Evangelical Presbyterian Church.

Divisions of this sort threaten schism within Christianity and a division and weakened witness of the faith community to the world. In these denominational debates a yes/no vote will produce winners and, well, losers.

Schism was a fear of one denomination that debated the sexuality issues in July. The Church of the Brethren, a small group of 121,000 souls and 1,000 congregations, most numbering under 75 on a Sunday, labored with its understanding of homosexuality, and with a certain special burden: the Brethren have long described themselves as non-creedal and a “New Testament church.”

Said the Standing Committee, a sort of elder board that screens business prior to the annual conference, “The Church of the Brethren affirms the New Testament as our rule for faith and practice and seeks to place Jesus at the center of our lives and life together.”

Interestingly, the denomination spent two years listening to its members in a sophisticated hearing process that guided the church’s discernment on the issue. In the process called Structural Framework for Dealing with Strongly Controversial Issues were involved 121 hearings, in the 23 districts, with 6,638 participants that was the equivalent of 5 percent of the church’s membership or 8 percent of its active worship attendance.

Sixty-five percent of the hearing groups “being not of one mind,” there was much diversity on the matter. [Disclosure: The Brethren was my church for the first 35 years of my life.]

It was not a perfect process.
They felt, “despite instances of confusion, bias, or even deviation from the scripted process and questions, the process was viewed as well designed and valuable in meeting its intended goal of conversation and sharing. The information gained from the process paints a discernable picture of the denomination as it continues to seek the Spirit’s leading.

“Responses from the hearing process describe a denomination committed to the love and unity exemplified in Jesus Christ yet struggling with how to be authentic to the call of scripture and a theological heritage which has traditionally favored forbearance over doctrinal uniformity.”

In the end, Standing Committee decided that “it is clear that good people of faith, through Bible study and prayer, are not of one mind in how we as a church interpret the Bible or how the Bible is understood concerning homosexuality and same-sex unions.” The delegate body later concurred.

But the temperature of the church was taken, and differences were identified, yet the body “expressed a desire and willingness to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Brethren, known as one of the historic peace churches, held to the tenant of peace-making that served them well over more than 300 years.

More churches might choose a listening process that sheds more light and less tension on issues such as sexuality, though it applies to many controversial topics. This issue is not settled, but the process allowed a strong part of the church to be properly heard.

“Standing Committee urges the Church of the Brethren to continue to wrestle with our tension, to truly listen to one another, to disagree in love, to avoid unkindness toward those with whom we differ, and to continue to seek the mind of Christ together,” the report noted. God’s Word is characterized by continuing revelation, Brethren believe, and the matter didn’t need to be “settled” in 2011. Otherwise, the church’s doors remain open – to all people.

COMMENTS? RON@CHURCHEXECUTIVE.COM

Let the conversation turn to the topic of Rob Bell and people first say how much they like the guy personally, but they just don’t like what he has been writing lately.

Bell, of course, is senior pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church in Grandville, MI, and the author of Love Wins that’s getting a lot of media attention. The book is all about universalism, the view that all people will be saved or brought back to holiness and God.

It’s not a topic that interests me. What does intrigue me is how so many ministry leaders make a bestseller out of what is dubious research. A number of pastors push out the e-mails and blogs giving Bell some left-handed compliments.

Well, not everyone. One pastor shared some pastoral guidance with his congregation. Yes, he’s been a fan of Bell’s work in the past and even defended Bell against criticism. “But his latest book [Love Wins] is irresponsible, at best,” Mark Connelly, lead pastor of Mission Community Church, Gilbert, AZ, wrote his parishioners. He has three concerns for Bell’s book: “First, while perhaps not condoning full blown universalism, Rob takes the reader right to the doorstep and invites them in. Second, Rob uses poor methods of biblical interpretation, and misrepresents the history of the church, to support his proposition. And third, Rob introduces a new version of the Bible story, which is clearly different than the story told by Jesus, the Apostles, and the church for the past 2,000 years,” Connelly advised.

Noting that he has read the book from cover to cover, Connelly says he feels compelled to caution his congregation “against embracing the false teaching Rob puts forth in Love Wins.” In so writing, he brings great courage and pastoral leadership in addressing the book with his church.

In the same week seminary president Albert Mohler came out in his blog with a scathing analysis of another book, Is God a Christian? by R. Kirby Godsey. There’s a bit of history about Godsey, a previous book, and his presidency of Mercer University in Georgia, that you can look up for yourself.

But, says Mohler: “There are different forms of universalism and inclusivism within theological circles today, but the most intellectually embarrassing form of pluralism is the very one that Godsey champions,” Mohler says. “He writes as if all the religions of the world are basically similar, when even a cursory knowledge of the belief systems of the world reveals how dissimilar they are. Godsey does not even privilege monotheism, arguing that Christians should see adherents of all other religions as ‘equals before God.’” Godsey’s book is “not really a serious work of theology at all” and Mohler concludes with calling it “an unmitigated theological disaster.”

So what is the issue here? It is about false teaching.

“Bad theology hurts real people,” says Kevin DeYoung, senior pastor of University Reformed Church, East Lansing, MI, who developed a 21-page analysis of the Bell book. A review that, he says, “is about the truth, about how the rightness or wrongness of our theology can do tremendous help or tremendous harm to the people of God.” Put Bell’s book in the latter category.

It is rather more about Christians who should know better, thrusting a sharp stick in the eye of faith and Christianity, at a time when so few people know their bibles, when the popular culture scolds religion at every turn, when church attendance continues to fall, when religion is drummed from the marketplace, when media and film use every occasion to denigrate the church.

Canadian author and apologist Stephen J. Bedard says that “pastors should develop an apologetic culture in their churches as the need for Christians to defend their faith has increased significantly,” reports The Christian Post. Bedard says that more churches need to articulate what the Gospel is. “Only when they know what the real thing is will they be able to respond to the counterfeit,” says Bedard.

COMMENTS? RON@CHURCHEXECUTIVE.COM

Even pastors have their groupies. You know what a “groupie” is: an ardent follower and admirer. An enthusiastic young fan, often a young woman who follows rock groups around. Let’s face it, there are certain pastors who are in the same category as rock stars. They rock!

Often a “groupie” will sit in the same section of the auditorium as the pastor, maybe a few rows back from the front row. It gives them a certain feeling of “involvement” with the head guy, like being in the inner circle.

I know because a few times, when I attended Willow Creek church, I sat in that section behind Bill Hybels. There was a TV monitor built into the front of the stage that senior leaders could watch without straining their necks to look up at the stage.

On occasion when the words of the praise songs on the screens got out of sync with the singers, Bill would turn his head to Lee Strobel or John Ortberg, whoever was sitting with him, and his lips would begin moving. I don’t lip read, but I can only imagine that it was something like: “Can’t we get that fixed?” or “What does it take to make that right?”

But pastors have their detractors too. A year ago we ran an article with the author of a new book on Rick Warren, and for us it was a good story. Well, call me naïve, but I thought the whole world, like me, loved Rick Warren. Not one pastor.

“You highlighted a man on your cover that is a traitor to the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ,” this fellow wrote me of the Saddleback pastor. This individual didn’t like Warren’s friendship with the President.

“Rick Warren may be revered by some, but not by those of us who base our opinions on God’s Word. He has called himself a friend to Barack Obama on numerous occasions, [who has] openly espoused worldviews that are in direct opposition to the Word of God,” the pastor wrote me.

Now this is no small-minded pastor in a small church; he is pastor of a megachurch many times over. He noted that “I assure you that my disgust towards Mr. Warren is based on his double-minded speech about God’s Word.”

Well, I can’t tell you that I am a theologian or can sort through those arguments easily as many of our readers can. But it was an eye-opener that, out there, there are people who don’t much like the theology of Rick Warren, and maybe also Bill Hybels or Andy Stanley or Rob Bell or a hundred other preachers. (When it comes to “universalism” I’ll give you an argument however.)

But wow, it came to me as a shock that people like Warren aren’t universally admired. Duh! This guy said he has written Warren twice to address his concerns and never received a response. And worse yet, our graphic treatment of Warren’s photo [seen here] on the cover “was made to look like Obama’s campaign poster.”

Well, this fellow cancelled the subscriptions to Church Executive for himself and five of his staff and I was told in no uncertain terms: “I also have influence with other pastors and church leaders. You can be sure I will let them know what I think of your magazine when you promote someone who ignores parts of God’s Word. He has become a friend of the world, which would make him an enemy of God,” this pastor wrote.

Within congregations, The Lutheran magazine reports that bullying is on the rise, and Susan Nienaber of the Alban Institute agrees: “Pastor bullying — along with other sorts of bullying — is a phenomenon undergoing a resurgence.”

Its resurfaced everywhere in American life, “but in the more than 20 years I’ve been a consultant, I’ve seen an increase in incivility over the years — although congregations are notorious for what they’re willing to tolerate in the name of being a Christian community,” she says.

“The healthiest congregations have the lowest tolerance for inappropriate behavior. Unhealthy congregations tolerate the most outrageous behavior,” she opines.

So if pastors take some glee in their entourage of hangers-on or fans, most of them know too that coming in over the transom sooner or later will be an ugly, mean-spirited and hurtful missive.

COMMENTS? RON@CHURCHEXECUTIVE.COM

Is it possible we have been Christians too long — and have become stale in our hearts for others? For those who are “the forgotten family of God.”

The group is called Underground Faith and there were just 16 of us. To get to the meeting I had to climb a stairs outside the facility, weave left and right down an outside corridor toward the back of the building, and there ahead was a nondescript door titled 254A.

Inside were friendly people preparing to worship and learn about the underground church. No, this was not China or a Muslim country. It was a congregation near my home in Mesa, AZ, that hosts this event each month, and a husband and wife team from Voice of the Martyrs would speak about the persecuted church in North Korea and Ethiopia.

It turned out that this group was observing its 10th year meeting in this way, committing themselves to prayer, encouragement and awareness about fellow Christians who endure so much for their new found faith. For the past year I have been wearing pliable bracelets on my right wrist, one that says Pray for China and another bearing the reminder that we are “bound with them.” (Heb 13:3) They are rather drab colors, but there is nothing ordinary about their purpose in reminding me of those who suffer, really suffer, for the faith.

Take China for example. One report from the ChinaAid Association says that the Chinese government intensified its pressure against Christians last year for a “fifth straight year of escalating persecution.” The Christian human rights organization reports (through Baptist Press) that “beatings, torture, arrests, harassment, and church demolitions are among the 90 recorded cases of persecution, a nearly 17 percent increase over 2009.”

PrisonerAlert.com. It provides a way to write phrases of encouragement in a letter to a prisoner and the software automatically translates it to the native tongue.

I chose a pastor (and his wife) imprisoned in Iran who have been detained since last Sept. 4. There was a lump in my throat as I put the 98 cent air mail stamp on the envelope and hoped it might reach the pastor in a moment when it would lift his spirits with a bit of hope through my meager letter. Many such prisoners do receive letters like my own; many know they are not alone. (Open Doors has a writing program too.)

The couple that spoke that night to my group recalled how the Apostle Paul, once a persecutor of Christians, often used the words “remember” and “less we forget.” People like my Iranian friend — for that is what he is now — are thought of as the “forgotten family of God,” with a stress on the word family.

Within the 60 countries of persecuted Christians, their most frequent request is for prayer, the couple reminded us. It’s important that they are not forgotten, they told the 16 of us. It is groups like ChinaAid, VOM, and Open Doors who work faithfully at keeping people informed so that they know how and who to pray for.

We shouldn’t take religious freedom for granted, not even in this country, as Muslims here also seek to be given the same privilege.

Everyone favors religious liberty except when it’s for someone else, it’s been said.

Those meeting that night behind door 254A are free to worship as they please. Their secluded location had nothing to do with their purpose of gathering. Still, there is a “Door 254A” in many neighborhoods in many cities in many countries around the world. What happens behind those doors is of great importance to us in America, and we can’t be silent.

COMMENTS? RON@CHURCHEXECUTIVE.COM

To be called “wimpy” is no compliment. It means “a weak, ineffectual or insipid person.” Here of late I noted a couple pastors using the term — about other pastors or other Christians.

James Garlow, of Skyline Church in California, in our February CE Interview, accused other pastors of “spineless wimpish-ness” when it comes to some aspects of this country’s political life.  In a chapter in his Outrageous Truth…7 Absolutes You Can Still Believe, Robert Jeffress of FBCDallas, devotes a chapter to “Wimp-Free Christianity,” saying “I’m sick and tired of wimpy Christians …and they’re all around us.”

It does seem that many pastors are afraid to call out people on biblical untruths. They want to be nice and inoffensive. Where are those with the courage of their convictions in this world where more often we “wimp-out”?

In my business I see a fair amount of dubious scholarship. There was one new book (I don’t wish to give it publicity) that the release says “presents a new perspective on traditional religious teachings, turning away from the dualism that creates separation, guilt, shame and fear and turning instead toward the principle of Oneness or non-dualism.” Huh?

I asked two men with doctorates in theology what they thought the book was about. Said the first one:

“I’m not sure what this is but I can assure you that it isn’t Christian. I suspect that this is one of those New Age religions that are trying to use traditional Christian terms in order to get Christians interested in buying their book. What they end up doing is distorting the Christian faith to the point that it is unrecognizable.  I think this is exactly the type of ‘spirituality’ that people like Tim Keller and John Piper, of whom I’m a big fan, are trying to warn everyone about.”

The second theologian was less polite. Certainly not wimpy: “WOW, what a bunch of … ” he started out. “At first glance there appears to be a rejection of the biblical revelation but rather just a collection of wisdom writing. I also get the feeling that there is no real Jesus but a symbol of what we could be like.  It is another attempt in my thinking to steer people away from the truth to what appears to have some truth and some sense into nonsense.

Without a doubt it is a blending of Christianity with Buddhism and a couple other isms. Finally this ‘higher consciousness,’ saving the world, lets the cat out of the bag that Jesus is not the only ‘way, truth and life.’”

The other week CNN’s Piers Morgan put the question directly to Lakewood Church’s Joel Osteen, “Is homosexuality a sin?,” and to Osteen’s credit, he didn’t duck. Osteen had this to say: “Yes, I’ve always believed, Piers, the Scripture shows that it’s a sin.” There goes the gay vote for Osteen, but no Pastor Wimpy here.

Another theme that gets up the hackles of many is the question, “Is there a Christian nation?”  Robert Hull is professor emeritus of New Testament at Emmanuel School of Religion in Johnson City, TN, and wrote a thoughtful piece on it, saying at the end: “Many Christians are dismayed at the loss of vital cultural and moral standards in the U.S., and are tired of the open mocking of Christian teachings often heard in the mass media. So am I. The separation of church and state does not mean the silencing of moral and religious convictions in the public square, even in politics.

“We Christians – in high places and low – should earnestly do all within our power to commend the Gospel and the Christian way in hopes that those who see and hear us will also become believers, but not so that America will become (or ‘again’ become) a Christian nation.”

You can argue with his conclusion, but not with his conviction. The church at large is pushed left and right, up and down, by the culture and media, and we say, more often than not, nothing. One writer says we are “culpable for our cultural corruption” in our silence. A lot of the blame, Doug Giles says, is on “the limp-wrist Christian media.”

“Yep,” Giles says, “I condemn Christian TV, Christian radio stations and Christian publishers that have the power and the audience to pump truth to the masses but have instead chosen to peddle spiritual candy rather than the unvarnished verities that the church and our nation need.” Ouch!

COMMENTS? RON@CHURCHEXECUTIVE.COM

The heroes within ministry are those who give of themselves to others – over and over again; without ceremony or headlines or acclaim. They do the work of the Kingdom and that is all the reward they seek.

One such man was David Nicholas, 42 years in pastoral ministry at Spanish River Church (PCA) in Boca Raton, FL, who went to his Lord on January 25. His name was not a familiar one for me, but his work in church planting and leadership development impacted thousands of lives.

“Before Christ, David said that he displayed no signs of leadership whatsoever,” recalls Ryan McInerney, who worked with Nicholas in The Church Planting Network and in Gospel Boot Camp. “He privately confessed that before he met Christ as his Saviour, he was ‘running scared.’ After he met Jesus, however, he became a giant of the faith and a world class leader.”

However he saw himself, others saw him as a giant within the church. As a church planter he oversaw the supporting of nearly 300 churches in nine countries, and led more than 100 pastors through his Gospel Boot Camp that, says McInerney “prepares men to effectively preach the Gospel to the lost and the found in every message, every Sunday, without falling into the trap of the ‘seeker sensitive’ watered down Gospel and easy believism in modern evangelical America.”

Google his name and you’ll find a lot of David Nicholases around the world, just not this one. He would say that “my job is to keep my head down and my hand on the plow, to do the work that God has placed in front of me.” Still, he was close to his people and remembered your name, and your children’s names.

Notable churches that he led the supporting of are Tim Keller’s Redeemer in Manhattan, Darrin Patrick’s The Journey in St. Louis, Chan Kilgore’s CrossPointe in Orlando, and each of those have become church planting churches too. He and Mark Driscoll co-founded the Acts 29 Church Planting Network.

The night of his death he was prepping for a trip to Calvin Seminary in Grand Rapids, MI, to hold two sessions on the gospel and what he saw as his exciting ministry life. At his memorial service 2,000 people attended, with an additional 430 watching online.

Says Ryan McInerney: “Near the close of the service, Tommy Kiedis, pastor for the past two years at Spanish River Church, asked for those to stand whom had come to accept Jesus as their Lord under David’s preaching. Many estimate that upwards of two-thirds of the assembly stood. There was literally a gasp as the army of people stood.”

Beside David at all times was his beautiful wife Eleanor, whom he affectionately called “Nori.” “They had a comfy two-person chair that David would often join Nori in for time to relax and snuggle in between work at his home office,” recalls McInerney. “Everyone on staff knew that if David was out with Nori, you weren’t going to reach him. When you said her name to him his face lit up.” They were faithfully married for more than 47 years and he had three sons.

In the 19 months after leaving the pulpit he wrote a book, started the Gospel Boot Camp, revitalized local congregations in decline, started a monthly church planter gathering, and oversaw the supporting of 25 new church plants in four countries: 10 in India, four in Brazil, nine in the U.S., and one each in Haiti and Columbia.

How did he do it all? Ryan McInerney says “David kept joy at the center of his life.

With every piece of even small good news, he would burst out with a ‘Praise God.’

The gospel was central, not in just mere words, but in his heart.” That’s his living legacy to each of us in ministry.

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