Who, not why

December 9, 2021 (Thursday)

 

There is a science to “sheep stealing.” Stealing sheep is when one church acquires people from other churches. That’s the dirty secret of what is called “church growth.” The idea is to offer attractive things to draw people into the church. Here’s the problem, 97% of churches do 100% of their ministry for Christians (Dan Spader, “Growing a Healthy Church”). In other words, in America, 97% of churches that grow do so because of sheep stealing, not evangelism.

 

Paul dealt with the competitive nature ministry, and those in ministry. In a very personal letter to the Philippians he wrote, “It’s true that some are preaching out of jealousy and rivalry. But others preach about Christ with pure motives.” [Philippians 1:15 NLT] Paul dealt with false teachers and false teaching all the time. Here he makes a very important distinction. He’s addressing people whose message is true but the motives are tainted.

 

Paul claims, “Those others do not have pure motives as they preach about Christ. They preach with selfish ambition, not sincerely, intending to make my chains more painful to me.” [Philippians 1:17 NLT] Selfish ambition builds kingdoms. Kingdoms require walls. Walls claim territory and grander. If our ministry is about building ourselves up, it makes sense it would be suspect.

 

Sincerity is a very subjective term. I understand sincerity has having no mixed motives. I once had a dog that did not appreciate if I walked him AND did something else. He had ways to make it clear that he did not appreciate ulterior motives. The lack of sincerity in American society, as evidenced by the lack of transparency, is an unforgivable sin.

 

Paul notes, the third motive was to make life miserable for him. You think, the idea of inflicting pain and shame on another church or pastor would be unthinkable. After 35 years in ministry, I can tell you… you would be surprised at how cut-throat ministry can be. It used to be when pastors, who didn’t know each other, sat down at a table one of the first three questions to go around was “how big is your church?” We were sorting each other… as in who is to be listened and promoted and who is to be ignored. I’ve wondered if I lead with my title at introductions how conversations would go…

 

You might think that selfish ambition, insincerity, and inflicting shame and pain would inspire Paul to condemn these people. You might think these things would be a disqualifier for churches and pastors. If you thought that, you would be wrong. Paul writes, “But that doesn’t matter. Whether their motives are false or genuine, the message about Christ is being preached either way, so I rejoice. And I will continue to rejoice.” [Philippians 1:18 NLT] WHY does not matter as much as WHO.

 

Paul had a peculiar take on ministry and life. Shunning what most measure as important Paul writes, “Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ.” [Philippians 3:8 NLT] (Check out his bragging lists in Philippians 3:4 – 6 and 2 Corinthians 11:23 – 28.) I’ve always thought it was interesting that Paul never mentions buildings, bodies, or bucks (money) as a standard of measurement. He does camp out what we call witnessing.

 

Translation insight alert: when Paul counts “it all as garbage” he is saying “feces.” Paul is not advocating being a potty-mouth but EVERYTHING including church size and academic achievements are only excrement in the economy of eternity. The only thing (one) that matters is Jesus.

 

.May God have mercy on us for thinking anything else.