Apprentice 2 Jesus

“The church is dying in many places because of cleverness.” (Jim Cymbala)

When I attempt to get by on my cleverness, ingenuity, talent, brains, guts…you name it… I will only get so far. Pastor Cymbala made that statement above when I visited his church for the prayer meeting on March 20. It has stayed with me.

It rings so true in my own life. My prayer life falters and then everything around me falters. I am not a clever pastor. I am not a talented pastor. I better be a praying pastor.

A conversation this week reminded me of the impact of Pastor Cymbala’s statement. We are beginning to see a rise in moral failures in some places. It’s only the last part of a deeper problem.

Brothers and sisters, we are dying from our own cleverness.

What is paraded as “successful” in our Christian colleges? When a pastor comes to visit chapel, is he or she a pastor of a church averaging less than 100 (which would represent over 80% of churches)? More often than not the pastor is a megachurch pastor. The evangelist is a “big name” evangelist.

Looking back at several church district meetings where growing churches are celebrated, I have a difficult time remembering the last testimony from one of those churches where they spoke of prayer being the generator for their growth. They spoke of programs, ideas, devices, technology, sermon themes. Looking back over the past few times I have witnessed the celebration of a “booming” church, I honestly cannot remember ANY discussion of prayer, a move of the Spirit, or even a huge conversation about conversions.

Our new church plants are built on cleverness. One church plant I know of went several months before the pastor developed his own sermon series. He was getting them “out of a can.” It was “working.” His church hit 125 almost instantly. Why bother with anything else? The numbers were good. Or were they?

What do numbers mean, anyway? Well, a lot. It’s still how we count success.

Yet, we are seeing an increase in moral failures again and we are left scratching our heads.

Small church pastors with little growth are not more spiritual. My point is we are reaping a harvest we have intentionally sown. When we parade results in front of people the hidden message is, “You can get results, too.” We begin to look to pragmatics rather than the power of the Spirit.

We parade big time evangelists across our college chapel platforms and everyone is “called” to be an evangelist. What they are called to is the big time travel schedule, the adoring crowds, the cool websites, and the nice money. They do not see the years of labor, the multiplied hours of prayer, and the endless line of rejection that may come first. No one gives them that picture.

We are not people of prayer. We are people of pragmatism, and our pragmatism will kill us. I face failure all the time because I am not “measuring up” to other churches. My mind spins and whirls trying to “think up” some “formula” to get my church to grow. I want to see people come out of darkness into light. I want to see our church stabilize financially. Those are not bad things!

But when I fail to get in the place of prayer and instead try pragmatism, I will find myself in trouble every time.

Brothers and sisters, we are failing. Let us not fail anymore.