Monthly Archives: June 2010

Are We Witnessing the End of the Religious Right?

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Ted Haggard thinks so. This is from his twitter feed.

  • I believe we are at the end of what church historians will, in the future, call the Billy Graham era.
  • I believe we are also nearing the end of the "Religious Right" representing Evangelicalism.
  • My prayer is that over the next 10 years, there will be a Love Reformation and the Gospel will retake the Bible-believing church.

Of course, Ted Haggard isn't the greatest spokesperson. The guy got busted cheating on his wife with a prostitute and taking illegal drugs. He reminds me of the quote, "A liberal is just a conservative who's been arrested."  That said, I do agree that we are nearing the end of the Religious Right representing Evangelicals. 

However, I tend to think it's more a generational thing than anything else. Baby Boomers grew up in the free-love sixties and seventies, without a lot of rules and a serious distrst of authoirity. And then when the Boomers became adults and had kids, they got terrfied and leaned on a legalistic view of the Bible to help keep everyone in line.  Conversely, Gen-X and Millenials grew up in the more conservative 80's and 90's and don't have the same fears of openness and tolerance that Baby Boomers do.  It's not that Christians under 40 are advocating more sex and drugs, they just approach the issues differently. And I expect they will want their churches to approach these issues differently as well.

I suspect that the moral beliefs of the church will remain pretty much the same. The Modern Church will still oppose pre-marital sex. Alcohol and drugs will be frowned on. Homosexuality will probably still be considered a sin. But the difference will be in how these issues are approached in the church. There is gonna be a lot less condemnation and a lot more compassion. Because let's face it. We all sin. And we all need forgiveness.

Fired for Having Pre-marital Sex

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Christians are once again doing their best to keep up their image as unloving a-holes.


Fourth-grade teacher Jarretta Hamilton was newly married and expecting a baby when she went to speak with her supervisors in April of last year.

But the administrators at Southland Christian School in St. Cloud parried her query about maternity leave with a query of their own: When did she conceive?

After Hamilton admitted that her child had been conceived about three weeks before her February 20, 2009, wedding, the school fired her.

But you know how I feel. I'm curious, what do you all think. Should the school have fired her?

Signs of an Insecure Pastor

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A recent comment about a well known pastor got me thinking about what is wrong with many of the churches we talk about on this blog.  The most common thread I found is insecurity.  Insecure pastors do whatever they can to build themselves up, while simultaneously tearing others down. So I did some research.  What I came up with is this list:

Ten Signs of an Insecure Pastor.

10. Micro-Managing:  If a pastor must know what's going on, in every area of ministry, at all times, they are insecure. Having to know what each person and ministry under them is doing and always trying to direct or lead each and every aspect is a practice to ensure that no one out shines them or gets credit for what they have done. This keeps the pastor as number one.

9. Improper Placement:  An insecure pastor usually places people in areas that they are not good at or not very interested in so they won't do it too well. This includes giving people positions they have no business being in so they won't ask questions or leave the church all together. This keeps people looking to the pastor for all of their leadership needs and makes them the focus of the ministry, with all the power. That way church members rely on the pastor for direction rather then God.

8. Spys and Plants:  When someone has a gift or calling and other people are drawn to it, an insecure pastor will often plant a person to come around and sniff it out. They don't want others gifts or calling to take the attention off of them, so they have to watch people with a spy to tell them what they are up to and to ensure that they stay in their place.

7. Always at Church:  Secure pastor invests in family time and allow freedom to their church members to enjoy their lives and pursue other outside interests.  An insecure pastor never leaves the church. They love to call meetings, counsel everyone and spend most of their free time within the four walls. They require their workers to do the same, often burning people out and demeaning them for poor performance.

6. Wrongful Dismissals:  An insecure pastor will ask people to step down from ministry for no apparent reason. They will stop people from doing a good job or who get too much attention because they fear that people will somehow lose loyalty to them if members see someone else as "the next in line." These pastors will often shift people around so as not to allow any one person to be too successful in one area of church ministry.

5. Public Disclosure of Private Facts: An insecure pastor will often bring up members private issues from the pulpit. They will counsel with people, then preach about it the following Sunday. Sometimes they will even call people up to the front and embarrass them by dealing with personal sins before the whole church, making them look bad and keeping them in their place.

4. Yes Men:  An insecure pastor has all sorts of people running around them fixing their clothes, giving them water, even wiping sweat from their foreheads. These pastors won't open their own doors, carry their own bible, or drive themselves around in their own cars. They require others to prove how much they love them before they acknowledge their servanthood, and by then it's too late for any independent thinkers to be apart of the team.

3. No Other Ministry:  When a pastor doesn't believe in or support outside ministry, they are insecure. This is why they never support anyone that does anything outside of their church. They don't create other ministries outside of their control because they fear losing members to them. They keep everything in house and tear down anyone who tries to leave.  And when someone does leave, they make them feel like they are disobedient and going to hell because of it.

2. Artificial/Phony:  An insecure pastor usually puts on a mask to seem spiritual and deep. They refuse to be or seem common with the everyday people because they strive to be worshiped, adored, and even feared by the membership. They depend on their reputation for perfection to create an invisible barrier between them and their members. They have to make others feel less so they will feel important. Their love and respect is artificial.

1. Too Trendy:  The number one sign of an insecure pastor is that they are always worried about what people think of them. They are constantly trying to look and act cool, compare crowd and salvation numbers with other churches, and avoid as much controversy as possible so as to not offend or make people feel uncomfortable.  Their ministry is always politically correct and usually follows trends and the hot flavors of the month.  They foster an environment of hip and cool, rather than real and life changing.

The bottom line is that we must all seek God's wisdom before submitting to any pastor or church. Be careful that you never follow an insecure pastor. It will only lead to bondage and spiritual entrapment.  We must all make sure we are on board with genuine people.  Leaders that cannot admit mistakes or appear as though they never mess up will almost always take us down a path of hurt and deception.  And be sure you are not leading with any of these characteristics yourself.  Let go of the control and rest in what God has already planned for us.  There is no perfect human and a secure person has the ability to say "I was wrong"!