Your Pastor's A Wussy

Over the past year I've been watching TV preachers.

The scary guys with structural hair and wives in purple wigs who spend 50 tearful minutes trading prayer rugs for prayer seeds got boring, so I tried the new "big time" pastors ... including those who wrote some of the best-selling books you might already have on your shelf.

What surprised me was how many TV preachers act like wussys. I'm serious.

You can sense they're worried about whether or not the congregation likes them, or if sagging ratings signal personal failure and rejection, or whether their new book will be a best-seller. You feel bad for them- for their pleading, for their fake "hipness," and for their willingness to avoid ruffling feathers on their way to becoming famous.

Your skin crawls at every goofy joke the same way you cringed at every thee, thine and art ... so that by the end of the message you're kinda hoping their mansions are waiting in some remote zip code of Heaven (and maybe also that they'll be "relocating" sooner than you do).

I started wondering what would happen if we could tune-in PayPerView on Saturday nights for Bitter Rivals and watch preachers fight Judas Iscariot live in The Octagon. Talk about Ultimate Fighting.

I'm guessing about 90% of our preachers would either get knocked plumb silly in the first round or quickly submit without fighting back ...not because they're clumsy, or badly out of shape, or just too old (like me) ... but because Losing & Explaining was what they expected. Because it's what they do best.

Do we even notice anymore when TV preachers act like game show hosts and blab for an hour about getting rich, being healed and feeling good ... without once mentioning why Christ died for our sins?

If today's churches ever tried explaining why 90% of their memberships are either shrinking or stagnant, I imagine we'd see lots of finger-pointing at explanations outside the pulpit ... without once hearing about a lack of leadership and vision.

The truth is too many churches have wussys in the pulpit.

A church cannot fulfill its commission and see its membership increase according to God's Will with an indecisive, weak-willed wussy loose in the pulpit.

Maybe we think strength and authority are bad words, because as members we're convinced our opinions are essential for helping the pastor stay on track. But a church cannot be effective if the pastor tries to lead by consensus, or if the pastor's waiting for a feasibility committee to reveal a common goal and a vision, or if the pastor flits through watered-down sermons to avoid ruffling the deacons' feathers.

A church committed to expanding God's Kingdom through the Gospel of Jesus Christ absolutely must have a strong, spiritually obsessed and dangerous man up front facing the enemy ... because if he is led by the Holy Spirit, satan will know his name and try everything he can to distract and destroy him. The members of a church devoted to obeying Christ must also accept that tithing, volunteering and following the pastor are not optional, and remember that God does not share glory with ministry partners or steering committees.

If you're content with your pastor's vision, or if you're satisfied and thrilled that your church is "already doing all it can" to further God's kingdom, have you stopped to think maybe the enemy's thrilled about all your church is doing, too?