WHO OWNS A CHURCH?

As a regular attendee of my church, Common Ground in Decatur, IN, I have come to find my faith once again, something that was lost in response to the behavior of people in the previous church I was attending. The problem there was a difference of opinion between people which resulted in one person (who was helping bring people back into the church through his/her ministry) being told that perhaps he/she “…didn’t know how to pray right.” The end result was he/she left that church, those who didn’t like him/her were rewarded and attendance dropped. I left the church as well since the pastor in charge bended to those who were more forceful rather than control the situation. Looking back now I realize that as a Christian I should have realized it wasn’t those people who were wrong, my friend who was trying to do their best or the pastor. It was Satan working among those there, influencing their actions to achieve his goal which was to bring down that church.

Now I find similar circumstances going on at my current church. Some who were unhappy with the direction things were going or insulted or spoken to in ways they weren’t happy with have chosen to leave. That happens. It’s a natural thing. But rather than just leave some have chosen to speak out against the church or the leaders of that church while figuratively walking out the door. As I read their words I’m reminded of that previous church I left and my decision to leave it back then. Could it be that once again Satan is trying to use others to tear down another church, to break it apart?

When I think of those who were involved years ago through those I read now speaking out I’m forced to do something that most of us should do. I pray for those people. I pray that they will find direction and a church home that provides them with what they need as opposed to what they want. I pray that God will speak to them and tell them that in saying spiteful things about others they are not doing His will but their own.

1 Peter 2:1-3 says “So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.” I think what he’s saying here is not to speak ill of anyone if you truly believe. When we feel wronged we feel the need to retaliate. Right or wrong doesn’t fit into the discussion. It might be that the way you were told was wrong but the concept behind things was right. Because of that we fail to see clearly what was being said. In return we lash out at those we feel wronged us.

By the same token the possibility that someone in charge of a church might speak wrongly is just as possible. That’s because believe it or not those in charge are nothing more than human. They may have been chosen by God to bring the word to us but they are just as susceptible to failure and the flaws of man as the rest of us are. They can get angry and speak with an angry tongue. They might be tempted by the flesh. They might be lured into grandiose ideas that will never come to be. I’ve known pastors in all of these categories, one who just bowed his head when things were bad, one who cheated on his wife and one who can let his anger take control. As I’ve grown older I’ve realized that they were simply men like I was. I also realized that as messengers of God the odds were pretty good that they were under attack by Satan more often than I was. Who better to take out first than those who lead in God’s name?

I’ve witnessed two items in my current church that get discussed by some. The first is that the discussion of money seems to take precedence over the discussion of people. I thought long and hard about that. I listened for weeks after that idea was brought to my attention. I even considered it on my own at one point. Again I later realized it was a frontal attack on the church. Was money discussed to often? Perhaps. But then again it takes money to make things happen. Not just projects but everyday things like someone to answer a phone, someone to deliver a sermon, someone to take care of kids, light bills, heating bills, cleaning bills, printing programs, water bills, etc., etc. Without offerings those things would stop and so would the building you are in. As for projects we could do without them if we wanted. But then some would complain that we’re not doing enough. It becomes a damned if you do damned if you don’t scenario. The thing is that many, rather than get involved with the structure of the church, simply complain or talk among friends about things they don’t like. Perhaps they would be better served to become more involved, to get on the board, to sit down and talk with the leaders of the church.

It’s been said that some pastors only like to surround themselves with “yes men”. Well…yeah? I don’t know of anyone who surrounds themselves with “no men”. I will agree that there should always be someone in place who will bring forth the questions and concerns of others. I will agree that in placing spineless people in positions of power to simply get your way isn’t the smartest nor most successful way of doing things. But once more, everyone is human. Everyone wants to be agreed with. And perhaps rather than slander someone for making the wrong decisions the best thing to do is to pray for them, to pray that God whose house they are in charge of would step in and let them know that things can be achieved that HE wants not by loading the deck but by opening your eyes.

I read something the other day concerning a church where leaders were being rated as employees of a business are rated. If your job performance figures were too low then you were tossed out. Was this in my church? I don’t know, I have no clue of what goes on behind the scenes at all times. But I can see this as a good/bad thing. If numbers are the only way to judge then that’s wrong. If someone is tossed aside because they can’t get the numbers, that’s wrong as well. If someone is having difficulty reaching those expectations it would seem nurturing that person would be the right course of action as opposed to just simply tossing them aside. And if one person in the group is having a problem doesn’t that reflect not just on them but on the entire group? It’s a team effort folks.

But numbers are important. I used to think the numbers of people coming to a church were determined by those who worked there. I don’t think that’s the case any longer. The numbers of a church are determined by God himself. He is the one who reaches out to people and lets them know there is a sanctuary for them to find safety in. He is the one who directs their lives to attend. He is the one who determines the success of that church. If those he placed in charge are failing to obey him then he might let them fail as a church as well. It’s why those who attend a church should not complain that things aren’t going the way THEY want but should prey that God directs the church to go are going the way HE wants.

This takes us to my last thought. If you attend a church that doesn’t do things the way you want have you ever considered that perhaps it’s not about you and what you want? Have you considered that Jesus didn’t have one disciple but twelve and that each of them spoke about him differently than the person who was sitting next to each of them? Could it be that God realized that people are different and so he reaches out to people in various forms rather than one? Some people prefer the classic Catholic method of worship while others enjoy a hard core Baptist revival with people yelling at the tops of their lungs while others prefer a more sedate setting where each week they dress in their finest clothes and worship. Some like the old style hymns and others like more contemporary music. Some like ornate carvings and sculptures of Christ on the cross while other like a simply cross to represent what he went through. At the core of each is one thing: belief in God. It’s time to realize that each of those churches are HIS houses not ours. He’s more than happy to have you enter any of those homes. I’m guessing he’s less happy when you speak ill of one or more of them or those He has placed in them to care for them. I used to do that, I don’t any longer.

In the end we must realize that those in charge of God’s house are one thing and one thing only: they are human. Each member of a board, each member of a staff, each person working within the walls of that building are called there by one person, God. And each and every one of them are under attack by just one person as well, Satan. He will do his best to damage their reputations, their sense of wrong and right, their ability to convey messages sent from God, to try and destroy everyone within the confines of its walls. Without faith, the messages falls on deaf ears. Without faith, those who God has placed in charge will falter. And the best solution to keeping alive that which God has created is to pray for our leaders to have wisdom, compassion, humility and to be able to reconcile with those they might have harmed when those things weren’t present. I think this solution works far better than to tear apart a church or its leaders because you disagree. If you weren’t happy, what is solved by taking them to task once you’re gone? Perhaps it makes you feel better to speak ill of someone or somewhere else. It doesn’t help matters for the church. And perhaps that’s all that Satan wants is to insert that seed of destruction among the churches members. Sorry but I don’t think I want to play on his team.

THE RECORD STORE

While driving my wife to work today we were listening to some music, something that’s always the case in my vehicle. I had put together a disc of songs by Ringo Starr and it got to the song “Goodnight Vienna”. Now keep in mind, this wasn’t a huge hit for Ringo by any means, but I liked the song. As I listened to it a flood of memories washed over me.

I remembered the first time I heard about this album coming out. It was a commercial that was running on TV at my grandparent’s house. Occasionally in the summers I would go back to Akron where I grew up to spend a week with them. By this time I was in my teens and a music lover. As I remembered seeing that commercial on TV in that location it made me think back to walking a block or two from their house to a local record store. Not a chain but an actual record store. I remembered that I bought The Rolling Stones IT’S ONLY ROCK N’ ROLL at that store. I also remember seeing Black Sabbath’s PARANOID there for the first time.

That got me to thinking about how sad it is how music and the appreciation of music has changed. Today when a young person wants to buy an album they simply log on to their amazon or iPod account and download it (those that do it legally). More often than not they don’t even bother with an entire album but just a song that they’ve heard. They lose so much not only in how they’re doing this but in what they’re doing.

That first loss is a trip to the record store. Those were always good times for me. My frequent destination was Wooden Nickle in Fort Wayne. You walked in and immediately were awash in music. Loud, but not too loud, music would play giving you some inkling of a new artist or release. The cover was posted by the counter and if you decided it was something you enjoyed you picked it up. If not you walked down the aisles, starting with the letter “A” and browsed through the albums that were on sale there until you reached “Z”.

Some might even remember the special promotion Wooden Nickle offered. With each purchase of so much you received an actual wooden token. Save so many and you got a discount on a purchase. My guess is there are still some of you out there in the area that have those tokens on hand somewhere.

The atmosphere of the record store was always different too. The smell of incense burned in the air, sold no doubt for those who smoked “illegal substances” at home but a part of our generation as well. The smell of new vinyl also wafted through the air. It was an experience just walking through the door.

It wasn’t just the artists that you were interested in either. It was the cover of the album itself. Artists and companies that spent little time considering this were left behind. A great album cover could draw interest in an artist. The king of album covers for me was always Roger Dean. Having done a number of album covers for yes over the years the one that always caught my eye was for DEMONS AND WIZARDS by Uriah Heep, one of the best album covers ever.

We were just like kids of today with little excess money on hand and we chose our albums wisely and with effort. If you weren’t desperate to own the latest release when it came out you could always wait to see if it made its way to the cut out racks, a place where much of my collection came from. I bought my first Michael Schenker Group album that way. But trying to decide on exactly which album to buy was something that was considered and thought over, not a flip decision.

Getting home was different too. Rather than just listen to the same song over and over or mixing it on a disc with other singles only, we listened to an entire album, start to finish. You place it on the turntable, lightly dropped the needle down and listened to side one. When it finished, you turned over the record and listened to side two. Unlike CDs where you can simply skip tracks, records weren’t that easy to do the same. It was easier to listen start to finish. The most amazing thing was that in doing so you often discovered a track that was as good as or sometimes better than the one you bought the album for. That was one of the best things about buying an entire album, hearing the rest of what the artist brought to the table. 

Today’s world is different. Young people download singles and make mix discs or just add those singles to their iPod or mp3 player. Album tracks are forgotten or never discovered. The effort to socialize and go somewhere that sells music, that puts new music on the CD player to listen to while in the store, to discover new music you might like doesn’t exist anymore. Instead you only know of new music through friends or what some web site tells you to listen to.

Worst of all is that more music is manufactured these days than in the past. By that I mean the artist themselves are created rather than discovered. Talent is less likely a part of an artists and appearance becomes central to their success. It’s all marketing and less quality. What sells is less about the music and more about the appearance of being a star.

Record stores still exist. Some cater to all vinyl while some have adopted more CDs than anything. Wooden Nickle still stands and has racks filled with CDs. The smells are still there, the incense and the wooden racks. They still feature music playing and will gladly tell you who the artist is. They support local artists and keep copies of their CDs on hand for sale. But each time I visit I notice that more often than not the clientele is less teens and more often adults.

It would be nice if parents would unplug their kids and take them to a record store now and then. If kids would look into new music coming down the pike rather than artists that were pushed at them like a new brand of cereal. If kids would take a moment or two to go back and listen to something that came out before they were born since most think the world only began with their date of birth. Imagine fresh ears discovering Jimi Hendrix…Joe Cocker…early Rolling Stones…The Beatles…Deep Purple…Hall & Oates…INXS…Marvin Gaye…Mott the Hoople…Janis Joplin…Neil Young…The Allman Brothers. For most teenagers they’ve never heard any of these artists yet know every song by Kanye or Katy Perry. For me that makes it a sad day for music. Make it change folks. Bring music back to today’s youth.

In an effort to bring back those memories of music we once listened to I began a Facebook page called Music Challenge. It began as a simple challenge with my friends, to go back and listen to an entire album each week and then come back and share that with the rest of the group. To list the name of the band/performer, album title, what you liked about that album, a picture of the cover and if possible a few of the songs via youtube. Since we began this it’s been a great pleasure to rediscover that great music we once listened to while watching the vinyl spin. Hopefully other will join our group and we can all bring back some more fond memories.