God is Shaking His Church

[Guest power2u]

God is Shaking His Church...

By Jamie Buckingham

Today's generation is characterized by countless Christian leaders who have named their ministries after themselves. There is nothing wrong with name identification. The problem lies in the super-star syndrome many attach to themselves. When I asked the head of one of the nation's largest ministries to whom he submitted, he quickly said: "To God."

Recent events, however, prove that is no longer an adequate answer. It is not enough to submit to God. You must also submit to God's people. Jerry Falwell was right when he said if a minister takes money from the public, he needs to be accountable to the public. Not only that, he needs to be accountable to a local church and to local elders. It is time to lift up standards of ethics, fiscal accountability, behavior and lifestyle. It's hard, when you are big, rich and powerful--to humble yourself.

In ancient Babel the people worshipped their creativity--a creativity which was breathed into them as part of the image of God. But they forgot God had given them limits--and intended for them to operate inside limitations.

Across the years I have sensed this spirit of "We can do it without God" taking control of many of the major ministries of America. To be sure, no one would dare say that on the air (the funds would immediately dry up), but off camera and in the top executive offices it is rampant.

I shudder when I hear certain televangelists say, as one frequently says, "This ministry has been commissioned by God to usher in the return of Jesus Christ." One of America's best-known televangelists recently sent out a card saying God had told him this ministry alone was blessed by God--because he was pure.

I shudder at the personal arrogance and lack of accountability among leaders--which is one of the major causes of faulty lifestyle and lavish spending. I know of only one man, among the heads of America's largest ministries, who submits his personal life to peers who are not in his employ or enamored with his position. I believe God is calling leaders, not just the televangelists, but all pastors and lay leaders, to be personally accountable to peers. The temptations are too great to grow prideful or to become deceived. Today's shaking is forcing leaders to turn to one another.

I shudder at the fund-raising techniques used by most major ministries of America. Most of the direct mail letters sent out play fast and loose with truth. How can God bless a computer- generated letter, signed by an automatic pen, telling the recipient that the leader is praying for him at that very moment? How can God bless a televangelist who goes on the air and tells people he has used up all his money and desperately needs more contributions--while he and all his family are driving $50,000 automobiles and living in very expensive homes?

I believe there are legitimate, Jesus-like ways, to raise money. But until the leaders of these ministries are determined to use those methods instead of the methods of the world system, the forceful ruach of God will continue to blow on the entire church.

In March, more than 600 Christian leaders--most affiliated with evangelical denominations, colleges and parachurch ministries, met in Kansas City to search "for a more excellent way" to be ethical fund-raisers. They talked about Oral Roberts' fund raising methods, among others.

The conference closed with John F. Walvoord, the revered Chancellor of Dallas Theological Seminary (an avowed anti- Pentecostal school) praying for Oral Roberts, asking God to "bring him into repentance if he is wrong." Not long afterward, Oral was in his prayer tower, calling on Jimmy Swaggart to repent. Swaggart, down in Baton Rouge, was demanding Jim Bakker and Richard Dortch repent. Maybe, with all these calls for repentance, some leader will look into his own heart and pick up the cry of the publican in the temple: "God be merciful to ME, the sinner."

The citizens of Babel achieved their sense of power from their advanced technology. They had invented bricks and mortar. Now, they bragged, it is not only God who can make stone--so can we. Technology became their idol and they worshipped it.

In December 1985, I attended a party at Cape Kennedy the night before the spaceship Columbia was scheduled to lift off. At the close of the evening the hostess asked me to pray. As I walked to the microphone the director at NASA called out, in a joking way, "Preacher, you pray for the weather. NASA has everything else under control."

That flight was scrubbed an unprecedented seven times before finally lifting off. The next flight--three weeks later--was the shuttle Challenger. It blew up 72 seconds after lift-off, killing all seven on board. Of course, NASA did not have everything else under control.

Over the 15 years I have been intimately associated with America's televangelists and their ministries, I have often caught some of that same pride in technology, in self- accountability, in fund-raising ability--a pride which borders on arrogance.

For example, a professional fundraiser who has become wealthy writing appeal letters for dozens of ministries was boasting at a gathering of evangelicals recently that raising money was just a matter of demographics. It is like the insurance actuarial tables, he said. Insurance companies know how many people will die this year--they just don't know who.

Likewise, fund-raisers know that by sending certain appeals to certain demographic groups, they will get a certain amount of income. This fund-raiser sneered at some of his own ministry clients who believe it is a miracle when money comes in from donors--likening it to believing it is a miracle when the sun comes up every morning.

I remember the day the number two man at one of the nation's largest TV ministries resigned and came to me, weeping. He could no longer stomach the hypocrisy and blasphemy going on in the raising of money. Twice a month, he said, they would sit in the office of the televangelist, laughing about the next scheme to raise money. The last case was a direct mail campaign using certified letters saying that while the televangelist was praying specifically for Sister (name of recipient), God had spoken telling him to write her this "personal" letter saying if she gave $25, $50, $100, $1000 (depending on past giving records), God would grant her special favor.

That is nothing more than a Pentecostal updating of the Dark Ages' practice of selling indulgences. God wiped that out with a mighty shaking in the Protestant Reformation. At the same time, somewhat like He had at the Tower of Babel, God confused the languages (and doctrines) so that even today Christians have trouble communicating.

Now that shaking is taking place again. It was precipitated by the sex scandal at PTL, but that was merely the fuse God used to detonate His bomb. This time, since it involves highly visible ministries, and since we live in an age of instant communication, the move of God is being revealed no later than the six o'clock news, rather than taking two generations for people to comprehend.

God did not separate the citizens of Babel to punish them, but to give them back their humanity. The problem began when they said, "Let us build a city." God has never blessed the city concept. He calls for a distribution of the population. But people continue to concentrate in large ministries, join denominations, identify themselves with one teacher--all for the purpose of speaking the same language.

My book, Jesus World, pointed out the dangers inherent in large ministries. The book was unpopular, for it called leaders to return to the simple methods and life-style of Jesus, submitting one to another rather than living as kings and dictators. Few, perhaps none except Roman Catholic evangelist John Bertolucci, are willing to live the lifestyle practiced by David Mainse of Toronto's 100 Huntley Street. Mainse has chosen to live in a downtown apartment so he can be near the people to whom he ministers. On occasion he still rides his bicycle to work so he can witness to people along the sidewalk. God give us more men like that--and fewer who live like kings, drawing huge salaries and working from unlimited expense accounts, while proclaiming they have "just spent their last penny for missions and need more money."

The purpose of the tower in Babel was to monitor the people, to make certain all remained loyal to one ideology and one exclusive doctrine. Men are constantly saying, `I alone am doing God's will." The problem: when they say that they mean, "All the rest of you are out of God's will." Yet Paul warns us not to "take pride in one man over against another. For who makes you different from anyone else?" (1 Cor. 4:6b-7a).

Now, once again, God has come down and is walking among us. He is not pleased that we have tried to satisfy our individual obligations to minister by giving to large ministries. We give to Jerry Falwell to build a home for unwed mothers, to PTL for a home for handicapped children, to Jimmy Swaggart so he may support Assemblies of God missionaries, to CBN's Operation Blessing to feed the hungry. All are worthy ministries. But God wants each of us involved. We should be taking these people into our homes, we should be evangelizing--not hiring a televangelist to do it for us. God is forcing us back into our local churches, the only place where real ministry--personal ministry--can take place.

"I raise up enemies to bring things down," God said, "then I deal with the enemies." In short: God is purifying His church.

My assessment: Despite the shaking, these are the greatest days in the history of the church. Never, in time, have God's people attracted so much attention. For weeks on end every daily newspaper and every national news magazine has carried stories on the actions of God's people. News people are not only visiting the nation's churches--they are being assigned to visit them by their editors.

Despite the sadness that surrounds sin--and the even greater sadness that comes when good men expose each other in front of unbelievers--people are watching. Hidden things are coming to light and that will bring healing.

Television has been the greatest means of spreading the Gospel since the invention of the printing press. But with great opportunity comes great accountability. This is a time of accounting. God is checking the books. Those who love to appear in public are being judged in public. Once again, it seems, God has entered the temple to overturn the tables of the moneychangers. His breath is blowing across His kingdom, cleansing and purifying. The end result will be as always: to form a people in the image of His Son and to bring glory to Himself.

Jamie Buckingham 1987

[IreneM]

God shakes and the real christians will respond, the others will continue on their merry way with their blinders on..........

Bringing down a few televanglists would seperate the sheep from the wolf and that is hard to do and I believe that God will do it in time in His Way. Right now I beleive God uses them to show that there are those who follow the Word of God and those who follow man with itching ears and seeking eyes.......

In Christ

IreneM