Monday Morning Scattershooting

Monday morning scattershooting while wondering, if Walker Texas Ranger was the first reality television show?

    My friend Monte Ginnings often would say to me, “there is no right way to do the wrong thing; however there is a wrong way to do the right thing”.  That axiom is very true when it comes to church work.  I see a lot of us trying to do the right thing but the wrong way.  When we attempt to spread the Gospel but do it harsh and disrespectful way.  When we try to correct error but rather that teaching in a patient way we grow angry and lash out.  When we let personal attacks hit us in such a way that we feel justified in returning “fire with fire”.  Our cause is just but our methods are anything but.

Paul mentions that “wrong way right thing” mindset in Philippians 1:15-17.

“Some, to be sure, are preaching Christ even from envy and strife, but some also from good will; the latter do it out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel; the former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition rather than from pure motives, thinking to cause me distress in my imprisonment.”

  You can do good work but you do it for selfish reasons.  You can be right but your behavior makes it seem like you are not.  You can win the argument but lose the soul.  You can be standing for truth but still damage the pillar of truth, the church (1^st Timothy 3:15).

Are you doing the right thing? Good! Are you doing it the right way? Much Better!

  

    I read a blog article where a writer remarked; don’t be the Talyor Swift of preachers.  I thought that was a genius way to make his point. So I try one of my own; Don’t be the Winston Zeddemore of preachers. Winston Zeddemore is the man that was hired in the movie Ghostbuster to help out the first three founders when their ghost hunting business takes off.  When asked if he believes in several different unexplained supernatural phenomena, he replies

“Ah, if there's a steady paycheck in it, I'll believe anything you say.”

 Winston is a man looking for a job and is willing to do, say, or believe just about anything for that purpose.  You better believe it can be tempting when times are tight to give in on a principle for a paycheck.  Ministers are no different in that regard.  The influence may not be as direct but it is still there.  Avoid the lesson that might upset the big wallets, even if it is a lesson the church desperately needs.  Know that whatever “so and so” says is going to happen since he hold the purse string, so don’t oppose it even if it is a unsound idea.  Neglect the member that might not have the cash, so we can schmooze to the one that “pays my salary”

 A preacher must not let his empty wallet make his ministry empty as well.  We must speak the whole council of God even if it might be cause for finical difficulty. The worst insult I ever hear said about toward a preacher was, “he is completely sound unless it might affect his paycheck”.  Don’t take or keep a job for the money, if the cost is your integrity.

    Finally, Remember, You don’t need a parachute to skydive. You need a parachute to skydive twice.