September 20,2003

I think I have figured out another reason why I failed as someone who makes a living doing ministry. I simply lack the sense of entitlement. I have been working recently with younger people in ministry and they seem to have this sense that by virtue of their call they are simply entitled to whatever their material needs are, or are perceived to be. This is not a hard and fast rule; just a generalization based on my observation of a limited sampling.

The attitude amazes me. That congregations take care of their pastors out of gratitude I understand, but this is different. These people expect to be well taken care of even before they have done anything to produce that gratitude. It is as if proclaiming oneself called by God is sufficient to demand house, car, 6 weeks annual leave and a 50% tax-free income. I even know people that have left the ‘paraministry’ for the mainline denominations precisely because they wanted to stop having to raise their own support and the higher levels of pay and security.

Feeling entitled to anything, anything at all betrays one of the ultimate realities of life with Christ – it is all a gift. Our very existence let alone the comfort or discomfort thereof is a gift from God. What is truly gauling to me is that those we pay to lead us should have a deeper understanding of that fact than the rest of us.

I am not saying that pastors should take a vow of poverty, I am simply saying that they should express appropriate amounts of gratitude for what they do have, and I am saying a little more.

Do we deserve God’s love? Do we deserve our redemption? Do we deserve anything other than condemnation? Of course not, yet God, in His infinite love has granted us those things and so much more. How can someone possibly expect to proclaim the depths of that love while being ungracious in regards to something as insignificant as the size house they own?

Yes, that’s right, I AM suggesting that any pastor that is anything other than deeply grateful for their material holdings is robbing the gospel they preach of its power and real message. Think about it for a minute.

The gospel message is not, "serve me and I will reward you;" it is, "And while we were yet sinners God…." And more yet, God Himself chose to bring His Word to us not by living well and proclaiming the message, but by living as an itinerant and allowing Himself to be crucified. Remember, when Satan tempted Christ in the wilderness he tempting Him with those things that His "position" commanded. Christ turned the evil one down, should not those ministering in His name do likewise?

In America we live in such tremendous wealth, that living like Christ did is almost impossible. One must leave society altogether to experience that level of poverty. I do not think God wants us to leave society. The key is not in the not having, it is the understanding that what you have is not yours, it is purely a gift.

I have never felt this more than in the last couple of years. We have been remodeling our home. We are nearing the end and as we do the house is coming together as a place of dreams. It is so much of what I imagined. Oh yes, I can think of nicer and better, but this is pretty good. Now, we have done all of this during a recession. I have had clients go out of business. I watched many, many get laid off. There have been a few times I have wondered about the health of my business. Yet, here we are. We borrowed money to do this and yet our equity stake in the home remains about what it was when we started. How can that be anything other than a gift? I certainly lack the financial acumen to have planned it this way. I thank God for it daily.

I have a good friend who has made quite a lot of money in his life. As his children reach adulthood he is having a very hard time with them because they are not only ungracious, but they lack even a rudimentary understanding of the value of what they have. They have no concept of the fact that their father sending them to college is something that even most college students do not enjoy, neglecting altogether the vast majority of people that never go to college at all. Instead they gripe because there are limits to their father’s money and they want to go to an even more expensive school.

Pastors, more than anyone else, need to understand the value of what they have. See, here’s the thing, the most valuable thing any Christian has, has nothing whatsoever to do with material belongings of any sort. It is our salvation. Think about it – what did our salvation cost? Why the life of God Himself. Talk about priceless! In light of that inestimable value how can anything else really matter?

I am so tired of the "almost" gospel. The great message from the war on terrorism seems to be "don’t take your religion too seriously." I think it is just the opposite, take your religion far more seriously, just ignore the morphed, perturbed, corrupted garbage that is hanging on to it. If you take your faith seriously would you complain that you are not paid enough or would you thank God you have enough to feed your family tonight? Even the unfaithful would answer the later.

There are no entitlements in Christianity, only gifts. A "call" is to service, not compensation. The sooner pastors understand those two sentences, and get busy, the sooner the church will really and actually change the world instead of make matters worse.