I have not one, but multiple machines in my house that I love. It’s the kind of machine that makes me give thanks for the days we live in. Little more than a century ago even kings and titans of industry had no such machine. These machines serve a dual purpose. They give a kind of invigorating massage, perfect for waking me up in the wee hours or soothing sore muscles after cutting the grass. They also do an excellent job of cleaning me, washing away the sweat and stink. These machines are so cheap to operate I can pay those costs each month with the change I find in the couch. Yet if I had to go a week without these amazing machines, not only would I be miserable, but the whole family would. Chances are exceedingly high, by the way, that you have at least one of these machines as well. We call ours, “the shower.”
What does a shower have to do with caring for pastors? Both are astonishing gifts from the hand of God that we take for granted. The difference is this. If you shower your shower with gratitude and praise, it will do quite a bit for you and absolutely nothing for it. If you shower your pastor with gratitude and praise it will bless you and him. Do we even acknowledge that, whatever beefs we might have with him, our pastor is a gift from Jesus?
And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, (Ephesians 4:11, 12).
Like all of His good gifts, however, we grow weary in our gratitude. Whether it’s our shower, our new car, our pastor or our new job, we start out excited and surprised, move swiftly to not noticing at all and then soon into grumbling and complaining. The children of Israel complained bitterly in their slavery. They went out of Egypt heavy laden with gold and silver and jewels, praising God, having witnessed His great power to deliver. Soon they are pining away for the good old days back in Egypt, and then bitter that God had brought them out to die. Do you know why they were like that? Because we are like that. It’s sinful ingratitude and it’s got us all in its grip.
So what do we do? We give thanks. We remember not only to pray prayers of supplication on behalf of our pastors, but prayers of thanksgiving. Then we let him know. Remind him of the ways he has blessed you in the past. Let him know how he continues to bless you. Let him know you are confident he will continue to bless you. And one more thing. If you are a part of budgetary considerations in the church, stretch a bit to bless him and his family. Wait. Are you worried it might go to his head? Worried that such might turn him into a man-pleaser? Worried this might make him motivated by filthy lucre? Better to keep your praise and his pay to a minimum lest he lose his humility?
Recognizing that there are important distinctions between a job and a calling to gospel ministry, but also recognizing that men fill both roles, imagine how you would feel if your boss came to you and said, “We think you’ve done well, but don’t want to talk to you too much about it, you know, to help you fight against pride. And no, no raise this year. We wouldn’t want our customers to think you’re motivated by money. But hey, great talk.” Imagine if your customers said to you, “Your product is just what we need. But we don’t want to write up a good review, you know, so you won’t rest on your laurels. And, to help be sure you’re not motivated by money, we’re going to pay 10 percent less next time.”
Your pastor is a man. And it is exceedingly likely that he is daily assaulted by discouragement at a level you can only imagine. It’s a good thing to pray he not grow weary. It’s also wise to give him genuine and honest encouragement. Honor the gift, and you honor the Giver.
Right from the get-go we have something of an epistemological/ontological problem. That is, there are differences that are easier to see, and then there are differences that are more central, but harder to discern. On the ontological side the whole of the order of salvation, or ordo salutis, describes the internal difference. The believer has been regenerated, given the gift of faith, is indwelt by the Spirit, gifted by the Spirit and grows in grace and wisdom. The unbeliever has none of these. Neither the believer nor the unbeliever, however, has magic soul-exposing glasses by which we can judge the invisible changes.
While we cannot see into the souls of others, Jesus tells us we can read fruit. That, however, is not as easy as we might think. Suppose for instance you knew a man who not only was unfaithful to his wife, but was unfaithful to his wife with the wife of another man. When his paramour becomes pregnant with his child he then murders her husband. Or consider another man who spent years studying the Word of God. He boldly went into hostile lands and proclaimed that same Word. He spoke with Jesus in the context of the utmost intimacy. He was even known to cast out demons in Jesus’ name and to heal the sick. It would be hard to imagine two piles of fruit more radically diverse. Yet we would be wrong on both counts if we affirmed the first was not a believer and the second was a believer. For of course the first is King David, the second Judas Iscariot.
Unbelievers are more than capable of living visibly righteous lives. And believers not only still battle against sin, they often lose those battles in public and spectacular ways. Which is why I would suggest that the best distinguishing mark is less that believers sin less, though that certainly may be the case, more that believers repent more. We are the repentant.
I would argue, in fact, that before we begin to talk about the fruits of repentance, or fruit befitting repentance we recognize that repentance is fruit. It is cultivated by the Spirit in us, and blossoms into God-honoring sorrow for our sins, but also God-honoring confidence in His grace. Indeed the fruit befitting repentance, I would suggest, is less the committing of fewer sins, or sins less flamboyant, and is more the fruit of the Spirit. The repentant bear love, for they know they have been forgiven much. The repentant are marked by joy, for they know they have been forgive much. The repentant are at peace, for they know they have been forgiven much. The repentant are patient, for they know they have been forgiven much.
Christians ought to know this. I wish still more, however, that unbelievers would have to confess it. Rather than grumbling that we believers are a holier-than-thou people, I wish they, at least in their moments of honestly, would admit that we are a more-repentant-than-thou people. I pray a day will come when we will be known more for humility than pride, joy more than anger. Until that day comes, however, I will continue, by His grace, as I grow in grace, to repent for my failure fully to obey His law.
A little knowledge may be dangerous, but not nearly so dangerous as a great deal of ignorance. Too often, when it comes to economics, we carry around just enough foolishness to make ourselves dangerous, believing “truths” that have no truth to them. Here are just a few:
War- What is it good for?
1. War is good for the economy. The principle invoked here (and it works just as well with looting or natural disasters) goes like this- when things are broken that creates demand for new things. Demand for new things stimulates the economy. That’s a good thing. There is a long list of things wrong with this reasoning, and it is simply and thoroughly debunked in one of the greatest economics books ever, Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt. Here’s my shorter version- wealth is stuff. Destroying stuff reduces wealth. Demand, in addition, is infinite. There is no need whatever to stimulate demand. It is constant, and as immeasurable as the sands on the sea. The problem is meeting demand, scarcity, not plenty. Breaking stuff that meets the demand makes us poorer, not richer.
Tax Man
2. Taxes on businesses are simply passed on to the consumer. Some argue that this means taxes on business are good things because they don’t hurt the businesses. Some argue that this means taxes on business are bad things because they don’t hurt the businesses. And they’re both wrong. Taxes on businesses hurt businesses, and those they do business with. Businesses cannot simply pass on the added cost of taxes for the simple reason that prices are determined by supply and demand, not by the cost of going to market. Suppose the car companies sell cars in the US for an average of $20,000. At that price there is neither a large unsold surplus, nor a great scarcity. Now comes Washington DC with a $10,000 car tax. Now do all cars sell for $30,000? No, because there isn’t the same demand for cars at $30,000 as there is at $20,000. If, however, the car manufacturers keep their prices at $20,000 then a. they haven’t passed along the tax to the consumer and b. they are selling cars at a loss and will go out of business, reducing the supply of cars and creating scarcity.
It’s What I Want
3. Businesses charge whatever they want, and make obscene profits. Remember all the grumbling when gas was $4.00 a gallon? How everyone insisted that those greedy oil companies ruthlessly jack up their prices, just because they can? Where are all those armchair economists now, and how would they explain the drop in the price of gasoline? Businesses do not set prices. Markets do. Every free trade requires two parties to come to agreement. Which means in turn, by the way, that in every transaction both parties are buyers and sellers. When you go to your boss and tell him, “I will not work here for $5 an hour” you are seller, and your employer the buyer. When you go to the mall and refuse to buy the $100 tennis shoes you are the buyer, refusing to do business with the shoe store.
Which means first there is no reason to call the cops. That is, when we go to the state and demand that they force Company X to sell product Y for less than a certain amount, or that they force Company X to pay employee Z more than a certain amount we are, in point of fact, trying to rob our neighbor. We’re the bully. This also means, second, that there is no reason to get bent out of shape when an agreement on a trade can’t be reached. I don’t think to denounce lobstermen as greedy and evil because I don’t want to buy their product at $20 a pound. I just don’t buy lobster. I don’t curse Hollywood for $12.00 movie tickets. I just don’t go to the movies. And I don’t curse the selfish, greedy people of the world who won’t allow me to make a living wage as a writer. I just try harder.
Economics isn’t rocket science. Our confusion is born more of our selfishness than our innate ignorance. It reveals the darkness of our hearts. Perhaps we’d do better were our minds just a bit more clear. Trading where and when and how we’d like, that’s not just freedom, but being a good neighbor.
Thesis 73- We must make family to family relationships.
It is not my contention that every single instance of age segregation in the church is a triumph of the devil. The Bible just isn’t that clear or that insistent on the issue. That, I would argue, is because it wasn’t much of an option in those days. The whole notion of demographics, or sub-cultures built around age groups wasn’t a thing. It wasn’t, in fact a thing until the 20th century. There weren’t, before then, generation gaps because people didn’t so much identify with their generation as they did with their family. Family should always precede demographics. Our two dark skinned teenage boys know that before they are dark skinned, teenaged or boys, that they are Sprouls.
I raise this thesis, however, not to scold age segregation but to praise family to family relationships. It’s not so much what I’m against as it is what I am for. Family to family relationships not only allow but encourage individual relationships across generations. When our boys engage Mr. Russu, who is at least sixty years their senior, it is just flat out a beautiful thing, a living, breathing reminder of our common identity in Christ.
You remember that old calumny against homeschooling, that it fails at socialization. Here’s how I deal with that. I ask my accuser, “By socialization you mean the ability to get along with and relate to different kinds of people, right?” Though they may sense a trap they will mostly affirm, “Yes, that’s what I mean.” “And your solution, to make sure children know how to relate to people different from them is to make sure they spend 6 hours a day with kids their age, from their neighborhood? That’s how they’ll learn to get along with different people?” The vast majority of homeschooled children spend more time with people different from them than the vast majority of those educated at the government’s schools.
What if our churches actually encouraged these kinds of relationships? What if you went to church and sat next to a family with a newborn and a 4 year old, while behind you was a couple in their retirement and in front of you were a trio of single young men? What if after the service you found yourselves across the table at a potluck with these same people? What if you made some friends, and invited them over for burgers the next weekend?
They say that Sunday morning is the most segregated time of the week across the country. This is true not just about the faux category of race but the faux category of age group. We confess that heaven will be a glorious gathering of every tribe and tongue, that our worship gatherings should look the same. And so it is true of every age and ability.
The best part? You don’t have to start a fight at your church over this. You don’t have to change your church into a family integrated church. All you have to do is be a family integrated family. And all that takes is making friends, a family at a time.
