Teaching Faith has Life Rafts
Wise as Serpents, Harmless as Doves Thirty-two years ago, something in me began to feel wrong. I was heavily involved in church. I loved serving and wanted to help the work of God move forward. But little by little, I started noticing things that troubled me. At first, it was the teaching. I was hungry for Scripture, but the pastor seemed to be recycling outlines instead of digging into the Word. Paul told Timothy: “Study to shew thyself approved unto God… rightly dividing the word of truth.” — 2 Timothy 2:15, KJV Then came the issue of giving. The pastor began saying we needed to push people to tithe ten percent to help the budget. At the time, I was chairman of International Ministries, and the church had a missions fund. So I asked a simple question: if we were going to ask the people to tithe, why shouldn’t the church tithe from its main fund into missions? That suggestion went over like a lead balloon. That is when my concern deepened. It was not just about money. It was about inconsistency. It felt like pressure was being placed on the people that leadership would not place on itself. Jesus warned about religious leaders who: “bind heavy burdens… and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.” — Matthew 23:4, KJV The more I looked, the more troubled I became. My passion began dissolving. Sundays no longer felt like worship. They felt like sitting among modern-day Pharisees and Sadducees. They called themselves a grace church, but much of what I experienced felt like works. Not always from the pulpit. Sometimes it came through the groups — accountability groups, marriage groups, home fellowships. The message underneath seemed to be: Do better. Try harder. Be a better Christian. But I was not growing. I was sinking. Paul asked the Galatians: “Having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?” — Galatians 3:3, KJV That was the question I wish someone had asked us. I felt like a drowning man being told to swim harder, but no one was throwing me a life raft.