Make a big splash

Make a big splash

Luke 4:31 – 37

Rabbi Rev. Dr. Michael H. Koplitz

Luke 4:31   And He came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and He was teaching them on the Sabbath; 32 and they were amazed at His teaching, for His message was with authority. 33 In the synagogue there was a man possessed by the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out with a loud voice, 34 “Let us alone! What business do we have with each other, Jesus of Nazareth? Have You come to destroy us? I know who You are — the Holy One of God!” 35 But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be quiet and come out of him!” And when the demon had thrown him down in the midst of the people, he came out of him without doing him any harm. 36 And amazement came upon them all, and they began talking with one another saying, “What is this message? For with authority and power He commands the unclean spirits and they come out.” 37 And the report about Him was spreading into every locality in the surrounding district.

We reach this point in chapter 4 of Luke’s gospel we hear about the first struggle with the demon. The watchers described in Genesis chapter 6, who were condemned into the foundations of the earth, are believed by people in Jesus’ day to be the source of the demons and unclean spirits mentioned in the Gospels. Let me give you a brief history of these demons because you will not hear much about them in your normal reading. Now why would that be?

You have to read a book called 1 Enoch to get the full story of the demons. Chapter 1 through 36 of that book is called the Book of the Watchers. You can find a summary about the watchers in Genesis chapter 6. Basically, what happened were 200 angels came before the Lord and said that they wanted to go visit the earth and experience what the humans were experiencing. God said to the 200 angels that if they went to the earth that they would surely sin against God and would have to be punished for it. The 200 angels decided they could handle it, so they went to the earth.

These 200 angels took human form and married mortal women. The offspring from this union were the Giants called the Nephilim. People believe that Goliath, who fought David, was a descendant of these individuals. Unfortunately, the Nephilim and their offspring caused a lot of trouble on the earth. One thing that happened was they killed humans and drank their blood. This infuriated the Lord because one of the most important laws that you’ll find in the book of Leviticus is that you’re not allowed to drink blood. People believed that the soul of the person or the animal lived in the blood. For ancient people, this made sense because when a person bled out, they died therefore, their spirit or soul left the body.

The watchers, the 200 angels, tried to give the humans tools in order to fight the Nephilim. It is believed this is where the knowledge of metallurgy came to be. Of course, God knew that if the humans were to receive the concepts of metallurgy that they would eventually turn against each other and kill each other. God intervened and destroyed the Nephilim and also held the 200 angels accountable for what happened.

The punishment for the angels was that they were sent into the foundations of the earth. Ancient people believed that pillars, the foundations of the earth, held the earth up. It was believed in Jesus’ day that the unclean spirits and demons were these 200 watchers trying to affect humanity. From time to time, they would leave the foundations of the earth and infect people. That’s what is happening in this story and every narrative that talks about people being possessed by demons or unclean spirits.

One of Jesus’ tasks was to rid the earth of these 200 fallen angels. If you believe Satan is a fallen angel from heaven then you are referring to the Book of the Watchers. The leader of the 200 angels received a sentence to hell and transformed into Satan. That is what the Book of the Watchers talks about. I would love to give you more details of the Book of the Watchers, but that’s not what we’re concentrating on today.

So, we know what happened in the narratives when Jesus exorcised these unclean spirits, or demons if you wish to call them that, from a man in the synagogue. What I’d like to talk about is that because of this miracle that Jesus did, his fame spread. It was through his signs, miracles, and wonders that people got to know about Jesus and sought him out.

One thing that I learned back in the 1990s when I was teaching leadership skills to a nonprofit organization was the idea that in order for the organization to survive, it needed to make a big splash in its community. The organization needed to be known for something that no one else was doing and was necessary for the community. Now, let’s apply that to the church. If you are a member of a church, ask yourself what your church does for the community.

For most churches, they are involved in either no community activities or a mixture of activities. The problem with not being in the community is that you will attract no one in your church because they have no idea who you are and what you stand for. That’s the simple one. For churches that are in multiple areas of the community, the problem is the church is not known for something special. Let me give you an example.

I was appointed to a United Methodist church where the women ran a very successful thrift shop for the community. When I was there in 2010, the thrift shop generated $60,000 in profits. Since I was new to the church, I asked the leaders of the thrift shop what happened to the profits. They showed me a list of about 40 charities that they gave their money to. The church was in a small town that had problems that were not being solved by the politicians or any other group in the area. What problem could that be you ask? They had nothing for the youth to do when they got out of school and when they were out of school for the summer. It was a problem for the community. I am not saying that the youth of the town caused a lot of trouble. What I am saying is they needed something to keep them busy.

Parents started Sunday school back in the late 1800s because they didn’t know what to do with their kids on Saturday and Sunday due to the implementation of child labor laws. Therefore, you went to church on Sunday and Sunday school and that took care of one of the two days. The same situation was happening in this town. Youth get restless when I have nothing to keep them busy.

I was sent to this church to get a building addition built. The construction team built a 7200 square-foot facility, primarily a giant multipurpose room. So, I said to the ladies who were running the thrift store that if they would give the $60,000 to the church only to run a youth program in the new building addition, we could solve a major problem of the community. Then the church would become well known for doing this one thing that everyone said we needed. If the church had done this, people would’ve come to the church because they would have known all about us and what we stood for. We would’ve been there to help the community.

Instead, they said “no can do” because they had to give the money to the 40 different charities that are on their list because that’s the way they have always done it. Very few people in the community I talked to knew that the thrift store was a part of the town’s United Methodist Church. They knew that the thrift store existed, and they knew profits went to some charities, but they did not know that it belonged to the United Methodist Church. Even though there was a sign in the window that said that it was part of the United Methodist Church, people didn’t know it.

If the thrift store would’ve worked with me and created that youth program, the church would become well known and I strongly believe that people would help us, especially young people. Back in 2010 and it’s the same today that young parents want to see things improved in their own community for their children. They are not as interested in sending money overseas as they are in spending it locally and make things better for their kids. I am not saying that we should not send charity to other countries on other continents. What I am saying is that we need to become known for something.

Let me give you another example that worked. I’d be willing to bet everyone reading or listening to this message knows about the Shriners. The Shriners is a Masonic organization that back in the 1920s and 30s was about to become extinct. Their leadership understood what they needed to do. What they did is they created the Shriners children’s hospitals. They concentrated every time they could into creating this network of hospitals that do not charge parents to have their children brought to the hospital to receive whatever surgery or physical therapy they need for that child. Because the Shriners became well known for these hospitals, they grew in tremendous numbers. They learned they needed to become known for something that nobody else was doing.

Nowadays the Shriners are in trouble because they are losing members because of aging and also because they’re not as well-known as they used to be. 10 or so years ago you would not have seen or heard of a commercial asking you to give money to Shriners Hospital for Children. Today you see it all the time. The Shriners had lost that which made them an elite organization. They diversified and took them out of the public eye. Because of this mistake, the Shriners have been losing membership like a barrel with a big hole in it leaking water. That’s unfortunate and I pray that the Shriners children’s hospital never closed down. 30 years ago, I sponsored a family to go to the Shriners Children’s Hospital, and that young girl received such fantastic care that today you cannot tell that she was ever there.

If you want your church to become known in your community you need to bring all your resources together and solve a problem that no one else is solving or a problem that needs help that will make you well known. Unfortunately, we live in a world where we have to do this kind of marketing. If your church could solve a problem that’s been plaguing the community for quite some time the community will see the church as a miracle working church. Jesus went through the country of Galilee and Samaria solving problems that the community could not solve. In Jesus’ case it happened to be healing people and ridding them of demons and unclean spirits. He became known for helping others before helping himself.

So, one of the lessons of the story is that the church needs to find that one thing the community needs and solve and most importantly tell the community that is being done through the faith of the people in Jesus Christ. In this way we can say that Jesus gave the church the power to perform miracles just like he did. If your church is not concentrating on one area, ask your leadership to do this and explain to them why it is so urgent. Jesus became known for miracles and your church can also!

The Blood Church Warning

Luke 3:23-38

Rabbi Dr. Rev. Michael H Koplitz

Luke 3:23   ^aWhen He began His ministry, Jesus Himself was about thirty years of age, being, as was supposed, the son of Joseph, the son of Eli, 24 the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, the son of Melchi, the son of Jannai, the son of Joseph, 25 the son of Mattathias, the son of Amos, the son of Nahum, the son of Hesli, the son of Naggai, 26 the son of Maath, the son of Mattathias, the son of Semein, the son of Josech, the son of Joda, 27 the son of Joanan, the son of Rhesa, the son of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, the son of Neri, 28 the son of Melchi, the son of Addi, the son of Cosam, the son of Elmadam, the son of Er, 29 the son of Joshua, the son of Eliezer, the son of Jorim, the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, 30 the son of Simeon, the son of Judah, the son of Joseph, the son of Jonam, the son of Eliakim, 31 the son of Melea, the son of Menna, the son of Mattatha, the son of Nathan, the son of David, 32 the son of Jesse, the son of Obed, the son of Boaz, the son of Salmon, the son of Nahshon, 33 the son of Amminadab, the son of Admin, the son of Ram, the son of Hezron, the son of Perez, the son of Judah, 34 the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham, the son of Terah, the son of Nahor, 35 the son of Serug, the son of ¹Reu, the son of Peleg, the son of Heber, the son of Shelah, 36 the son of Cainan, the son of Arphaxad, the son of Shem, the son of Noah, the son of Lamech, 37 the son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch, the son of Jared, the son of Mahalaleel, the son of Cainan, 38 the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.

A problem with pastoral preaching is sometimes you have to talk about a hard truth that people do not want to hear. Sometimes you have to upset the congregation with truth in order for them to see the problem. It is equivalent to showing a cigarette smoker the scans of their cancer ridden lungs to get them to stop smoking.  This is one of those messages.

My Doctor of Ministry degree was in Christian leadership. My project thesis for this degree was a study of the leadership of pastors and different size churches. The church modeling that I use was based on Arlen Rothague’s work on church modeling for the Episcopal church. His work became the basis of church modeling. Basically, there are four types of churches identified. The family size church, the pastor centered church, the program centered church and the corporate size church. Each of these different churches, because of their size, requires different leadership needs from the pastor. I also discovered reasons for church attendance increase and decrease. I want to concentrate on decreasing attendance and membership in this message.

Inside the family size church, as you would expect from the name, the people are of the same family. In rural areas of Pennsylvania, there are pockets where everyone is a cousin. Well, I should say most people are cousins. I call these the blood family size churches. Family size churches are characterized by having 90 or fewer people attending worship every Sunday. There are family size churches outside of the rural areas, especially in some of the inner cities where small groups of like-minded people come together to worship God in Christ.

In the rural areas of Central Pennsylvania, most of the small churches are actually blood family size churches. My first appointment to a United Methodist church and actually my last appointment was at a blood family church. Each church was in the southern rural part of York County, Pennsylvania.

Now let me start by saying that I am not condemning the blood family size church at all. I would have no problem offering this type of sermon to a blood family size church because what I want to do is emphasize that these types of churches have been in decline for several years and are going to phase out. There have been numerous blood family churches in the Susquehanna conference of the United Methodist Church that have closed over the 25+ years that I’ve been in ministry. Almost all the closings have been family size churches. I cannot say that they are all blood family size churches because many of them were gone before I even started my doctoral studies.

This is an alarm that I am sounding off to the blood family size church. I had a similar message for the two blood family size churches I was appointed to when I was ready to move on. The problem I found with the blood family size churches is that they refuse to accept people from outside of the biological family. The first blood family church I was at, I had an active young couple who said to me they were not related to each other. Luckily for me, a previous member of the church constructed a family tree dating back 100 years before he passed away. So, we looked at the family tree and we found that this husband and wife were cousins ninth removed. They had the same great great great great great great grandparents. They were shocked to say the least. They were married cousins.

Considering that these people were not mobile until the 1950s when they could afford cars, it’s understandable that you would marry your cousin. And again, I’m not saying is anything wrong with that but when the congregation is comprised of kissing cousins and they don’t allow other nonfamily members to enter the church, then the church is in trouble. This first church that I was at that I just described a little to you did not allow outsiders of the family in. I had a couple move up into the area from Baltimore and they came to the church one day. At the end of the church worship, the three matriarchs of the church grilled them for about 10 minutes to discover that they were from Baltimore and not part of the family. They also clarified that they were not welcome at the church because they were not part of the family. It hurt me because I had met this couple and encourage them to come to church since they only lived about ½ a mile away from the church and the nearest church beside us would’ve been 5 miles away. Boy, did I feel stupid and somewhat embarrassed for the church because they were a young couple who were about to create a family and that’s exactly who you want in your church if you wanted to grow.

The last church I was at was another blood family church. When I got there, over one third of the membership was over 90 years old. If this church was going to survive, it needed an infusion of fresh blood. However, the same problem occurred that the worshiping congregation would not allow nonfamily members to be in the church. They used a passive aggressive mode to get newcomers to leave. Right across the street from the church, a couple in their mid-20s moved in. They came over to the church. Not one person from the worshiping congregation would talk to them outside of my lovely bride and myself. Needless to say, when I went to visit them during that week they told me they would never be back because they had never been in a church that was so unfriendly. At an Administrative board meeting I brought up this problem and I was clearly told that the church did not want anybody there who was not part of the family.

There decrease in attendance and membership was because they were aging and dying off and their children and their grandchildren did not want to live in the rural areas of York County. The children and grandchildren moved to the suburbs or to the city of Philadelphia and they were not going to drive to the church on Sunday. There was one person who was at the church for over 35 years and was not a part of the biological family. I spoke to him about how he was treated by the congregation. He said that if he did not criticize or offer a new way of doing things; the people loved him. One day, he spoke up after all that time. Needless to tell you, two weeks later, he left the church.

Luke included his genealogy in his gospel to show us that Jesus was from the line of David. If you examine it very closely, you see that Luke’s genealogy differs from Matthew’s genealogy. We could spend a lot of time talking about why it’s different. But ultimately, Jesus was linked to David, Abraham, Adam, and ultimately to God. Messianic tradition says that Jesus would be part of the line of David. Indeed, Luke proves that to us.

For the initial Jews who became believers in Jesus and for the Gentile believers, this was very important. It was important enough that Luke investigated every part of the generations and could get all the names. However, the small blood family churches have taken the genealogy to an unhealthy extreme. Luke did not give us the genealogy so that the church can say only family members can belong. Luke gave us the genealogy to prove Jesus’ lineage.

If your church is acting in this way, and it will not allow people to become a part of the worshiping congregation, if they are not a part of the family, then you are writing an epitaph for the church. There are so many pressures on Christianity today that we cannot afford to allow an internal preference like being part of the biological family to stop us. If your church does not allow non-family members to enter, then the church is going to eventually shut down.

Another truth is that we are all connected to Jesus Christ. Jesus spoke about him being the vine and we are the branches. So, if your church wants to be a spiritually family oriented church, it has to learn that the family that Jesus spoke about is not a blood family but a spiritual family. We are connected to each other through our spirituality, not through biology. This is a lesson that even larger churches can learn from.

Every size church must be open to accepting new spiritual family members with open arms and grace. It doesn’t matter where they lived, who their parents were, what their race is, or even what religion they might convert from. Our churches must accept anyone who wants to worship and learn about Jesus Christ.

Some of you might say, “oh yeah, that’s not a problem for us.” The truth is, I was a Jewish convert to Christianity. I was the pastor of churches. And anti-Semitism was in every church I was at. I’m not saying everyone in the church, but I am saying there were enough people there that they would be passive aggressive and eventually convince me to leave when they wanted me out. This also is wrong, and it’s the same as rejecting someone who’s not part of the blood family.

From my studies and years in the pastorate, I want to say to the church stop doing things that are destroying yourself. We exist to make disciples for Jesus Christ and to educate them in the faith. We are to accept everyone who wants to learn about God through Christ. We must have semi-blind eyes in the sense that we will see nothing beyond a lost soul who is looking for God.

I know this sounds harsh, but it needs to be said because the world is constantly changing, and people are looking for the stability of God. Here we are, the church of Jesus Christ, and we need to be ready to serve all people who want to be part of our spiritual family. We need to actively go out and seek the pilgrims who are spiritually lost. The only question that we should ever ask a newcomer is, “how I can help you strengthen your relationship with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ?”

Let’s return to the early church View of Money

Let’s return to the early church View of Money

1Timothy Chapter six

Michael H Koplitz

[Paul supports slavery] 1Tim. 6:1   All who are under the yoke as slaves are to regard their own masters as worthy of all honor so that the name of God and our doctrine will not be ¹spoken against. ² Those who have believers as their masters must not be disrespectful to them because they are brethren, but must serve them all the more, because those who ¹partake of the benefit are believers and beloved. Teach and preach these principles.

[Must follow Paul’s ways] 1Tim. 6:3   If anyone advocates a different doctrine and does not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine conforming to godliness, ⁴ he is conceited and understands nothing; but he ¹has a morbid interest in controversial questions and disputes about words, out of which arise envy, strife, abusive language, evil suspicions, ⁵ and constant friction between ^amen of depraved mind and deprived of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. ⁶ But godliness actually is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment. ⁷ For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either. ⁸ If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content. ⁹ But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. ¹⁰ For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

[Must follow because Yeshua died] 1Tim. 6:11   But flee from these things, you man of God, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance and gentleness. ¹² Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. ¹³ I charge you in the presence of God, who ¹gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate, ¹⁴ that you keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁵ which He will bring about at the proper time — He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of Lords, ¹⁶ who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see. To Him be honor and eternal dominion! Amen.

[Teach the rich] 1Tim. 6:17   Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. ¹⁸ Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, ¹⁹ storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is life indeed.

[Ending comments] 1Tim. 6:20   O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you, avoiding worldly and empty chatter and the opposing arguments of what is falsely called “knowledge” — ²¹ which some have professed and thus gone astray from the faith. Grace be with you.

Chapter 6 of 1 Timothy is a hard passage to talk about today. However, if you have watched any of my sermon videos or listened to any of my podcasts, you know I will not shy away from Scripture. This chapter is difficult because the modern church today totally contradicts what Paul was talking about. I am not referring to the slavery question as much as I am referring to the money question.

Let me talk about the slavery question just for a moment. We remember that the ancient church was emerging inside of the Roman empire. Roman culture and most cultures of the known world had a belief in slavery. What Paul said almost 2000 years ago is based on what we believe today. I’m sure everyone who is reading or listening to this message would agree that slavery is 100% wrong. However, it is incorrect to judge an ancient society on our current cultural norms. There are acceptable practices in our society and culture today that ancient Romans would find offensive. There are a lot of things that our society does today that Jesus would 100% object to. Therefore, you can see why I’m saying it’s incorrect to judge an ancient culture by 21^st century norms. Enough said about that.

The love of money is important to understand in this chapter. Paul tells Timothy that it is not a problem for someone to be rich. It is what a person does with wealth and how it was accumulated that matters. Paul’s primary concern about someone being rich and joining the faith was that they may allow their wealth to guide their decisions. The Corinthian letters show how rich people would come together for communion and exclude the poorer members of the congregation. This was so that the richer members could eat and drink the best and they did not want to share it with the poorer members.

Apparently, the same problem was happening in the churches in Asia minor which Timothy was visiting. Rich people were not sharing their wealth with poorer people. Now you may ask, how much are you supposed to share? Preachers will tell you that the Bible says that you need to give 10%, a tithing, to the church. That number comes from when Abraham met Melchizedek and offered him 10% of everything he had. The Bible continues in the book of Leviticus to talk about charity and if you add it all up, it’s 35% of income is supposed to be given away.

Considering churchgoers give an average of 2% of their income to the church, that’s a far cry from 35%. However, not all your giving should go to the church necessarily. There are plenty of wonderful organizations that are doing the good that deserves to receive your charity. Therefore, when you determine your charity giving, you need to add up all of those areas. Charities that determine what a fair share is, like the United Way, are ones that I am not as thrilled with because I don’t feel that these outside organizations that are not being driven by Scripture should determine what I should or should not give. That I don’t want to get too deep into. If you’re supporter of United Way that’s wonderful. I prefer to give the money directly to the organization that I’m interested in.

The big question is why did the church abandon first Timothy chapter 6? I will not go through the history of the development of wealth in the church. Let’s just stick to what’s happening today. Large mainline denominations are not poor. Let me give you one example that really bothered me. In January 2001, I was in a church in northern Mexico. The church had a large hole in its roof. I asked why the hole was not repaired and the answer I received was that the congregation just didn’t have the money to fix it. This was very common in northern Mexico, which is a very impoverished area. What bothered me was during the worship service, a special collection, which was taken every Sunday, was sent to the Vatican. The Vatican has more money than they’ll ever need, so the question is why was the Vatican demanding more money from this little church rather than allowing that little church to plug the hole in its roof?

Now I’m going to say something that some will say is unkind about the church today. The denomination I’m referring to is the United Methodist Church. After a long battle over sexual doctrine, the United Methodist Church has decided to shift towards a more liberal stance. That’s fine if that’s what the people wanted. However, several church congregations did not like where the denomination was going. The United Methodist Church opened a window of opportunity for congregations to leave the denomination. To me, that was the right thing to do.

However, what really troubled me in the conference that I live in is that the bishops of the conference decided that the churches that want to disaffiliate had to pay a large sum of money to leave. It is my belief that any congregation that wanted to leave the United Methodist Church because they were drastically changing the doctrine of the church should have an allowed to leave at no cost. Along the way, the United Methodist Church created a rule that said that they owned the property of the individual local churches. I believe that is wrong and should be challenged in court.

However, the fact that the conference owns all the local church property was in place as the disaffiliations were occurring. Therefore, the conference demanded money for each congregation that left. The congregation could’ve abandoned their building and property and just simply rebuilt, but that did not happen. Many congregations, approximately 17%, left the denomination and paid an enormous sum of money to leave.

That’s just wrong. It goes totally against 1 Timothy chapter 6. Paul says to Timothy that he was concerned that materialism would surpass spiritualism with rich people. I strongly believe that materialism has surpassed spiritualism in the United Methodist Church. During this breakup, the bishops were more concerned about making money and filling their coffers than they were about the spirituality of the congregations that wanted to leave. The decision on whether to ordain openly gay people is a spiritual matter. It doesn’t matter whether you agree with it or disagree with it; it is a spiritual matter.

When a congregation decided that they did not agree with that idea, the denomination should have allowed them to leave at no cost or penalty. Certainly, the congregation had the responsibility to make sure that they paid all of their financial obligations for their pastors, including retirement benefits. The congregation leaving had to ensure that they paid any funds needed for the normal operation of the conference for that year. However, I strongly believe it was wrong that the bishops demanded large sums of money for churches to disaffiliate.

A church that I served in the past was disaffiliated and they had to pay $200,000 to the annual conference. This church is a small congregation and did not have that kind of money in the bank. Therefore, they had to borrow $200,000. What did they get for that $200,000? They received the opportunity to disengage from the United Methodist system and avoid being compelled to follow doctrines that were being introduced because of societal pressure and lacked biblical support. The bishops of this conference declared that the Bible was merely a book of ancient stories and didn’t have to be adhered to. Therefore, they could justify their anti-biblical doctrinal changes.

For those people who believed in the changes that these bishops proposed, those congregations needed to stay inside the United Methodist system. For congregations who disagreed with these doctrinal changes they needed to be let go but not put under the materialistic burden. It will hamper the church that I just mentioned from doing ministry in its community because it has to raise the funds to pay back the bank loan. Therefore, the annual conference has forced this church to stop doing ministry for several years until it pays back this loan. This is a simple example of materialism being more important than spiritualism.

Wow, this sounds terrible. I think it’s important to state this because the people in the congregation need to shield themselves from allowing materialism to take over their spirituality. This is the main point of chapter 6 of 1 Timothy. I know that what I’ve said is very harsh about the church and what I’m also saying is that we as individuals need to learn about the difference between materialism and spirituality. What is happening in the mainline churches is a warning to us that if we allow materialism to run our lives, it will shatter our spirituality.

As followers of Jesus Christ, we must learn from the mistake of the church and do whatever we can to hold on to our spirituality and, if change the spiritual direction of the mainline churches from money to saving lives for Jesus Christ. Our mission is not to raise money so that we can be rich, but to use our resources to evangelize and spread the word of Jesus Christ. I pray money does not take you over and will always remember that it’s more important to be right with God than have a dollar in your pocket.