What’s Going on Here?

The other day, a pastor sat in my office and told how his wife has quit her job so she can help in the ministry. “We’re excited about it,” he said. “But losing that paycheck is really forcing us to cut back on things.”

They’ve gotten rid of his motorcycle and sold one of the cars. “The strangest thing, though,” he said, “is that two years ago when she took this job, some of the members criticized her for it. They felt she was not setting a good example for the women of the church. And now, when she announced she was giving up her job to work with me in the ministry, they began criticizing her for making the women in the church who have to work feel bad.”

He was perplexed. I had no answers other than a too-flippant, “Welcome to the ministry!” We both laughed.

The next day, a pastor’s wife sent an email from another state. She and her husband are about at their wits’ end, she says. “The congregation voted unanimously to do this new thing,” she said, without telling me what it was. “One of our couples was out of town and when they learned of it, they hit the ceiling. They blamed my husband and have been working day and night ever since to build opposition to him. It’s driving me up the wall,” she said. “And my husband is so upset that he canceled a mission trip to stay at home and deal with the crisis.”

What’s going on here? From what I know, at least four things are going on in these churches.

I. Satan Is on the Attack
Somewhere I read that when John Wesley received the news of a thriving Sunday school program being established in a particular community, he said to the pastor, “I am surprised the devil has not raised up a champion to oppose it.”

In a way, it’s a back-handed compliment when the devil attacks you. As with the foolish sons of Sceva in Acts 19, Satan does not bother to even learn the names of those already on his side who are doing nothing of concern to him. Those who labor the most faithfully for the Lord Jesus are honored in heaven and famous in hell.

II. The Flesh Is Alive and Well (Even in the Best of People)
We pay Lucifer too high a compliment when we lay every problem in the Church at his door. The old folks used to talk about the unholy trinity of “the world, the flesh, and the devil.” Any one of the three is capable of all the trouble any of us can handle.

To create havoc on the interstate, it’s not necessary to put a crazy person behind every wheel. Simply tamper with the steering mechanism and no matter how well-intentioned the drivers are, the result will be chaos.

It’s too easy and cheap to blame Satan for congregational trouble-makers. In most cases, the murmurers mean well, but they are not mature, not Scripturally knowledgeable, and not led by the Holy Spirit. Operating in the flesh, they jump to conclusions, question the motives of the Lord’s workers, assume the worst, and use the world’s tactics to get their way.

III. The Lord Is Gifting His Churches with Opportunities to Demonstrate Their Faithfulness
The constant bickering and complaining in the Jerusalem church (Acts 6:1-7) had its basis in a real problem: the neglect of Grecian widows in the distribution of food. Even though that congregation was untrained and inexperienced, they responded perfectly. The leaders moved swiftly to decide on a course of action, called the congregation together and gave leadership in resolving the issue, involved everyone in the decision, and stuck to their priorities. As a result, the work of the Lord prospered, the ministry grew, and outsiders joined them, wanting a share of what these believers had found.

My friend George Bullard leads conferences on the subject “Every Church Needs a Little Conflict” (he has a book by that title also). He’s exactly right. By addressing small conflicts promptly and faithfully, a congregation builds leadership and patterns for dealing with larger issues when they arise.

IV. God Is Growing His Pastors
When you want to build a muscle, you put stress on it. When God wants to build us up in Christ, He does not hesitate to lay stress on us. “The testing of your faith produces endurance” (James 1:3).

Far from going to pieces when opposition arises and murmuring breaks out, pastors and other church leaders need to cool it. Do not panic. This is par for the course. There has always been this kind of nitpicking behavior among the less mature of the Lord’s people, going all the way back to the wilderness under Moses. (See Exodus 14:11. Before Israel had even crossed the Red Sea, they were already carping over Moses’ leadership.)

It’s no fun when the people whom one is supposed to be loving and serving, ministering to and nurturing in the Lord, choose to show their appreciation by griping and sniping. But thus it has ever been and so shall it ever be as long as we serve God in this fallen world.

The problem—well, one of them—is that we tend to enter the Lord’s service with our eyes dazzled by the privilege of serving “so great a people,” as Solomon called God’s chosen in 1 Kings 3:8. That’s why we get blindsided. We were not expecting the attacks to come from within the congregation but from the enemy outside. We would do well to remember that our Lord Himself was betrayed by one of His own apostles.

Knowing our own frailties (and we are the leaders!) should forever disabuse us of the notion that the folks in the pews are capable of perfection and unerring godliness. They are imperfect people being led by an imperfect pastor. Teach them this and tell them what it means: we each will need to cut one another plenty of slack along the way.

Joe McKeever is a retired Southern Baptist pastor from New Orleans, Louisiana. He blogs regularly at www.joemckeever.com.