"Confess [your] faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." - James 5:16
Ever been in a church where the instructions given in this verse was actually possible? Ever seen this verse in action in a modern American church? Ever seen someone get in front of the church to confess a fault or a character flaw and NOT have that action come back to bite them in the backside?
One of the greatest tragedies in modern American Christianity is the loss of trust of our fellow Christians. Because of unbridled tongues and centuries of abuses, the vast majority of us choose to play the "mask game" with one another simply because we don't trust each other.
MURPHYISM #318: The Mask Game - A very common social disorder wherein people put on their "everything's fine" mask (or any variation of that theme) when in reality they are dying inside and are in need of spiritual/emotional healing.
There isn't a whole lot of spiritual/emotional healing going on in churches today because the healing process requires us to share our faults to one another. We don't "confess our faults one to another" as the bible instructs us to do because we can't trust that our faults won't be used against us in a future confrontation with our fellow Christian or that some ignorant "saint" won't broadcast our problems across the city before we get the words out of our mouths.
I believe the loss of trust among Christians is a kingdom-wide tragedy that is preventable and fixable with the right amount of hard truth mixed with accountability. As I indicated in the last blog entry, I don't play around with gossiping in the church I pastor. I've had far too much experience with folks who come in and try to use this time-honored traditional ploy of manipulating people and events in order to control church policy and practices. I'll give you an example of what I'm talking about...
A few years ago I had a fella (we'll call him "Mr. Absolom") and his family come to our church after being "kicked out" of his last church. Now, right away there's a red flag for any pastor. If you have someone come to your church who has been removed from another church it is vital that the pastor investigate the reason for the dismissal. Sometimes people are wrongly removed because of personality problems between pastor and parishioner but more often than not if a church has to take the drastic measure of removing church membership from someone it is for a good reason.
So, I investigated by asking Mr. Absolom about the details of his removal as well as contacting his former pastor and asking his side of the story. Fun stuff, yes? It turns out that my new potential church member had a bad habit of forming insurrections whenever the preacher stepped out of line doctrinally or practically. Of course, Mr Absolom was the one who drew these lines and as the line drawer he held the power of judge, jury and executioner.
Now, when this fella first appeared on the scene he was full of praise for my preaching style as well as the content of my sermons. Oh, I was the greatest thing since air conditioning in his book...at first. Then I started doing things he wasn't too fond of like using praise and worship music instead of hymns or preaching about things that he didn't agree with or preaching about character issues he was having problems with. Well, it didn't take long for the praise to change to "suggestions" which quickly moved to "condemnation and demands".
Of course, I'm not a man-pleaser. I learned the very hard way that if you let people dictate your course of action you cease to be a leader and become a follower; empowering your sheep to be the shepherds. Ever try to follow a sheep anywhere? Anyway, the more Mr. Absolom tried to get his way in the church the more I would tell him "no". That, of course, forced him to move into phase 2 of his modus operandi...form a home bible study.
Whenever someone wants to form a home bible study, I'm instantly suspicious of the motive behind it. It helps if you know your sheep because not everyone in church has a pure motive behind their seemingly innocent ministry requests. That said, I'm obviously not opposed to people hosting home bible studies. What I AM opposed to are those who host a bible study without informing the pastor. 10 out of 10 times these "Bible studies" become underground meetings of church revolutionaries who want to remove the power in the church in favor of someone more to their liking.
Mr. Absolom had moved to phase 2 smoothly and expertly and had succeeded in seducing several of my people to attending these "studies". Truth is, these weren't "bible studies" they were the worst kind of closed door private meetings; gossip sessions with an agenda. By the time I was made aware of this activity it was too late to salvage those who had been attending.
When I confronted Mr. Absolom about his practice I was met with righteous indignation and a ton of scriptures to support his practices. It is amazing how scriptures can be twisted in the hands of master manipulators. Well, I did put an end to this little insurrection attempt but not without a lot of drama and heartache.
I share this anecdote as an example of how insidious this disease is. People don't have to go to the extremes of this example to cause destruction. All it takes is a selfish and immature child with a loose tongue and a heart set on slander and the damage is done. It only takes one experience with someone like this to wipe away all trust for your fellow man. Take trust away from any relationship and see how long that relationship lasts.
Our churches are filled with hurting and dying souls desperately in need of spiritual and emotional healing. I think it is a tragedy that our enemy has succeeded in destroying the trust by using a handful of selfish, unteachable sinful goats in our midst. God's people need to be educated on this social disorder. We need to teach our leaders how to combat this problem quickly and expediently because it is everywhere.
Don't believe me? When is the last time you saw someone receive healing based on the instructions of James 5:16 in your church?
To be concluded...
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