Chapter 73
A true faith walk will produce many trying experiences and disappointments. When our family first arrived in Kansas, we had already been walking in a faith walk for many years and had been through some very difficult times, so this was not new territory for us.God had begun preparing us to be sensitive to His leading and directions through the previous years in the walk with the Holy Spirit.
Many Christian families who may find themselves homeless will not have lived their life learning to live by faith and learning to allow their lives to be guided by the Holy Spirit. They will need even more mercy and compassion from people they encounter to help them in their time of need. There will also be families that are not Christian that will find themselves homeless. Most newly homeless families traveling across the country would be sensitive toward receiving rejection, and if scrutinized as we were, we would expect their spirits to be crushed. Opportunities to help all of the homeless are perfect opportunities for god’s church to display the love of god through their actions. We will all be held accountable when we turn away from people in need, in their time of desperation, and if we display a lack of Christian love and reject helping them, we may be passing a death sentence upon such families.
“it would better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones, which believe in Me.”1 Though I have used this verse before, I draw attention to the fact that this statement is repeated three times in the gospels. It is a serious thing to offend one of god’s children. We believe that ministers are on dangerous ground when they look past the needs of God’s flock, whether they are members of their particular church or not, especially when their needs are so blaringly obvious.
The leadership of the Olive Branch Church kept us at arm’s length, always analyzing us. After we had been with the church for over a year and a half, the pastor informed me how they (the leadership) had watched our family closely and could not find a single thing to fault us on. The Pastor then explained to me his ruler for making this determination: our children were well behaved, our ministry was acceptable within the church, we accepted correction properly, owned a business downtown, purchased a home, and my wife was doing well working for the local major radio station. He said that they had watched us very closely and knew for certain that we were real Christians. As he was speaking these words, he reached into his pocket to retrieve something and out fell a magnifying glass to which he chuckled about how he had kept a close eye on us. I lost all respect for this man and his misguided approach to being the shepherd of god’s children in the way he treated us and failed to minister even one time to my family while in Lawson.
Although we became regular church members and the Olive Branch Church in Lawson would be our church home during the several years we lived in Kansas, the leadership never asked to meet with us to discuss our needs, plans, or whether they could assist us in any way. Communication with the leadership was almost non-existent except for occasional greetings and partial smiles. The Word of god identifies 5 positions of ministry within a church: Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Pastor, and Teacher. The call of a Pastor is very important to the church body. Pastors and their associate leaders must recognize that their main ministry is to set a Christ-like example to their ‘flock,’to ‘shepherd’ the congregation, to council and train-up the church members in spiritual matters, helping them to discover their area of service (their anointed call), and finally to send them out to fulfill their calling.
Leadership must not be so introspective and self-promoting that they fail to fulfill their greatest call, to minister life to the body of Christ.
Janie’s Reflection…
Since the Pastor had clearly voiced his negative opinion on our getting a home, I never made it a point to tell him about our miracle. Coincidentally, when we hosted a huge yard-sale before leaving town, the Pastor’s son came to the sale. He asked about my being there, and I let him know it was our home. He was clearly shocked and even expressed his surprise that we had such a beautiful home. This again displayed the lack of relationship between the leadership and their flock.