The Point Is - September (a monthly short story from Cy)
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The Point Is - August (a monthly short story from Cy)
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The Point Is - July (a monthly short story from Cy)
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The Point Is - Classic - (a timeless thought provoker by Cy)
The Point Is - August (a monthly short story from Cy)
Politics, god, and the church
One of the greatest challenges of being a minister is not just having to deal with the bottom dwelling, infectious politics of Washington that touches everything, or the politics of the pew (which can be equal in brutality to the politics of Washington), but also the unseen, secretive, often denied politics that exists between ministers, particularly which minister would receive the biggest, higher paying churches.
Not that ministers should be perfect, they are not; not that ministers don’t have to watch and
sometimes protect their turf, they do; not that ministers should not be concerned with decent salaries and a comfortable lifestyle, but except for the sense that most ministers are doing what they are doing out of a sense God’s calling, ministers are pretty much like the people sitting in the pew. We struggle, we sometimes doubt, at times we are discouraged; it is not always as easy or as hard to do our job as people think.
So what are ministers like? We are like you; we seek approval, we want to make a difference, we get our feelings hurt when people talk behind our back. Like you, we want the prestige of serving large churches but we also want privacy; just like you, we complain when we have to go to work on our days off. Like you, sometimes we are examples of peace and like you, sometimes we are examples of ugly anger. Like I said, we are just like you.
And just like you, we play politics in church like you do in your office or work place, and while some of us may not know how to play politics, others do … well. Some ministers, I have little doubt, could match or possibly outpolitic Bill Clinton or George Bush. Like I keep saying, we are just like you.
And just like you, politikin preachers know how to make friends with influential people, they know how to exchange favors, they know which side of the toast to butter, and they know how to bake cakes for important friends. Just like you, they wine and dine and they loan out their beach houses to the people who determine the churches they will one day serve.
And it pays: High salaries, prestigious churches, a place of honor in boards and agencies, reserved parking, special conferences; in Biblical terms, they have arrived at the promised land and are enjoying the “fat” of the land. And without exception, I have never met a politician, in the pulpit or in the pew, that could not justify his or her rise to the top on the basis of … God given gifts.
On the other hand, like the Apostle Paul, I don’t know if I would consider politics a gift or a fruit of the Spirit, but it certainly pays off, on this side anyway!
Which brings me to two good minister friends who this year moved, and received excellent, high paying, prestigious, “fat” of the land churches. Churches of the kind that non-politicians rarely get.
Now the shocker, neither one of these two friends are politicians. Both are great teachers, great preachers, honest to goodness gifted, called, devoted pastors who would not know how to play politics if their lives depended on it. And the odds of this happening once are small; of it happening twice … astronomical. Point is, it had to be a God thing!
Point is, if we only look, God is always there; there is not a place where God is not! And that, to me, is a great lesson in living life; when we least expect it, God will be there. God is there when we lose our jobs, when news is bad, when life goes south; God is even in Washington. And God will be there when we take our last breath; God will always be there.
