Voting on The Man of God

The church where I am a member this past Sunday had a recall vote on their pastor. Yes, there are a few churches around who still operate that way. Voting on the pastor is something I have given a good deal of thought to over the years. Here are some of my thoughts.

-Whoever came up with the idea of having the church decide by a secret ballot vote of the members on whether or not they want to keep their pastor came up with a very strange and cruel method.
-I can't find any Biblical foundation for such an idea. The only time the New Testament church voted on something was when the apostles cast lots to determine who would replace Judas. The lot fell to Matthias. Matthias was never heard from again. In due time God raised up His own man to replace Judas, the replacement was the Apostle Paul.
-Voting on keeping the Man of God. The Man of God who is the shepherd of the sheep, who prays, preaches, counsels, and helps direct you in the ways of God. The Man of of God who is God's anointed leader of the church. Then we want to turn it into a popularity contest as to how many people like him enough to keep him as pastor.
-From my experience when a church has a plan in place to have their members vote on keeping the pastor from time to time it creates an unsettled atmosphere within the church. Particularly unsettling around the time of the vote.
-Pastors are humans and have family. Can you imagine the stress having an entire congregation of members vote on the pastor puts not only on him but his entire family?
-Church is not the place for politics. We are people of God seeking the will and way of God. We find God's will and way by prayer, Bible study, and the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
-Voting never settles anything. People feel the say way after the vote as they did before the vote.
-Kids know it doesn't sound right. When our church announced a vote on the pastor two weeks before the vote was taken my grandson who is 11 years of age looked at me and said, "what is this about", you could see the look of something about this doesn't sound right in his eyes.
-The church has a mission to accomplish that is the greatest mission on earth. We should not be wasting our time 'voting on the Man of God'.

In case you are wondering the vote on our pastor came out very good. Oh yes, a few people voted no, now I suppose church folk who have nothing else better to do are trying to figure out who voted no. How ridiculous!!!!

I can't help but wonder what God thinks about such a strange way of doing things. What do you think. Please leave a comment.

Major Truths from Minor Prophets

The last few weeks I have been leading Wednesday night Bible study at the local church where I am a member. Our church has many different Wednesday night activities; pre-service meal, children's meeting, youth meeting, choir rehearsal, a small group or two may meet from time to time, church committees may meet from time to time and there is a Bible study. With all that is going on the Bible study usually has 25 or so present.

When I was asked to lead I asked the group what they would like to study. We came to an agreement to study the minor prophets of the Old Testament. To date we have studied two of them, Joel and Amos.

At first read one is not sure what can be drawn from these prophets that is applicable today. However as you study and probe into what they are saying we have discovered some very major truths from the minor prophets.

Joel gives us two major truths to ponder:
1. The Day of the Lord - This is a phrase mentioned often in the scriptures. Life is full of the hum-drum, ordinary days, at times we may think nothing is really happening. We may think God is not noticing and rewards/judgments are not coming. But God is active and throughout the history of mankind God has had HIS day and there are more Days of the Lord to come.
2. Pentecost - What a mighty day! The birthday of the church! Yet today I don't think we have discovered all the meaning of Pentecost. The coming of the Holy Spirit into the world and the ushering in of the church/grace age is of epic importance to us yet today.

Amos gives us five major truths to ponder:
1. God speaks to His people - We are not left to wonder about the answer. Through the Holy Spirit and the WORD the voice of God give us all we need to know God's will and gain eternal life.
2. Sovereignty of God - God is in control! He has the whole wide world in His hands! He does what He wills! He is the Supreme ruler!
3. The problem of sin - Mankind has a fatal flaw, it is called sin!
4. Visions/Dreams - In the past God used unusual means to make His ways and will known, does He still speak this way today?
5. Restoration - The architect of this world, God Himself, is more interested in our restoration than anything else!

Get to digging in the garden of the Minor Prophets you will find some major truths to live by!