Should You Be as Strong as an Ox?: There is a Downside

By David Ryser

“Church would be great if it wasn’t for the people.”  The pastor who uttered these words from the pulpit was trying to be funny.  But I’d been a pastor for 14 years, and I suspected that behind these words was some bitterness and hostility.

And a lot of truth.

Proverbs 14:4 says that, “Where no oxen are, the trough is clean; But much increase comes by the strength of an ox.”  Ministry is a dirty business sometimes because people can be such a mess.  More than one pastor has confided to me that they have become weary of “scooping up sheep dip” or “shoveling ox patties” (or some other such colorful expression describing the glamorous work of vocational church ministry).

Pastors do not typically enjoy mucking out the church barn.

But the mess comes with the people.  And a church without people is no church at all.  Without the people who comprise the congregation, the local church goes out of business.  Pastors know that, in their line of work, they will have to be involved with people’s lives.  And the work of an operating church has to be done by someone, so people are needed to do the work.  The larger and more successful (at least by our standards) the church, the more people there are in attendance.  And the more work there is to be done.  This requires more people to do the work.  This requires more people to attend the church.  And this…

You get the idea.

Running a church requires people.  And people are messy.  As nice as the church might be without people, this is not a viable option for the pastor.  And the pastor does not need just any kind of person to be a worker in the church.  The Bible has a lot to say about the quality of character demanded of a person who holds a position in the church.  And if someone is going to have a position in the church, that person should be committed to the church.  After all, we cannot have someone teaching Sunday School (or serving in any other church program) who does not attend the church services.

The pastor needs church workers who have the character of Christ, the commitment of Esther, and the strength of an ox.

So I’ve been thinking about oxen.  In Jesus’ day, oxen were prized as draft animals because of their great strength.  They were able to do arduous labor such as plowing and pulling heavy loads.  Of course, oxen have drawbacks as well.  Oxen, like people, are messy.  But they are strong.  The advantage of their strength outweighs the disadvantage of their mess.  So typically the owner of the ox was willing to clean up the mess made by the ox in exchange for the benefit of his great strength.

Hence, the sentiment expressed in Proverbs 14:4.

But an ox has another important downside as well.  Oxen, by definition, are males of certain large species of cattle.  Because they are male, they are stronger than their female counterparts.  But they are also more aggressive, unpredictable, and uncontrollable.  In order to harness a bull’s strength and keep him under control, the owner of the bull castrates him.  This castrated bull is called an ox.

This is the price you pay for having an ox instead of a bull.  The ox is sterile.

And the ox’s sterility is not an accident.  It’s not as if the ox had a mishap while learning to ride a bicycle as a calf and inadvertently neutered himself.  The ox was intentionally gelded by his owner in order to take advantage of his strength without the problems caused by his natural aggressiveness.  So the owner is not allowed to complain that the ox is sterile.  He neutered the ox himself!

Which brings us back to the Church.

Because pastors need church workers to do the labor of the church programs, we set out intentionally to train them.  We take people whom God intended to be passionate, aggressive and fruitful members of His kingdom and then spiritually neuter them to keep them under control.  We don’t call it spiritual gelding, of course.  We call it spiritual maturity, and we call what we do to them “covering” (a synonym for “smothering” in this case).  Instead of coming up from underneath them as servant-leaders and raise them up to be and do what they were created by God to be and do, we pastors come up over the top of God’s people and smother any “wild fire” in them.  And then we deliberately turn them into passionless worker bees (which are also sterile, by the way…but they’re female) in the church hive.

And then we criticize them from the pulpit for being unfruitful!  How stupid can we be?  They are unfruitful because they are sterile!  And they’re sterile because we made them that way!

If a farmer complained that his ox was sterile, we’d think he was a moron.  So what would we call a pastor who complains about the sterility of his spiritual oxen?

And it’s not as if the people of God do not burn to be more than they have been made to be.  I was sitting in a room listening to a frustrated church worker as he described his aggravation with trying to balance all of the responsibilities in his life.  He said, “I’m a husband, father, employee, and church leader.  And I’m not doing a good job at being any of them.”

He went on to detail how he is required by his church to be committed to the services and activities of the church in order just to qualify for ministry in one of the church programs.  He estimated that he spends about 25 hours per week in service to the church.  With tears in his eyes, he admitted he did not have the time or energy to continue on at this pace.  He was neglecting his wife, children, and work to be involved as a leader in a church program.  He was paying a terrible price to work in his church.  And, most tragically, he summed up the fruit of his service to the church by saying, “And I don’t even touch anybody.”

What have we done?

Is the so-called “ministry” of our church so important that we must destroy the lives of the people of God to do it?  Is it necessary to sterilize and enslave them for a life of drudgery on the religious treadmill?  Knowing that if they grow weary and fall to the side, there will be someone else climbing the sacred ladder who will be all too happy to take their place...until they also fall?  Are God’s people made to serve the church organization?  Or should the church organization be structured in such a way as to serve the people?  To encourage, enable, and empower them to be and do what God intended (Ephesians 2:10)?

Do we have no fear of God?  How do you suppose He feels about all of this?  We have created a religious monster that exists only to feed and expand itself.  It consumes all of the resources poured into it just to survive and grow.  Meanwhile, the Kingdom of God has not advanced at all.

So I don’t know if church would be a better place without people.  But I’m beginning to wonder if the people would not be better off without church.

Responses to this article are welcomed.  You may contact the author at drdave1545@yahoo.com

Religion, Politics, and Patriotism: The Idolatrous Prostitute Church in Action

By David Ryser

Ever since the most recent national election in the United States, my e-mail account has been bombarded with dire warnings concerning the current president, his political party, and his policies/agenda.  Even before the election, so-called prophets were warning of various kinds of disaster should a particular candidate become president.

Some of these “prophetic” words (both pre-election and post-election) even suggested this candidate/president might be the Antichrist.

If the current president of the United States is the Antichrist, I will be greatly disappointed.  I was promised an Antichrist who is intelligent, charismatic, and endowed with amazing supernatural powers.  If this man is all we get for an Antichrist, I want a refund.

In all of this, I find myself greatly troubled by the American Church becoming increasingly involved in the business of politics and aligning herself with a particular political party.  My concern is three-fold.

First, I am concerned that the Church is expending time, toil, and treasure that rightly belongs to God and His kingdom.  We are called to be ambassadors of Christ who are His witnesses (Acts 1:8) and who are engaged in the business of making disciples (Matthew 28:19) for the glory of God and the advancement of His kingdom on the earth.

2 Timothy 2:4 says that “No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of daily life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier.”  What part of that verse do we not understand?  Judging by my e-mail, many American Christians are engaged in spreading the gospel of Evangelical Conservatism rather than spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ.

My second concern is that the American Church is placing its hope of security and well-being in the political fortunes of a particular political party.  Many are running around with their hair on fire in a panic over the president, the political party currently in power, and their policies and social agenda.

Did God fall off of His throne when the current president and his political party came into power?  Is our savior the Lord Jesus Christ, or is it our political party of choice?  As Christians, we are supposed to be betrothed to Jesus as a virgin bride.

We are not supposed to be prostitutes who trade our votes for political favors.

And we’re not even decent prostitutes!  Most prostitutes at least get paid for their favors.  We give away our votes for free!  What has our political party of choice done for us…ever?  I posed this question to a friend, and he cited the Defense of Marriage Act which recognizes that marriage is between a man and a woman.  I reminded him that this Act is not law, does not have the force of law, and has not prevented several states (by judicial fiat or legislative action) from redefining marriage.

Passage of the Defense of Marriage Act as a compensation for the Evangelical Christian vote is a lot like paying a prostitute with a counterfeit banknote.

My third area of concern as I read the e-mails and other “Christian” political literature is an increasingly unbalanced view of patriotism.  As American Christians feel more threatened by the direction the United States is going (especially socially), many have begun to contend for their country and its future in ways that may not be healthy in the long run.  They are calling for a return to Christian values that they believe made the United States a great Christian nation.

The United States?  A Christian nation?  The United States has never been a Christian nation!  Our Founding Fathers prohibited such a thing!  Has anyone in the Christian Conservative Movement read the first amendment to the Constitution of the United States recently?

This rising tide of patriotism within American Evangelical Christianity is taking on a tone that is more nationalistic than patriotic.  Patriotism is love of country.  Nationalism is more like worship of country.  Nationalism is a form of idolatry.

To the extent that the Church in the United States is nationalistic, it is also idolatrous.

As I look at the current political, social, and economic situation in the United States--and the Evangelical Christian response to it--I am reminded of Weimar Germany.  As the political, social, and economic situation in Germany deteriorated in the 1930’s, the Church (specifically the Lutheran Church) desired order instead of chaos to the point where the Church was a significant force in bringing Adolf Hitler to power.

I use this example to illustrate the unpredictability of “Christian” politics.  It would be good to remember that the Evangelical Christian vote first became a significant political force in the United States in the national election of 1976.  It was a major factor in the election of Jimmy Carter as president.

Need I say more?

So what can we as American Christians do?  In the United States, citizens have a right to vote for our leaders and their policies.  We should exercise this right and support the candidate--of either political party--whose policies most nearly align with our beliefs and worldview.  It would be best if we would do so as independent voters who are not “in bed” with any particular political party.

And it would be good for us to remember that it is God who raises up political leaders for His own purposes (Daniel 4:17; Exodus 9:16; cf. Romans 9:17).  And His choice might not always be our choice (Jeremiah 27:5-8).  To the extent we can in good conscience, we should submit to governmental authority (1 Peter 2:13-15).  Paul’s admonition in Romans 13:1-7 is particularly ironic since it was the Roman government which eventually executed him.

Having exercised our rights as citizens, we live with the results.  We pray for our leaders (1 Timothy 2:1-3) even if we didn’t vote for them because the Word of God commands us to do so.

We should not put our political leaders in the place of God.  My salvation, and well-being, is not determined by who occupies the office of the Presidency or the party in power in the Congress.  The president and other politicians are irrelevant to the advancement of God’s kingdom.

And ultimately, God and His kingdom are what we should be primarily concerned about.

Responses to this article are welcomed.  You may contact the author at drdave1545@yahoo.com

Meeting God: Seeing Blue in a Red World

By David Ryser

“How do you explain knowing a loving Father God to someone when that person has no concept either of God or of a loving earthly father?”

This question was posed by my wife who wanted to witness effectively to a loved one.  She desired for him to meet the Father/Daddy of the Bible and not the fire-breathing tyrant of religion.  She had been trying to explain the concept of a loving Father God to this person.  But he was unable to grasp the ideas of God or of a loving father--much less the concept of God who is also a loving Father.

Hence, her query.  And my initial brilliant response, “That’s a good question.”  (This is the reply I always give when I don’t know the answer to a question, and I’m stalling for time to see if one occurs to me.)  Since that answer didn’t seem to satisfy her, I thought about her question for the next few days.

Jason Henderson, in his wonderful book The Lie & The Light, colorfully illustrates this problem.  He likens a person who knows God to someone who has lived all of his life in a world where everything is red.  Because there is such a variety of red (light red, dark red, cherry-red, tomato-red, blood-red, scarlet, etc.), there are many words to describe these differences. But all of them describe some kind of red.

Then one day, a man sees blue.

How exciting!  The man is so overwhelmed by seeing blue that he goes and tells everyone about what he has seen.  The problem is that all of the words he uses to describe the color blue are “red” words.  He has no words to describe blue.  And it complicates matters that his friends have only seen red.  How can he describe blue (using “red” words and speaking to “red” people) in such a way so as to enable his friends and family to understand exactly what he has seen?

He can’t.  Because no amount of explanation or teaching will enable a “red” person to see blue.

One of my professors at ORU, Dr. Robert Tuttle, described this problem in somewhat different language.  Because he was a minister and a theologian, people often challenged him to describe God in such a way as to prove His existence to them.  When they would do this, Dr. Tuttle would agree to do so…as soon as they could describe the taste of an apple to him.  He would say, “I have never tasted an apple.  Please describe to me the taste of an apple so I will know exactly what it tastes like.”  After several minutes of endeavoring to do so (through several varieties of explanations and analogies designed to describe the taste of an apple to one who had never tasted one), the person inevitably would give up the attempt.

Then Dr. Tuttle would respond, “You can’t even describe to me the taste of a stinking apple!  How do you expect me to describe God to you?”

The only way to know what an apple tastes like is to bite into it.  I must experience it to know it.  The same is true of God.  The Bible says, “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34:8a, among others).  Not read and see, or study and see, or listen to a sermon and see.  Taste!  I must experience the taste of an apple to know it.  I must experience God to know Him.

There is no substitute for experiencing God.  If we do not experience God, we cannot know Him.  There is no true knowledge of God apart from experiencing Him.

So now I had the answer to my wife’s question.  The only way her loved one could come to know a loving Father God, without prior knowledge of either God or a loving father, would be for this person to experience Him.  The problem is that there are no words that will enable this person to experience God.

We need another strategy for bringing people to God.

Meeting God is a lot like meeting anyone else.  In order for me to meet someone, two things are needed.  First, I must have the desire to meet this person.  Otherwise I won’t go to the effort required to meet them.  Second, I need someone who knows both me and this other person to introduce us.  Knowing one or the other of us won’t do any good.  The one introducing us must know both of us.

This is how it works with God.

In order for people to meet God, they must desire to do so.  Since this desire cannot be created by words alone (you cannot describe blue with “red” words), there must be something besides words that will motivate a person to want to meet Him.  In my experience, the most powerful motivator to induce people to seek God is the life of a genuine lover of Jesus.  If we are living the Christian life, so that the Life of Christ on the inside of us is being manifested on the outside of us, people will see the effects of that life in us.  Some aspect of God’s character and workings manifested in our lives will attract them to Him.  This will provide us with an opportunity to introduce them to Him.

But you cannot introduce a person to someone you’ve never met yourself.  This is why people are too often introduced to the god of religion rather than to the God described in the Bible.

In order to introduce people to the one, true, and living God, we must know Him.  We must have experienced Him.  We must have tasted and seen that He is good…that He is all He claims to be in His Word.

Do we have that kind of relationship with God?  Do we know Him and manifest His life and presence in our own lives?  Do we demonstrate the power of God in healings, miracles, and signs & wonders (Mark 16:17, 18; 1 Corinthians 2:1-5)?  Do people want what we have?  Or are they hoping that what we have isn’t contagious?  Do people hunger to meet our loving Father God because although they have no concept of God or of a loving Father, they sure would like to meet whoever it is that we know?

We had better get some good answers to these questions because meeting God is a lot like tasting an apple.  A person needs to know someone who has tasted an apple, liked it, and has one to give them...and encourages them to take a bite.

Are we that someone?

Responses to this article are welcomed.  You may contact the author at drdave1545@yahoo.com