Now that I have lost a few friends and alienated a few admirers, I want to move into two areas that might not be as controversial but should still be addressed. But before I do, let me say again that I don’t say these things as the enemy of Independent Baptist churches. Not at all. My dad led our family into an Independent Baptist church when I was maybe 8 or 9, and I have been one ever since. I have no desire to leave. 

One of the things I love about being an Independent Baptist is that we respect each other’s right to be different. I will admit that the idea of being “Independent” is somewhat sullied by the heavy-handed way some leaders have imposed their opinions on everyone else and demanded lock-step loyalty or risk separation and alienation. As I said in an earlier post, the “F” in “IFB” isn’t supposed to mean “Fragile.” But I find that many of my brethren turn into candy canes when they encounter a differing view. 

I also hold some stout and passionate opinions about the way things ought to be in God’s churches. I’ve limited my list to ten of the things I think are more grievous errors among Independent Baptist churches. You are welcome to, as they say, take it or leave it. But as I believe these things contradict Scripture, I find that I must at least appeal to Scripture to call for a return to those legendary “Old Paths” – which, as I understand it, stands for faithfulness to God’s Word.

Here is #8 and #9 on my list of things I wish would change. You can read the earlier installments here, here, here, and especially here.

Using people to build the program

Of all the points I have made so far, I would guess this one will be overlooked more than any. And that’s too bad. Sure, this isn’t a hot-button topic. People haven’t done extensive rage blogging or started podcasts to deal with this particular fault. But still, there it is. 

I doubt this problem is limited to the IFB. But I’m quite sure this is a problem in many IFB churches. I understand how it happens. I’ve been a pastor for long enough to know how easy it is to fill holes and find people to carry on in a ministry they aren’t equipped to do because we have to keep the ministry going. We really should pause for a minute and consider what we are doing.

The ministry is for the people, not the people for the ministry. The church’s purpose is to glorify God by building up the people to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.

And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: (Ephesians 4:11-13)

Yet, over the past century, churches have become formulaic in their approach to ministry. And we can demonstrate this by pointing to the ministries we start and maintain at all costs. Our churches have become program-centric. If we want to grow, we have to have programs. To have programs, we need people to run those programs. If something happens and we lose those people, we must find a replacement. And before we know it, we find ourselves looking for people to help our ministries rather than ministries to help our people. 

I don’t deny the need for people to run our ministries. We need people to commit to the outreach programs of the church. We can’t minister in the nursing home unless we have people to visit in the nursing home. We can’t work the streets and lanes of the inner city without people running the bus routes, serving in the missions, and working among the homeless. If we want to build up the older members of the church, we need people to put together Bible Studies and ministries for the “Senior Saints.” We need to give focused attention to the teens, to the men, to the ladies, to the children of the church. And all of this requires manpower. No doubt.

Rather than point an accusing finger, let me share what the Lord dealt with me about a few years ago. We had all our programs in place, and things were really clicking along. We live near an Air Force Base, which means that a significant part of our membership ended up in our area courtesy of Uncle Sam. And, courtesy of Uncle Sam, we have years where the church seems to clear out on a signal. Seemingly without warning, about a dozen families moved away in about a year and a half. The families that moved were vital to our ministries, invested and engaged in the work. And before too long, we found that we didn’t have the manpower to fill the gaps. 

Through this, God helped me recognize that filling those holes would burden the rest of the church, which was already stretched thin, sustaining our ministries. It hit me right then that we were on the verge of crushing the people beneath the weight of our ministries. We began to take a long, hard look at these things. Specifically, we wanted to see if we were filling holes in ministries just to keep the ministry going, or if there might be alternative ways to meet the church’s needs. It was then that this particular problem hit home with me.

Through this, God helped me to see that initially, we started these ministries to better serve our people. But eventually, it came to be more about the ministry than the people. I realized that if we were crushing the people to maintain the ministry, then we lost sight of the purpose of the ministry altogether. 

That thought led to a further realization. When people joined our church, I routinely looked for holes I could use them to fill. I didn’t give much thought to their particular gifts or talents or interests. We needed a helper in the 2^nd grade Sunday School, and we have this new family in the church; I bet the wife would do great helping in that class. 

That is all backward. It really points to an entrenched mindset in our churches. We rely too much on the program; we approach the church like a business; our programs are our product; we feel a lot of pressure to keep the cart filled with the product. My old boss used to say, “You can’t sell from an empty cart.”

I don’t believe we find this program-centric model anywhere in Scripture. Instead, I think a pastor in his office as bishop – which refers to the administrative elements of his work – has a responsibility to observe the particular gifts and interests a member has and to help him maximize those gifts in the work of the ministry. Instead of looking for holes to fill, we should consider what this person is equipped to do. 

Some are not great at making introductions and cold calls. But they are great at having people in their homes, sitting in the living room, opening the Bible, and making disciples. Some are equipped to evangelize, and others to bear burdens. This is part of how God brings together a people and turns them into the body of Christ.

Let’s use the program to build the people, not vice versa.

Size Obsession

Full disclosure: We have a small church. I say that to be transparent. Also, because I understand the way the game works among Independent Baptists. You aren’t worth listening to unless you have more people in your bathrooms than most churches in their auditoriums. Still, I have something to say about our obsession with size.

We have been enamored with the “great” men for far too long. “Great” is defined (naturally) by the size of the man’s church. Nobody goes to the church growth conference hosted by the church running 100. And everybody chases down the “successful” churches – “success” being defined (of course) as “big.” Frankly, that’s how Jack Hyles became an item. 

Of course, the “successful” pastor wants to teach you how you can be filled with the Holy Ghost like he is so you can be “successful” like he is. And how do we know that he is filled with the Holy Ghost? Just look at the size of his choir. That’s why almost every Independent Baptist made the pilgrimage to Hammond, to sit at the feet of the master. 

Let’s not forget what the Apostle Paul said in this regard:

For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise. (2 Corinthians 10:12)

Brethren, don’t measure yourself by the size of your auditorium, the number of members, your average attendance, or any other superficial thing. This size obsession is a poison to us. It has been the cause of much compromise in our churches, and has caused more than a few pastors to avoid holding people accountable lest they lose a member. 

Sure, I’ve heard the Big Shots ridicule the idea that faithfulness trumps magnetism. But the Bible calls for faithfulness. And yes, I am well aware that John R. Rice thought that a sure sign of God’s blessing was growth in attendance. And yes, I like growth in attendance. Who doesn’t? 

I’ve heard preachers rationalize the importance of growth and boast about their growth. I heard one preacher argue that if God wasn’t concerned with numbers, why did He name an entire book of the Bible “Numbers”? Don’t smile too big; your hayseed might show.

I didn’t just make that up, unfortunately. It exemplifies the kind of shallow preaching I spoke against earlier. But I’m saying that this obsession with the size of our ministries has been our undoing. I grew up in the 80s – what was, in many ways, the high water mark of the IFB. We were the mega churches of that time. 

We didn’t lose that because we somehow lost our vision or left our first love. We lost that because size became our identity, what we were all about. In the decades leading up to that time, God did a work through Independent Baptist Churches. And God worked through these churches because they focused on doing God’s work without worrying about such trite things as political clout or whether they were blowing out the doors or not. 

But as happens so often, we became large and started to think that our own hand had done this. It became all about size and not at all about the Lord. To quote Cotton Mather, “Piety begat prosperity, and the daughter devoured the mother.” 

The things we do so we can be large are things we aren’t doing for the glory of God. You can flatter yourself that your desire for growth is to glorify God. And maybe it is. But that would be highly unusual.