Hugh Halter

We’ve all read accounts of times in Christian history when people were judged on face value of some comment or affiliation, and later deemed to be a heretic. Just pondering quickly, I think of Martin Luther hiding out as his present day church leadership tried to kill him for his strangely literal interpretation of Romans; the Salem witch hunts just several hundred years ago where many innocent, God fearing women were burned at the stake for having the wrong color hair or tone of voice, which certainly indicated they were of the devil. In my lifetime, I remember the outcry over Bill Hybels in his early days for his “seeker-sensitive” programs, or in the last few years, Alan Hirsch, Mike Frost, Mark Driscoll, Spencer Burke, Brian Mclaren, Rob Bell, (not sure if I spelled their names correct) etc….Just to name a few who seem to get trashed online because of something they’ve wrote, spoken, or sponsored.

Why am I bringing this up? Why am I concerned? Only because Matt Smay and myself are about to enter the fray of public opinion. Our book (which will be out in April,) is sure to keep us riding around on our broomsticks fighting off mis-informed, witch-hunters that feel it’s their calling to spend five hours a day reading everyone’s blogs and blogging their opinions.

A week ago, someone sent me a blog from a young lady who had called out Matt and I, as well as our CRM missions agency because we hosted Alan Hirsch at Denver Seminary. Apparently someone had read Alan’s book, The Shaping of Things to Come, and got offended at one of his comments, took it out of context, pulled his financial support from CRM, and then sent a note to this woman, who felt it her obligation as a Christ follower, to start stoking the fires of web-based heresy hunting.

Just for fun, I sent her a note suggesting that if she is to call someone out, she might at least buy the cd’s and listen to the content of what was said, before she defame a host of good people. She emailed back a reply, “You’re logic is amiss, I don’t have to smoke cocaine, in order to tell everyone that cocaine smoking is bad.” I replied, “Smoking is illegal and crack has never been construed in a positive way by anyone, in any situation, so it’s a pretty easy and safe call. To metaphorically deem a theological conversation at a seminary as “crack cocaine” while never hearing one word of the conference is a tad bit of a stretch….don’t you think? Quite possibly, your blog post defaming 300 people connected with CRM, without a word of evidence of heresy, might qualify as gossip??” Somehow in her biblical fervency, she missed some clear warnings about gossip and declined to agree with me.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I do think there is going to be a lot of heresy in the coming convergence of new church forms with old church forms. And yes, when clear orthodoxy is challenged, then I think we must call it out. I fear however, that the global power and speed in which we can state our opinions about Christian brothers and sisters travels so fast, we should be much more careful in gathering and interpreting facts before we spout off in judgement.

Interestingly, gossip is mentioned along with witchcraft as “non-kingdom” ventures.

Again, this morning, I got a call from a pastor who found out that we’re loosely associated with a reformed network. As they followed their weblinks, they read about the reformed networks, “male-dominated” theological stance. One of his female leaders immediately found question with us. Add to that the hundred or so times, Matt and I have had to navigate this question, “are you emerging church?” and you may see why this is starting to feel like cactus in our underwear.

Just to save you all some time, don’t ask us if we’re emerging church until you can define it. If your a gal and want to know our stance on female leadership, don’t ask me about my stance until you go lead something or serve someone since that is Christ’s bedrock for leadership. If you need me to agree with you about all your theological points before you’ll follow me, listen to me, or like me, then it means you have everything figured out and therefore you should probably lead your own cult.

I’ve heard that a good sermon is simply telling people what they already believe or want to hear. Strangely, Jesus said taught that if you want to find, enter, and benefit from kingdom life, one must be reborn as an infant and come to him as a clueless child.

There will be thousands of points to which we can argue and get offended over. Orthodoxy, however, is quite simple. Human depravity through sin, the need for an atoning savior in Jesus, and a call to live as he lived. Not that hard!! If someone goes for that but has some funky view on a fringe issue, cut them some slack and open your eyes to your own cosmic blindness. And by God’s good grace, get your butt off the chair, stop reading blogs, and go do something helpful in the world.

I feel better now. I’ll be nicer on the next blog a few months from now.

I was sitting at a local Starbucks the other day and a pastor from a local church came and sat down to chat.  Somehow we got on the issue of how much money our respective churches bring in.  I mentioned that we had a whopping $5,000 come in during December and when he told me how much they had come in, I blew the head off my perfectly brewed Americano in laughter. He said, “our monthly mortgage on our church is $34,000 a month.” I replied, you’ve got to be kidding me. How do you pay that?” “Well, we get about $110,000 a month in.”  RACA!!!! is what I’m thinking to myself.  This church of 750 is three times as large as the Adullam network and brings in over 20 times as much in tithes and offerings.  They spend 15 times as much on rent.

Now you can look at this in many ways. Initially, I was blown away by how much it costs to reach one person in that church. My guess, based on my knowledge of their ministry and my relationship with the staff, would suggest that it costs about $50,000 per actual life conversion.  In Adullam, I figure it costs about $500 to cover the cost related to creating a community that gets to experience the joy and work of wooing one person towards a transformative relationship with Christ.

I know this is a crass way of talking about this. But I mean it to be.  Not in some way of comparison or competitiveness, but simply as a a question.  As we look at the call of the King to extend His kingdom, I believe we’ve turned a blind eye to the issue of cost and what it means to invest in the Kingdom.  Yes, the fact that this many Christians still give faithfully is something to be championed, but I do believe that the results of our investments should cause any leader, concerned Christian, or pastor to open up the question of what in the wide world of sports we’re putting our resources towards.  Believe me, non-Christians have already asked the question and their answer is ….”You Christians just spend it on yourselves!!”

Many of our most prolific historical spiritual awakenings (present day Christian church movement in  China, Latin America, or Africa; past movements of the Moravians, the Methodist, or the Celts, to name a few) happened primarily with unpaid, untrained leaders.  As far as I can tell, not that much was put into pastors, buildings or church vans.

Now, don’t jump to funky conclusions. I’m not.  In these cases it was a either a much different time or a much different culture than the west, but it does still loudly beg the question of where our money should go.  I’m a paid Christian leader ( 5 sources of income, four of which are outside the church I help lead) and I am trying to provide for the entry of several young leaders into ministry. In this culture, it does seem to still require that we replace some income they would make from the world to give them time to hold people together and lead them into mission.  As well, I do look to the gathered community to help provide for this.

Yet, I realize that the church communities that are forming around the country today won’t have the blind faithfulness of past generations. We deal with a much more skeptical crowd of believers and spiritual sojourners.   The means of provision must now be as varied as the tribes we reach into.  The commitment to work in the world will become a growing trend.  For sure, we must take seriously how much it should really cost to influence a life.

Should pastors get paid?? Yes. Is there biblical evidence to support that payment to clergy and buildings? Sure.  But we must also remember that Paul also set an alternative standard of working so as not to be a burden on the community.  Both are justified; both are options; neither are to be blindly accepted without exegeting the culture we’re trying to reach.