Meeting Transcripts

Brother Darrel Lee

Opening Remarks

Introduction

We just have a few minutes before we begin. I will ask Brother Gary Bertram to serve as an usher for those who come in late. Show them to the front seat if you can.

Before we began, notice that you have a slip of paper in front of you (this will be worth your while). You also have a three-ring binder, which holds the preliminary copy of the Ministers’ Manual that we have been working on for the past couple of years. I am holding the current Ministers’ Manual. It has a word count of 71,689. I want you to estimate the word count of the Ministers’ Manual in the three-ring binder. I don’t want to give you very much time to calculate or think it through, but go ahead and open it and look at it. Then please put your name on that piece of paper and give the estimated word count of the new document. Again, the old word count was 71,689, just under 72,000. You have just a couple of minutes to give your estimate. The person who is closest will walk away with a gift card to Stanford’s for $50.00. This is worth your while. I won’t embarrass anyone who is way off. Shortly after you turn in your guesses, we will disclose the five people who are closest. So four people will know they almost walked away with that gift card. Later, we will disclose the winner. While I introduce the agenda for the day, I will let you work on that for a few more minutes.

The Agenda

As you can see by the schedule in front of you, you have Brother Earl Phillips taking the first forty-five minutes discussing our role as ministers both at the pulpit and outside the pulpit. After a fifteen-minute break or so, Brother Mark Staller will continue his series on __. He teaches about public speaking in particular, but we have covered three of the four subjects. The first three were Eviction, Arrangement, and Style. Today is Delivery. In our third hour, we will cover some other subject matters.

We have a number who are watching from different points around the world. Those who are present and even those who are watching be sure to encourage the ministers at your location who aren’t here to watch this after it is archived, so they can benefit by what you are participating in here today. I think that is all we need for an opening, so please fold those papers in half and pass them to the center. After Brother Bob Downey leads us in prayer, we will have Rodica collect them. Brother Bob, can you come up here please? (Prayer)

Thanks again to all of you for coming. Thanks to Brother Earl for taking this first session. I will turn it over to him now.

‍

The Minister’s Role In and Out of the Pulpit, Brother Earl Phillips

Good morning.  We will start by reading three scriptures: 1 Timothy 4:6, 1 Timothy 4:12, and John 15:16. Here is 1 Timothy 4:6: “If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained.” 1Timothy 4:12 reads, “Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.” John 15:16 is, “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain.” Each one of us has had a call from God to be a minister, and also to be a minister in the Apostolic Faith Church. That’s a great privilege. Along with that great privilege comes great responsibility. A torch was passed to each one of us, and we want to make sure that torch that we pass on to the next generation is as bright as it was when it was passed on to us.

Today, we will be talking about preaching, and our lives outside of the pulpit, which is about 99.9% of the time. They are separate and yet they are one. You can’t separate them. Your life away from the pulpit will affect what you can preach in the pulpit, and what you can teach, also. Most of the things I am going to say this morning are things that were passed on to me by older ministers when I became a pastor, and things that I have learned along the way. They might seem basic. However, I read about a basketball player several years ago who was said to be the best in the NBA. I don’t remember his name, but I do remember it was said about him that two hours before anyone else was in the gym, he would be there all by himself going over the basics.

‍

Sermon Structure

Let’s start with some points on preaching. Read your Scripture first. That’s a cardinal doctrine. Read your Scripture first. Have you ever wondered, sometimes, where the preacher was going? When he finally read his Scripture it had nothing to do with what he was saying. If you’re visiting a church as a guest preacher, you can start with, “It’s nice to be here,” or a few words like that. You can even make a comment about the song that was just sung as long as your comment is short. The main point is to read your Scripture first.  

Be sure you announce where your Scripture is found and repeat it again before you read the text. Sometimes a minister gives the reference so fast. A lot of people have their Bibles, or they use a Bible from the pew—maybe your church provides these, maybe not.  A lot of people like to follow along, but some ministers give the reference so fast that I know I can’t catch it. It’s good to repeat the reference before you read your text. This goes with teaching, also. Have you ever been to camp meeting and had to ask the person next to you, “What verse was that?” You want to write it down. I’ve had people on both sides ask me where the verse is. Sometimes I have to say, “I don’t know.” Sometimes I look over to see the verse someone else is writing down, but while doing that, I don’t hear everything the preacher is saying. Be sure to announce your Scripture, and do it so everyone can understand.

It’s better for a sermon to be too short than too long. I’ve been preaching for a long time, and before each sermon, my wife says to me, “Remember, keep it short.” Sometimes when going home in the car she says, “You missed your closing.” Brother Carver once told me, “Earl, listen to your wife. She’s your best critic.” He was right.

We want to encourage people when we preach. We want them to go home feeling better than when they came. They came to church to be encouraged. Never preach negatively. Don’t say, “The world’s just going to the dogs. Did you see the newspaper tonight?” No! Tell them, “Look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh!” We want our excitement to be contagious, and we want that excitement of the Gospel to stay with them. They came to be fed. Also, we never want to come to church carrying our problems with us. We want to put them aside when we come to church.  

Think about your closing. I’m not talking about your sermon. Think about your closing. It isn’t, “And David slew the giant,” “The song is 366,” Or, “The altars are open for prayer.” Those are not closings. Reach out. Think about your closing when you start thinking about the theme that the Lord has given you.  Think about the end of your sermon. What is your goal? You want to reach out to the backslider. You want to reach out to the lukewarm. You want to reach out to the sinner and to the saints. Invite them down to the altar. If there are no sinners in your church— maybe your church is small—you still reach out to the saints. Tell them to bring their burdens, their praise, and their thanksgiving.

In the old Ministers’ Manual, on page 247, it says, “The sermon must be short, to the point, and above all, inspired by the Holy Spirit. It should be evangelistic in general tone with an earnest appeal to the sinners.” About three weeks ago, on a Friday night after church, a good friend of mine said to me, “Earl, Saturday night we’re having prime rib, horseradish, baked potatoes, asparagus, and my wife has made the best pie.” He had whetted my appetite. Sunday morning came and he said, “Where were you?” I said, “You didn’t invite me.” You’ve preached a sermon, you’ve whetted their appetites, but if you don’t invite them to come pray . . . That story is not true; I would have showed up. (laughter) The point is you want the people to come pray, so reach out to them. Say, “Sinner friend, if the Lord is talking to you, now is the time to come down to the altars, down to the benches. Jesus is here. He wants to talk to YOU.” It’s very, very important that our closing is part of our sermon, because prayer is our main purpose.

A couple of years ago, some famous people—I think Laura Bush was among them—came to the Portland coliseum to speak. I wasn’t much interested in going, but I did see their advertisement in the paper, and something caught my eye. It said, “Each person will speak for eighteen minutes.” It went on to say, “If you can’t cover a subject in eighteen minutes, then you’re just talking.” That struck home to me. I’m not saying that every sermon has to stop at eighteen minutes, but I don’t want to fill my sermon with just “talk.”

On Sunday morning, if you go past noon, you might think everyone is listening to you while in actuality, you might just be preaching to yourself. The audience is thinking, I wonder how far past noon it is? I wonder if I’ll get home and the roast will be overdone. I’m not talking about going over four or five minutes once in and awhile. You could shorten the prayer time, but we don’t invite people to come down to the altar and stand. Billy Graham does, but you and I are not Billy Graham. If the day comes and you preach in a coliseum where there are 75,000 people and you give an altar call, you can tell them to come down and stand because there won’t be room for anything else. In our churches, though, we invite them to kneel at the altars. We invite them down to pray.  

Don’t preach somebody’s problems from the pulpit. That is one of the things Brother Carver told me when I first started to preach. He said, “There will be problems.” As I have studied my sermons, I have found myself leaning toward that, and then remembering what he said and leaning away from it. No problems from the pulpit.  

Lay ministers. Don’t take it upon yourself to preach the pastor’s sermon. Don’t be thinking the pastor doesn’t preach hard enough, so then you have to. When you preach, you will know a few minutes into your sermon whether you have the liberty or not. If you don’t, don’t go everywhere trying to find it. That’s the time to make it short—really short.

Don’t start to close your sermon or close your Bible, causing the pianist to go to the piano, and then say, “The Lord just gave me a thought.” People will know soon enough if the Lord gave it to you. So when you start to close, close. If you forgot to say something, save it for next time.

‍

Basic Dos and Don’ts When Preaching

Here are some quick, basic dos and don’ts when preaching. Don’t preach your own convictions or your own ideas. You can shoot yourself in the foot that way. If you don’t want your kids to go trick-or-treating or believe in Santa Claus, that’s okay, but keep it to yourself. Sister Crawford dressed up for Halloween to give out candy, and I have a picture of Brother Crawford in a Santa Claus suit. These are just examples. Apply the principle to yourself. One of my convictions is that I don’t read comic books or the funny papers. I don’t read them. How would you like me to come in as your pastor and start saying, “We don’t read the funny papers?” If you ask me what I think about them, I will tell you that I think they’re funny.  

Don’t put your hands in your pockets. By the time you finish preaching someone will say, “He put his hands in his pockets fourteen times.” It is distracting. How do you break yourself of the habit? Put a mousetrap in your pocket.  

Be careful in using the word “I.” Don’t make it sound like you’re the only one doing it.  

Don’t bash other versions of the Bible though we do use the King James version. Don’t bash other churches. What are we interested in? Our church and our meetings; what we do. Don’t say something like, “They’ve taken the altars out of the church.” How do you know? Are you there? I went to a funeral in a large church. Down front were altars with Kleenex boxes. Be careful. We don’t care about what other churches are doing. Well, we do, but what they do in their church doesn’t change anything about how people get saved here.  

Stay away from political issues. Not everyone believes like you. Sometimes we wish they would, but they don’t. Our mission is to preach the Gospel.

Don’t say what you will and won’t do. Until you have been in a situation, be careful not to say, “I won’t do this or that.”  

Be careful about prophecy. For as long as I have been saved (which has been many, many years) I’ve seen people try to figure out when the Lord is going to come and then tell everybody. I remember that when I lived in Eureka, a little book was being talked about. Every time I turned on the Christian radio station, they were pushing it. Someone in that church gave me the book. It gave eighty-eight reasons why Christ was going to come in 1988. It even named the anti-Christ. 1988 came and went. The man who was named as the anti-Christ died. Just be careful about prophecy.

Don’t preach at the ceiling. Don’t preach at the floor. That’s simple, isn’t it?  

Watch the clock. I hadn’t preached very long when I asked Brother Carver, “How do you judge time on your feet?” “Oh simple,” he said, “Look at the clock.”

Be careful you don’t get on a hobby-horse, or people will say, “Here we go again.”  

Be careful of bad habits. I had a bad habit, so I know whereof I speak. I came from Dallas one Friday night to preach. Those of you who remember Brother Carver will remember he was a wonderful man who told you what he thought. After the prayer meeting that night, I was talking with several there and Brother Carver said, “Earl, I want to see you.” He said, “You know what? You’re saying, ‘Oh, Oh, Oh’ throughout your sermon. ‘Oh this’ and ‘Oh that.’ You’re going to be known as the ‘oh’ preacher. So when you get up to preach, what will happen? They will count how many times you say, ‘Oh.’ Somebody will ask, ‘Who preached last night?’ Then answer will be, ‘The oh preacher.’ ‘How many times did he say oh?’ ‘Fifty-four.’ ‘What did he preach on?’ ‘He preached on the platform.’” It broke me.  

Never quote from a radio talk show host or those emails that circulate. You are better off without them.

‍

Prayer Life

Now, we will talk about our lives in and out of the pulpit. Let’s take the subject of prayer. Your preaching will be no better than your prayer life. You might say all the right things, but without the Holy Ghost on your sermon, it’s just so many words. If you don’t pray, don’t preach on prayer. You earn the right to preach on prayer. I’ll repeat that. You earn the right to preach on prayer. If you don’t pray, the saints will notice. Some will say, “You never see them pray.” That’s sad, especially when referring to a minister. We don’t ever want to fall into that category. Every minister and pastor needs to be in the prayer room thirty minutes, or thereabouts, before the meetings. If the pastor isn’t going to be in the prayer room, don’t expect the saints to be in the prayer room. Maybe you’re a music director, or you have additional duties at your church. Arrange it so that as soon as you can, you can go to the prayer room. Prayer has been, from day one, the backbone of our church. If you are preaching, you want everyone else praying for you, right? So get to the prayer room as soon as you can.  

The altar is a place for every minister after every meeting. There again, in the old days it was said, “You should pray at least thirty minutes at the altar, out loud.” If that’s not your personality, change your personality. We don’t have silent prayer meetings. If the ministers don’t pray out, the people will not pray out. Do you remember when you were seeking your experiences? You wanted people to pray out loud for you, didn’t you? Even if you don’t have any seekers to pray for, still pray out loud. I don’t mean at the top of your lungs. You can say, “Thank you, Lord” and “Thank you, Jesus.” We want our prayer services to be alive. Don’t put your head in your arm or down on the carpet. If you’re going to preach on prayer, that’s what you want to do; be an altar worker. Every minister is an altar worker.

When I first became a pastor, Brother Carver told me, “Tell the people who ask to talk to you after church, it will be a minimum of twenty minutes, and then only if it’s important. Otherwise, tell them you will talk later.” It’s important that you have a place to pray in your home with your children and with your spouse. If you’re single, make time to pray. It will show in your sermon. We don’t pray to be seen, but we do pray to be seen. People right away will notice. It’s our responsibility. We don’t go to the altar thinking, I need to go because everyone is watching. Pray to God because it is in our heart to go pray.  

When you’re asked to close in prayer, don’t preach another sermon or add things you think the minister left out. Save that for when you preach. Give thanks to the Lord for His blessing on the meeting. You can also encourage the sinner and the backslider one more time and say the Spirit of God is calling. Just be careful not to pray and pray. One time at the close of a meeting, the person praying was waxing eloquent and long. Moody said, “Let’s sing song seventy-five while our brother is finishing his prayer.”  The same goes for the middle prayer: leave something for the preacher to preach.

‍

Church Attendance

We’ll look at another subject. We are still talking about our lives in and outside of the pulpit. Hebrews 10:25 says, “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.” To preach on this, you have to do it. Again, the saints notice if you are in church, if you’re in all the meetings, and if you back everything that’s going on. You might say, “Well, it’s young people’s meeting and I’m an older person, so I’ll just stay home.” What if all the young ones stayed home from the adult meetings? It wouldn’t work, would it? No! People notice if we back all of the activities. If you come to the activities, you can preach on what it is to be in church, and you can preach on fellowship. Fellowship is wonderful. We need each other. Come to the potlucks and whatever else. If someone is putting on a concert for little kids, don’t say, “I’m going to stay home tonight.” Be there. Back everybody. Then you can get up and say, “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together . . .”

If you have children, unless you have toddlers, it doesn’t take two people to take care of the kids. We had four kids, but I’m not saying I did everything perfect. You’re an example. Kneel and pray when you come into church. Even if you’ve just come out of the prayer room—that’s alright, you’re in God’s house. Come down and sit closer to the front. Be engaged in the meeting. Do you know what it means to be engaged in the meeting? Say, “Amen.” Not just when you are sitting on the platform, but wherever you are sitting. Aldo, don’t barely say, “Amen.”  Say, “Amen!” I don’t mean that you holler. There’s a young lady here in Portland who when she comes off the platform, sits a row or two in front of me. I hear this young girl say, “Amen,” and it thrills me! If you agree with something say, “Amen.”  

I want to ask you a question about being engaged, but you don’t have to raise your hands. How long has it been since you testified? Have you ever gone home and said the testimony service lagged? Did you get in? It’s easy to blame the other guy. Have you ever said the prayer meeting afterward wasn’t much? Well, how did you pray? Be engaged in the meeting. Testify. The saints like to hear the pastor testify once and awhile. You might say, “Well, I give my testimony in my sermon.” That’s alright. I can still remember when I was a new convert and Brother Ray would get up and testify once and awhile. I loved to hear him preach, but I liked to hear him testify.

Remember, if you preach on a Sunday night, a Wednesday night, or any night, you are preaching to the faithful. They didn’t come to be sheared. Don’t tell them, “I wish the people would be more faithful.” They are faithful.  

Here are some no-no’s for outside the pulpit. “He that passeth by, and meddleth with strife belonging not to him, is like one that taketh a dog by the ears” (Proverbs 26:17). I love the way the Bible puts things so easy to understand. Raise your hand if you’d like to take a pit bull by the ears. Never, never, never, never pick up someone else’s problem. You’ll come out a loser every time. You think a pit bull is mean? Always remember there are two sides to every problem, and people will try to get you to side with them. Be careful what you listen to, especially from someone who has left the church. They might like to get your ear and talk about some minister, pastor, or the overseer. Be careful who you listen to.  

Be careful of your friends. What does the Bible say? James 4:4 says, “Know you not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God?” Be careful of your friends. You want your friends to build you up.  

Be careful what you put on Facebook. Be careful what you read on Facebook. Once it’s there, it’s there for good. You can say, “I’m sorry,” but it’s already gone out to others and everywhere.  There are people who used to go to our church who have sites. Don’t read their posts if they’re talking negatively about our church. I’m not talking about looking at pictures of their grandkids or something like that. Just be careful.

Never talk about church problems in front of your children. A young boy told me one time years ago, “We have roast preacher every Sunday.” Today, that young man will not darken the door of the church. Be careful, because those little ears are listening.

Be careful about being in debt. Be careful about trying to keep up with the Jones’. If you get in debt, all you can think about is how you’re going to pay your bills. Every time you get down to pray, it will be, “Lord, help me, help me, help me.” He might be telling you to put those credit cards away. You got yourself there. We want the Lord to help us with our problems, but just be careful not to get into debt in the first place.

‍

Advice for New Pastors

There are some here who might be a pastor someday if Jesus tarries. It’s a high calling. It’s a wonderful calling. It’s a blessed calling. There are a few notes here that were passed on to me that I’d like to mention today. I was told when I went out as a pastor, “Remember, it’s not your church.” The church belongs to the saints. It’s their tithes, it’s their hard work. They’re the ones who built the church. They were there long before you, and they will be there after you leave. Your first goal is to have the people love you. You want the people to love you, and you want to love the people. Brother Carver told me this: “Get the kids to love you. That way the parents will love you, and for sure, the grandparents are going to love you.” Love wins the saints. Love binds the people. Love makes your sermons more effective.  

I have a book titled Called of God. I think a lot of you have it, too. It says, “Young men, love the flock. If you love them, you can preach anything and they will think it is good. You can preach your multiplication tables backward and they will go away saying, ‘My, wasn’t that a wonderful sermon?’” Then it says, of course, that’s not really true, but the author was making a point.  

Don’t start making changes right away. If change is to be made, it’s way down the line. Here again, don’t bring your own convictions to the church, especially if it’s something the church has been doing. We don’t change for change sake. If the saints have been doing something acceptable, leave it alone.

Don’t give the impression that you have given up so much, your consecrations are being so tested, or you are barely getting by as a pastor. It’s not true. Our consecrations were made long before we were asked to be a pastor. We don’t want to give the impression that we gave up a good job—we got a better job. Speaking from experience, when you first arrive, you will get a note that says, “You’re like a fresh breeze.” (laughter) Just be careful.  

You want to win the saints’ confidence. They should feel free to talk to you about anything, knowing it will stay with you. Maybe I need to say that three or four more times. The first time somebody comes to you in confidence, and you talk to somebody else about it, it will go through the church like wildfire. Everyone will say, “Be careful when you talk to the pastor.” It’s true. Be sure they have your confidence.

Here is a little advice about praying for the sick. We pray for the saved and the unsaved. That’s Scripture. We follow the instructions in James, and we anoint with oil in the Name of Jesus. Don’t pray so loud that everybody looks. It isn’t our prayer that does the work, and it isn’t the loudness of our prayer. We are doing what God says. We’re praying the prayer of faith. We pray out loud, but we don’t want everyone to look and say, “I wonder who is getting prayed for.” When you put your hand on a lady, put your hand on her head only—never on her shoulder or back. The first time I ever prayed for a woman I didn’t know this, I hadn’t been told. I put my hand on her shoulder, and the minister told me as we walked away, “Earl, head only.” Also, don’t push down on a lady’s hair. She might say, “I don’t ever want to get prayed for again because of that.” Be careful. Never ask, “What’s wrong?” Though sometimes they will tell you. During camp meeting, two little girls came up to get prayed for. The older girl was about ten. The littler one, who was about six, had a black eye. So I said, “I see you have an owie.” “Yeah, she gave it to me,” she said. She was speaking of the one that brought her up! But we don’t ask people what’s wrong, or say things like, “You had cancer.” It’s not mind over matter. When the Lord heals them, that’s when they’re healed. Do encourage them. That’s fine. Praying for the sick is so important. If you pastor in a small church and there aren’t always two ministers to pray, you can ask an elder in the church to assist. I was told that early on.

‍

The Importance of Unity

In closing, I will read Psalm 133:1-3: “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!” We could put here, “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for ministers to dwell together in unity.” “It’s like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron’s beard: that went down to the skirts of his garments; As the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion: for there the LORD commanded the blessing, even life for evermore.” I love this. Where does the blessing of the Lord come from? “For the LORD commanded the blessing, even life for evermore.” The blessing of God doesn’t come from jumping up and down and shouting and hollering, “Hallelujah,” but it’s alright to say, “Hallelujah.” Sometimes you feel like saying it, so say it! But that isn’t where the blessing comes from. Remember that in the Old Testament, they built a beautiful place and covered it with gold, but the blessing of the Lord did not fall. They made all of the sacrifices, but the blessing of the Lord did not fall. When the trumpeters sounded as one, no one was trying to outplay the other. No one was saying, “I’m not the first chair.” The singers sang as one. They weren’t trying to drown out the others singers. Then, as the peoples’ hearts were all as one, the blessing of the Lord fell until the priests couldn’t even do their duty. That’s what we want. We stand shoulder to shoulder with our fellow ministers. This is where the strength of the church is. If we have unity, then God will command His blessing. Sometimes unity comes by not always being right or thinking we’re right. Sometimes it comes with saying, “I’m sorry. I did wrong.” Unity comes among the ministers when we pray one for another. We are so blessed to have camp meeting and special meetings and combined meetings. I believe this is what keeps our churches as one. Encourage your people to go to every combined meeting they can, and you go too. Take them. Provide vans. Come to camp meeting. Not just for a day or two, if at all possible. Come. You need camp meeting, and we need each other. So come. Stay as long as you can. I realize you have to come and go, and you have jobs, but if it all possible, come. This is where the oneness comes from. As I said when I started, I want that torch that was passed to us to be as bright when we pass it on as it was when we received it. If we have unity, and we are as one, it will happen.

‍

Administrative Miscellaneous, Brother Darrel Lee

We are starting a little earlier than I had said, but I was getting rid of my pre-presentation anxiety by just standing up here and all of you went silent, so we’ll go ahead and begin.

‍

East Chapel Fire and Future Headquarters Office Plans

Some will want to have an update on the east chapel fire situation. The last communication that I provided was that we would be evaluating things over the weeks to come. I might have said, “Months to come,” which is really the situation. Nothing has changed along those lines.

For camp meeting 2014, we will bring in some portable restrooms and showers, and we have options for a camp office. The east chapel obviously is not usable in its current state, and we need more time to evaluate how to approach that. It needs to be determined, first of all, what amount of insurance proceeds will be awarded, and secondly, how we will use those proceeds. We are looking into these aspects. You will remember that a number of years ago in a ministers’ meeting, we showed a rendition of what our future campground might look like. It included the R.V. park, which has since been finished, and some cabin clusters, which have now been built. I don’t recall if the Fellowship Lodge was part of the sketch or not. The sketch also showed the front of the west chapel, Tabernacle, and east chapel—what a future east chapel might look like.

What I didn’t say then was something that is very much on our mind when we live in Portland and see how much square footage we have with this church, the east chapel, Tabernacle, west Chapel, and headquarters office. It is a tremendous amount of square footage to heat, cool, and maintain. The headquarters office, in particular, was built during an era that was pre-computer for the most part, and very labor intensive. That obviously has changed in a relatively short period of time. Now, if you walk over to the headquarters building, you will see a lot of vacant space. Architects assign a value to every square foot of each building, in terms of what it costs to maintain that square footage. We must evaluate that aspect, and actually have been doing so for years already. The timing of what we are scrutinizing now was uncertain, but the idea has been there for a long time. We will look at the proceeds that come from the insurance company, and now seriously evaluate the possibility of moving the headquarters office to the east chapel site and converting the current headquarters into income producing property, either through a lease or sale. We simply do not need the square footage that we currently have, and it is not good management of God’s resources to have all of these facilities largely empty for a good portion of the twenty-four-hour day.

Coupled with that, we are evaluating our print operation. It has worked very well for a long time, and we thank God for it. But the electronic age has changed things in terms of how much we print versus how much we provide electronically. We are operating with a press that is decades old and are entering into a period of time where it will not always be easy to get parts for it. It is housed, along with other equipment, in a four-thousand-square-foot printing department. Some people run print operations out of their garage. We don’t need, in this age, four thousand square feet dedicated to the printing process if we re-evaluate how and what we print. This includes the possibility of a print-on-demand machine or what I call “a glorified copier,” and/or contracting out some of our print jobs. We are looking into these options. It all comes into play in terms of what would happen if we moved to the east chapel.

Our current headquarters building is a little over 21,000 square feet. After a preliminary evaluation, we think that under the right circumstances, a new headquarters office could be perhaps half that in size. We look to God and ask that you pray with us that the Lord will give us guidance. We have done an analysis in the past, even figuring costs along the lines of what I have just described to you, and those figures are easily updated. We’ve already communicated with architects and construction people since the fire, so we just need prayer. We are confident that the Lord is in this and will give direction.

We are thankful that the Lord protected the Tabernacle and the west chapel. For some reason, He allowed the fire in the east chapel to occur. The wind was blowing in what we view as the right direction—away from the Tabernacle. It could have been consumed entirely. Some might say, “Why did God let the fire happen in the first place?” The answer to that is easy: “I don’t know.”  

‍

Ministers’ Manual Project

Let’s talk about the Ministers’ Manual in front of you. Turn to the Table of Contents which begins at page 3. You’ll notice four sections. Quickly glance at pages 4-6. The first section is Doctrines of the Holy Scriptures. The second is The Ministry. The third section, on page 5, is Services, and the fourth section is Church Organization and Administration.

On page 4 of the Table of Contents you’ll see a section under Doctrines titled, Biblical Perspectives, starting on page 111. This section includes: The Sanctity of Marriage, The Sanctity of Life, Human Sexuality, Gambling, Pornography, and so on. Some of these topics were not in the current Ministers’ Manual because those issues were not so prevalent in society at that time. So, we have added those topics.

We have assimilated the current Ministers’ Manual into this material and developed some of it more fully, as well as changed the verbiage to reflect 2014 language rather than the 1950 post-World War II, sometimes militant-style language. The updated manual will be very useful, just as the current Ministers’ Manual has been. I was surprised when someone told me that one of the ministers offhandedly said to a pastor, “Well, we don’t ever refer to the Ministers’ Manual anyway.” That startled me.  I thought, That explains some things about that minister and why he violates so much of what is written in the Ministers’ Manual. I have referred to it since the beginning of my ministry, partly because I was told to, and I was taught by my mom and dad to do what I was told. That served me well when I had Brother Nolan as my pastor. We need to read it. You had an opportunity to participate in its development and you will now continue to have that opportunity because that is your assignment: review pages 111-318. So, your assignment begins with the last part of the first section titled Doctrines of the Holy Scriptures and extends through the Ministry section, which is part two. The reason the notebook in front of you is so thick is because the material is double spaced, allowing plenty of room for you to make your comments. If you feel you can perfect the wording of something, note your suggestions. Just as in a sermon, if we can more effectively say the same thing in fewer words, the impact will be greater on the audience. Also, if you think some key point has been omitted or something is stated incorrectly, note that. It is valuable.

Then bring your marked papers to camp meeting, and we will pool all your suggestions. The documents will also be available online. I can’t remember if we’ve already put them online or not, but if not, they will be there shortly. So, if you’d rather do it electronically, that is okay as well. I prefer to do editing by pencil.

This is what we have been doing for a couple of years, and it has been helpful. Even after editing in a manner that we think communicates something very clearly, someone else reading it might understand it totally different than we intended. That happens, so in the editing process, we want you to address that. We need your help in this, and that’s what we would like to have done.  

Back to the Table of Contents on page 3, we are not asking you to edit the other sections under Doctrines—just the section on Biblical Perspectives and the five sections under the heading The Ministry. We are not asking you to edit Public Services or Church Organization and Administration, although you are free to do so if you have time. These sections are very valuable for emerging works, and the Apostolic Faith does continue to emerge at different places all around the world. These basics are helpful for even us to review, in order to be reminded of how we operate as an organization. That is one unique aspect of the Apostolic Faith: we operate in very much the same manner in any Apostolic Faith meeting that you step into anywhere in the world.

Look at the heading Church Organization and Administration on page 6. Under that heading, on the next page (page 7), at the bottom, you will see Legal Considerations. We’re going to talk a bit about that now. Turn to page 500 of your notebook. The title of that page is Legal Considerations. I will just briefly read a few statements. The first statement, under General Legal Advice is, “Legal issues and concerns are a fact of life in our society, and the church and its activities are not exempt from them.” If anything, we’re more obligated to them. At the bottom of the page, here’s my first edit. The subtitle is Avoiding Potential Litigation. I will suggest we strike that and replace it with Minimizing Risk. Now, that suggestion could be rejected in committee. They mighty say, “No, the other is better.” Honestly, I didn’t have time to thoroughly read through this to see if that heading would work. The last sentence on the same page says, “As pastors, there are a number of proactive steps we can take . . .” I would suggest “to minimize risk,” rather than “to lessen the likelihood of the church being taken to court.” I prefer “minimize risk,” at least initially.

The steps are given on the next page. The first step reads, “Carefully follow the guidelines provided in the Apostolic Faith Safety and Security Manual and other related safety materials provided by headquarters.” The Safety and Security Manual is a work in progress. We have mentioned in past ministers’ meetings that these materials are in the process of being developed. We have felt that it might be helpful to introduce the safety changes incrementally rather than to saturate you, so we’ve started with the things that are most important to that manual, most of which are just common sense.

For example, we need safety materials in writing. They are not yet finalized, so don’t think you have missed something; the manual is not available yet. The intent here with all of this is to provide a paper trail that will show that we, as an organization, exercise due diligence.  

In the middle of page 501, is the subtitle Circumventing Claims of Negligence. We read, “The term negligence, in a legal sense means failure to exercise a reasonable degree of care, especially with regards to protection of other persons. Negligence in a church can occur in several contexts such as finances, selection of employees and volunteers . . .” I would like to key in on that last phrase a bit. The sentence goes on to mention vehicle operation, physical property maintenance, proper supervision of minors, etc. We will get back to that phrase that I chose to key in on.

On page 502, the top line says ministers should “Respond immediately to credible information related to dangerous or improper conditions or situations.” We cannot be less than diligent in immediately addressing things that come to our attention. Page 509 is a section on Employment Practices. Then there’s a section on Clergy Conduct. Under the section Child/Youth Risk Management, at the top of page 511, it says, “We should be aware that victims of molestation who have sued a church often allege the church organization was negligent in not adequately screening volunteers or staff, or for not providing adequate supervision. Every pastor can take certain steps to protect children.” The listed steps include properly screening anyone who will work in the same area as minors, and establishing a “two-adult” rule requiring that a minimum of two workers be with children at all times.

Sometime back, I was deposed by lawyers with respect to the lawsuit that was filed against the church a year-and-a-half ago. That hasn’t turned out the way the plaintiff or the plaintiff’s lawyer thought it would. It’s not resolved yet, though I had hoped to be able to tell you today that it had been. I’m confident that it will be very soon. In a deposition the lawyers have the legal right to question the leader of the church. Even though I wasn’t around at that time, I represent the organization. A couple of things came out of the deposition. I am confident that the lawyer for the plaintiff walked away shaking his head thinking, What have I got myself into?

I was able to tell them that after I was saved in March of 1974, my first job in the Apostolic Faith was not given to me until a year-and-a-half later, in 1975. That is one unique aspect of the Apostolic Faith work. It’s different from other churches. When someone comes in and says, “I want to be a part of the church, when can I sing in the choir?” We tell them, “Well, just stick around, be faithful, and we will see how things go. Then we’ll talk about it by and by.” We don’t take the philosophy that other organizations do where someone gets saved on a Sunday night and they are put to work the next Sunday. We don’t do that. However, verbalizing that before a jury really would be of no value. Policies must be documented. There must be a paper trail that proves that system, and that is what we are addressing here.

My first job was as an attendant on the Sunday school bus. “Why?” I was asked. The reason was the “two-adult” rule. That is the way we’ve operated ever since I came into the church in 1974. The allegation was that we were negligent and didn’t conduct ourselves in a proper manner. This has never been the case. What we need to do now is document our policy more thoroughly. We want to be able to produce the application that Darrel Lee filled out before we allowed him to be a Sunday school attendant in 1975.

Finally, on page 512 in the Ministers’ Manual, the last paragraph is, Counsel for Ministers. It refers again to the Apostolic Faith Church Safety and Security Manual and Volunteer Handbook. You’ll be notified when those are posted or when we have those available.  

‍

Worker Application Form

Now I want you to look at the Apostolic Faith Worker Application Form very briefly. That is the form that was put on the table in front of you during the last break. This form was mailed to all U.S. pastors on November 18, 2013. You were asked to give it to your workers so as to produce that paperwork. It is more critical that any new worker fill out that application.

The Apostolic Faith Worker Application Form has a place for name, date of birth, and Social Security number. Notice at the top it says, “Private information will be kept confidential and stored in a secure manner.” Let’s make sure, pastors, that we do that. These forms should not just be placed in a file somewhere at the church. They need to be stored in a secure manner. People are concerned these days about identity theft, and we need to respect that.

Question one, “How long have you been in church?” Question two, “What area do you desire to serve in?” These are questions that, frankly, could be deleted, but we want to have some record. This is not how we choose workers, having them fill out a form. We all know that and we don’t insult God’s holy work by suggesting this is how a person can become a worker. This is used after we feel God has called someone to be a worker. We must show due diligence and have new workers fill out this form.

Question six, “Briefly describe how you became a Christian. Two lines are under this question. The first word is, “Briefly.” It could be simply, “I got saved in 1974.” We’re not asking for an autobiography.  

Question seven is, “Have you ever been convicted of or pled guilty to something other than a minor traffic violation?” Someone could say, “I was convicted of bank robbery in 2001, but I didn’t get saved until 2004.” That’s good. That wouldn’t necessarily disqualify them, but we probably would not put them in charge of tithes and offerings. I’m serious! If something went south, the court would say, “What were you thinking?”

Question eight says, “Have you ever been subject to a child abuse investigation?”  Well, the answer is going to be, “No,” we’re fairly confident. But if something happened in their life before they were converted and the answer is “Yes,” we need to know that. They would not be allowed to work around children, even though the incident happened before they were saved. They also wouldn’t be involved in Sunday school work, simply because we want to minimize risk, show due diligence. Then, if another case came up, we would be able to declare, “No, they didn’t work around children. Even though they were converted later, this situation had occurred, and there was a conviction in which they were proven guilty . . .” That’s how careful we are.

Question nine says, “Is there anything else that we should know? Maybe a question we didn’t think to ask? Any reason that you think that you should be disclosing to us?” In my notes, I thought that the person who was convicted of bank robbery in 2001 could write, “Though I was acquitted on a technicality when I robbed a bank in 2001, I also held a child hostage until my driver showed up.” Obviously, that’s a hypothetical. However, anything that might raise a question needs to be answered.

Next page: “Give at least three references.” It’s important that one of those is a professional reference if available. (We understand that someone who is eighteen years old and hasn’t worked would not have one.) One of the references should be a personal reference—a close friend. It’s helpful if a family member is one of the references—in other words, it’s helpful to have a personal name of someone who has known the applicant a long, long time. One of the opposite gender, too.

At the very bottom, is the authorization that gives us the right to do a criminal background check. This is a criminal background check. This is not a financial background check. We’re not inquiring about anyone’s financial history. There would have to be additional documentation giving that authorization.

I told the Portland workers when I had these forms mailed out to them by the Sunday School Superintendent and Choir Director that if the background check revealed anything contrary, they would be notified. This is only right and Biblical. If your background check showed that a situation occurred which you didn’t disclose, we would ask, “Is that accurate or inaccurate? Can you explain this?” People have been very cooperative and understanding. This is 2014. They understand the need. We’re not asking that you go down to the local police station and be fingerprinted—something which is done in the professional world.

‍

We are moving on to some questions that have arisen.

‍

Response to Question about Starting New Apostolic Faith Works

“Should I move from my local branch church and begin an Apostolic Faith work elsewhere?” That’s a question that has been asked. I think we need to consider the impact on the small branch church that is being abandoned. We need healthy bases to work from and those healthy bases need workers. I don’t think there is any branch church pastor present who would be excited about one of the local ministers saying that God has called them to relocate an hour or twelve hours away to some other location in order to start an Apostolic Faith branch church. If there’s no branch church pastor who would be excited about that, I think there’s a reason. Often times, such a statement is couched with the words “God has showed me.” We have mentioned before that this is an unimpressive statement. To begin with, it is using God for leverage to accomplish what really an individual wants to do. We want to be careful about that. There may be times when your job takes you away from the Apostolic Faith Church. You need to have a job, we understand that, and in those circumstances we encourage you by all means to hold cottage meetings, Bible studies, and invite people in your new location. We want that. However, I think the idea of leaving one branch church where we own a parsonage and a church, where we have a ministry and a handful of workers, with the intent to launch out into an area where we have none of that doesn’t feel inspired. We have a difficult enough time gaining converts where we have all of those things in place already. Let’s really pause before we think that we can do that. We must realize that the workers are few and the harvest is plenty, and the needs are monumental where we already live.

‍

Response to Question about Forgiveness

Another question has arisen: “Does forgiveness negate consequences?” It was mentioned Sunday morning in a sermon that even after we’re saved there are consequences to the sins we committed before we were saved. Many live with immense difficulties. Because this came up again, I’m addressing it now. I don’t want to bring it up again with the spouses present at camp meeting because, in one sense, we have addressed it too many times, but maybe not enough times in another sense because it keeps coming up, much to my dismay. Perhaps the aspect of whether forgiveness negates consequences has not been covered thoroughly, so I’d like to cover it a bit here today.

The question was prompted by a failure of a pastor who was named in a September memo to the ministers. There was a reason for that question, which I’ll mention in a moment. That September memo included a transcript of the minister and spouse meetings of 2010 and 2011, which covered some of these subjects thoroughly. The memo was posted on the Minister Page of our website. I have since redacted the name of that minister because there was no need to leave it there, but the rest of the material remains available on that page of our website.

In September, the memo was not only sent to all of the pastors and leaders around the world, but also to all of the Portland workers. I wanted them to know (which most of them do, as it’s just common sense), what had been covered in these ministers’ meetings along those lines. The one whose failure was disclosed to me in September could have quietly accepted responsibility and the consequences for his failure, but chose not to. I could give you names and examples of a number who have failed, but who accepted responsibility and the consequences, and you never learned of their failure. We will go to great lengths to spare someone from being publicly shamed and embarrassed.

This one who was mentioned last September chose not to take responsibility, and chose to add shame to his family, his wife, and his children. He declared his intent to continue, telling me, “I have put too much into this church to step aside.” I thought to myself, You should have been thinking of that during these months where you have been a backslider. He said that God forgave him and he was going to continue, but was willing to do whatever I asked. He said, “If you want me to step aside for a week, or a month, or three months . . .” He just wanted to know how long. During this process of me trying to spare him and his family, he was not willing to do whatever I asked at all. He was publicly declaring his cause. He threatened to sue the church, which suggests he had justification for doing so, but he has not done so, probably because no lawyer would pick up his case. It could still happen, I guess. However, we are not going to compromise our integrity for some threat that is baseless. He was full of Biblical advice. He cited one verse after another, advising me how to handle his failure. I thought to myself, You have forfeited your right to give me advice. I’ll seek my advice from those who are holy among us.

I would like to cite someone other than the Apostolic Faith. Del Barrett gave me a copy of this book after the workers received the meeting notes in September and were well aware of this failure on the East Coast. The book is Chuck Swindoll’s Rise and Shine, which relates in part to the integrity and credibility of church organizations. He covers a lot of other things in that same book that we would not subscribe to, but that’s true of many books. We glean and learn from all kinds of sources. We have to be able to sort out what to apply and what not to apply based upon what God has called us to do in our organization.

Rise and Shine was written in 1989. I didn’t fact check, but my memory tells me that it was written shortly after the Jimmy Swaggart and Jim Bakker scandals. The younger ones here would not know those names perhaps, but they were prominent televangelists who built empires and so on. They failed—what we would term as “backslid” and what they would term as “having sinned.” Of course, some of them openly sin all of the time; that’s their theology. Then, after a time, they were back preaching again.

I’ve heard Charles Swindoll, but haven’t googled him to know where he is now, or if he’s still alive or not, but I remember hearing him from time to time on a Christian radio station. He has a very good radio voice and some good thoughts—that might have been what I heard, a thought for the day or a few very short radio pieces. Anyway, in this book, he gave three principles. We won’t cover the first two, but just this one, which is the most controversial.

He says, with respect to integrity, “Broken moral integrity means the spiritual leader forfeits the right to lead.” I am reading excerpts here. “Some of you reading these words will assume I lack a forgiving spirit. This is simply not true. I can and will continue to forgive the gross sin but in the case, forgiveness is not the issue; the broken integrity of a minister is. I have no problem forgiving any brother or sister who breaks his or her moral integrity. I have great trouble, however, reappointing that individual back to the same high-level place of authority. Why? Two reasons: First, because I do not find Biblical justification for, or examples of, that occurring.” With respect to Biblical examples, I have often heard David cited. Swindoll talks about David and says, “Prior to the adulteress affair, David was at the zenith of his career. Afterward, everything goes down, down, down.” He goes on, “David ultimately dies broken-hearted, his family in disarray and his successor, Solomon, primed for an even greater fall. He was allowed to remain a king (not a spiritual office, by the way), but his authority and public respect were never as great.” He goes on, and I paraphrase, “David was lost because of his sin and was never restored to the same spiritual authority that he once had.”

So, here were two reasons, remember? First, Swindoll said, “I do not find Biblical justification for, or examples of, that occurring.” Second, he said, “Because certain failures reveal deep-seated character flaws, not merely sinfulness, that creates distrust among those being led.” I’ve covered this in the Portland ministers’ meetings, but I’m covering it today because I want this to be part of the record. Swindoll goes on, “Am I suggesting that such shameless and deplorable actions cannot be forgiven? Of course not. But I am admitting that the character flaws which led to those acts may very well restrict such individuals from places of public service that they once knew and enjoyed . . . It asks too much of those who were deceived and offended to expect them to say, ‘I forgive’ and then quietly step aside as the newly forgiven brother or sister moves back into a highly visible ministry before the general public.”

He continues, “We have an interesting analogy in our system of jurisprudence. A person guilty of a felony may serve time behind bars, become a model prisoner, acknowledge his or her wrong actions, and finally be freed, pardoned from the crime of the past. But he or she forfeits the right to vote for the rest of his or her life. Fair or not, appropriate or not, that special privilege of participating in our nation’s future that he or she once enjoyed is forever removed.

“Being granted the privilege of public leadership and ministry carries with it a tenuous yet essential presence of power. In Christian service, that power is incredibly influential and can be used for selfish purposes, all the while appearing gracious. The temptation to deceive is especially strong in handling such power. Thus, the constant need for accountability, self-restraint, and strong discipline. One whose life has been marked by a gross lack of such traits reveals his or her weakness of character in this area, thus damaging others’ trust and confidence.

“It’s not a matter of forgiveness, I repeat, but of forfeiting certain rights and privileges. Though God fully forgave, you recall, he kept Moses from the Promised Land, demoted Saul from being king, and restrained David from building the Temple. Each may have been forgiven, yet each was nevertheless divinely restricted from the fulfillment of his dreams.

“Is repentance then without value? On the contrary, without repentance the vertical relationship with God remains hindered, and the horizontal relationship with others remains crippled. Furthermore, confession and repentance allow the forgiven to glean God’s wisdom from his reproofs and to re-establish a measure of restored harmony with those who were offended in the backwash of that person’s sins. Repentance not only validates a sinner’s confession, it prompts the offended to fully forgive.

“I must add one more thought. There is too little said these days about the value of a broken and contrite heart. The forgiven sinner of today is often one who expects (dare I say demands?) more than he or she should. Scripture calls this ‘presumption.’ A broken and contrite heart is not presumptuous; it makes no demands, entertains no expectations. I’ve noticed that those recovering from scandal sometimes judge rather harshly those that are reluctant to allow them all the leadership they once exercised. I’ve heard them refer to this as ‘shooting our wounded’ when, in fact, those most wounded are the people who trusted when the fallen leader was living a lie.

“My question is, ‘Who is shooting whom?’ A presumptuous spirit usually reveals itself in an aggressive desire to return to a platform of public ministry. When that desire isn’t granted, those being restrained can easily present themselves as pathetic, helpless victims of others’ judgment and condemnation. I find this response manipulative and quite disturbing.” So do I. Over the past fourteen years, I have seen this time and time again. The names, the faces, the time and the details change, but the symptoms are so alike. It’s disappointing and distressing.

Swindoll goes on, “What concerns me most about this whole scenario is the absence of abject submission to God and utter humility before others. I’m occasionally stunned by the unrealistic expectations of those who have left numerous people in their wake. Some even point fingers of accusation at those in the body who resist their returning to public ministry . . . The truly repentant soul, it seems to me, should be so overwhelmed by humiliation and so grateful for the grace of God, he or she has no room for fawning pride within or frowning accusation without. David, after the Bathsheba affair, simply prayed, ‘Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit’ (Psalm 51:12). To him that was sufficient.”

By all means, we forgive quickly and readily, but that is not the issue. Consequences are necessary in order for us to maintain any credibility as an organization, let alone personal integrity, even if no one ever knew of the failure. I had a situation years ago, in a different part of the world, where one in a prominent position committed adultery, prayed it through, and continued in his prominent role. Two years later, I learned of this and was told it was “okayed” by his key people. No way! Where’s my credibility were I to accept this? Where’s my integrity? That person was willing, after some pleading, to step aside.

What kind of a Gospel do you want anyway? Do you want some watered down religion where there’s no victory? What do you get up and preach after you’ve failed miserably? Then, it comes back again? We’re potentially going to deal with this again? No way. By not allowing them to return to a leadership role, we’re going to protect the party who has that deeply flawed character that caused such behavior to spring forth, and we are going to protect God’s people. The congregation may not know the details, nor do we want them to know the details, because we’re continually trying to guard against humiliating even the one who falls into the grossest failure.

I had a conversation just this week with a pastor who had some questions. I mentioned to him, “Sometimes it helps to not use names, but to just describe the situation. Don’t mention the locality.” I’ve done this, actually. I’ve gone to another minister and said, “Okay, here’s the situation. Here’s what happened. What do we do with that?” When there are no names, it’s obvious what to do. This isn’t complicated. The answer is there is no way this person can fill this role. But when we insert names, it influences our thinking. That’s why we wouldn’t consult with a family member. With family, there is a conflict of interest. Under those circumstances, we cannot judge the way we need to.

After my conversation with that pastor, it came to me that that’s what Nathan did with King David. He described a situation in a parable. David’s response was immediate: There’s no way. Then Nathan said, “Thou art the man.” You do a good job of applying a standard of excellence and holiness to everyone else, David, but you somehow don’t see that it applies to you as well.

We are dealing with souls, but we need to have a policy. It’s much easier to critique a policy than to establish it, although I don’t feel like I’m establishing any policy. It might be more effective due to the electronic age to put it on paper and distribute it, but I feel like this is what I was taught. I am thankful for this policy, and I have always been mindful that it applies to me and could potentially apply to my loved ones after I’m gone. If something were to happen, the policy would be applied. It would need to be applied. There is flexibility within any policy, and we are dealing with souls, but if you exercise too much flexibility, we may end up dealing with the problem again later.

‍

Response to Question About the Baptism of the Holy Ghost

Another question asked recently was, “Should we teach that one must have the baptism of the Holy Ghost to make the Rapture?” I gave an initial response with very little forethought, actually. Then I thought, It really doesn’t pay to engage in a debate on this topic. I don’t want to violate that lesson by fostering more debate on this topic, but I will try to thread the needle and put out a few thoughts. First, I wouldn’t teach that it’s not necessary, but let’s talk about what we should teach. We should teach the necessity of receiving the baptism of the Holy Ghost. The Bible teaches that. We need the baptism of the Holy Ghost so we can be empowered to be witnesses. Another thing we should teach is the necessity of being ready for the Rapture. There’s no debate there. Look up the word “debating” in the Bible later, if you think of it.

We should teach those two things, because that’s what the Bible teaches. Furthermore, I will add that we should teach the Rapture the way Paul did in 1 Thessalonians 4, “The dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air.” Teach that and teach the way Paul did in 1 Corinthians, “We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump.” The dead first, they shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. Teach it that way. Teach the baptism the way Jesus taught in Acts 1, “Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you.” You know all of this, so I don’t want to repeat it, but let’s teach it that way.

A couple of cautions: the baptism of the Holy Ghost is not for selfish purposes. Don’t teach that receiving the Holy Spirit is some sort of “get out of jail free card.” There will be those who have received the baptism of the Holy Ghost who will miss the Rapture. We will not cause those who are saved and sanctified to quiver in fear into that experience. They will praise their way into that experience, having become better acquainted with God. One further caution: I have attended many funerals (and more since I have been in Portland), and I’ve never heard a minister preaching at the funeral of one who died without having received the baptism say, “It’s too bad he or she is not going to make the Rapture.” We’d better not preach that at a funeral either! Teach what the Bible teaches. The Bible is our authority. Be careful about using my words from a sermon that was extemporaneous. We don’t claim that everything we say, even now, is from Heaven. I am saying this, not God. But if I read God’s Word, even if I paraphrase a bit, that’s God. The authority is the Bible. Teach it the way the Bible teaches it.  

‍

Response to Question About Running a Church like a Business

Another question: “Should you run a church like a business?” In some ways, we do run a church like a business, and in other ways, we don’t. In economic matters we do, for the most part. I will give you the exception in a moment. But in economic matters, we run it like a household in that we don’t spend more than we take in. If we had the ability to print money, what would happen? That money would be worthless in time. That’s edging on politics . . . but I’m smiling. (laughter)

I was told early on by one of our brothers—a good brother—who had a passion for a certain project to just authorize it. Basically he said, “Spend the money. It will be there.” I actually did that and the money wasn’t there. I have an accounting background, so forget that mindset. Sister Crawford started with a dime and then began printing. She didn’t begin printing and then a dime showed up! This brother had faith that God was in the project he was promoting. He obligated me, in a sense, and headquarters. I told him later, “Faith on your part has created a crisis on my part. I don’t like your faith.” Spending money before you have it is not faith, it is reckless. When it comes to church finances, we have to operate in a sensible manner and we do that with the help of the Lord.

Church money and personal money are entirely separate. This comes up on occasion. This is not a matter of whether or not we operate our church like a business. It’s the law! You cannot co-mingle funds. You cannot use church money to pay personal bills. The church checkbook is not an extension of our personal checkbook. The fact that we have two children or twelve children is irrelevant. There are two separate entities, if you will: personal finances and church finances. The fact that you have a personal financial crisis does not at all impact the church. The church finances are separate.  

When Brother Carver asked me to be a pastor, it was very clear to me (having sat in the ministers’ meetings for some period of time) that the church bills were the bills to be paid. When we talked, he didn’t give any consideration to my personal finances. That was, by implication, my problem. I understood that. I was happy to operate that way. I was happy that I did not have to make a house payment. I have not made a house payment since. I have said before, “I hope it’s been worth what I have cost.” I’ve not made a house payment or paid utilities since the 1980s. I’ve heard some who are living in a parsonage say, “I’ve never had a raise.” Oh really? Who paid those higher insurance bills or electric bills? If you prefer eating at fine restaurants, that’s a personal choice. That does not impact the church. If you think, I’m going to save money by eating at Burger King instead of having steak, that doesn’t impact the church either. You make those choices personally. Those who are pastors or would-be pastors need to have a clear understanding of that.

I’ve heard congregation members be compared to shareholders. I understand the language of stakeholders. In a corporation, the shareholders are the owners. If you own and sell stock or get a dividend, you either profit by it or lose money. We have to be careful with that analogy, though. God is the owner, not the congregation—although in another sense, we certainly are accountable to the congregation.

Here is the distinction between the church and a business: businesses are motivated by making a profit, but churches are motivated by saving souls and salvaging those who are making a ruin of their lives. In that sense, we do not conduct ourselves like a business. If we did, we would not hold camp meeting; it is expensive. Also, we cannot and do not fire or deal with people like a secular employer. If someone is not producing, that type of employer just says, “You are fired. Here is your paycheck.” And oftentimes, nowadays, the ex-employee is escorted out of the building because of some of the crazy things that take place when someone is terminated abruptly. We don’t deal with people in that way.

‍

Leading in Prayer

A couple of other matters as we wrap up here:  We spoke in the Portland ministers’ meeting briefly about public prayers. We have heard a number of times in meeting, “Dear God, please bless this meeting, bless the testimonies, bless the music, in Your name . . .” Actually, we should close in Jesus’ name. We pray to God through Jesus. That’s a distinction worth noting because people in our congregation would notice that, so we pray in Jesus’ name. Not in “Your” name because we pray to God and we wouldn’t say “in God’s name.” It’s in Jesus’ name.

‍

Avoid Certain Words

There are some terms in the Bible we probably should avoid reading. We also mentioned this in a Portland ministers’ meeting. On Palm Sunday, I avoid reading the passage about the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem riding on an “ass” because of the way that term is so abused nowadays. We don’t want it to distract from the reading. There is a Palm Sunday reading that speaks of a donkey or a mule. Also, we wouldn’t read a Scripture that says, “Him that pisses against the wall” describing the male. There are some things you simply would avoid reading because it’s going to distract from the message.

‍

Avoid References to Television and Movies

Also, we had a rash of sermons where references were made to watching TV, a TV advertisement, or a movie. To me, this suggests that we have time on our hands to burn and we sit around all day watching TV. Nowadays TV, for the most part, is garbage. It’s not better than it was forty years ago, it’s worse than it was forty years ago. It does offer some alternatives that are totally acceptable that we don’t object to, but we should avoid standing up and saying, “I was watching the Price is Right, which is what was on back in the 1970s before I was saved (I don’t know what they have along those lines now). I think these game shows or reality shows are garbage. I don’t want you to say otherwise if you disagree, because it suggests that you’re watching what appears to be garbage. We would not mention that in a sermon. And if we mention movies, it suggests that we’re just sitting around being entertained by filth, and we’re not. So, let’s not imply it. Let’s not even go there. Let’s not give our blessing to our congregation members to be watching TV. If they watch, we assume they’re watching something historical or biographical. Let’s not give the wrong impression. Be aware there are a lot of people in our congregation who don’t have TVs. When we stand up and make these comments, it sounds as if we are not supporting them. They have made a decision to raise their children in the way they were brought up, without a TV. Then we stand up and undermine them. We want to be careful of that.  

‍

Appropriate Photos for Our Website

Concerning website photos sent in from branch churches, before posting online, we filter through those submitted to us. Again, I realize the society that we live in. I realize that the children in our youth groups are not being reared like some of us tried to rear our children. They don’t dress modestly. However, we are not going to show those photos on our church website. We’re not trying to avoid the reality of what goes on out there, but we’re representing the Apostolic Faith organization. I don’t have time to look at all of the photos, but sometimes they are brought to my attention. Two key people who do most of the posting already know that they are to be watchful—so if something goes south there, I can blame those two people! If the young people are at the beach or clearly playing ball, modesty demands that we dress a certain way. However, we’re not going to show some things. I suggest if you have a camp photo—a group photo at youth camp, for instance—where there’s a lot of recreational time that demands a certain type of casual clothing, I would recommend that for chapel services you suggest they dress in “church casual” attire. Yes, that could be challenging for kids who are outside the church, but we have people who will help them do that. At least our church people need to understand that for chapel services, “church casual” dress is appropriate. You’re saying a whole lot without really saying anything. They understand what that means. It means skirts and blouses–not tank tops and sweats. For guys (and some bring their boys in different attire than what I would recommend) we also want to be careful. The young people are coming, though, and that’s a good thing. Getting back to the camp photo, take it in a chapel setting rather than bringing the kids in from the volleyball court or the softball field and taking the picture at that time. I’ll just put it to you straight: we’re not going to post the latter. That’s not what we want our youth to aspire to. We need to do a good job of teaching our young people about modesty, while keeping in mind that we cannot pit ourselves against their parents. It is a challenge, but all aspects of the Gospel are a challenge. It’s a blessing, too. We’re so happy to be a part of it.

We’re going to stand and ask the blessing for lunch. Then you will be dismissed to file out into the hallway through a door that I assume will be open, and take a seat at one of the tables, so you can be served. During that process you will have a little time to freshen up, if you so choose. I intended at the beginning of the day to mention that Brother Ivan Wilson needs prayer. Keep praying for him. He is unable to be here. Brother Chris Botofan has failed a great deal and also needs our prayers. Brother Allen Matthews comes to mind. He spent some time in the hospital, but as of a couple of days ago at least, he was home and doing much better. Brother Randy Baltzell has requested prayer for Cindie who has had somewhat of a relapse today and needs prayer. Let’s keep all of these on our hearts. Brother Andy, will you step up here, please, and ask the blessing over the meal?

‍

1Swindoll, Charles. Rise and Shine. Multnomah Press, 1989. Pages 202-205.

‍