The Danger of a Desperate Church and a Willing Young Man
Youth has a way of playing tricks on us. If you polled 100 teenagers, 90 of them would think it’s ridiculous that they have to wait to be 35 to be considered for president of the United States. If you polled 100 senior citizens, 90 of them would say that there is no way they should allow some 35 year-old kid to be running the country. It’s all a matter of perspective.
But the thing is, we usually don’t realize how foolish we are until we are removed from the situation. It’s the same concept whenever a teenage girl falls in love with some loser boy. No matter how many people try to talk sense into her, she rejects advice. It probably all makes sense in her mind…until a few years later when she is embarrassed that she was so foolish.
As dangerous as it is for young girls to be falling for fools, it is more dangerous for pulpits to be filled with young men before they are ready. We’ve probably all know one and some of us have been one. They are usually friendly on the surface but it doesn’t take long to feel the pride oozing out of them. No matter what kind of “humble language” he uses he is not able to cover it up. This guy was a superstar in his church youth group, always winning the Bible Trivia games. He was the one that everybody went to when the science teacher bashed creation. Now a church in desperate need of a pastor calls him to come and fill in, likes his sermon, calls him to be the pastor (probably at a discounted price) and ruins his ministry.
You can’t tell this kid anything anymore. Not only does he think he knows everything, but now he’s got about 30 people encouraging him each and every week that his sermons are helpful and they enjoy listening to him. Pride is a worthy adversary for all of us, this kid is toast.
What can we do for this kid and this church? It’s easy to say “You made your bed now lie in it,” but aren’t we glad Christ did not say that to us? Let’s paint the picture of the church. Let’s say it was a group of rural folks who were without a pastor for three years. A deacon was in charge of the services for that long and he did the best he could. He was a great deacon, but a lousy public speaker. After several months of enduring him, members of the church decided individually that they would take anybody that was willing to come.
The kid graduates high school and is planning on going into the ministry. He wants to go to college first but when this church asks him to come as pastor he decides it’s the Lord’s will and has the best of intentions. It was a marriage of a desperate church and a willing young man. Potentially this could be a great thing, but more often than not, the young man who has not learned the discipline it takes to study the Word for his soul’s sake will probably fall to temptation in some regards, even possibly immorality. The church will be left in shambles.
What can those of us who are outside of the situation and are looking at it clearly do? How can we help? We have to rescue the pastor. It wasn’t handled rightly even though it was done with the best of intentions. I understand the reasoning of the church and I understand the reasoning of the kid. If you don’t like it, that’s fine, me neither, but it’s still going on and we still have a problem.
My suggestion to this is for older pastors to be a shepherd to this kid. Go be his grandpa on things and just let him vent to you for a while. He won’t take your advice at first, but I don’t know of many pastors who will turn down an invitation for lunch. Just sit with him and let him brag about his church and then ask to meet again next week. Make it a regular thing. You would take the time to rescue one soul from hell, take the time to rescue him and the church that he’s in charge of. He needs guidance, provide him with it.
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