This is a series. It's about a poor servant of God--a poor church pastor--I juxtapose with the poor guy in Ecclesiastes 9:13-16. One day while reading, the passage came alive before me and I saw visions of a poor but anointed pastor and his conclusions about certain matters on life and ministry, as if like the Teacher in Ecclesiastes. Photo above by Finding Dan | Dan Grinwis on Unsplash.
13 I also saw under the sun this example of wisdom that greatly impressed me: 14 There was once a small city with only a few people in it. And a powerful king came against it, surrounded it and built huge siege works against it. 15 Now there lived in that city a man poor but wise, and he saved the city by his wisdom. But nobody remembered that poor man. 16 So I said, “Wisdom is better than strength.” But the poor man’s wisdom is despised, and his words are no longer heeded.
Pastor Placido, or Ptr. Ido as members fondly called him, used to serve in a regular-size local church, with membership of about a hundred plus. The church makes a decent monthly income, making it the ardent desire of a number of his ministerial colleagues in the denomination. His first years were exciting, being a plain layman (just an active member of their young people in his younger years) voted overwhelming as pastor of the church. It was all too wonderful, a young people turned full-time minister.
There was a touch of mystery to it. And that's what they needed, the people said. A plain pastor from their own ranks who could understand what the church really needed--unlike titled and degreed ministers who had too much schooling but understood nothing about the church. A lot of titled and degreed ministers tried to "apply" but never made it. Ido was the church's favorite.
But as time went by--when honeymoon between pastor and church was over--the elders and church board began thinking smarter than Ido, which was typical of most church boards, especially when they felt more senior and smarter than the pastor, when they're among the so-called "givers" or supporters, and especially when the pastor had no bible school or seminary background as Ido didn't. They easily bullied the pastor into submission. They saw his simple layman-turned-pastor story no longer romantic but a ministry weakness. So they started looking into his credetials and many more lapses and loopholes to discredit him with.
To the extent that they started thinking he wasn't really a pastor--or at least he was yet an "incomplete" pastor due to the ministerial credentials he lacked, and that to them was pivotal. They reasoned that no one could explain or interpret the bible competently without formal studies at their seminary, especially studies in hermenutics and theology. So they figured, Ptr. Ido probably had a wrong understanding of Scriptures in general, especially when the members felt he was being a bit too offensive with his preaching. He needed to do it right and not unnecessarily hurt people's feelings.
Other pastors in the denomination agreed. They said "unprofessional"preaching like that was due to half-baked pastors uninitiated in formal schooling about ministry, ethics and theology. "He definitely needs to be in bible school and, later, seminary. Or else, he'd just keep teaching you wrong doctrines," the pastors added.
So everybody wanted him to get a title and degree as other church pastors had. They wanted to be proud of their pastor. It was not a suggestion. It was a demand echoed by the local elders and the district board.
But in matters like this, Placido believed the call should come from the Lord, not from the elders or church board or anyone else. He had prayed for it a lot--who knows, the Lord may be speaking through them who were urging him about it. So, to be fair, he sought the Lord. But after prayers, he didn't see any clear leading. Especially when what the board and elders wanted from the title and degree was to "take pride" in their pastor. They wouldn't be proud if he were just a plain pastor. And with the caliber of their local church, they deserved no less.
And also, that the pastor may have more confidence when meeting titled professionals like doctors, engineers or accountants. Or rich folks. How else would people respect him if he was just a plain pastor, compared to being, say, Dr. Rev. Placido Gallego. Then the church would have something to brag about.
But Ido had always suspected the idea--the need to "take pride" in someone or something. Pride and self confidence like that was never from the Lord, he told himself. It's work of the flesh. All the church needed was to take pride in their God. He remembered how Moses was taken to the desert for 40 years to be downgraded from being powerful in speech and educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians to being a lowly, lowly shepherd. Yet, God didn't think he need to "take pride" in himself or anything he could accomplish, except take pride in the I Am to face Phaorah.
He had once explained this to the district elders and pastors, but all he got was mocking. "Are you Moses?" they asked.
It was then Ido remembered the Ecclesiastes 9 passage. A city weakened by its neglect of wisdom making it easily conquerable by an invading king, which Ido thought, in his present situation, was worldly principles creeping into the church he was pastoring. Worldliness is like a "powerful king" against an unspiritual local church. Much as he avoided the idea, but he couldn't help thinking of himself as the poor hero in the passage, the key to victory and yet disdained by the people he was to save. Just because he was poor.
Not really financially poor, but in the sense of being looked down on for his poor credentials for the job, or so some people thought.
If a church's priorities are like that--priorities that cater to the flesh--it is weak. Ido had always believed that. And what the church needed was not a titled or credentialed pastor but open spiritual eyes to see GOD and take pride in HIM. He once preached about it, but it mostly fell on deaf ears. Some visitng pastors at the time just shook their heads in dismay. They murmured: "Uninitiated." But wrong spiritual priorities, said Ido, made the church easy target for even the weakest attack. "It's not theology we need," he stressed. The more people didn't listen.
Then another king would rise up and take over and grab the church from the Lord. When people are not able to advance spiritually and unable to see what heaven puts real value on--but see only what is earthly--it has been surrounded spiritually by the enemy and "huge siege works" have been built against it. Ido shook his head in disappointment. In the Old Testament, when siege works were built against a kingdom, that kingdom could not see anymore beyond its walls. It had lost connection with reality. It failed to see the real goings-on outside its walls.
And Ido wondered why no one saw that happening--worldly standards creeping into the church. They all thought titles and degrees were the dire needs of the day. He had to be "ordained" so he could add the prefix "Rev." to his name, and that would make his church proud of him. Being simply their "Pastor" was no longer enough for these people. He had to be like this and like that. They decided what's good for their pastor.
Nothing wrong with ordination, Ido reasoned to himself. It's a confirmation of your special call to a particular Kingdom task, with an accompanying specific anointing for spiritual equipment. This is initiated by the Holy Spirit on the body of church elders genuinely filled with the Spirit of God. That was the ordination he learned from the bible--a prophetic utterance from the body of apostles and elders declaring a ministerial anointing on his life and ministry, pretty much what Moses did to Joshua and what the prophet Samuel did to kings. It was something supernatural and had nothing to do with titles and degrees from man-made institutions. Definitely not for "taking pride" in the flesh.
Everything should be the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit, Ptr. Ido insisted.
That was his upbringing from his late dad. His dad had stressed that everything in life and ministry should be through the leading of the Holy Spirit alone. "And nothing of the flesh--meaning, the sinful nature--can be part of God's work," his dad had insisted. "God may speak through other channels, like other people or circumstances, but he'd do it with anointed circumstances or people, not those led by the flesh or who subscribed to the systems of the world."
His dad was not a pastor or active church member. "I simply study the bible and rely solely on the Holy Spirit," his dad had said, adding how you'd get more from God that way than from being active in church today. Church in the old days, perhaps, was good. But today? "All they have are good programs." His dad had murmured. "You can't know more about the Spirit's power with good programs."
Ptr. Ido smiled as he remembered how his dad had looked as he emphasized those things to him. He had always been emphatic on this topic but also quite funny. Ido knew his dad was really spiritual though other people saw him as a heretic, or something of an anti-church. A rebel. Even an envious fault-finder. But his dad had always maintained that he was all for the glorious church of Jesus Christ, which was without spot or wrinkle or any blemish. "If a church isn't like that--or at least doggedly pursuing this--I want nothing of it," his dad declared. "It's not Jesus' church, in the first place."
Ido sighed deeply. That was about a decade ago, a few months before the Lord took his dad home. And the way God took his dad was like how HE took Enoch home. Anyway, some years after--and when honeymoon with his local church was over and people and their denominational leadership was forcing him to go to seminary for titles and degrees for pride--Ido decided to leave the church for good.
But not without saving it first from invasion by a king.
Continued..
