Question

John, in your radio notes on The Dynamic Church you give Seven principles for doing the Lord’s work in the Lord’s way, (1 Corinthians 16). One of those principles is an acceptance of opposition as a challenge. You said to accept opposition as a challenge. Paul said, “I will tarry at Ephesus for a great door is opened to me and there are many adversaries.” Then you quoted G.Campbell Morgan as saying that if you have no opposition in the place you are serving, then you are serving in the wrong place. Then you are quoting again, you say, “Find a church where the Word of God is not taught or a church that doesn’t have a biblical leadership structure and instruct them in the truth.” Now, I can see your viewpoint as a pastor, but what about lay people? Were you making that statement to pastors and those in leadership or to lay people?

Answer

That’s a good question. When I made that statement I was speaking to pastors and those in leadership. To lay people I’d say, “If you are not being taught the Word of God faithfully, get out of there and get someplace where you can you can.” But you see, what happens with young men is…I’ve had so many young guys come to me and say, “Well, I don’t want to go to that church, they’ve got problems.” I always say to them, “If you find a church that doesn’t have problems don’t go or they’ll have problems.” If they have already reached perfection, stay away, you could only mess it up. The typical young pastor wants a perfect situation and what Paul is saying in 1 Corinthians 16 is, “I have to stay in Ephesus because there is so much trouble here. I have got to get it straightened out.” The challenge of the ministry is not to go where everything is as it ought to be, but to go where everything isn’t as it ought to be and make it what it ought to be. Now there are limitations to that. You can go in and fight a losing battle and wind up throwing your pearls before swine all the time.

Question (continued)

Well, I’d just like to state that I just resigned as an elder from a church where for about three years. I tried to get my point of view across and I always quoted Scripture. They could not counteract that, but [still] there was no change, so I left.

Answer (continued)

If you are in a church where people refuse to respond to the Word of God, that’s a problem, even from a preacher’s standpoint. There are churches like that, where you are bouncing this stuff off of rocks. There’s no question about that, I mean, the apostle Paul shook the dust off his feet, remember? He left and said, “I’m going to the Gentiles because you will not hear.” So, there is that possibility. But I agree with you, if you are in a situation where you bring the Word of God to the situation and they’re not interested in that, you need to be in a place where you can be fed and you can be taught. I’m glad you asked that.