The spiritual condition of America, politics, culture, and current events, analyzed through the lens of scripture.
Welcome to the Alex McFarland Show. What do you think of when you think of the church? Hi, Alex McFarland here, and I want to talk about some of the landmines that need to be successfully avoided, or at least navigated, so that the ministry and the impact of the church is not hindered, hamstrung. You know, it's been my privilege to preach in more than 2,200 churches. A couple of years ago we were releasing one of our books, and this one particular publisher wanted to know as best we could reconstruct everywhere I've ever preached. And so we went all the way back to 1989, and the publisher said, look, every conference, every revival, every pulpit, every youth hot dog supper, we want to know everywhere you've ever preached. And as best we could figure out, it was well more than 2,000 different churches. I jokingly say that I've been in the places where they sleep, in the pews, and others where they jump over them.
It's all good. I really do love the church, and you know the church involves worship. As Chuck Swindoll says, the bride of Christ, W.I.F.E. Worship, Instruction, Fellowship, Evangelism. But some find it very fashionable to bash the church. And I'll come back to this and tell you really a circumstance recently that prompted me to record what I'm going to record, but let me ask you this. How much good work do you think the church does in a year?
Have you had to put a dollar amount on it? Obviously the church preaches the gospel. The church also provides a context for some of the most wonderful milestones of life. Weddings, christenings and baby dedication, graduation ceremonies, funerals, memorial services, Veterans Day observances. I mean the church is the gathering of believers that worship, and fellowship, and pray, and comfort each other in life's hardest times. We celebrate together life's greatest joys. But the church is that body of Christ, and we need to love it and cherish it.
Because think about it. The two entities God has ordained that will bless and preserve any nation, immeasurable blessings, and really the fiber that holds any community and nation together, the family and the church, both of which are suffering these days, both of which we really need to be committed to, the family and the church. I do want to, as an individual that has been to the rodeo and back, and gotten the t-shirt, I want to talk about some of the potential land mines that I've seen that can harm the work of a church. And if you count up, I've spent a total of 20 years of my life on church staff, either as pastor or youth pastor, staff member, but also traveling and ministering. And really, it's been such a joy throughout all 50 states, the lower 48 states, most of the states I've been to dozens of times, a few like North Dakota, maybe Idaho, I've only been to once. But most of the U.S. states I've been to several dozen times each, been to almost all of the continents to minister. So I've seen the church in third world countries, shipping pallets with a tarp over the roof, and people packed in praising God.
Some of the cathedrals in the Netherlands that are hundreds of years old. It's been a joy to be in and around the church worldwide. But any church can be susceptible to problems that are from either ignorance or malice, and so we want to avoid those things. I do want to read a couple of scriptures as we begin to talk about the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. In 1 Timothy 3, 14 and 15, Paul is writing to Timothy those pastoral epistles, 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus. But Paul says about the church, these things I write to you, though I hope to come to you shortly, but if I am delayed, I write, now listen to this, so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of truth, 1 Timothy 3, 14 and 15.
Let me unpack some of these words, how to conduct, how to do church. I love how it uses the phraseology, the household of God, which really means the lineage of, or the nation of God. Now what is the church? It's not a building, although a building is a tool and a building is a resource for use, we all know that the church is the body of believers, born-again Christians in whom dwells the spirit of the living God. It's been said that a church is a group of born-again believers banded together for the purpose of world evangelization. And there it says the household of God, the nation of God, that's the born-again believers.
And then listen to this, this is fascinating, I believe. It says that the church is, quote, the pillar and ground of truth. Now the word pillar is in the Greek the word stylus.
Maybe you've got a stylus that you use to poke at your mobile device, or a stylus is a pen you write with. And the word ground, G-R-O-U-N-D, is a word foundation of truth. Now what are some of the foundational non-negotiable truths? Well that the biblical God is the true and living God, Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ is God incarnate. The Bible is the word of God, and we are to live by what the Bible says.
When it says the pillar, and it's the word stylus, I think of the written word. And above all things, the church, a true church, a New Testament church as God lays it out, follows the scripture, the word of God. Part of the problem in the Western world, and certainly part of the problem in the United States of America in recent decades, have been churches that historically were solid churches, but currently aren't following the word of God. Nowadays I did an interview this week, Fuller Seminary. Fuller, even though it was started by a very godly man many decades ago, Charles E. Fuller, but the seminary that bears his name has been left-leaning for decades. And now Fuller Seminary is starting an MDiv and a ministry track for LGBTQ trans people. God forbid that you ordain and encourage in ministry that which God's word says is abominable, and it's lost people who will mislead others.
It's very sad. But the pillar, the stylus, that speaks of the word, and then the foundation. Listen, if your life isn't built on the Lord Jesus Christ, you are without foundations. Now we're going to come back and we're going to talk about some of the ways that the church can go awry, and we don't want that to happen. And let's always be vigilant to pray and care for and stand for God's church.
We'll be back after this brief break. Fox News and CNN call Alex McFarland a religion and culture expert. Stay tuned for more of his teaching and commentary after this. Christian author and speaker Alex McFarland is an advocate for Christian apologetics, teaching in more than 2200 churches around the world, schools, and college campuses. Alex is driven by a desire to help people grow in relationship with God. He arms his audiences with the tools they need to defend their faith, while also empowering the unchurched to find out the truth for themselves. In the midst of a culture obsessed with relativism, Alex is a sound voice who speaks timeless truths of Christianity in a timely way. With 18 published books to his name, it's no surprise that CNN, Fox, the Wall Street Journal, and other media outlets have described Alex as a religion and culture expert. To learn more about Alex and to book him as a speaker at your next event, visit alexmcfarland.com or you can contact us directly by emailing booking at alexmcfarland.com. He's been called trusted, truthful, and timely. Welcome back to The Alex McFarland Show.
Welcome back to the program. We're talking about the church, the body of born-again believers banded together for the purpose of world evangelization. Later on in the program, I'm going to give some current stats about how much good churches do.
I think you'll be surprised. You know, people assume the church is outdated and irrelevant, and some years ago there was a movement. I'm really not going to tell you the name of the movement or any of the people that were associated with it because I don't want to give them any PR, but it basically said the church is outdated, outmoded, and should be replaced by something else, and that's false because in Matthew 16, 18, the Lord Jesus said, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.
Let me tell you two things you should always bet on. One is the church, and the other is the nation of Israel. Listen, the church will never be extinguished. For time and ever, Jesus will preserve his church that he bought with his blood shed on Calvary's cross. The other, and this is another subject for another day, but the nation of Israel.
That's why when these Islamic terrorists want to attack Israel and fire bombs on Jerusalem, you know they're going to fail and lose because God will preserve the nation of Israel, and I've said many times the greatest favor any president could ever do to the American people, the best favor a president can do is to be a good friend to the nation of Israel. But let's talk about the church. 1 Corinthians 1, 27, it says that God has chosen the weak things of this world to confound the wise. In 1 Corinthians 1, 26-29, it says, For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called, but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise.
And God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are mighty, that no flesh should glory in his presence. The church is powerful. The church at her best not only blesses the lives of people, honors and worships the true and living God, but really changes eternity for people. How many hundreds, maybe thousands of times, traveling?
I've talked to people on airplanes. I've talked to people throughout the world, and they talk about going to some little church and hearing about the love of Jesus and putting their faith in Christ and being saved. Praise God for the church. But nevertheless, there can be dangers. And just having been around the world and the country, let me talk about some of the dangers that the church can fall into in hopes that maybe your church can avoid these things. At least be aware, because there's so many ministers that are leaving full-time vocational Christian work. There was a cover story recently on the cover of the American Family Association Journal.
The Stand is the name of that magazine. It burned out pastors. And just a couple of months ago, I was with George Barna, and we were doing an interview together, and there are 75,000 churches right now that don't have a pastor. I've counseled wounded pastors. Their families are really burned out on ministry.
So let me talk about some things that hopefully we can avoid. Number one are two toxic isms. One is nepotism, and the other is despotism.
Now let me explain. I think nepotism is probably the larger danger, but I've seen so many churches where one family runs the church, and they only really allow their own family members to serve on committees. And that's a danger, because the Lord of the church is Jesus Christ, not a local businessman who gives the majority of the money. It's very dangerous when nepotism permeates the committees, just the personality of a church, because we really don't need a church boss. Now, I believe in pastors and leading, but when I say despotism, an equal danger is when the pastor runs the church. You know, Ephesians 4, 11, and 12 says that the pastor is to, quote, equip the saints for the work of the ministry. And I believe, people ask me, do you believe in pastoral authority?
Well, yes, to a point. I mean, the pastor should be like Moses, who gets alone with God, and the pastor gets a vision. But implementation of the vision really comes through people and teams and committees, but the pastor should not be able to unilaterally make all the decisions. And I've seen so many churches and individuals get into trouble when there's just not accountability. Now, there should absolutely be accountability in terms of that, you know, maybe over a certain dollar amount that the pastor can't approve an expenditure, let's say maybe it's over $300 or $500, without convening the finance committee and getting approval. There needs to be transparency and there needs to be accountability, but there should not be a dictatorship on the part of the pastor, but neither should there be just nepotism where decision-making is just paralyzed because, you know, one boss man or family runs everything.
Either can be toxic. Secondly, conflict of interest in regards to committees and ministries. I've counseled, I'm thinking of two separate churches right now, where kind of a small tribe of people think that it is their calling to quote unquote protect the church.
And by that they mean that, you know, nobody can serve in the music ministry unless it's who they want, like their cronies or whomever. Nobody gets to really have any authority to lead ministries or educational Sunday school classes, missions work without, you know, going through their little group of gatekeepers. And that can be very toxic for a church. Also, let me say of conflict of interest, be careful if businesses have unhealthy in when it comes to the church. I think of one church, their web stream and their website were horrible, but it was the son of a deacon that got all the work on the website. Be careful about using as vendors church members.
Now if that person provides excellence and at a good price, but just because somebody has, you know, a web company doesn't mean that's who you should use to do your website or whatever. Make sure there's not a conflict of interest in regards to the work of the church, committees or ministries. Now stay tuned, we're going to come back and we're going to give three more land mines that can blow up in the church after this. Alex McFarland here. Stay tuned. Fox News and CNN call Alex McFarland a religion and culture expert.
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He's been called trusted, truthful and timely. Welcome back to The Alex McFarland Show. Welcome back to the program.
Alex McFarland here. We're going to resume our talk about the church and some landmines to avoid. I do want to thank everybody for praying as you hear this program. We are in our first youth camp of the summer, first of seven. We're in Montana this week, and we'll have hundreds and hundreds of middle school and high schoolers. Please keep us in prayer that kids will be saved, that kids will commit to serve the Lord and this country, God and country.
As I say, we're trying to woke-proof America's youth. Also, I'm on the road speaking. You can find my travel schedule at our newly redesigned site, alexmcfarland.com. Also, the Cove is coming up, the Billy Graham Training Center in western North Carolina. Angie and I will be there July 12th through 14th, and I realize that is just right around the corner. And while the lodging at the Cove is sold out, there are hotels just a mile away.
So maybe you want to go to the Cove, and the website is thecove.org. I'll be there twice in the summer of 2025. What an honor. I've been there many times, and I've never been invited twice in one year.
So in the summer of 2025, God willing, that will be very special as well. So keep us in prayer and know that our events, publishing, broadcasting, all of these things and the thousands of people that respond to the Gospel every year, it's made possible by your prayers and tax-deductible financial contributions. You can give securely online at my website, which is alexmcfarland.com, or you can mail a donation to PO Box 10231, Greensboro, North Carolina, 27404. Please know that we're grateful for your prayers, your support, your partnership in the Gospel. Well, we talked about churches that get into trouble in a couple of ways. And number three, and please listen carefully, poor HR habits. I've talked to so many churches that have really had problems and splits over personnel and HR human resources habits. Now, I would say every church should have qualified people on the finance committee, qualified people on the personnel committee, and qualified people on pastoral search committees. In fact, we probably need to do an entire show on how to effectively create a pastoral search committee.
I've interviewed many, I've been interviewed, I've pastored two churches myself, and sometimes the people on personnel or pastoral search really are not the people that need to be on those committees. But let me say this, regarding HR, and we're going to be creating a college course, one of our board members is quite literally one of the most astute HR people in the nation. And we're going to be creating a course, we'll keep you informed about that. But every staff member needs to have a job description. That job description needs to be annually reviewed. And I think every staff member needs to have an employment contract every year, so that we're all on the same team and that people understand their role and will do what they commit to do. And so it's communication.
And I'll come back to communication in just a minute. But every person, including the senior pastor, should have a review and be able to know what they're doing right, where they could do better. And I would say the personnel committee should, as they say, have the staffs back, look out for the staff. And then, besides poor HR habits that really can hurt people and hinder the work of the church, number four is the rumor mill and communication issues.
What is shared within committees should be kept confidential. And, you know, there should be transparency and communication, but pray that the Holy Spirit will guard your church from what we call the rumor mill and gossip, which the Bible says is a sin. And then a final area where the work of a church can be really hamstrung, I would say this, is in not walking by faith and in obedience regarding budgeting. Now, the resources God entrusts should be handled faithfully, but really, the church should not be in the business of hoarding money. The church should be putting that money to work for the sake of the gospel. And there's so much we could say about that, about walking by faith. Generally, the churches that I'm in that are really on fire for the gospel and, I mean, growing, they have very little cash reserves.
And I'm not saying be reckless, but generally, the churches that are more dead and dormant and they're declining and dying generally have a nest egg that they're sitting on and not using. But let me tell you why I wanted to do a few programs in praise of the church. Did you ever hear that oldies song called Don't Say Nothing Bad About My Baby?
It was by some group called The Cookies many years ago. Don't say nothing bad about my baby. I was on a show recently in Atlanta, and actually I politely but clearly I walked out and left because the host of the show was just bashing the church and speaking so critically of the church. And I said, hey, you know, we need to be careful because the church is the bride of Christ.
And I don't think Jesus wants us to be hypercritical of his bride. So I knew, I was interviewed by Gannett Newspapers a few years ago and this one particular journalist from Gannett Newspapers, he was not a Christian, he told me he wasn't a Christian, but he remarked that the church does over one trillion dollars, tea, trillion dollars of charity and benevolent work a year. And he said, you know, this unsaved newspaper reporter said to me, he said that if the church were not there to do the food kitchens and the orphanages and the closed closets and help shut-ins with their power bill, there's no way the government nor any other entity could fill in the gap helping the lives of millions of people every week.
And so this person I was on a show with who was just really bashing the church, you know, I remarked, I said, well, the church must not be so bad because you're willing to use their TV cameras and everything here. But I did some research with ministrywatch.com. Now think about this, folks, and thank God for the church. The one thousand largest churches in America do roughly forty-four billion dollars worth, B, billion dollars worth of charitable benevolent missions work every year. But all of the other Christian work combined, right now America's GDP is thirty trillion dollars. Seven and a half percent of that is non-profit giving.
That's two point one trillion a year. Of the two point one trillion a year given to charitable work. Seventy percent of that is Christian giving and Christian work. So this is roughly, think about this, folks, what God is doing through the 120 million adult Christians in America right now.
One point seven trillion dollars a year is given by God's people for good works, benevolent work, charitable work, missions work. Matthew twenty-five says we give a cup of cold water in His name. Colossians three says we do it not as unto men but as unto the Lord. So thank God for the church and it behooves all of us to do our best to be a part of a church and to do what we can do to help the world know Jesus. We are an individual as a Christian, I hope you are, but then we are part of the church collective, the body of believers doing our best to touch the world.
Let's do it with excellence. Alex McFarland Ministries are made possible through the prayers and financial support of partners like you. For over twenty years this ministry has been bringing individuals into a personal relationship with Christ and has been equipping people to stand strong for truth. Learn more and donate securely online at AlexMcFarland.com. You may also reach us at Alex McFarland P.O. Box 10231 Greensboro, North Carolina 27404 or by calling 1-877-Yes-God-1. That's 1-877-Yes-God-1. Thanks for joining us. We'll see you again on the next edition of the Alex McFarland Show.
