Boars in God's Vineyard, Part 2

Effective pastors are not people pleasers. Shepherding a flock, a congregation, is a tough assignment.

The sheep often get restless and sometimes, well, downright defiant. Successful pastors stick to their biblical calling and resist the temptation to become popular. Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll speaks to the students at Dallas Theological Center. where he prepared for a lifetime of ministry more than 60 years ago. This is message number two in a practical six-part series called The Pros and Cons of Ministry.

Chuck titled his message, Boars in God's Vineyard. Let's look together at a somewhat obscure section in Paul's letter to the Romans. It's toward the end of that letter as he zeroes in on some of the difficult people in the church at Rome. Romans 16, 17 to 20, reveals that there were those, to begin with, who were causing dissensions. Cynthia and I often refer to people like this as those who stir the pot.

There are those who take delight by spreading false information. And often it will be about you, the leader. Paul takes off the gloves as he identifies the reason.

He shoots straight in verse 18. Such people are not serving Christ our Lord, he states, they are serving their own personal interests. Now if you're like most reluctant shepherds, you will put up with it too long. I did that for the first number of years in ministry. In fact, I didn't even want to think it was going on, which makes me appreciate the very first word that Paul uses when he deals with how it's handled is watch out. There needs to be close observation. Faithful shepherds watch out for their flocks.

And then you will notice at the end of verse 17, the strongest of the terms, stay away from them. In a former church, we had a person who was a very gifted individual. She was, however, a gossip. She was difficult to deal with.

She stirred the pot regularly. Finally, it fell my lot to deal with it. I brought in my closest associate, and along with that I brought in the chair of our elders. They were in the room when I asked her to come in. I confronted her with the wrong, and then I began to name evidence after evidence, example after example, one issue after another, after another, after another. I even confessed to her that I had overlooked those things I had no business overlooking, and it was, it had come to an end. She was through. It's one of the few times that I have, let me put it nicely, that I have invited people to try another church for their own good, and it's always difficult to know what church to recommend. So, I usually do not recommend which church, but it won't be this one.

I make that clear. Her husband was not with her, perhaps a fault on my part, but that was the last I ever heard from either one of them. Let me add, not in my notes, but from memory, the relief was palpable. The release from all of the pot stirring and trouble making and gossip and innuendo. Now, I wasn't popular with her sister who was in the church, and when she confronted me the following Sunday, I quietly made it clear, you're next. And it's amazing how that quieted her down as I said that. When I was younger, I would have never done that. When you get older, you get a little crusty, and hopefully not cranky, but you get tired of it.

And you know what else is more important? The sheep need protection. They don't need to be around that. They're learning wrong things. They're also learning that you're passive as a leader. I think the respect for me grew as a result of dealing with it. Though there were some in her group that left with her, that was also a nice change. We quickly filled our pews with those who were longing to come to the church and couldn't find a place to sit.

Now they had a place, and they came with delight and anticipation, looking forward to a place of worship they could enjoy. I repeat, it is unpleasant and it is unpopular. But if you do the work of discipline as it should be done, always with witnesses, always making sure that those you answer to, in my case, a group of elders, know the full story. In fact, as I mentioned earlier, I had the chair of the elders with us, and they all understood.

Interestingly, it never once urged me to do it. That was my call. That was my responsibility. And it's yours. Someday it will be yours.

Now, I can just read some of your minds. I can just see some of you thinking, I'm just going to go to a church that doesn't have people like that. Oh, welcome to Mars. That's on another planet. They'll be there.

And some of them lie in wait. Had a young man who was a graduate of Masters Seminary, very fine preacher, very fine preacher, excellent expositor, called me with tears. And I called his name as we were on the phone, and I said, I'm so glad to hear from you.

Haven't heard from you in a long time. He said, well, since we've last talked, I've changed churches. And then he just sobbed. I said, what on earth is happening? He said, there is an old man in our church that has run off three pastors before me, and he's made it clear that I'm next.

And he spread the word that I'm guilty of this and I'm not, that I'm not doing that and I am. And he said, I just don't know what to do. I said, well, get out a piece of paper and a pencil and I will give you some directions.

And I went over many of the things I've just covered here. He was as quiet as a church mouse. He said, OK, OK. He would on occasion say, are you serious? And I said, yep, I'm serious. I said, let me ask here, do your elders know what he's doing? Well, most of them do. Were they there before you got there and watched all this?

Yep, most of them were. Well, you need to break him of a very bad habit. You need to expose him. Call his hand. He said, well, he's 80 years old.

I don't care if he's 180, 210. He needs to be confronted. He's making your life and many in the church miserable. He said, well, he certainly is. And yet, you know, he's really rich. I said, I don't care if he's rich.

That doesn't qualify him for doing what he's doing. Call him in privately and tell him if it doesn't change, you're going to make it known publicly. Said, well, when do I do that? I said, how about next week?

How about this week? He said, OK, write this down. And I said, get your elders ready for it. And he did that. That week, he called the old guy in, confronted him. And he said he balked at first, kind of looked down. He said, well, I never thought I'd be talked to like this. And I said, did you back off? He said, no, not once. You told me not to back off right here.

He's reading it right here in the paper. Well, that's right. You've followed through. Well, how'd the elders do? He said, you know what?

Man, they stepped up. And I said, how about the following Sunday? You know, he didn't show up. I said, that's great. If he shows up and starts making trouble, expose him publicly. Called him by name.

Said, are you serious? I said, yeah. I did that once with an elder who was a child molester and had been going on for some time. No one knew it. When we found out about it, we confronted him as a group of elders. And he was sort of the hero of the church at the time until we investigated and found out the truth. Newspapers, reporters showed up.

They had their cameras ready and the TV was there. They had heard about what was going to be done, but they had nothing to report. Except an article that appeared in the paper the next week that said finally a church handles it like it should be handled. Don't be afraid of doing what is right.

Don't be afraid of standing against what is wrong. There may be those who played a major part in your being called to that church. I've had that happen. Sort of a known factor that often the one who is most influential in your being called turns against you when the church begins to appreciate your ministry and out of jealousy. He works against you. They may be older than you are.

Often they are. They may be long standing in the community, influential, intimidating, always powerful people. Let me tell you about an elder that I dealt with in a former church, another place, another time in my life. He was angry all the time. I rarely knew him when he wasn't angry. He was angry in elder meetings. Unfortunately, he had been elected as the chair of the elders, and there we were under that man's influence. Everything I tried to move the church into, he worked against. Every time I attempted to deal with things like discipling elders and working alongside them and carrying out new ideas, he stood against them and in a fit of rage, he came in one cold evening.

I was at the study by myself. He stopped in and slammed the door and he looked at me and he said, I've about had as much of you as I'm going to take. And he pulled his coat back kind of like this.

And there was a this is no exaggeration. There was a revolver stuck in his belt. He said, you know, I carry a gun.

In fact, I'm not afraid to use it. He turned it on the butt of the gun and he pounded out the bullets. They fell on the desk. So just remember, I'm not afraid to use this when I need to put every one of the bullets back in. Slammed it shut, put it back in his waist and walked out. Welcome to the ministry, huh? Nobody ever told me at Dallas Seminary I may face somebody like that. Nobody at the church ever warned me that the man carried a gun. He's a psychopath. He's a very sick man. He's dead now through a number of events that have happened. In fact, before I moved from that church, one of my prayers was, Lord, remove him so that the man who takes my place will not have to deal with him.

As long as I've had to deal with him, even attempts at confronting him never work. And would you believe the day I read my resignation before that church service that morning, Scout's Honor, he came into my office, threw his keys on my desk. He had carried the keys to the church for all those years. And he said, well, I'm out of here. And I didn't know whether to shout or wind my watch.

I mean, I was thrilled. He said, I decided to move. And he moved a number of miles away and was never there from the day I read my resignation on. Isn't God good how he takes care of things that I was not able to take care of?

Let me get even more serious. In a former church, our receptionist named Sharon received a phone call from a man she didn't know. He said, is this the church that teaches people about Jesus Christ? Are you the ones who have that teacher that urges them to follow him as their master?

She was thrilled to hear him ask that she answered. Well, yes, that's us. You're invited to come any time. He said, no, I'm not interested. I'm a part of the Church of Satan.

All of us are working against you and especially against your teacher. And I'm calling to tell you, we will win. Hung up the phone. That wasn't bad enough. Several weeks later, one of our members was on a flight flying from where we were located at the time to New York City. Happened to be in first class. The meal was served and the man next to her didn't eat the meal. And she looked over there and said, you're not hungry.

It's late in the day. I thought everybody would be eating today. He said, no, we're fasting. Oh, she thought she was meeting a fellow believer. And he said, I'm a member.

I'm going to read this. I'm a member of a group of Satan's followers. We're fasting and praying to our master that at least 100 marriages of Christian leaders will break up by the end of this year. Did you know that went on?

Did you know that kind of thing goes on? It gives new meaning to the statement when you enter into ministry. You don't step onto a playground, but a battleground.

This is serious stuff. And if you're given the kind of playing around with things as you're going through your schooling, it's a good time to leave. Ministry is nothing to play with.

They play for keeps out there. You'll be needed like no one else in the church is needed. How easy to ignore the words that we just sang. And though this world with devils filled should threaten to undo us, we will not fear. For God has willed his truth to triumph through us. The prince of darkness, grim, we tremble not for him. His rage we can endure. Lo, his doom is sure.

One little word shall fell him. The enemy is real, men and women. Real. As real as a Satan is fasting, praying to their master that one of us will fall or our marriage will fail.

This is the time to grow up. To realize that what you're learning is a game plan for life. Next time I'll talk about the things we bring with us into ministry that make ministry difficult. Today it's about people. Actual individuals. Folks you've not yet met, but you will.

You'll need to be ready and you'll need to be strong. Back in 1985, Marshall Shelley wrote a little book I wish every one of you would read. I mean that. It's titled Well Intentioned Dragons. Well Intentioned Dragons.

Marshall begins, oh by the way the subtitle is Ministering to Problem People in the Church. Marshall begins, dragons of course are fictional beasts. Monstrous reptiles with lion's claws, a serpent's tail, bat wings and scaly skin. They exist only in one's imagination.

But there are dragons of a different sort, decidedly real. They leave ulcers, strained relationships and hard feelings in their wake. They don't consider themselves difficult people. They don't sit up nights thinking of ways to be nasty. But for some reason they undermine the ministry. They're not naturally rebellious or pathological. They're convinced they're serving God. But they wind up doing more harm than good. They can drive pastors crazy or out of the church.

If you do not get a handle on this, chances are good you'll become a victim. And you'll leave the church a broken man or woman, disillusioned, deeply, deeply disturbed. Your whole frame of reference will have changed because you didn't ready yourself for difficult people. My hope is that God will keep you strong, stable, positive, determined, committed to work the work of the ministry. But never gullible, not passive.

On the alert, watching out, being ready when necessary, taking charge. Remember Jesus' words? The one who was so gracious to say, come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. A short time later said to one of his followers, get behind me Satan. The one who came to the last meal with his disciples whom he loved to the end, spoke to them in these warm and encouraging terms, said to one of them, whatever you're going to do, do it quickly.

Get out. That's the savior, both and, not either or. Staying in ministry requires mind of a scholar, heart of its child, the height of a rhinoceros. Remember that.

Remember that. Thank you dear father for the way you love us, watch over us, protect us. For the years you've done that for me. All the mistakes I've made, all the times I've looked the other way when I should have walked into the battle. I realize today when I speak, I'm no great example of all of this, but I can speak from experience.

When I've done what I should have done, you honored it. Help these men and women as they form their opinions about ministry to keep it real. So they might serve you with a whole heart. As shepherds who love the flock, at the same time guarded well from wolves. In Jesus' name.

Everybody say, Amen. This is Insight for Living featuring the Bible teaching of pastor and author Chuck Swindoll. Today's program has featured a message delivered to the students at Dallas Theological Seminary who are preparing for full-time vocational ministry. Chuck titled his message, Bores in God's Vineyard. It's the second in a six-part series called The Pros and Cons of Ministry. Remember that every sermon you hear on Insight for Living is paired with Chuck's online study notes. We call these free resources, Searching the Scriptures Studies. To take a deeper look at the many passages Chuck referenced today, go to insightworld.org slash studies.

Look for the series called The Pros and Cons of Ministry. Much of the wise counsel we heard today originates with one of the greatest leaders of the early church, the apostle Paul. You might be surprised to learn that Chuck wrote a biography on Paul.

His life is an inspiration to leaders and followers alike. And the book is available for purchase right now. The title is Paul, A Man of Grace and Grit.

To purchase Chuck Swindoll's biography on Paul, go to insight.org slash store or give us a call. If you're listening in the United States, call 800-772-8888. These daily visits with Chuck are made possible through the generous gifts of grateful listeners like you. If it's been a while since you've been in touch with us or perhaps you've never reached out to give a donation, why not do that today? It doesn't take a lot of effort, but your gesture of generosity, whether big or small, will have an eternal impact on those who hear the truth of God's word delivered on Insight for Living. To make a donation today, go online to insight.org or call us.

If you're listening in the United States, call 800-772-8888. Treat yourself to a vacation you'll never forget. Visit on the Insight for Living Ministries cruise to the great frontier with Chuck Swindoll. Honestly, I had no idea that a cruise to Alaska could be so much fun. And without a doubt, the stunning views took my breath away. God's artistic genius is on full display in Alaska. In fact, I guarantee this, you'll come home refreshed and filled with awe for his majestic creation. Yeah, at one point our ship was getting chased by dolphins.

They were playing and spinning in the waves. It was amazing. You'll have plenty of time for adventures on shore, lingering conversations around mealtime, and strolling through the idyllic ports of call. You'll be a part of some of the best parts of our day, laughing, singing, and celebrating our God. Plan to come with us, won't you?

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The tour to Alaska is paid for and made possible by only those who choose to attend. I'm Bill Meyer. Join us when Chuck Swindoll continues his practical miniseries called The Pros and Cons of Ministry. That's next time on Insight for Living.