Jesse Isn't Coming
WHY WE CAN'T EVEN GIVE AWAY A BLESSING
ONE
“But as the believers rapidly multiplied, there were rumblings of discontent. Those who spoke Greek complained against those who spoke Hebrew, saying that their widows were being discriminated against in the daily distribution of food. So the Twelve called a meeting of all the believers.” We apostles should spend our time preaching and teaching the word of God, not administering a food program,” they said. “Now look around among yourselves, brothers, and select seven men who are well respected and are full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom. We will put them in charge of this business... These seven were presented to the apostles, who prayed for them as they laid their hands on them. God's message was preached in ever-widening circles. The number of believers greatly increased...” —The Acts of The Apostles 6:1-7 (New Living Translation)
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I get criticized a lot for being so negative.
I’m not negative. I am critical. There’s a difference. In
negativity, you tend to speak defeat and despair into a given
situation. You tend to instill doubt and fear and anxiety and
close doors that should be open. In criticism, you point out
opportunities missed, doors that should be open, gains that
should be made. You stop the go-along mentality of pandering to
the status quo and instead challenge folks to raise it.
There are a great many naked emperors within the black church, a
church unique in its struggle to find relevance in today’s
world. A culture built on the sacrifices of our mothers and
their mothers, the black church has, sadly, evolved into a kind
of toothless caricature of the powerful institution it once was.
I believe our mothers and their mothers and fathers would be
ashamed, weeping in eternity, to see how we’ve allowed their
sacrifice to go unrewarded. How we now take so very much for
granted. How we’ve allowed our leaders to become impotent
clowns, the most successful of them multi-millionaire impotent
clowns lining their pockets with our tithes and offerings.
I never really think of myself as being negative, but I do think
of myself as being critical. Of pointing out the obvious and
saying things nobody else seems willing to say. It’s not that we
don’t see these problems, but that we’re either too lazy or too
frightened to actually change things. To actually move things
forward or make a difference. Nobody wants to rock the boat.
Everybody’s waiting for Martin or Malcolm or Jesse to come do
it. To clean up our back yards. Well, folks, Jesse isn’t coming.
Jesse’s advance team has a very long list of places asking for
Jesse to come (I doubt we’ve even asked Jesse to come), and
those folks make decisions on where to send Jesse based on (1)
how much media attention Jesse will get (here? Zero.), and (2)
what’s in it for Jesse. And, frankly, calling us to account
isn’t Jesse’s job. It’s our job.
People
telling me how negative I am makes me wonder when’s the last
time they themselves spoke truth to power. When was the last
time you rocked the boat, even at your own church or within your
own community?
What I’ve learned in twelve years here is that most hostility is
borne out of guilt and conviction. God’s word convicts. And that
conviction pierces hearts. It hurts. It threatens us, threatens
our way of doing things. Makes us anxious. Makes us hostile.
The only safety net I have is Church Folk around here simply
don’t read. In over 200 weeks of our existence, perhaps only 3
to 5% of Church Folk here have ever even *seen* this web
ministry. Of that percentage, only 3 to 5% of *them* actually
read anything written here. As I’ve said before, if anybody in
my own town actually read the PraiseNet, I’d have been lynched a
long time ago. That I’m walking around breathing tells me this
ministry, thriving and growing and accepted all over the
country, is virtually ignored here at home.
Created in 2001 as ColoradoPraise.Net, the PraiseNet is no
better accepted today here at home than it was six years ago,
when we were knocking on doors, visiting churches, calling,
doing mailings, and all but begging local churches to sign up
for free web pages and email accounts. We were, at that time,
soundly ignored. One church reported to me they’d thrown out our
mailing because it looked so professional, they assumed it was
junk mail. The secretary said, “I mean, who’d have thought a
local group could have produced something like that?”
Most every church we talked to here ignored us. They didn’t turn
us down, they simply ignored us. Did not return phone calls or
respond to letters. A couple pastors actually, literally, hid
from me when I went to visit their churches—the word was out
that I was running around trying to sign churches up.
Recently, a local senior pastor called a meeting of black
pastors in town to talk about unity and local politics. We were
not invited to that meeting. Which is not to suggest we were
intentionally omitted, but that, five years later, the body of
pastors in this town still have no earthly clue what the
PraiseNet is and no clue about the tremendous resources this
ministry can bring to bear on our local church organizations.
Well, here’s who we are. We are a body of believers numbering
nearly six thousand (unique, unduplicated monthly visitors to
the site). If we were a church, we’d be ten times the size of
the largest black church in town. We receive an average of half
a million hits each and every month, and we support churches around the country. Our strongest ties and support come
from churches outside our own state, while our local
pastors—including this senior pastor whose church is, literally,
blocks away from my home—remain completely ignorant of us,
despite five years of trying to communicate with these folks.
Half a million hits, and we’re not even invited to the meeting.
Our growth, our evolution from a small online Colorado Springs
church directory to a leading national journalism website for
the African American church, owes almost entirely to ministries
beyond our state, and to word of mouth from visitors finding the
site. We do absolutely no advertising; as is, the ministry is
bigger than we’d ever imagined. We’re completely content to do
what God has for us to do and let our growth be evidence of
God’s hand on us and on our work, here.
I've received email from brothers and sisters from around the
country chastising me for comments made here. “Look, you
so-called ‘preacher,’ I don’t know what kind of church you go
to, but here in [insert your city], our churches and pastors are
not like that…” Sure they are. And most of those people proved
it by being hostile and insulting—two things a Christian should
never be. It’s fine to disagree with me, but most email I get is
hostile and insulting, sent from people claiming to be followers
of Jesus Christ. Bottom line: if the observations and criticism
here do not apply to you or your ministry, I am then obviously
not talking about you. I pray your church in your town is, in fact,
the shining example of Christian conduct.
But, I don’t live in your town. I live in mine. And this is
what’s going on here.
Speaking out against the exploitation and defamation of the
Gospel of Jesus Christ by the very people who claimed to have
been transformed by it is not my responsibility alone. It is all
of our responsibility to call sin sin. To stop looking the other
way from corrupt preachers and mean, nasty church folk. Send me
all the hate mail you’d like, it just makes my point. Hate is
not a product of a Christian lifestyle. And, I fear there is a
great multitude of Christians, most especially black church
folk, who belong to churches but who do not know Christ. Who
sing in the choir but do not know Christ. Who sit on deacon
boards but do not know Christ. Who are pastors but do not know
Christ. Who elevated themselves to “bishop” but do not know
Christ. Because Christ would not lead us to hate. Not lead us to
envy. Not lead us to greed. Not lead us Big Titles And Offices. Christopher J. Priest
Would not lead us to attack someone for simply crying out for
change, for a turn back to God.
Which is why we should question not only our motives but our
inspiration for everything we do. These are, largely, my
personal, first-hand observations of deep-seated and systemic
problems within the black church. Your mileage may vary but, if
you’re truly honest with yourself, you know these problems
exist. And they are likely closer to you and your family than
you are willing to admit. Which is what’s so insidious about it
all: not the hatred, jealousy, envy, caprice, gluttony, greed,
violence, fornication and adultery that is so rampant within the
black church, but our stubborn unwillingness to stand against
it. Our cowardice. Our lack of values. Our lack of faith. All of
these things are evidence of a lack of knowledge of and
relationship with God. This is the behavior of Church Folk. God
never called us to be Church Folk; He called us to be
Christians.
Holding up the standard—the Word of God—and comparing it to the
things we actually say and do is both reasonable and prudent. If
you’re unwilling to do that, might I suggest Buddhism or
Jehovah’s Witnesses or something you might be more comfortable
with. If you’re unwilling to follow Christ, seriously, please
stop calling yourself a Christian.
And please stop blaming me.
17 June 2007
editor@praisenet.org
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