Schisms and an Invisible Man: Part 2 of a Testimony and a Challenge

 When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Matthew 5:31-33

Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth; they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. Matthew 5:1-4

How did I come to believe there was a God and what led me to salvation?
After the lost of six children, it was listening to the heartbeat of the seventh struggling to live that convinced me there had to be a God. It was the despair and depression of that seventh baby's death which brought me to a Bible preaching church where a sermon brought me to my knees before the Lord.  In a sense, the death of that child was the resurrection of me. That was in 1975 and I was 34 years old.
That was more than half my lifetime ago. I am 76 as I write this.

Life became quite different from what it had been. Much of my life had revolved around attacking churches, now it revolved around involvement within The Church. I don't want to list what all, but it ranged from simple chores to youth ministry to door-to-door evangelism. 

In 1977, my wife was pregnant again (she being a very stubborn and determined woman). No doctor would take her case, calling her foolish and saying it was guarenteed impossible for her to have a baby. It would end wit the same result. She was insane to do this, insanity being doing something over and over and expecting a different result.
A Christian doctor came forward to tend to her and the church formed a prayer group. They prayed and they brought us meals, because my wife was confined to bed for her term. And yes, once again that term ended in the fifth month, yet this time the outcome was different.

In 1978, my first daughter was born. (We were to have two more children, another daughter and a son. Perhaps to medical science these were impossibilities, but to God anything is possible. )

Yet, also in 1978, I had to change jobs and this necessitated us moving. Several serious events happened over the next few years. In 1982, with two young girls and a newborn son, we moved to where we live today and I joined a church in the area.

In the course of the next twenty-plus years I remained active in church work at my new church, although to a lesser extent. Growing children and a more demanding job took up much of my time. I (and my wife) were involved in doing many things revolving around the activities of our children and in the community. We even attended another church for a couple years in the early 'nineties, where I taught Sunday School to teenagers, but we came back to that first church again.

Then in 2006 I found myself thrown off the rolls of that church, branded a "goat".
How did this happen?

A bit of background is necessary.  The minister who had built that church and pastured it for 45 years retired and a new younger man took over the pulpit. I had been away from this particular church for a period because of something that had happened, but I began attending regular worship service there again and also joined a small Bible study group associated with the church. Things were fine for about a year, but then this new minister proposed radical changes that split the congregation.

I don't want to say what the difference was other than a matter of Scriptural misinterpretation. It did not involve any of the core beliefs of Christianity, only church organization. I had my doubts about the minister's stand when I went to the Congressional meeting where a vote was suppose to be taken on the changes. 

The vote was never taken that night.  Instead the meeting turned very ugly, angry and unchristian-like. I, frankly, stayed out of the fray. I was already stunned to have discovered I had been removed from the church rolls unknowingly. 

Before the arguments started, before it got mean, a vote was taken on a procedural matter. It was done by roll call, and my name was skipped. I though it was an oversight, but others I knew were also skipped, people of long-standing and deep involvement in the ministries of the church. When one of these questioned why they were skipped, they were informed they had been removed from the membership rolls and had no right to vote. I was one of these. Those others removed were all members known to oppose the proposed change.  When some of us protested, the pastor got up and said we were "goats" that needed to be separated from the "sheep". We were booed and attacked by newer members to the church at this point.

They justified my removal on the claim that I had failed to be in attendance and contact with the church, thus had failed to honor my commitment. Whether this was said of the others, I can't say, but it certainly wasn't true of me. I had been attending worship service each Sunday and the Bible study each Tuesday for the whole year. I also had not publicly made my views on the proposal known or actively campaigned for or against it.
How did I happen to be excommunicated?

Partially because I practiced Matthew 4. "Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven."

Jesus said: But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you -- But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen -- But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret.

Isn't it funny how the world and the church make it difficult to practice such acts?  Oh, I suppose fasting secretly isn't much of a problem. You really don't have to tell anyone and I can't say anyone has ever asked me about my eating or not eating. I suppose if a person did a long fast they may get inquiries about their health, or more likely, asked if they were on a diet.

The world certainly doesn't care if you aren't praying publicly. The world would prefer you kept your prayers and the rest of your Christianity hidden away in a closet. The world doesn't want a show of prayer, they don't want prayer period. In the churches I have attended there are prayer meetings and prayer times when it is open to anyone to say an audible prayer. I haven't been to any Christian Church that criticize you for only praying silently.  
I have been in secular places where you were banned from praying audibly and silently. No, the world would be perfectly happy to never see you praying.

Ah, but giving, money, that is the world's meat. Oh, you are supposed to flaunt your wealth in the world. Even if you prefer not to be a flaunter, the world doesn't make it easy to hide your giving. You have United Way drives in your places of business where you are asked to pledge some amount from your pay.  You are assailed constantly by many charities for donations. You have a deduction on your income tax for what you give. But you have to have some proof you actually gave. This may be cancelled checks or receipts. Your church may provide giving envelopes and then a statement at tax time of what you gave the past year.

And if you don't show your giving, people think you are cheap and stingy. You may be chided by some for this. Everything is designed to make you want to scream, “I gave, I gave, I gave.”

But I try to give very anonymously. I don't give by check or envelop. I give cash, hidden away from all eyes as to the source. I don't claim donations on my tax form. My giving is between God and me. 

Thus I was attending this church every week and I was putting into the collection plate each time, but there was no record.  I was attending a Bible study every week, but no roll call was taken to be turned over to the church.  I was there, but there was no official record to prove it. 

Still, even if I had been absent from services, my blotting out of the church rolls was illegal under the church constitution. It stated any member who does not attend or have contact with the church for one year might be removed from membership. However, before such removal, a deacon, elder or the pastor must visit the member to inquire why they have stopped coming and attempt to bring them back into the fold. If after this, they still do not attend, they will be notified they have been removed from membership.

None of this happened. No one from the church visited or contacted me. I received no notification of my removal. Besides, I was not absent or out of contact with the church for a year.

Many of those discovering they were non-persons that night choose to appeal. Many also continued to fight the proposed changes. I wasn't among them. A schism had occurred. It was sad. There was no happy ending, no way back. Whichever side finally won this (and it was to be the pastor's); the other side would harbor hurt feelings and resentment. It was better to forgive and forget and move on than stay and be unwelcome or non-accepting of the new doctrine.

I won't, as I said, say what caused the schism, but I will tell you one thing I didn't agree with this pastor about it. There are Scripture passages that argue against his view.
There was something else.  He didn't believe any non-believers should be in the church (with a small c, that is his church building and service). He taught church was an exclusive club for believers only. He didn't believe the church should waste a moment on evangelism. He taught that allowing the lost to come to church was detrimental to the saved Christians there.

Once upon a time I was lost and went into a church. If they had made me unwelcome in their house because I was lost, who knows, perhaps I would still be lost. I believe one of the purposes of the church (with a small c) is to be a bridge to the lost, to help them learn the truth and to come to know the Lord and join the Church (with a capital C). When the time comes, the Lord will separate the sheep from the goats, not I or you or some minister. I believe our duty as believers is to try to gather more sheep.

I admit to being angry after that night when I found myself cast aside and labeled a goat. But then I realized it was a good thing. Not for that church, because a year later that minister and his associate minister were gone and that church went without a pastor for almost two years, its numbers shrinking and its former members flung far and wide in other churches.

But why was this a good thing for me?
Because I realized I was becoming an invisible man. I was fading away as a "salty" Christian as much as the photograph accompanying this post. It was a wake up call that I needed to heed or I was in danger of becoming a goat after all.