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a) If Salt looses its Saltiness
Matt 5:13
If you are like me you
probably found yourself shocked and distressed at the the fall of
Pastor Ted Haggard.
Personal failures of this magnitude affect
us all, as they seriously discredit the cause of Christ on a
global basis. Yet as I prayed about this situation the following
six imperatives became clear:
- God will purify his
church.
- Let him that is
without sin cast the first stone (John 8:7).
- The vital need to
consistently pray for our leaders who are in the firing line -
that God will surround them with his hedge of protection from the
forces of evil (1 Tim 2:1-5, Job 1:10).
- The need to be
resolute in not compromising with sin (Matt 5:27-30, Eph
6:10-18).
- The need to be in a
relationship of personal accountability - where we can be
transparent before close and trusted friends in the Lord (1 John
1:7).
- The need to pray for
the power of repentance, healing and recovery for Pastor Haggard
- and for the strength of God to enable his wife and family to
pass through the fire.
Our only place of
safety is to walk in humility before God and man.
Peter Kentley.
References:
- The resignation letters of Ted and
Gayle Haggard can be read at:
www.newlifechurch.org/TedHaggardStatement.pdf
www.newlifechurch.org/GayleHaggardLetter.pdf
Pastor Larry Stockstill's reading of
these letters to the church can be viewed at:
www.kktv.com/home/headlines/4570147.html
b) Being Salt and Light
Matt 5:13-16
Market–able Christians
Jesus told us we were to be the salt of the earth. We all know the
blessings and the curses of salt. Too little and you notice it,
too much and again you notice it. Both too little and too much
bring out negative reactions. Salt is at its best when it brings
out the best flavour. Salt is at its best when it brings out that
which God intended for the earth.
A Christian brother who prefers not to be named (So I will call
him Bob) asked me to join him for coffee recently to discuss an
issue of recruitment. Bob works in IT and has his own small group
of about six IT engineers. The business was growing and Bob was
keen to add to the team. There are not many spare IT engineers
around in the market at the moment and Bob had met a young man in
the industry (lets call him Joe), a Christian who worked for
another small IT company owned by Andrew, also a Christian. Joe
was young, hard working, very clever and really just the sort of
person Bob needed. Bob had made ‘I am interested in employing you’
noises and have received in reply appropriate ‘I am interested in
coming over’ responses
Bob asked. “What is the right way to recruit Joe? I can offer him
an attractive salary package but I am concerned how I should deal
with Andrew who after all is a brother in the Lord. I don’t want
to do wrong by him”
A good question, perhaps not one we should limit to ‘brothers in
the Lord’. But hey! The family is a good place to practice.
I asked what normal market practice was as he understood it. “Oh
that’s easy, you just find a moment where you can catch the young
man on his own, make him an attractive offer and encourage him to
come as quickly as possible.” And no, in the market there is no
worry about the consequences to the other persons business. That’s
just life.
You might insist (or agree to) the young man giving proper notice
on the basis that you would like to think he would do that to you
should the situation ever be reversed.
Bob and I agreed that in the Kingdom of God there had to be a
better way, one richer in flavour. Christ does call for us to
consider the other person. Bob’s gain did not have to include an
unnecessary penalty for Andrew.
We explored options and agreed that God would be pleased if there
was an honourable communication to Andrew of Bob’s intended offer.
This would allow Andrew, if he wished, to make a counter offer to
Joe to keep him. Or it would allow the three of them to negotiate
a transition so that Joe could finish projects for Andrew and not
embarrass him to his clients. Or It would allow Andrew time to go
to market and seek a replacement. It would allow a healthy respect
to be established between Bob and Andrew as Christian brothers who
were also competitors in the market.
The coffee over it was time for action.
Bob advised Joe what he was intending to do. Joe, to his credit,
asked if he might speak with Andrew first and communicate all the
options from Bob. Joe did this and was released by Andrew to
transit across with some finishing time for some projects. Bob
would get more and more of Joe’s time as those projects were
completed. Joe now works for Bob.
At a later meeting between Andrew and Bob they could look each
other in the eye. Andrew indicated he had learned something that
day of a different way to do business and confessed quietly that
some months before he had made an approach to one of Bob’s team.
That person had declined to come and Andrew suspected he now knew
why.
Bob, what if we extended this approach to non believers?
The market has existed since the earliest times when two goods
were exchanged for mutual benefit. Sin has brought profound
distortions, Christ in us can begin to redeem the marketplace to
that which God intended it to be.
Martien Kelderman
Director
School of Contemporary Christian Studies
Auckland NZ. |
