This is true not only when we are talking about business and politics, but the same applies when it comes to the ministry. In the ministry, people's loyalty and financial support can come and go, sometimes due to no fault of your own, and often because you insist on doing the right thing.

A woman became an ardent supporter of my ministry several years ago upon hearing my recorded lectures.⁸ She was not only excited about the teachings she was receiving and recommended them to others, but she also began to make regular donations. These donations were large enough to affect my operation. In addition, because she owned a retail business, she was able to donate a number of useful items from her company.

Her support and enthusiasm never relented, but even increased over time. But then she started listening to the teachings of a certain prominent televangelist. Some of his doctrines were outright heretical. When I learned about this, I gently warned her about him, and showed her numerous examples of how this person's teachings departed from central biblical doctrines, and how he constantly abused Scripture by making false inferences from it.

She was shocked and outraged, not at the televangelist's heresies, but at the fact that I would speak against him. It did not matter to her whether I was right or wrong about his doctrines, but that I warned her against him at all was enough to indicate that I was at fault. She declared that she would no longer support my ministry. I offered to refund her a fairly large donation that she had just sent in, and she took it. I never heard from her again.

Thus in one day – within several minutes, in fact – I lost a zealous supporter and a significant source of income. I knew this was a possibility when I decided to warn her, since I understood the very thing that I am illustrating here. So her reaction did not surprise me, but it was still disappointing. She never received any solid biblical teaching before she discovered my ministry, so perhaps there was not enough time for her to develop discernment. Or, perhaps her heart was never truly converted to the truth. Whatever the reason, I would have done the same thing even if I knew that this was how she would have reacted. I am a shepherd, not a hireling. If I could not do my job, then I would have no right to her support and her money in the first place.

Notes

⁸ To protect the person's identity, I have altered several details that are non-essential to the illustration.

(to be continued)

 

Posted in Expositions, Spirituality, Ministry | Permanent Link