by Pastor Joel Lawler

Another day, another church meltdown.

As I was driving into work today I caught a story about a church that is making news. Apparently the elders of the church have fired the pastor. From the few facts that were reported, it seems the reason was that this pastor was "too hard to work with". Post firing him, they are now doing a complete audit of the church finances to see if he was engaged in any mishandling of church funds.

In the below verse, Jesus gives us simple instructions for who and what we are to be. He has given us the responsibility to represent Him.

Matthew 5 13-16 (NIV) "You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.

"You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

Jesus said we are salt and light. We sure are not acting like it. We are so caught up in "Church Inc." - the corporation - that we are the problem to people finding their way to God rather than the light pointing them to God.

I really don't know who is at fault, the pastor or the church leaders, but I suspect that both have some responsibility for the problem.

I was recently enjoying a cigar and beer late at night on a beach with one of my best friends, named Bret. He told me how he had tried to get involved in youth ministry at his church. The difficulty he has is that his job requires him to work crazy hours including at least two Sundays a month. Because of this, his commitment to the church was questioned.

There were four guys that I grew up with. We did everything together. Out of the five, three of us became pastors. No one who knew us in our high school years would have ever imagined that we would go into ministry. Especially the policeman whose car we sat in the back of when we got caught toilet papering our High School.

Bret never had the title "pastor" bestowed on him. He is one of those people who don't see much need for such things. He just is a pastor. He was telling

me about a guy at work who is an atheist, who he has been talking to about faith. Bret has been reading up on what this guy believes and taking the time to live life with him. Bret is a pastor to someone who would never walk into a  church.

Bret passionately loves his wife Mary and is a great father to his three boys. They have made great sacrifices and worked very hard to adopt a baby from Guatemala. He is the salt and light that Jesus talked about.

There are far too few guys like my friend Bret and far too many people
caught up in all the garbage of organized religion and the politics that go along with it. Jesus called us to love God and to love others. He called us to share the good news of the salvation that He provided through his death and resurrection. He called us to be salt and light in a very bland and dark world.

I fear the church has lost its saltiness  and therefore is at best worthless and at worst a stumbling block to those who seek to find God. We need to change. We need to turn from all the garbage that we have been caught up in and get back to being salt and light.
.