Do you remember the song, “I heard it through the grape-vine?”  I don’t think it was in the hymnal, but I thought you may have heard it, anyway.  The grape-vine, which is a catch-term for the behind the scenes gossip, is hard to resist, isn’t it?

I have found that when opinions collide, most people think they are right in theirs.  I certainly think everybody is entitled to their opinion, and there is both a right and wrong place and manner in which it can be stated.

The Bible is very plain spoken that when someone has a grievance against another person, the first action should be to attempt to deal with it with that person.  To say it more bluntly, it is to go tell that person and not somebody else.

Really, what matters is that we do things in a way that God can bless them.  He can’t possibly bless the grape-vine method, because it is a violation of His word.  The grape-vine is hard to resist, but God’s people can do it, because we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.

The old hymn, “Have Faith in God,” says, “He cannot fail, He must prevail, have faith in God, have faith in God.”

The Bible teaches that, as Christians, we are in Him, therefore, as we “abide in Him,” we cannot fail. Jesus was crucified, but He didn’t fail, because “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself.” The apostles of the first century were greatly persecuted, and most of them put to a martyr’s death, but they did not fail, because they were in Christ in their eternal position, and Christ was in them in the person of the Holy Spirit.

Our enemy, the devil, is the thief who has come to steal, kill and destroy, but the only rights he has over us are the rights that we choose to give him.

The song is exactly right, “He must prevail.” He will prevail. The back of the book says He does, and so do we!

The Bible is quite plain spoken that Christ is the head of the church. The church belongs to Him, it is built upon faith in Him, and it is dependent upon Him for its success. It is also true that the Lord has delegated certain leadership roles within the church to His people.

There are some people who believe the pastor ought to simply stick to preaching and let others handle all business matters of the church. However, it is not difficult to see that the Bible teaches that the pastor is responsible for the entire program of the church. Pastors actually have a three-fold job: preaching/teaching, pastoral care (counseling, visiting, etc.), and administrating (directing the ministries of the church). It has been said that the pastor is to be a servant leader. It also is pretty evident that God gives pastors a certain vision for where the church needs to go and a burden to take it there.

Deacons are the servants of the church in physical matters. That is not to say that deacons are the business managers, but they are certainly frontline servants in carrying out physical ministries. The earliest glimpse of these special servants had to do with the distribution of the early church’s food ministry. Therefore, deacons should certainly be able to deal with a needy person who stops by the church looking for help. Deacons should be frontline helpers in hospital and homebound ministries, as well. Because of the circuit riding preachers, the rapid turnover of pastors in many churches, and the past history of churches that did not meet every week, deacons have by necessity often filled a vacuum of needed leadership and have become somewhat of a ruling board; however, this is not the biblical model of deacon ministry. The biblical model is to serve in the physical ministries of the Lord’s work through the local church.

Details of many decisions should be worked out in behind closed doors meetings of committees. In confidence, these committee members need to discuss the pros and cons of an action that is being considered, and with the guidance of the pastor, who is an ex-officio member (has a voice, but not a vote) of every committee in the church, should make a recommendation to the congregation concerning the considered action.

The congregation has the final say. This is not to say that everything needs to come to the attention of the entire congregation. An effective church should be structured in such a way that many things can be handled discretely by a grouop of people who have been delegated to handle such matters. The congregation needs to have trust in these delegated individuals. For instance, one large, city church has a group of delegated individuals for the purpose of acquiring available property. Property is purchased, then the congregation is informed that it has been purchased. They have learned that when the word gets out that the church is interested in it, the price goes up considerably, so these individuals are able to make such purchases on behalf of the church very discretely. The final say of the congregation should never be contrary to anything that the Lord has said, and when the vote has been taken, and the result is not contrary to what the Lord has said, the minority should acquiesce to the will of the majority.

Who runs the church? Jesus does, first and foremost, and under His authority, and according to His structure, we all do. And make no mistake about it, we will give an account to the Lord as to how we did it.

Pastors are usually given insight, concerning direction for the church they pastor, that is sometimes several years ahead of their congregation’s insight.  This fact alone, makes patience a very necessary virtue for the man of God.  Many pastors become frustrated to the point of quitting, believing that their people are never going to see what they see and have attempted to communicate.  Most of the time, however, if a pastor will simply preach the word, love his people, and constantly remind them of the direction the program of the church needs to go, it will come together.

Congregations usually want unity, because they understand the importance of it.  They have seen churches become divided, and they know the devastation that division can bring.  Yet, it must be remembered that to fail to follow God is a price that is too high to pay for unity.  When the children of Israel refused to enter the promised land at Kadesh-Barnea, they pretty much had unity, but look at the result!

There are three questions that the children of Israel should have asked themselves, and congregations today need to ask, as well: 

• Is there anything in the word of God that will substantiate this? 
• Do we believe our leader has God’s hand of leadership on him?
• What will be the result if we don’t do it?

Pastoral leadership is meeting people where they are, taking them where God would have them go, with the fewest number of casualties possible.  It’s like the old Peace Corps commercial: “It’s the toughest job you’ll ever love!”

As a pastor, I’ve had people ask me all sorts of questions about when and how to give their tithes and offerings.  The Bible guideline on the question of when is the first day of the week, immediately after you receive it.  That might be weekly, monthly, or most any other frequency, depending on when you get your money.

Tithes and offerings are to be from the “first-fruits.”  That means off the top and not from what’s left over.  Our offerings to God should never be the left overs of our life.  He is worthy of our first and our best.

God says, “The tithe is mine.”  The Bible teaches that for one to withhold the tithe is to rob God.  When the Bible instructs first day of the week giving, it assumes that Christians are going to be in church on Sunday.  So, the bottom line is, don’t carry God’s money around in your pocket all week, be at church to obediently give it on the first day of the week.