The Brother Up Next

The pastor and the chairman of the deacon board have been struggling with the idea that qualified men are hard to find. They are hard to find in a changing Christian environment. These men have to be qualified with the ability to lead men in an ever-changing environment of changing purposes. (Too often people in leadership positions forget that their leadership responsibility is not about them. It is about God and His children. It is about making disciples of all believers, and it is about knowing what the purpose of the church is.) The wants, needs, and desires of the congregation are not always readily identifiable. Yet, members become frustrated when they appear to be left out of the circle of needs. Nothing frustrates a pastor more than finding that a group of men have failed when he (the pastor) has put his and the church's confidence them. These men are failures in the church, yet successful at making a living. They are defeated and to in a state of complacency when meeting the needs of needy people. They are successful at putting bread on the family table, but they fail the faith that they teach. Yet these men boast before the church of how good God is to them. Without effort they breed failure when putting on a solid building fund program, yet they succeed when putting together a budget for the education of their children. They fail to give a tenth of their earnings to the church, yet they succeed when putting something back for retirement. They fail to lead God's people in a manner that is pleasing to God. The inability of man to properly lead God's people can be as devastating as a Palestine locust. When unlearned, unrepented, untrained, and power hungry men come together throughout America, they can cast a giant shadow over the church. The unprepared deacon is as a locust when locusts come together to travel. They go in great numbers, occupy a space of ten or twelve miles in length and four to five miles in breadth, and are so deep that the sun cannot penetrate through them; they convert the day into the night and bring a temporary darkness on the land. The brother who desires to be a deacon or leader in other parts of the church is a man of statute, responsibility, and influence. All three of these attributes are paramount in the ability of a brother to lead people. He must be able to observe the behavior of the congregation so that he can go underneath the skin to find the cause of the real problems when they arrive. Problems are present now, and they ever will be present in the church. The leaders who are able to handle the membership’s problems with a flare will be the leaders who win the members over to his church. Many young men idolize the position of deacon, but they disrespect the depth of the responsibility for which it serves. Many young men see the deacon board as an opportunity to take up the money on Sunday mornings. They get a Sunday morning high sitting on the front pew and being recognized as deacons and leaders of the church. Others see the position as a job instead of a ministry. They see the position as a job for Sunday morning, and during the remainder of the week they concentrate on their own problems brought on by disobedience. The young man who serves as a deacon must never forget that the office of deacon requires a man to be sober and watchful at all times. He is never free to think and do what pleases only himself. He must never forget that he is a disciple of Jesus Christ who is complete in Jesus and mature in the word of God. Many do not seem to be concerned with the immediate needs of the membership. They feel as if members should handle their own problem. But the New Black Spirituality is screaming that the responsibility of the deacon goes much further than the church on Sunday morning. It begs them to wake up from their slumber and listen to God speaking to them before He has to shower them with the consequence of disobedience. I believe that God will speak to many young men who desire to be a deacon through an article published in Ebony magazine some months ago. The article highlights many spiritual leaders, recognized throughout the United States, who spoke on The New Black Spiritual Experience. Is there any thing such as the New Black Spirituality? Or is it a revival of things that happened years ago? Whatever it is, it is real and it gets attention. Almost without public notice, and with little or no fanfare, a new black spirituality has moved from the wooded area of the country to center stage. Not only that, but it is coloring and affecting everything it touches. When one has entered into an everlasting commitment to allow Jesus Christ to be Savior and Lord, he should become more like Him. For the moment let's call it the New Black Spirituality. Like the old, it is rooted in, (as some call it) “the Great Black Spirit" that enables African-Americans to survive slavery and to change the color of America’s culture and America’s religion. But the New Spirituality, like the old from the wooded area, is growing. It is transforming and teaching things, and it is evolving (even as we read), seeking its truth, like the old spirit, in the heavens of our hope. We must stop here to remind you of a fact that is hard to explain. The new Spirituality differs significantly and sometimes dramatically from the old spirituality and is defined by (A) More excitement, more adventure, and elevated status of some ministers--similar to the status usually reserved for movie stars, (B) More new and independent denominations, some of them with their own missionary group in Brazil, Africa, and Europe, (C) More S-I-Cs, Sisters in charge, or, at least, out front, (D) More church members and more supporters of Pentecostal churches and the demonstrative, fervent Pentecostal spirit, (E) More Mega-Churches open almost all of the time and offering almost everything, including fast-food service, economic development corporations, and expert counseling on matters ranging from money management, to marital problems, to yoga, (F) More reverse integration, with more Hispanics and Whites worshipping at historically Black churches and more blacks supporting charismatic White preaching and (G) Finally and perhaps definitively, more rhythm, more shouting, more dancing, more hand-clapping, more foot stomping, more, some say, soul (including musical combos, drums, saxophonists, and trumpet players on or near the alter or the pulpit).