The Move

The next step was to talk to the pastor of the church we attended. Patti and I wanted to know for sure what the proper Christian response should be and what church discipline, if any, could be imposed upon the builder at the church he attended. Should this builder still considered to be in good standing with his church? He had reneged on promises, left subcontractors hanging, and even stiffed another prominent local leader when he built his house. That man’s home had closed, and a few weeks later, he began receiving bills and threats of property liens if the bills weren’t paid. Our builder assured that man it would be handled. Guess what? It wasn’t. The man and his wife had to cough up additional money to settle the accounts. Patti and I discovered their struggles were similar to ours. Our pastor said he understood our hearts. He basically listened. We said we really wanted to see this builder restored, despite the lies. We also told him there was a good chance we wouldn’t see the money he promised to pay us that would “make us whole.” The other man who also had been stiffed had been promised the same thing. The word of God says: Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints? 2 Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? 3 Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more, things that pertain to this life? 4 If then you have judgments concerning things pertaining to this life, do you appoint those who are least esteemed by the church to judge? 5 I say this to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you, not even one, who will be able to judge between his brethren? 6 But brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers! 7 Now therefore, it is already an utter failure for you that you go to law against one another. Why do you not rather accept wrong? Why do you not rather let yourselves be cheated? (1 Cor. 6:1–7) The entire passage talks about problems believers had with other believers and, instead of letting the local church handle it, decided to go to civil court. Paul said going to court wasn’t the way to do things. The old King James uses the word “defrauded” instead of “cheat.” I like the word “defrauded” better. That word gives the best sense of what had been happening to us. The bottom line is that Christians are supposed to work out these issues internally with church discipline, and not go to court. That’s what we were trying to do. We met for fifty minutes and left. We were told some pastoral staff members knew him and would reach out to him. Like anything else involving relationships, it takes at least two people and God to make it work. Construction was now nearing completion, but there was a punch list of about thirty items that needed to be completed before we could apply for occupancy. The builder apparently had no money coming in to proceed. Word gets out in a hurry, especially in smaller communities if a builder can’t pay his bills. It had now been fourteen months since I placed the call to our builder to get our project moving and two years since we came over to select the property, house plans, and God confirming our builder as “the guy.” Were we just nuts and deluded or was this really what God wanted from us? If it seems like we were asking the same question, well, we were. And we were getting the same answer: trust. This was the lowest point of the journey for us. We were now at a crossroads of what to do next. And it was going to get worse. We were about to get blindsided.