Sacred Cows

Ok, so this is going to be a touchy one.

This idea was sparked by a program I saw on TBN a while ago where one of the speakers said something to the effect of "If it ain't Jesus Christ, it ain't sacred." What I think he meant was that we often let traditions, doctrines, and other man-made methods, practices, etc. get in the way of being the church we are supposed to be; worshiping God and reaching a lost world in Jesus' name.

In my time, I have seen many things become what I call "sacred cows." From trying to "keep up with the Jones'" by upgrading technical systems every time something new comes out to letting pride and arrogance get in the way of effective outreach.

This is a really difficult topic to explain, as all my examples could be argued against me from a particular perspective. But, maybe that will serve to spark a lively discussion. So, I'm just going to plow ahead and see what happens.

So, without getting into specifics, let me paint you a hypothetical picture as an example. Let's say an individual wants to donate a large sum of money to the church (over $20,000). However, they earmark the money to be used to re-upholster the pews. Now, the pews are doing just fine, not much wear and tear on them, but this individual feels very strongly about this and will not be deterred. What should the pastor do?

My thinking is that the pastor should turn down the donation if the individual will not listen to other areas of real need where the money could be better served. Let me explain my reasoning and hopefully you'll understand.

Too often, a church will get into a situation like the one described above and they desperately want the money, but they are afraid that if they turn the person down, they might not give any more money. Here is where I come from; if the person is so focused on something as trivial as re-upholstering the seats, which is NOT a need (unless they're bright orange...;), and won't listen to other areas of real need, like evangelism, outreach, homeless ministries, etc., they their heart is not in the right place. In this particular case, I would say that the person is focused more on keeping up appearances rather than wanting to help other people. Now, again, it's one thing if the church as a body has indicated a desire to re-upholster the pews-that's a democratic decision and should be treated as such. But what really upsets me is people with deep pockets coming in and making changes in the church because it's what they want, not necessarily what the church wants...or even needs. To me, it's a selfish mentality and one that pastoral leadership should really fight more actively against.

Ok, another example: The tradition of Communion, at least in the Adventist church, consists of two parts. The first is the act of footwashing in order to remind us of humility and submitting to one another. So, a pair of people will physically wash each other's feet, as Christ did with the disciples at the Last Supper. Secondly, everyone regroups in the Sanctuary and the emblems (grape juice and flatbread pieces) are handed out to everyone. Now, I don't know if this is true or not, so forgive me for this, but I seem to remember being taught that if you did not participate in the foot-washing, you were not allowed to partake of the emblems. Now, let's pretend for the sake of argument that this was true (it's not that way now, by the way). Let's also pretend that you're a first-time visitor to an Adventist church on a Communion day and you were not allowed to participate in the second part of the service, not knowing what was happening. How would that make you feel?

This would be an example of tradition being a sacred cow. Sorry for the poor examples, but like I said, it's a difficult one to explain.

Maybe if I sum it all up by saying this: in the end, there should be no barrier between a church and the next person to walk in who doesn't know Jesus Christ and anything that gets in the way of that is a sacred cow and should be avoided. Signing a document that states you agree with 28 beliefs of a church before they'll let you get baptized? Worrying about being judged and criticized for not wearing a dress shirt and tie when going to church? Trying to behave correctly so that you can "fit in" to whatever mold a church has promoted as being "right?" Placing more importance and significance on music rather than the message, or outreach, or evangelism, or even the relationships within the church? Yeah, sacred cows, every single one. And it needs to stop. Christ is our example, and as far as I can tell, he had no sacred cows because he was all about reaching the next person.