As you, Reverend Evangelical Minister begin to “grow your business”, watch out! You will find there are people who think there is more to being a Christian than reciting “The most important thing we can do is believe in Jesus and The Bible.”
Some of these people are, frankly, afraid of you, Reverend Evangelical Minister! Some of them are in various denominations that may have been around over a hundred years! That makes some of them think they’re better. They aren’t! They’re stuck in the past!
How do you prove that? What do you tell people who say “You’re just another small business start-up! Where did you get your seed money? Crowdfunding? Shark Tank?” Those accusations can sting. Don’t worry about them. They are a sign that you are successful!
Still, you need to memorize another line: “The older denominations are out of touch with modern people who must relate to Today’s Needs.”
Oh, the wonder of “Today’s Needs”! “Today’s Needs” justify any position you want to take on anything. Better yet, the ministers in the older Protestant denominations are helpless! They are stuck, chained down, with a lot of old rules from yesterday and a lot of old people who take them seriously.
Lutherans, Presbyterians, and Methodists don’t, for instance, have an official position on Organic Foods. You can have one! It doesn’t matter if you are for or against them. You may think Organic Foods are an important part of life. Or, you may believe Organic Foods are a simple-minded marketing plan directed at gullible nincompoops. It doesn’t matter! If two or three people in your New Church feel that Organic Foods are a meaningful modern issue, then it becomes one of Today’s Needs and you get to let people to know that you will help them pray about it! Same thing with Global Warming/Freezing, air/water/ground pollution, fracking, and all the modern issues. You, a modern Evangelical Minister in your Old Time Bible Church, can cover all the bases!
Even the really old group of Christians, those pesky Catholics, can be put on the defensive if you continually repeat, “The older denominations are out of touch with modern people who must relate to Today’s Needs.”
Don’t let those Catholics get you off track. They may say, “Jesus founded The Catholic Church. It has been providing the Seven Sacraments to Christians for two thousand years. People today have the same important needs they’ve always had, and it’s for Life, Truth, Confession, Absolution, and Heaven; not organic food.”
Be careful when you hear Catholics quoting The Bible! You can’t win arguments with some of them. When they start going on about “Jesus said ‘If you do not eat My Body and drink My Blood you do not have life in you.’ and the only way to receive that is by receiving Catholic Communion.” you may find that praying about organic food seems, well, shallow. So, what do you do?
When threatened with any substantive issues and Bible quotations, just repeat our Great Commandment: “The most important thing we can do is believe in Jesus and The Bible.” Then, you may want to remember that you have to leave for “an important appointment”.
