It’s important to keep your people thinking and saying the same things. Amazingly, you can go on for years repeating “The most important thing we can do is believe in Jesus and The Bible!”
Mindlessly repeating that sentence plays into a deep secret of the human mind: Most people seek comfort more than truth. That’s what we’ll talk about, now, in: Wanna be an Evangelical Minister? #2.
Simpler souls are comforted by having an authority figure (That’s YOU, Reverend Evangelical Minister, Pastor Bob!) tell them over and over “Everything you are doing is OK! The most important thing we can do is believe in Jesus and The Bible!”
It is a situation where that partial truth is preferable a greater truth that will put you out of work! You don’t want some troublesome lapsed Catholic asking “Pastor Bob, Jesus said ‘If you do not eat My Body and drink My Blood you do not have life in you.’ Do we have life in us, here, in your Family Victory Evangelical Bible Church?”
There are lots of pesky passages like that. And, lots of pesky people reading them! Ignore them all. I especially hate that ‘Thou art Peter and on this rock I build My Church. . .’ If they put that together with ‘If you do not eat My Body and drink My Blood you do not have life in you.’, the smarter ones may go back to being Catholic! You could lose some real money if a lot of them do that! That’s why you must learn to repeat, in escalating tones of urgency, ‘The most important thing we can do is believe in Jesus and The Bible.’”
You do not need to have uppity people who care about “Finding greater truth.” or “Getting closer to God.”, or wondering about phrases telling them to “Eat His Body and drink His Blood.” This is your Family Victory Evangelical Bible Church. It is not theirs. You want them focusing on you, Reverend Evangelical Minister Pastor Bob!
If they aren’t satisfied with our Great Commandment “The most important thing we can do is believe in Jesus and The Bible.”, encourage them to leave. Sometimes, if you can make them fearful of your obvious disapproval, you can scare them into staying. The ideal conclusion you can have them reach? “Pastor Bob, I am so grateful to you for your wisdom and understanding! Thank you for getting me on the right path and keeping me here, in your Family Victory Evangelical Bible Church. It’s where I need to be! Thank you, Pastor Bob!”
Once, I discouraged some simple twit who took that Body and Blood stuff a little too seriously so successfully that he fell down on his knees in front of me and clutched my hand. If I’d have had a ring, he’d have kissed it!
