The Sad Truth...

It's really interesting for me to listen to non-Calvinists bash us. It's always the same old story, "Calvinism kills churches" or "Calvinism stifles evangelism". One would think that an Arminian (or non-Calvinist) would be the most evangelistic Christian there is! Sadly, I don't think that's the case.

Some of my readers may recall that I was once a minister in the Church of God of Prophecy (COGOP). During my time in the COGOP, I was a member of two of their churches: one that was one of the more conservative within that movement and one that was more liberal (by that denomination's standards at least).

Here's some alarming things about the two churches I was affiliated with. Keep in mind, the Church of God of Prophecy is a self-consciously Arminian denomination:

• The Pastor's salary is the largest item in both the church budgets.



• One church only sent $25.00 [or maybe $50.00] per quarter to foreign missions, the other took up a missions offering and then spent it on cleaning supplies and church maintenance!



• Neither conducted any personal evangelism training.



• One of them never conducted any community outreach. The other had a monthly community youth outreach (in conjunction with other churches), but they stopped supporting it because it cost around $100.00 a month.



• One had a Easter program and a Christmas program, but behind closed doors I learned that the biggest reason for these events was because during the events the church would receive larger than average offerings, so much so that it helped to get the financially strapped church "in the black" -remember, the pastor got the lion's share of the tithes that people paid. So they had to do something to keep the lights on!
  
  
• The pastor of one often preached against door-to-door evangelism because "we never had anybody come to church as a result of it".



• The international headquarters of the denomination required a tithe of all the tithes the local churches received, but they wouldn't back their own minister's financially while they tried to plant churches (or re-plant it's derelict churches). The state headquarters wouldn't back the ministers either.

If Calvinism stifles evangelism, then what was the problem with those non-Calvinist churches I attended in the COGOP? Please understand, I'm not trying to bash the COGOP here. (One of my most loyal readers is a pastor in the movement.) I'm sure there are many mission minded churches in the COGOP, I just never had the pleasure of being a part of one of them.

I'm now the youth director of a Southern Baptist Church. Compared to my experience in the COGOP, I am amazed at how much my church does for missions and the SBC cooperative program. That being the case -if the statistics are accurate- many of our people are probably not active in personal witnessing or evangelism.

Here's the sad truth: the lack of evangelism in our churches has nothing to do with Calvinism or Arminianism. It's more to do with fear, apathy, or just plain laziness. The bottom line is that none of us, neither Calvinists nor Arminians, Baptists nor Pentecostals are as evangelistic as we ought to be.

So take it from me, don't buy into the hype that's put out by Arminians and other non-Calvinists about Calvinism stifling the gospel. I've been on both sides of the soteriological fence and the grass isn't very green on the Arminian side either!

God help us!

God help me!