I once was an associate to a popular pastor in a large church. A big mistake that I never repeated. However, I learned a lot about \u201cplaying it safe.\u201d The game has several rules that I broke and continue to break today. The reason is that God did not call anyone to \u201cplay it safe.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, \u201cplaying it safe\u201d is considered a necessary paradigm to advance one\u2019s career. About the career thingy, I\u2019m not interested in that either. One of my friends disinvited me as a speaker for a large event because he believed one of my beliefs would create a problem. He remarked that he did not want to build someone\u2019s career that he might not agree with. I thought, \u201cI don\u2019t have one of those (career).\u201d<\/p>\n
To someone who is called by God unto a position, he or she does not seek a career or a carefully crafted image to protect by compromise or \u201cwise diplomacy.\u201d Certainly, there is room for tact, and we should not be perceived as scurrilous and carnal individuals. But Christ made Himself of no reputation (Philippians 2:7). He certainly did not become a man of ill repute but took on the form of a servant.<\/p>\n
That is what a man or woman of God is\u2014a servant, not only to people but to God. That is not \u201cplaying it safe.\u201d They put their lives in the crosshairs of gossip hunters, pointy fingers, tongues on fire with bile and bitterness, and nowadays, weaponized Social Media. Our \u201csafe space\u201d can only be accessed on our knees. Otherwise, we do not have a “safe” place on the frontline of God\u2019s will.<\/p>\n
However, I have friends and acquaintances in so-called ministry that do not wish to publicly associate with individuals like me. That doesn\u2019t bother me in the slightest. We are identified equally by the people we associate with and the ones who will have nothing to do with us. I only mention it because of the reason why they take such a position. The reason is that it is not “safe” to associate with someone who undiplomatically rebukes heretics and exposes heresy. They reason that they can do greater good by \u201caccentuating the positive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of course, there is nothing positive about a congregation that has not a clue about the most clever deception in history and the deceivers that foment it. So they read Richard Rohr, Ann Voscamp, Beth Moore, Sarah Young, Rick Warren, et al, that they believe were sent by God with new revelations. They watch movies such as \u201cThe Shack\u201d and believe it is a marvelous depiction of truth. Many of them do not know the difference between New Apostolic Reformation heretics and true servants of God. They cannot detect the apostasy in Joel Osteen or the wolf spirit in Kanye West. Thus, they rejoice when demoniacs invade and revel in a Conference of apostate individuals demonstrating Satan\u2019s \u201clying signs and wonders\u201d show.<\/p>\n
Innumerable ones are being gradually drawn into the great apostasy and some of them, including most of their offspring, are inextricably bound in deception, but their pastor \u201cplayed it safe.\u201d<\/p>\n
Because he \u201cplayed it safe,\u201d he avoided association with bombastic individuals, never contradicted a heretic, and preached mushy sermons with themes that did nothing more than placate boredom. He made it to retirement or is on that path. Congratulations are not in order.<\/p>\n
Retirement? I cannot find that word or concept in the Scriptures. Certainly, as I\u2019m aging I am aware that offers to speak at churches or conferences will be fewer. The fact is, even today with my 71st birthday a couple of weeks away, invites to preach or speak at events are few. I\u2019m okay with that, but it doesn’t mean I have retired. I\u2019m busier than ever. Retirement is something I do at the end of the day. I re-fire in the mornings.<\/p>\n
I was privileged and blessed to have godly old pastors in congregations that I pastored. They did not stop ministering when age caught up with them, but simply found other ways to stay busy in God\u2019s service. They told me stories about their past that was evidence they did not \u201cplay it safe.\u201d Some of them, as was I, were excommunicated from churches for the \u201cno-no\u201d of preaching against the wickedness that influential leaders were guilty of.<\/p>\n
\u201cSafe\u201d was not an option even after having to uproot their families and move to other towns or cities. They continued preaching truth until the congregations wanted younger men, \u201c so that we can reach the young people.\u201d Okay, reach them with truth\u2014not with a man, young or old, that \u201cplays it safe.\u201d<\/p>\n
I do not doubt that these \u201csafe\u201d players are compromisers that can build churches numerically and structurally, and provide a \u201csafe\u201d place for compromised professing Christians to attend. No one is going to experience the unpleasantness of conviction. They will never know that they do not have enough \u201coil\u201d to honestly sing, \u201cThis little light of mine, I\u2019m gonna let it shine.\u201d They will fall like walls with untempered mortar when the storm fully arrives.<\/p>\n
We are in a very deadly and harsh period. We should be training and equipping the Believers to not only survive but to stand with God\u2019s complete armor and push back against encroaching evil. Church meetings should not be primarily social events, but gatherings where the Believers can hear the unvarnished truth about the state of Christianity and what is necessary to overcome and endure.<\/p>\n
They do not need \u201cplay it safe\u201d pastors, but firebrands that are not afraid of people\u2019s opinions, or of rejection, or of being thought uncouth and brash. They need men that are so spontaneously obedient to the Holy Spirit that nominal professing Christians and hirelings avoid them.<\/p>\n
God is not safe for sinners. He intends to kill them by a cross or by the second death in hell. Satan certainly is not safe since he wishes the eternal destruction of every soul.<\/p>\n
There is only one safe place\u2014in God\u2019s will and raised in newness of life. Being there may make you too unsafe for association by friends, family, and even professing Christians. But when thick darkness fully covers this earth, it will not matter to you how many rejections or exclusions you experienced. You will be eternally grateful that you were accepted in the Beloved. (Ephesians 1:6)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I once was an associate to a popular pastor in a large church. A big mistake that I never repeated. However, I learned a lot about \u201cplaying it safe.\u201d The game has several rules that I broke and continue to break today. The reason is that God did not call anyone to \u201cplay it safe.\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","post-preview"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paIm2N-vw","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1954"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1954"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1954\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1959,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1954\/revisions\/1959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}