A Three Hundred Pound Baby

A couple of years ago, I watched a program about a twenty three year old man who insisted on being cared for as if he were baby. He slept in a giant crib, drinking from an oversized bottle and wearing diapers even though he weighed over three hundred pounds.  A full time nurse had been hired to care for him.  During the interview, he admitted there was no physical reason, but that he simply liked being taken care of.  He just didn’t want to take responsibility for caring for himself.

Obviously, the man could never have gotten by with such behavior without his parents complicity.  Some one else has to pay for the nurse and his demands.  If something happens to the people who are enabling him to live in such a fashion, he is unprepared to earn his own living or even to care for himself.  His parents have failed in their responsibility to prepare him to live on his own.

I know of several churches that have been going for forty or fifty years and are still depending on other churches to pay their pastors and expenses.  They have never learned to trust God to meet their needs, or to take their own responsibilities.   Spiritually, they are as immature as the twenty three year old man.  Their pastors, missionaries, and supporting churches have enabled them to avoid spiritual maturity by allowing them to depend on and take advantage of others.

Most independent Baptists claim to believe in building autonomous churches.  The word autonomous means “having self government; existing, developing or functioning independently of others,” according to Webster’s New World College Dictionary.  Any organization which is dependent on others to support either the church is not truly autonomous, nor can it be independent.  If we actually believe God intended an independent, autonomous church, then we have failed in our ministry with every church that does not attain that state.

Hebrews 5:12 declares, “For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.”  How long are we going to continue to allow these churches to not grow up?  They have become hindrances to the gospel, siphoning away resources that are needed elsewhere.

Even more troubling are the pastors and missionaries who have taken over self supporting churches, claiming them as mission churches.  Just this week I was told of a man who had taken over three formerly independent churches, raising support for the men who will serve as pastors.  While it may be necessary to assist a church that is struggling, it ought never become a long term or permanent situation.

Fables and Fairy Tales

A fairy tale is “a story about fairies, giants, magic deeds, etc; an unbelievable or untrue story, a lie,” according to Webster’s New World College Dictionary.  A fable is “a fictitious story used to teach a moral lesson; a myth or legend; a story that is not true; a falsehood.”

From Europe, we have the story of Jack The Giant Killer.  In the story, a young man or boy miraculously killed a giant who was terrorizing the countryside.  From Israel we have the story of David and Goliath, in which a young man or boy miraculously killed a giant who was terrorizing the countryside.  The stories are similar in many respects, but while Jack The Giant Killer is generally accepted as a fairy tale or fable, some people believe David and Goliath is a true story.  What makes the big difference?

Jack is a young man about whom we know almost nothing, except that his father had been killed by the giant.  We are never told what country he was from, where the giant came from, or when the story happened.  There is no basis of fact, even that Jack ever existed.  It is a total fabrication.

David, on the other hand, was an Israeli boy, a member of the tribe of Judah, and the son of Jesse.  We know about both his ancestors and his descendants, and can verify their existence.  We also know that the giant was a Philistine, a group about which historical records exist.   We are able to determine that the event happened around 1200 BC.  The verifiable information implies that the story is not entirely fictitious.

Without that information about David’s family, nationality, and opponent, the story of David and Goliath is just another fable or fairy tale.  If people are to believe the Bible is true, it is critical that we teach the background material so they have a sound basis for believing it.