Over the years since becoming a Christian, more than once have I heard a fellow believer speak in glowing terms over the personality and talents, gifts or abilities of certain unbelieving people and then say something like, “It’s such a pity that he (or she) is not in Christ. He (or she) would make a lovely Christian.” When asked why, the responses have been pretty much the same….”What an asset he’d be for God with a gift like that.” Or, “The church could do with someone with talents such as hers right now.” Of the people that I recall being spoken about in such manner, one was an accountant and financial planner, another was a social worker, also a builder and, more than one musician.
Would such people really make lovely Christians? It depends. It depends on whether or not they are willing to lay down before God all that they believe themselves to be, along with every talent, gift or ability they have. A retired accountant giving his services in a church demonstrated no evidence that he had laid anything down. He believed himself to be a Christian even though he’d not been baptized or ever partook of the Lord’s Supper. Was he a good accountant? Probably, but not for God because his accounting “gift” held sway over others in the church who took his advice rather than seek God for His.
Another retired accountant offering his services to a church was a Christian according to his testimony, but he had limited himself in his spiritual growth. He had financial understanding from the humanist aspect but very little from the biblical aspect. The church was asked to pray for, “the next step in God.” Some revelations were brought forth, but nothing was done with them because the elders were advised that the finances were not there so as to take that step. It showed up that their spiritual growth was limited too. As a result, “the next step” has never been taken…except backwards. One either goes on in God, or one goes back. There’s no sitting still.
A Christian man was soon to be retiring from full-time work and given that his wife was doing some part-time social work he thought it would be a good idea if he got involved doing something similar. One day he told me that he saw himself as more than qualified in the area of marriage counselling, “seeing as though I’ve been through a divorce, when most counselors and church ministers haven’t. What do they really know about divorce?” He did not often speak about his former wife, but when he did so it was clear that he had lots of negative emotions and hurts to deal with in that regard. Keen to express his perceived gift, but (at that time) unwilling to begin dealing with the stumbling blocks in his way.
A Christian man was an elder in the church but he was also a part-time builder who specialized in minor home renovations. For the most part he worked on his own doing those renovations but during school holidays he sometimes used the services of young secondary college men from the church. At the end of one working day he spoke to one young helper saying something like, “Well, I can write you a cheque for thirty dollars or I’ve got a twenty-dollar cash note on me. Which one would you like?” The young man was very embarrassed. He knew which dollar value he really wanted, but he settled for the twenty-dollar note, knowing that this was the elder/builder’s preference.
A Christian man visited my (then) church quite regularly. Normally he attended one of the same denomination in another suburb close by. One day after the service he told me he was the organist in his fellowship but, “if they think they can take me for granted just any-old-time then they can think again.” When I suggested that some probably did take him for granted, but that Jesus never does when we do it for Him, his focus remained fixed on them, it did not shift to the Lord. One time he said to me, “I’ll bet they got a surprise this morning. That ought to teach them!” It didn’t teach them. Neither could the Lord teach him, it would seem. Interesting too, those statements were made directly after each service.
A trained pianist in his late 20’s was an extremely difficult person to work with during music practices for Sunday morning services. In rehearsals, if the song leader, singers and musicians attempted to sing and play the song in a key or tempo that was not familiar to or liked by him, everybody knew about it. Having been around churches all his life though, he had learned how not to express his anger and impatience outwardly but rather, using musical terminology coupled with lots of religious Christian-speak he was able to get his own way. He looked at each song from a “right way” or “wrong way” viewpoint – his own viewpoint.
These are just a few examples of people already in the church exercising (or wanting to) their talents, gifts or abilities, who, at first glance would be seen by believers as ones who would make “lovely Christians,” if they happened to be unbelievers. I have learned that unless we daily lay ourselves down before God, along with our talents, gifts or abilities we are far from being “lovely Christians” but always very close to being “ugly Christians.” Somebody says, “Don’t be judgmental! Where’s your compassion? We are all at different stages in our walk with God and in our spiritual progression!” True. The question is though, who’s really in control … self or God?
I mention this because in the case of the examples given above, the people had been Christians (at that time) for anything up to 35 years down to 12 years. In that period, each one had sung copious hymns and songs of praise and worship to God, each one had heard loads of sermons & prayers and had done lots of mid-week Bible studies. One would have thought with all that going on for them the “lovely Christian” in them would have shone forth when needed most. It didn’t. Why it didn’t is certainly between themselves and God, but each one regularly demonstrated skills on how to talk the talk and give the impression that they were walking the walk.
I believe there is too much attention given to people in the church with talents, gifts or abilities. From what I have seen many of them appear to be energized by the human spirit, not the Holy Spirit. Whatever they are or have, is useless to God unless all has been handed over to Him. That means everything must be laid before Him, to use or not to use. God is not interested in what we can do for Him in the natural, it breeds pride, smugness, conceit and self-righteousness. Yet in the church, God’s people “fall all over” such people, ignorantly allowing themselves to be manipulated and intimidated by them.
Both the organist and the pianist are not Robinson Crusoe. The institutional church is full of musicians and singers with hearts like theirs. I played music professionally for over twenty-eight years in the “world.” And during that time I got to work with some strange characters, but I did not encounter ugly-spirited, uncooperative, manipulators and intimidators. I had to come in to the church to discover those. What a witness! Musical snobs, frustrated would-be rock `n roll stars, show-ponies, pretenders, phonies … all in the church! So many of them also strongly giving the impression that they were doing God a favor too. Not lovely. Ugly.
How proud some of them have been to declare also, “I’m a perfectionist.” No, they’re not. They are driven by perfectionism and because they failed to grasp the great difference between being driven versus being led, they failed to see that they were hindering everything that the Holy Spirit was wanting to impart to them. Once again, these comments were not made by newly saved Christians. Each had been around churches for years. But they had never been challenged on their misguided beliefs and superstitions. “Don’t rock the boat” was often the unspoken but very loud message given out by others in the fellowship who should have known better.
A young pianist in the church once shared that she felt inadequate in her playing when comparing herself to one of the others who was a very good player. She also felt the same way about her biblical knowledge when making similar comparisons with someone. Being a young mother with a husband and two children, time was also an issue. I encouraged her to forget about the comparisons and simply concentrate on building her relationship with the Lord and to believe she had the anointing of the Holy Spirit. I also mentioned that she was open-spirited and teachable.
Over the next couple of years it was always wonderful to witness both her spiritual and musical progression. She developed a great love for the Lord and the Scriptures and along with her husband, opened up their home for mid-week Scripture studies. Although her playing was not technically as good as the other player at that stage, it was much better in many ways because it came from her heart, not her head! Knowing that she was being energized by the Holy Spirit also brought a greater release from her fear of playing wrong notes. Not so, the other pianist; wrong notes were a no-no for him – even if it meant messing up the timing!
While church leaders and their people continue to pay lip-service to the reality, power and ministry of the Holy Spirit in their churches….but yet at the same time place heavy focus on the natural talents, gifts or abilities of people, they will never see such people from the perspective of the Holy Spirit. In my post: The greatest loss of all I make mention that the church is weak and powerless today not through any lack from God. The lack is always on our part. And the more intelligent, clever, talented and gifted we believe ourselves to be, the greater we can expect that lack to be. This is one reason why the institutional church is unattractive to outsiders.
Much of the outsider’s environment is tainted with the same stuff – talented, gifted but ugly-spirited people, snobs of all kinds, would-be’s-if-they-could-be’s, insecure people hiding behind labels such as “perfectionist.” Why in the world would they want to stay in a church when they discover it’s going on in there too? It is not enough for God’s people to cling on to the wimpy, “Christians are not perfect, just forgiven” nonsense either. We are new creatures in Christ. And when God talks about old things passing away and all things becoming new, that includes all our natural talents, gifts or abilities. In other words, in God’s mind the natural is out, the supernatural is in. “…..from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh……if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” 2 Corinthians 5:16-17.