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This essay was written by Trish Woelk of
Cape Girardeau Missouri. Trish and her husband Mike are former
pastors of the Foursquare Church there. Many of the points she
brings up are challenging, and even painful to those who have much
invested in contemporary church culture. The reader is encouraged
to read with an open mind. |
“Church Exit”
by Trish Woelk
Since the early days of my Christianity, I have been praying for revival. Coming into the Kingdom at the end of the Charismatic Movement in l975, I went to Aglow and Full Gospel meetings, but the glory had departed and religion, politics and factions were moving in. My longing for the presence of the Lord was fed by writings and biographies of revivalists.
Studying Evans and Finney made my heart ache for the church. She was being overtaken by her enemies, the gods of this world. Ten years ago, while studying the 33rd chapter of Exodus, the Lord began showing me the state of the church.
Exodus 33:3- "Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; for I will not go up in your midst…"
I saw the church. No cloud. No pillar of fire. No Presence. No manifestation. No miracles, signs, or wonders. He was not with us.
We were wandering around in the desert, being overtaken by our enemies. There was a terrible shallowness everywhere. We said things about Jesus that were blasphemous: “Just ask Him into your heart and you will be saved”. Unbelief was common: “Can you really know if you are saved?” The most simple teachings of the Bible - repentance, holiness, sacrifice, faith, love, were ignored or misunderstood. Almost the entire church followed denominational hierarchies who used sheep, rather than caring for them.
Propagation was rare, something we studied, like math. Righteousness, peace, and joy? Testimonies? Baptisms? He was not with us.
"…lest I consume you on the way for you are a stiff- necked people.”
One who is stiff-necked is one whose vision is restricted. Eventually, left untreated, the stiff-necked person’s head will not be able to turn.
Stubbornly holding to a form, the Institutional Church refuses to admit His glory has departed. Stiff-necked, she insists on carrying an ark that does not give evidence of His presence. Declaring she is a place of covering and protection, she is being overrun by her enemy.
Insisting she is the place of nurture, she is using hungry baby lambs to feed herself. Declaring herself a place of freedom, she uses the Bible to bind sheep to herself. She is led by a board of elders rather than a pillar of fire, and she is ruled by a pastor, rather than a King. “Bring them in so they can be saved!” she cries, while her sheep trudge through the desert full of unbelief, fear and timidity, unforgiveness and bitterness, ambition, vanity and sexual impurity, strife. Stiffly, with no more passion than the building she so proudly meets in, she drives her congregation through the motions of sustaining “church life”, which generally consists of a schedule (somehow thought to be hallowed) of weekly meetings.
She teaches her sheep to fight their battles in the "IC" [Institutional Church], spend their money in the IC, give their gifts to the IC, and dedicate their lives to the IC. She tells them that if the IC is flourishing, they have God’s blessing.
Tragically, her differentiation from the world is not always discernable. She is stiff-necked, refusing to admit what everyone knows but her - her strength is in her numbers and her money, not her God.
v 4-6: "And when the people heard this bad news, they mourned, and no one put on his ornaments. For the LORD had said to Moses, "Say to the children of Israel, 'You are a stiff-necked people. I could come up into your midst in one moment and consume you. Now therefore, take off your ornaments, that I may know what to do to you.' So the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by Mount Horeb."
God told the people to lay down their jewelry, their glitter, and their pretense. He wanted them to see themselves as He saw them; blind, naked and poor, desperately in need of Him.
Oblivious to the fact that they were trudging around in a dangerous place in dire need of His protection and guidance, they retained their Egyptian (worldly) perception of Him. They found it difficult to relate to this strange, demanding God, so they let Moses represent them to Him.
Then, not knowing Him for themselves, they did not trust Him to get them safely through the desert, so they brought Egyptian gods (worldly philosophies) and jewelry (security) with them on their journey. He refused to go.
For these past ten years, seeing that God was so obviously not with us, my prayer has been that He would reveal to us our ornaments. What are those things that we cling to that have caused Him to withdraw?
We get our ornaments from many places and we may wear them privately or corporately, but, for the sake of this writing, I am going to talk only about those ornaments we get from the Institutional Church.
The Ornaments
(Please remember, as you read this, I am talking about ornaments, not
people. For example, some of the Israelite ornaments were gold. Gold has no
soul. The person wearing it has the soul. They may use the gold to build a calf,
or to cover an ark.)
Pastor: This ornament is the most valuable one you can get at IC. It says you are the most important person at every function. You have a special inside with God, and those closest to you are the most important people after you in IC. Since the size of your ornament depends on the number of people who follow you, and the amount of dollars they generate, it helps if you are good at PR and can administrate. If you don’t have these skills, it is important to get people to follow you who have them. Another plus of this ornament is it comes with a salary. The requirement for this ornament is the ability to get people to follow you.
Elder This ornament goes to those who have that wonderful combination of dedication to the IC and success in the world. A willingness to spend time with needy sheep and having the gifts of the Spirit of God add luster to this ornament, but are not necessary.
Deacon This ornament goes to those new members of IC who are willing to sacrifice everything they have to fulfill the demands of the Pastors and Elders. Being a team player (this is called being “faithful” in IC language) really adds value to this garb. Requirements? Voluntary enslavement at the expense of your family, relationship with the Lord, and common sense.
Worship Leader
Don’t get this confused with a worshipper, one whose heart hallows the Lord.
This ornament goes to those who stand before the IC and lead singalongs with the
intention that everyone will enjoy it to the point of going up to the mountain
of experience. IC membership will reflect the skill of the Worship Leader, so
Pastors are always on the lookout for skilled musicians. In a progressive IC, a
Pastor may even use those who have no relationship with God to take his sheep
into the Holy of Holies.
There are pitfalls with this jewel: nobody wants to confront a Worship Leader if
they have sin (called “artistic temperament” in IC language) because they may
stop singing if they are offended. Since the songs are usually about Jesus, and
He is a God of fire, Worship Leaders take the chance of getting burned.
Tither (10%, an Old Testament term not advocated in the New Testament). Everybody who gives money to the IC gets a version of this ornament. The size and value of the ornament depend on the quantity of money. Extra weight is given to the jewel if it is given when common sense says it should have gone for bills or other needs, because then the money was given by “faith”, an IC term used to identify a gift given with the hope that it will be reciprocated.
Member Jewels that go to those who, whether or not they agree with everything the IC is all about, are willing to sign a paper or make a public vow promising to support the IC by frequenting their hallowed meetings, volunteering for IC maintenance jobs, and giving money to support the IC. This is called “commitment” in IC language. Most IC's won’t allow Christians to serve freely in their group unless they have this ornament. IC has developed many teachings to persuade Christians that there is something wrong with them if they refuse to wear this jewel. Requirement? Sign a paper or make a vow.
Special Speaker This ornament is for those who sell their thoughts. Whether the speaker is a Prophet or a comedian, sheep will spend time and money on them because: They are hungry and hope to get something to eat, or Pastor says go, or they feel guilty for not being “faithful”, or they like being around people (enjoy “fellowship” in IC language). The beauty of the ornament is reflected in the amount of money the speaker gets for speaking, because sheep give more money to speakers they enjoy listening to. The qualifications are that you think sellable thoughts, and the confidence to express them publicly.
The ornaments were gifts given to the Israelites when they left Egypt. God gave them. IC demands those ornaments be displayed, which chillingly reminds me of the Israelites demand that their ornaments be turned into a god they could see, and therefore trust.
v 7- "Moses took his tent and pitched it outside the camp, far from the camp, and called it the tabernacle of meeting. And it came to pass that everyone who sought the LORD went out to the tabernacle of meeting which was outside the camp."
My journey outside the camp started with the revelation that, after being a Christian for 20 years, I had to do things differently if I was going to get different results. I wanted Kingdom reality. God. I wanted to be with Him, even (oh Jesus) to see His face. I changed the way I read the Bible—let it read me. I changed the way I prayed—let Him tell me what to pray. I changed the way I worshipped—turn off the electricity and bow. I learned what repentance meant. I begged God to give me the grace to not move on until I would follow Him.
My perception of the institution of church became more and more despondent. I started with the intention of Mike and me and our “congregation” having a church group that He could inhabit. But, as time went on, I became convinced that the structure of the traditional church would not accommodate a God like Jehovah, because HE would not accommodate anything.
We must accommodate HIM, and the structure we were in would not allow that. It had to have a head with a crew around it that could sustain the structure itself. It had to be maintained, and God doesn’t maintain, He births. If we were stiff-necked and insisted on keeping the structure, He would send an angel in to keep us from destruction, as he told Moses He would do for the Israelites, but He wasn’t going along. Agonizing over these things one day, I cried, “Lord, are you with us!?”. He cried back, “Are YOU with ME!!?”
We knew we had problems with sin, both intentional and unintentional. There has been and will continue to be repentance. We had problems with doctrine, which has been and will continue to be corrected. We worked on structure for years. We beseeched God over church structure, begging Him for the “new wineskin”, trying this, trying that. But, no matter how we fought it, IC continued to dictate to us how we treated one another and spent our money and devoted our time, and, worst of all, it deprived us of Him. Scriptures like: “Be silent, all flesh, before the Lord” and “Let no flesh glory in His presence” were impossible to realize in a setting that demanded we work in the flesh, maintaining buildings and meetings and hierarchies of authority. Finally, we stripped ourselves of it.
v 9- "And it came to pass, when Moses entered the tabernacle, that the pillar of cloud descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses."
Moses stayed there for a year. He stayed until God changed His mind and promised to go with them.
I go to the tent. I sit there. I read. I sing. I talk. He talks. I sit there. He shows me ornaments. He is quiet. I repent. I sit there. By His grace and mercy, I will not move on without Him.
[Mike & Trish Woelk pastored for years in Pentecostal churches. They are still very active for God and are still recognized leaders among the Christians in their community. But it is all very different from before].
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