Of Weakness and Ministry

I was so impressed by General George Patton's speech that I had to quote it in full. He is regarded as one of the United States' most successful field commander of any war. He continualy strove to train his troops to the highest standards of excellence. I cannot claim to know in depth who he is. I have read a little about him in my US History classes in college. However, I do admire his courage, tanacity, and "chutzpa". I think leaders ought to have these characteristics - whether in secular or ecclesastical capacities. Unfortunately, this isn't always the case. Often we read of leaders with serious lapses in character. And whether we like it or not, there is always a greater expectation upon church leaders to behave impeccably, to be above reproach in every aspect of life. I am not suggesting sinless perfection. But then again, didn't Jesus say that we should be perfect as his Father is perfect? Selah.

One of my concerns about our spiritual leaders here in the Philippines is spiritual weakness masquerading as niceness. No person of biblical account who was worth his salt was a wishy-washy, namby-pamby, jelly-bellied, weak-spined coward. They were made of firmer stuff. But this is the fruit of discipline -- something almost unknown to Filipinos, even in the church. Sigh! Pastors are a dime a dozen. All one needs to do is go to a Bible School, pass the course, and, voila, one is a "Pastor". It doesn't matter whether the person is called into the ministry, he passed the course.

I am concerned that the 107 years of evangelical Christianity in the Philippines accounts for a meager 6% of the nation's population. The figure would be significantly lower if we survey how many are mature enough to discern God's will and ways to fulfill their destiny and to disciple others to spiritual matuirty. There is something terribly wrong. I have heard of so many prophecies by locals as well as foreigners that God has a wonderful plan for the Philippines, that we will be Asia's missions launching pad, that we are the burning bush, and other wonderful visions of grandeur. These will be nothing more than rhetoric if we don't get our act together. Someone once defined insane as a person who does the same thing repeatedly but expects different results. Have we become insane? Unless we change how we "do church," we will continue to get the same results over the next century.

Wake up, Philippines. There is a new wind blowing!