To My Facebook Friends

To My Facebook Brothers and Sisters in Christ….

I was raised a catholic. I was “born of the Spirit” at the age of twenty-seven after reading a tract, “The Four Spiritual Laws” by Campus Crusade. Immediately there was pressure to compromise the teachings of Christ. Although Jesus instructed, “Do not call anyone on earth your father, for One is your Father, He who is in heaven”, every catholic calls the priests “Father”.

To not call Father Frank “Father” would be an affront to Frank. The same be true of all priests. What was I to do? Noncompliance is nonacceptance. Ouch!

An easy escape from this predicament was compromise; just call the guy “Father Frank”. Peer pressure versus Jesus. Demands of religion versus demands of Christ.

It has been said that to compromise is like drinking salt water…. the more you drink, the thirstier you become. There were many born-again catholics at that time (the 1970’s), those who discovered Christ during (what man labeled) the catholic charismatic movement. They all, without exception, called the man “Father Frank” in direct contrast to Christ’s command. This increased pressure on me to compromise. (But I didn’t.)

After escaping catholicism I entered another religion, evangelicalism. Though less stringent, there was nonetheless the familiar pressure to compromise. No, they didn’t call their man “Father Frank” but they did call him “Pastor Frank”. I immediately recognized this as a trespass against Jesus’ words (Amplified): “Do not let yourselves be called leaders or teachers; for One is your Leader (Teacher), the Christ.” Why should I call Frank “Pastor Frank” when Christ alone is my pastor? (“The Lord is my Shepherd [pastor].”)

Most reading this call the man “Pastor Whoever”. Why? Why do you call someone other than Jesus your pastor? Peer pressure. May I humbly challenge you to you put on your big-boy, big-girl pants and stop calling the guy “Pastor”?

When you “appear before the judgement seat of Christ” (and you WILL appear before the judgement seat of Christ), you will be so happy that you did not “call anyone on earth your Father” or leader or teacher or…. pastor. Amen?