Turning away spiritual gifts

© 2016 Christy K Robinson

Many of us understand that ordination doesn’t confer privileges or gifts upon the man or woman being prayed for, but is instead a human recognition of God’s call and His gifts already bestowed to that person. 

 Maybe it was different with me. I’m not a professional pastor, but my gifts lie in music ministry, teaching, hospitality, compassion, and tongues (not that kind of tongues—written communications!). When I was ordained as an elder, God changed me. 

 

A few days ago at a party, I was speaking with friends, a young pastoral couple who will be ordained to ministry next week. They’re beautiful people, and they’re bursting with love for everyone in sight. I told them that there’s more to pastoral ordination than a pay raise or respect  of the church members—that the Lord will magnify His gifts to them, and they should prepare for dramatic changes in their lives. He will give them an authority they’ve not experienced before. 

 

In my experience, it didn’t happen at once, but the change was real. I became more confident of my skills, and they blossomed. I developed guidelines for writing a daily devotional book, solicited authors, and wrote more than a quarter of the year’s entries, as well as rewrote and edited the others. The book was published first by my employer, and later by Review & Herald. And then I wrote five more books!  (More books in the pipeline, too.)

 

I’d been a keyboardist for three decades for many denominations, playing mostly traditional and classical hymns and service music. But at my church in California, I played for a praise team at the early service, and “high church” for the later service, in addition to playing at other denominations nearby. I’m much more comfortable coming out from behind the big instruments I play, and connecting with other worshipers.

   

Over those years of Bible study and multiple church services on Saturdays and Sundays, I took notes in my study Bible. (The Presbyterian minister gave the best sermon about the Sabbath I’ve ever heard, and the female pastors in Methodist, Episcopal, Presbyterian, and Adventist churches taught me more about compassion and practical everyday love than any male pastor did.) When my remarks or teaching in Bible classes receive compliments from visiting ministers, or my written words have made something clear to a PhD minister in the Assemblies of God, I confess that it feels really good to have come so far from my former church-mouse self, but recognize that my knowledge came from God-ordained pastors of several denominations. I use that background to better communicate with my readers. 

 

There have been other blessings to my life that are of a more personal nature than I want to share here, but they definitely date to my elder ordination in 2004. The pastor and all the church elders laid hands on my shoulders and head and prayed for God to bless me and use those gifts to build up the church. He has answered in abundance.

   

The refusal of some denominations to accept the gifts and call that God has bestowed on women is a tragedy not only for the women they snub, but for the congregations who won’t benefit from those gifts, the people who can’t or won’t participate in a church led by a man, and all the unchurched who are waiting for the ministry that would come from that godly woman. Conversely, think of the potential ready to burst forth from the as-yet-untapped resources of women who should be ordained elders and pastors.

Laid Bare: Bathroom-bedroom police are after your money

© 2016 Christy K Robinson 

When the American Family Association boycott of Target began in May 2016, it was not about who uses which restrooms (because Target has locking restrooms for baby changing and disability access), it was about *FUNDRAISING* for the AFA. 

It's not about transgender people threatening your vulnerable daughters in a public restroom, or exposing their genitalia to impressionable children, somehow twisting children to an inevitable fate of gender reassignment. Do you know that in the AFA-generated hysteria about predators in the ladies' room, the AFA sent straight (but obviously pervy) men into women's restrooms to prove it could be done? Well, they had to send operatives in, because transgender people are not preying on others--they're answering nature's call behind the stall door, like everyone else.

As a public relations and marketing writer earlier in my career, I was told how effective fundraising works, and this AFA campaign is classic. The AFA's "philanthropy" strategy is to:

1. Create fear and outrage (Perverts! Deviants! LGBT! The gay agenda! They're coming for your children!);

2. Organize a petition from which to build a database;

3. Put the petition signer into an appeal cycle so they get hit again and again for ever-larger donations;

4. Ask for money (Urgent! Now! We must stop this outrage!);

5. Suggest giving amounts starting with a high figure and ending with a blank ($1000, $750, $500, $250, $___) and offer credit/debit card convenience or a special envelope for direct mail;

6. Cha-ching!

From the May 13, 2016, WaPo article: "The AFA is also asking for a “tax-deductible” donation of $5 to reach those “who have not heard about the boycott” in an attempt to gain two million signatures. The statement contains a claim that one anonymous donor gave the association $50,000." 

Right. That last statement about the anonymous donor? See Number 5 above. Because the $50K is from "Anonymous," there's no accountability. Maybe there was a donor, or maybe the figure is a planted suggestion. Again, classic fundraising tactic.

When fundraisers and marketers discuss that database, they talk about "giving units," not human beings who are giving sacrificial individual donations or pledging their estate to a charitable trust. Yes, it's that cold.

The AFA reported to Charity Navigator that $25.3 million of their $28 million income in 2014 was from donations. Do they spend those donations on improving family life or feeding/housing/teaching/medically treating children (that would be a big, fat NO), or do they spend their millions on getting their extremist candidates elected, lobbying legislatures, and creating bathroom laws? You know the answer.  

The AFA is not the only fundraising operation that uses the above strategy. Recognize the steps I've outlined above, and give responsibly, where your donations can have the best effect.

When you make donations or support charitable trusts, do so with a heart for the people Jesus mentioned in the Sermon on the Mount, the people who are "the least of these," or the poor widow who has only mites to put in the offering. Like the men and women Paul thanked in his epistles, support the poor, and support the pastors and missionaries as they spread the gospel. And as a responsible adult who knows that bills must be paid, please support your local church. 

But fear mongers and bigots? No. Deprive them of the fruits of their greed. Don't be a sucker.