“GOING OUT OF BUSINESS”

(A Fictional Allegory)

As I breezed through the doors of Wal-Mart, on my way to pick up a few items for the household, out of the corner of my vision I spotted a familiar couple that I hadn’t seen in quite some time.  Instead of going down the aisle that I intended, I turned to intersect this couple and greet them.

“Mr. and Mrs. Milford,” I exclaimed, “It’s so good to see you!”  “It has been such a long time since I have talked to you.”

Momentarily there was a vacant and somewhat puzzled look on their face and suddenly the light of memory as they remembered.  I looked at them expectantly and then realization hit them.  “John,” they exclaimed excitedly, “it certainly has been a long time.”  “Why you have grown up and we almost didn’t recognize you.”

I observed them as we talked and reminisced about old times.  The hair that was once dark and smooth, now shot with the silver of snow and frizzled with old age.  Why, old Mr. Milford didn’t look nearly as tall and imposing as he used to, and Mrs. Milford certainly looked a little bent and aged.  I guess they should, though, because to think about it, a lot of years had passed since I was a little boy.  They were grown adults back then and I, in my youth thought they were old then.

We all used to call them “Mom” and “Pop” back then, and that’s what they were to all the kids.  I said, “Mom and Pop, I just want to tell you that some of the greatest memories that I have of growing up are the ones that I experienced in your little old combination General Store and Soda shop down on Main Street in the middle of old Shadyville.

Shadyville was a quaint little southern town in the middle of the Gulf Coast Bible Belt.  It wasn’t a big town for sure, just about 4500 people is all.  Everybody knew everybody and while there was always a rough element to our little town, people by and large were just good folks and great neighbors to each other.

As we recalled people, incidents of humor, and sadly talked of people that had passed this life by some means or other, the nostalgic glow of yesteryear enveloped us and momentarily us kids were on one side of the counter with “Pop” on the other, asking, “..What’ll you have kids?”  I stirred myself out of my reverie long enough to ask “Mom” and “Pop”, “Do ya’ll still run the old Shadyville General Store?”

I guess it was a stupid question.  Here we all were standing in the middle of Wal-Mart, and me asking “Mom” and “Pop” if they still operated their store.

A sad look came over their face as they looked at me.  Shaking their heads in the negative they said, “Well, John, our age is against us.  We have just gotten too old to work the place.”  “Anyway, young fellow, when is the last time you have been down town on the main street of town?”  “It’s dead down there.”  “About all that is left is the loan institutions, the rent-to-own stores, a couple of attorney’s offices, and the Post Office.”  “The old Shadyville General Store is long gone and shut down.”  “The only things that remain on Main Street, are the stores that are not in direct consumer competition with the big store, Wal-Mart.”

He gestured at the big Wal-Mart store we were standing in, and said, “Do you see how convenient it is for you and I to just drop in here and get whatever we want at a reasonable price?”  As I nodded sadly, knowing just what it was that he was getting ready to say, he said, “We just couldn’t compete with this big department store.”  “They had and have an unlimited financial base and backing that the little Shadyville General Store couldn’t compete with.”  “We tried to continue with business, but we had to shut down after a time and go out of business.”

He shook his head as Mrs, Milford patted him on the shoulder and said, “O well, we were getting to old anyway!”  Mom Milford reached out and hugged me and said, “John, it’s so good to see you again.”  “We still live where we always did, come and see us sometime.”  Pop shook my hand and we said our good-byes, pledging to not let too much time pass before visiting again.

I walked away to complete my shopping in the Big Wal-Mart, my mind awhirl, a thousand thoughts and memories threatening overload to my emotions.

“What a shame,” I thought, as I considered what these days seemed to be the inevitable.  Time marches on and does it dirty work on us all.  People get older, buildings fall into decay, and there is nothing left but nostalgia and memories.  It sure is a shame though, about Mom and Pop Milford.  Why, it seems that just as they get old enough to really be a strength and benefit to those that look up to them, they are not readily available.  And besides that, because of the losing battle that they fought competing for business, apparently consider themselves insignificant.

I couldn’t help but think of the corporate mindset of the USA, and that which society seems to just swallow without question.  It’s the same old tired story; big business and chain stores and franchises with seemingly unlimited backing and finance come in, appealing with slick advertisement to the people, and little by little, increment by slow increment, the small “Mom & Pop” businesses are all gone.  The insidious and relentless tread of the big corporation and its unbeatable combination of finance, advertisement and diversity just tramples the small family dynasty’s under their jack-boots.

I guess I shop at the convenient big store as much as anybody, but that doesn’t stop me from thinking and recalling a few things from yesteryear.  I mean, when is the last time the owner of the big store came out of his office and sat down across the counter from you and just talked about life and such as you both sipped on a soda?  When was the last time that someone like that looked at you and saw that you seemed a little down, and just stopped and spent a minute or two with you.

I know, business is business, and the bottom line is profit.  Things are so competitive today that those people cannot afford a conscience, nor the time to listen to it.  We have mutated into a turned-in-on-itself society!

I couldn’t help but think about the old Shadyville General Store on Main Street.  Don’t you know?  Don’t you remember that while they sold dry goods, a smattering of grocerys and a little of everything, you never got out of that store without something, however seeming intangible, that made you feel connected, a part of family.  I daresay that there was as much if not more priceless values, principles and morals that came out of that little Shadyville General Store, than grocery’s or hardware.

I will never forget the pats on the head, the little anecdotal advice, Mom and Pop sensing that maybe we were a little upset at our own Dad or Mom, and instead of feeding those feelings, strengthened our family values with meaningful advice that pulled us together and didn’t pull us apart.  Never once did Mom and Pop tell us, “…I feel so sorry for you having to live where you live.”  “Come over and live with us.”  Never once did they do anything that would pull us away from home and family.  They were an advocate of the family unit, and I will always thank them for that.

Never once did they tell me that what my own Dad and Mom believed was wrong.  Never once did they make my folks convictions seem silly and insignificant in comparison to theirs.  More than all the sodas that I drank, ice cream that I ate, and milk shakes that I sipped through a straw; out of that place I learned respect, honesty, integrity, morality, and a demeanor of kindness that went all the way to the heart and was not just a façade.

I will ever be grateful to the old Shadyville General Store and its long time owners and proprietors, “Mom” and “Pop” Milford, and the immeasurable values and principles that came out of that unbeatable combination.

Sure is a crying shame that they had to go out of business because of the competition the big store gave.  It’s just a irreparable loss, not just to a community, but to the immeasurable far-reaching potential of every life they touched.

It sure is a shame!  But we all understand that the bottom line is profitability and basic economics, don’t we?

Ladies and Gentlemen, it seems to permeate every walk of society.  There doesn’t seem to be a place where the effect of what I am talking about is not felt and experienced in some fashion.  There seems to be a big city mindset that people have embraced that is deadly and terminal in its relentless assault on morals and principles.  The replacement of values with the corporate mindset of bottom line profitability, what pays and what doesn’t, has just about taken over our society.  Small business is just about totally a thing of the past.  They just cannot compete any longer.

We have this idea that the big city and its metroplex mentality is where its all at.  Image and posturing have become second nature to us, and at all cost we want to look good and have a positive image.  You don’t have to be good, just look good in this society.

You need to think with me here a little.  You know that when you look at the demographics of the USA, while the big cities and metroplex areas do have multimillions of population, still yet, the USA in it’s much greater majority is made up not of these huge cities, but rather the small towns that stretch across our country.  The heartbeat of America was and still is, these small towns of 500 and less that make us the greater percentage of our country.

You think it’s not so?  Then let the small farmer stop producing and let his ground lay fallow for a time.  You and I both will scream louder than we ever have when we go to the grocery store.  Call that small farm insignificant all you want to, and tell him that his voice is not qualified to be heard, but the facts are there, that it’s the constituency of the small farms that have fed not only the USA but also other starving countries of our world.  Ladies and Gentlemen, it was not big business and the corporate mindset that fed the world, it was the constituent farmers of America.

I could go on and on about this but I think you have gotten my point so far.

It’s not a huge step nor even a quantum leap to compare this ideology to our church world today.  Folks, it’s staring us right in the face.  There is an arrogance unprecedented in our church-world today, an elitism that knows no bounds.

I remember when fellowship of churches and ministries were strong, and preaching brethren stood shoulder to shoulder, and the respect they observed among themselves was a priceless commodity.  I remember when there were ministerial ethics taught, observed and lived among brethren.  It sure isn’t that way now.  There is a spiritual/corporate mindset that is predominate now that rules.  It is no longer souls for God’s Kingdom, it rather is the bottom line of profitability to a man’s church and ministry and how that individual or individuals can benefit me, add to my image, and make me and my church look good.

Where are the honest and principled men anymore?  Men of convictions!  Men of unquestionable ethics!

In a meeting last year, a great preacher stood and made this statement in essence.  “When I see someone sitting in my congregation, and I know that they are members of another Apostolic mans church, and it is their church service there;  if they are there just once I don’t say anything, but after that it becomes obvious that there is a problem, I call their pastor and I tell him that a couple of his sheep has been in my services.  I ask him, ‘..How can I help your people pastor, and get them back to your ministry where they belong?”

Yeah, I know, I’m starting a firestorm here.  But really, you don’t hear or see that kind of principle and ethic much anymore.  It is rare indeed!  It is a shame that huge corporate mentality has taken the place of ethics and principle!

I know it is not true in every set of circumstances, but as a general rule of thumb, most of your big churches origin of population is highly suspect.  Just for the sake of easily observed and understood numbers, for instance a church of 500; I think you can safely say, outside of the core that started the church, you might have 25 percent of the 500 that have actually been won to the Lord from sin and the world.  75 percent or better will have come from every other church in the area.  They will be a small segment of move-ins and transit crowd, but the greater population is people that have been disgruntled or trouble in other churches, or the products of proselyting pastors and their unprincipled people who wave an image of success in struggling peoples faces and get them to come and be a part of a larger, more “successful” congregation.

I wonder at these “wonders” of modern day church growth phenomena.  I wonder that they are so successful in getting folks to come, but outside of the general core of the church, their crowd is always in transit.  Once you are there, you are going to be alone in the crowd before very long, while the leadership goes on to new territories of conquest from other men’s flocks.

I wonder at men who seem to have a built in radar for trouble in another mans church and will instruct his people to “home in” on the disgruntled member, show them overwhelming “love and compassion” and let them know that they are welcome in his church!  I wonder at pastors who’s “radar” seems to work real good for another man’s church, but cannot see the multiplicity of sin in his own camp.

I wonder at men who preach a modicum of Christianity to their congregation but cannot assume for themselves the nature of Jesus Christ.  They have his name in baptism, but they are a million miles from His nature and spirit.  Can you imagine a man who preaches Christlikeness to his congregation and saying things about a neighboring pastor who preaches this Apostolic message like, “Just look at what he has compared to what we have and draw your own conclusions as to who is more hooked up with God.” 

What absolute arrogance to assume that just because you have a bigger church that you are impacting the Kingdom more, or doing more than the man that pastors a small church!  What utter elitist mentality to assume that just because of your size that you are better.

What about the men among us that have literally impacted the globe with their message and saw countless lives changed, but never pastored more than 30 0r 40 people at any given time in their ministry?

What about men that literally stepped into churches that already were of size and affluent financially because of the preceding leadership, and they step in, utilizing what was handed to them, (and what they stole from every church around them), and built bigger and better?  What about them.  Are they better or more significant than the man that steps into a small struggling church with a bad history, and decides that he is not just “shacked up” with the church but that he is committed to it, and just keeps on keeping on?

What about that man who, while he doesn’t pastor many, has mentored a multiplicity of men who are seeing souls saved by the hundreds and even thousands.  I guess that man is insignificant because he doesn’t have a large church, and his opinion doesn’t count for much.

What about these large church plants, that are really nothing more than spiritual “country clubs” where people just come to relax and enjoy themselves.  The come in and leave much the same way they come.  Nothing changes.  Even over a period of time, outside of just being a member, their lifestyle doesn’t change, they do not show any semblance of growing up into the fullness of the stature of the man Christ Jesus?

You see, motives are changing in our church society.  We used to be motivated by the common cause of souls.  We say we still are, but the reality is that we have begun to equate church with big business and careers that speak of success and its image as perceived by our peers.

True overwhelming Apostolic worship is almost a thing of the past, and is certainly looked down upon by those who strive to present a more “sane” image to the public.

Our preachers were known in the past as flames of fire; now  most congregations want him to “keep his composure” and reflect a more intelligent posture to the public.

Intelligence and education has replaced old fashioned anointed preaching, and many of our churches now are lead by professional chorals and worship singers who are more image conscious than they are desirous of a move of the Holy Ghost.  And of course the leadership would have it that way because it is easier to control.  After all, we don’t want anything getting out of hand, do we?

I have gotten just a little ways from the centrality of the subject at hand, so let me get back to it.

There is a predominate attitude that is prevailing in our church world today.  “Let’s shut down the ‘little’ church and all of us become part of the ‘big’ church!”  You would not believe the churches that have been shut down and absolutely forced to shut the doors on their church because of bigger churches and their multiple ministries preying on them.  I ask you; how can these smaller assembly’s hope to compete?  The point is that there is supposed to be no competition at all!  Yet that is futile to even mention.  Competition is here.  And it is rampant and relentless in its intention to bring a spiritually boarded up and abandoned look to the Old Main Street that used to thrive with principle, conviction, anointing and power.

Big Church, I applaud you in your honest efforts to win the lost.  I commend you for your dedication to excellence and growth in the truest of Apostolic manner; but the rest of you, who prey on small ministries, comparing yourself with them, looking down your nose as if you are the end-all in Pentecost, as if that small church with that “little” preacher is insignificant and unimportant to the Kingdom, making them the laughing stock and point of mockery to the rest of the elite and arrogant crowd of so-called Apostolic trendsetters, I applaud you not!

You can go ahead and do your best to shut down anything that you determine could be competition to you.  As far as human demographics go, there is not a whole lot that can be done to fight you.  But know this for sure.  While you streamline the church, you adulterate its doctrine and principles.  Know this for certain; you may shut “Mom” and “Pop” down, but when you do, you will shut down the infusion of convictions and principles into the hearts and lives of people who desperately need them.

Go ahead and put your hellish peer pressure on the man that you think ought to just give it up and throw in the towel, and let his small congregation join in with yours; but the man that you are fighting may be fighting that battle already, and your blow may be the blow that causes him to give up the fight.  You will face judgment with blood on your hands for that man.  You will answer to God Himself for every potential missionary, pastor, evangelist, teacher, apostle, prophet, or saint of God that would have come out of that small assembly. 

You take too much on you sir, to decide that you and your church should be the only one within a 50 mile radius!  I hope you have broad shoulders enough to take on the responsibility of every soul housed in that area, and know that if you can’t win them and somebody else could have, then blood will be on your hands!

There is only one solution here.  Paul addressed the Corinthian body that were coming together to partake of the Lords Supper, and they had turned it into a big picnic.  He chastised them because they evidenced and manifested a class consciousness within the church and did not perpetuate equality.  It is time and high time to rid ourselves of this societal class consciousness in the Apostolic Church.  The old-timers thundered it from the pulpits of their day, “..There’s no big ‘I’s’ and little ‘you’s’ but we are all one in the Body of Christ!”

They don’t say that any more.  After all, if they did, it would be manifest hypocrisy!

Just something to think about.

And one more thing;

I ain’t goin’ out of business!

Submitted humbly but provocatively by:

Dr. John R. Crist, Th.D.

Breachmender Ministries International

 “A Servant Among Equals”