The disgruntled missionary.

Badmouthing churches behind their back isn’t gonna generate you goodwill, fella.

Class at Coffee Cat last night was interesting… I always approve of having class in coffeehouses. I can have a few cups… then on the way back to campus, I can stop by Starbucks… Hey, relax, it’s all decaf.

I showed up early, as usual, and ran into a classmate (from a different class) who was there with some of his family. Apparently his nephew, who was there, is an Assemblies of God missionary to the Philippines. When he found out I’m a member of Vaca Valley Christian Life Center, he proceeded to bitch about my church.

(This is not the way you gain support, by the way. Future missionaries, take note. I could be a deacon for all he knows; I’m not, but if I were, he would be even less likely to get financial support from the ministries I’m involved with. Not with that attitude.)

VVCLC has a policy (which I totally understand, and agree with) of not giving money to missionaries that the pastors don’t personally know. This is actually meant to get the missionaries to get to know the pastors. The pastors want to know them—they want to personally care about them, and be able to tell the congregations that this is a trustworthy person who deserves financial and prayer support. In exchange, VVCLC will fund the missionary’s activity significantly—in some cases, our missionaries are 100 percent funded by VVCLC. But most Assemblies missionaries are used to a system where they go from church to church begging for money, getting a little from one and a little from another, and spending up to a year begging for money—when they should be back in their home church, in the place or nation were God sent them, raising up local leaders who can eventually take over for them.

But this policy really frosted the missionary’s hide. I dunno; he was probably going to VVCLC expecting to make a big score at a big church, came away with nothing, and simply concluded they were a bunch of greedy self-centered bastards.

Well… He’s young and arrogant, and assumes that if he has God’s anointing that every church should recognize this and give him money. After a few more years of fund-raising, reality will bitch-slap him and he’ll stop it. Or he’ll quit in bitterness. Either way, the Philippines will be better off.

Church is where 20% of the people do 80% of the work.

He assumes that if a church has the impressive facilities that VVCLC does, they have money. The trouble is that everyone assumes this, so no one gives. This is why VVCLC has had to fire pastors. (Unfortunately, the leaders are still trying to spin it as if it’s a mutual decision; but I’ve talked with enough of the fired pastors to realize that, even though they’re going along with the story, it’s not true.)

• The elementary school, where I taught for four years, was closed.
• The preschool, which my mother helped to start and directed for 13 years, was closed.
• The impressive-looking video system, which I helped run for three years, can’t afford to upgrade anything, and are regressing from digital to analog.
• Ministries were shut down or shunted off to other churches or Mission Solano; there simply wasn’t the funding.
• The one thing they haven’t cut was the missions budget; but they can’t afford to enlarge it.
• The School of the Supernatural continues because the students pay tuition, and the pastor in charge of it still works part-time at Walmart.
• The mortgage and PG&E; bills remain huge.
• Theft remains rampant; stuff is taken because “it all belongs to God,” and remember, we are ministering to sinners.
• Tithing indicates 20 percent of the congregation, if that, is still giving. The other 80 percent are immune to the regular pleas of, “If you give sparingly, you reap sparingly.”

And once people recognize these problems, they don’t try to tackle them—they leave. Mom left. A thousand others (no, I’m not exaggerating) have left. The church is floundering, and they’re not dealing with it; they’re just assuming this is a crisis that God is putting them through, or they’re assuming that God is done with VVCLC and it’s time to go church-shopping again.

Okay, that was its situation as of last fall. Since I’ve moved to Santa Cruz, I’ve not been in touch with anyone back in Vacaville other than family, friends, and former co-workers. The few times I’ve visited Vacaville, I attended church at The Father’s House because that’s where the rest of my family now goes. I hope things have improved… but if the pastors were to tell me, I honestly wouldn’t entirely believe them. Like a codependent spouse, they hype the positive and gloss over the negative, and as a result you never know how things are really going until you attend the church for a few weeks.

I’ll be going back there in May, God willing. I hope things are better.

Comments…

Sephraem commented,

I remember when the church I went to was demolished because the upkeep could no longer be afforded, and they built some modern monstrosity that was easier and cheaper to maintain, on the site of the old church hall. It was sad, but there was just not enough money.

But on the up side, if it’s cheaper to maintain the monstrosity, once the money finally does come back it can be spent on doing good works rather than on keeping up a monument to Christian overspending.