Why Are We Gathering Together ?
After over 41 years of ministry, 40 years as an itinerant minister and 38 years as
a Pastor. I am very concerned about why we gather together to attend
conferences, conventions, summits and, as well as some gospel concerts.
Even though
I have been a speaker in many of these gatherings for the last 39 years, it
concerns me about the motives for gathering together the Body of Christ in many
of these special meetings.
I sponsored
a convention/conference for 23 years. 10 of those 23 years, we even paid
the hotel bills for the pastors and leaders who came. Our purpose in
gathering together was to be a time of refreshing for leaders and the people of
their staff and congregations. It was to be an oasis for pastors and
leaders.
We would
not even let the pastors open the doors of their cars. We wanted to serve
the leaders in the Body of Christ and treat them as kings and queens. We
served a full meal after each service with no charge. All the pastors and
leaders had to do was get to the convention. We took care of everything
else. It was to be a replenishing time and a time of refreshing.
We, of
course had expenses, but our church bore the majority of those expenses as a
ministry to others. We raised an offering in each service, but with no
pressure to give and no manipulation to give.
There were
other churches and groups that I was associated with, that had the same spirit
of service in their gatherings. But some where along the recent history
of the church the motives began to change.
I remember,
when a constituent was in moral trouble, and another older minister and myself,
advised this pastor not to have his annual gathering this particular year and
work on getting himself right before the Lord, and allowing healing to come to
his wife and family. He said, I can't cancel my annual meeting, because
20% of our yearly income comes from the money we raise during that annual
gathering. I then recognized that many leaders' motive for gathering
together had drastically changed.
After 23
years, I stopped having our annual convention/conference because I couldn't
submit to the Hollywood spirit that had started to prevail in having meetings
and gatherings. You had to almost pay singers more than preachers to
speak. The speakers were charging outlandish fees of several thousand
dollars in order to speak. There were many added expenses of first class
airline tickets for the speakers and entourages, demands of 5 star hotels,
insurance coverage, etc. Choice of speakers was based on popularity and
personality, and not on who had a Word from the Lord for the gathering.
The lady with the pink hair chose who were the popular speakers and we
were supposed to submit to her choices and those she had on her television
program, whether they had a Word from God or not. I couldn't submit to
that digression of God's original instruction in us gathering together, so I
stopped gathering together after 23 years.
Today, in
many circles, those leaders who are featured at many gatherings are chose on
the basis of their ability to raise an offering -- not their anointing or their
having a present Word from God that is relevant to the times.
Why do
we gather people together these days? It breaks my heart to see how much
we have digressed in our gatherings. May we return back to "Gathering
Together Unto Him."
Dr. Jeff Edwards