Monthly Archives: October 2009

Click on following for earlier articles: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10 and Part 11.

In early 1994, I drove back to Illinois to attend a high school friend’s funeral. It was held in a small church and I sat with my parents in a middle row of the sanctuary.

As I sat there on the wooden pew,  listening to the pastor, the Holy Spirit interrupted my thoughts and blanked out all noise from the service and the people around me. I was there, but I wasn’t. Then, He spoke to me:

“My Church consists mainly of a bunch of nice losers,” He said. “They pray for the sick, and if the person dies, they aren’t angry and don’t really feel that bad about it. After all, they did their religious duty.

“Now, in Major League Baseball, both the winning teams and losing teams want to win; it’s a part of each player’s make-up. But after a while, the losing teams’ players don’t really mind losing anymore. They still receive large paychecks and enjoy all the fantastic benefits of just being a Major League player. So, losing is not such a big deal to them.

“But this is not true for the winning teams’ players. Each of these players hates to lose and will do anything and make whatever sacrifice is needed to win games. They absolutely hate losing!

“I want My Church to hate losing!”

The conversation ended and I began weeping so hard I thought I was going to vomit. My sister leaned over. “Don’t you think that you should get a hold of yourself? You’re making a scene,” she whispered.

I shrugged my shoulders. There was nothing I could do, nor did I care what others thought of me at that moment. I was devastated by the Holy Spirit’s description of the Church:  “a bunch of nice losers.“

Now, what’s funny is that I was upset with God for allowing my friend to die. I had witnessed to my friend over the years. Prayed for him. Fasted for him. Invested time in his healing. But still, he died and I was mad at God as I sat there in the pew!

So, wouldn’t you think that God would have corrected me about my anger at Him? And yet, He didn’t. Instead, He redirected my anger toward the Church’s losing attitudes.

From whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love. (Ephesians 4:16)

(Continued in Part 13.)

Click on following for earlier articles: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8 and Part 9.

Rather, the present-day pastor was born out of the single-bishop rule first spawned by Ignatius and Cyprian. The bishop evolved into the local presbyter. In the Middle Ages, the presbyter grew into the Catholic priest. During the Reformation, he was transformed into the “preacher,” “the minister,” and finally “the pastor” – the person upon whom all of Protestantism hangs. To boil it down to one sentence: The Protestant pastor is nothing more than a slightly reformed Catholic priest. (Again, we are speaking of the office and not the individual.) (Pagan Christianity by Frank Viola and George Barna, Tyndale Publishing; pp. 141)

To have pastors in a church is Scriptural, but the present-day pastoral system is quite unscriptural; it is an invention of man. (The Normal Christian Church Life by Watchman Nee)

No expression of a New Testament church is ever led by just one professional “holy man” doing the business of communicating with God and then feeding some relatively passive, religious consumers Moses-style. Christianity has adopted this method from pagan religions, or at best from the Old Testament. The heavy professionalism of the church since Constantine has now been a persuasive influence long enough, dividing the people of God artificially into laity and clergy. According to the New Testament (1 Timothy 2:5),  “there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” God simply does not bless professionals to force themselves in-between people and God forever. (Houses That Change The World by Wolfgang Simson, pp.10)

“Larry is a stubborn believer,” says my wife, elongating the word stubborn so that it echoes off walls.

Okay, admittedly, I’m stubborn. But my stubbornness pertains mainly to when I believe I’ve heard the voice of the Lord.  And if I think I’ve heard the Lord, then I will hang on until something happens or the Lord loosens my grip.

Have I ever erred in thinking it was the voice of the Lord when it wasn’t? Yes, I have my share of wrong presumptions under my belt…and the scars to prove it.

But as Graham Cooke says, “I’d rather err on the side of presumption than to not step out in faith when I believe the Lord has spoken to me. Presumption isn’t a sin, but fear is.”

I agree with Cooke.

And yet, when the Lord asked us to walk away from the traditional church system, I really struggled with it. I felt as though we were the only people in the whole world doing something as ridiculous as this.

Thanks to the internet, I soon learned that millions of believers in the United States were doing the exact same thing. I read books by Gene Edwards, Frank Viola, Wolfgang Simson, Watchman Nee and others. All of these encouraged me on my journey out

In a nutshell, Edwards, Viola, Simson, Nee and others proclaim the royal priesthood of the believers (1 Peter 2:9) and denounce the unscriptural clergy-laity separation in the traditional church system.

Though I agree with the teachings of the above men, I have a different passion for ecouraging people to exit the tradition church system, especially on the West Coast.

(Continued in Part 11.)

Larry Who’s writings and teachings appear on this site on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. It’s  a little of this and a little of that, all written  to encourage and exhort believers in their Christian journeys.

Click on following for earlier articles: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6 and Part 7.

Have you ever had a prophetic word spoken to you which made you grit your teeth and hope it was wrong? As in…really wrong?

“You’ve been searching for a home, and the one you’ve found, is not it,” said Jim Goll to us at a meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina.

If Honey and I could have chosen any prophetic word not to hear, this would have been the one. At the time, we had moved  eleven times to seven cities in six different states in less than two years of marriage. We were feeling like the lost tribe of Israel, looking for the Promised Land.

Our response to  Goll’s words: “He could be wrong, right?”

But he was not.

Since that prophetic word in 1997, Honey and I have moved at least eighteen more times to nine different cities in three more states.

Now, in each city, we have attended some awesome churches. Metro Christian (Kansas City, MO). All Nations Church (Charlotte, NC). Vineyard Churches. Four-Square. Baptist. Friends. Non-denominational and countless others. We’ve met and fellowshipped with numerous believers; all of whom we would have enjoyed to stay around forever.

Yet, while I was driving my pickup truck on West Broad Street in Richmond, Virginia, I had a quick vision. In it, I saw a white iron lung. It was like the machines which were used in the 1950’s to help polio victims support their breathing during acute polio infections.

There was not an individual in the iron lung, but instead, the American traditional church system was on life support. It was barely breathing. I looked toward the back of the iron lung, and what I saw there shocked me. The unit was not plugged into a normal electrical outlet, but rather, it was plugged into bags and bags of money.

As I looked on, a voice spoke to me: “Pull the plug!”

Then, the vision ended.

Later that day, Honey and I prayed about the vision. We felt that we were supposed to leave the traditional church system; and we did.

Now to be honest, Honey and I thought (like Elijah) that we were the only ones who were asked by the Holy Spirit to leave the American church system. But thanks to the internet, we soon learned about millions of others who had similar experiences.

Hey, what about the separation of clergy and laity? Is it scriptural?

(Continued in Part 9.)

Larry Who’s writings and teachings appear on this site on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. It’s  a little of this and a little of that, all written  to encourage and exhort believers in their Christian journeys.

Click on following for earlier articles: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4.

Being a car salesman at ten different auto dealerships allows me to have some interesting insights, such as:  most Christians don’t wear their white robes when buying cars. Somehow, they disrobe at the entrance of the dealership and act just like pagans when entering the door; they lie… a lot!

And if that’s not bad enough, wait until you hear the next insight.

Car salesmen – including me – absolutely hate trying to sell a pastor or preacher a car. In fact, if a known pastor or preacher parks his car in front of a dealership, veteran salesmen will run for the restrooms, parts departments, service areas, anywhere to avoid greeting the preacher. Only a newbie will be left standing at the door, awaiting the preacher.

It’s obvious why Christians lie at dealerships, right? They hope to get a better deal and save their precious mammon.

But why do car salesmen hate selling preachers?

Over and over again, I have watched various Christian clergy act like arrogant hypocrites when they’re purchasing vehicles. They expect favors. They whine and complain. They treat auto personnel as underlings. On and on, the list continues. Yuck! Yuck! Yuck!

Now, don’t get me wrong, auto dealerships are high pressure cauldrons where it’s tough to hold onto Christian integrity on the part of the sales person or of the buyer. It’s a tough atmosphere for Christians to survive in.

And yet, let’s be honest, what’s the real reason that pastors and preachers (clergy) have a bad reputation with car salesmen? The separation between clergy and lay people. Period.

But of course, there will be readers who will state, “My pastor is not like that at all!”

No doubt there are countless godly pastors and preachers in America who walk the walk, and talk the talk, even at auto dealerships, but even with almost everyone of these godly people, there is an aura of separation about them.

Beware of the scribes, who desire to go around in long robes, love greetings in the marketplaces, the best seats in the synagogues, and the best places at feasts, who devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. These will receive greater condemnation. (Mark 12:40)

Is the separation between clergy and lay people scriptural?

(Continued in Part 6.)

Larry Who’s writings and teachings appear on this site on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. It’s  a little of this and a little of that, all written  to encourage and exhort believers in their Christian journeys.