Simple.

Colossians 1

We teach in a spirit of profound common sense so that we can bring each person to maturity. To be mature is to be basic. Christ! No more, no less.

There are thousands of pastors and priests. Evangelists and missionaries. Monks and nuns. Professors and teachers. All of them to some degree having had some schooling. They attended some college or internship to learn how to do their positions. They might even have had to pay thousands of dollars to get their degree. The question I am proposing is “For What”?

The gospel is simple. To simple for some. There are those who struggle and might even not accept it because it sounds to simple. This is why scripture says that it is a stumbling block to the well learned. The gospel was so simple that Jesus entrusted it with fisherman and tax collectors and prostitutes. No pharisee was part of the 12. No king or priest. Just the unlearned. Those who had been rejected. Those who were not considered as the wise.

It is quit certain if you look throughout history that it doesn't take 4 years of college to be one who understands the mystery of God. That mystery being Christ! It is no kept secret. God makes it available to those who are closest to His heart. The poor!

Diplomas are for walls. Education is for respect. College is for profession. Profession is for stability. The idea of college for those who would like to be in ministry is to bring validity to them being paid for what they do. Why would you pay thousands of dollars to go to a college where you learn to minister to people for free and never be able to pay it back? Is Christianity a profession? Here, I believe, we have gone awfully wrong. Hurting people, the poor, the stranger, the widow, and the orphan don't need educated answers. They need LOVE! No matter what kind of answer you give me, you could never convince me that you could learn Love at a college. No matter what kind of college it is. Shall I quote 1 Corinthians 13 here or refrain? It is time that we start dealing with this issue as the church. It is time that we stop paying people to do the work for us. That is what we are doing, aren't we?

We will go on living our lives the way we want to and feel good about it, as long as we pay our tithe, which in turn pays the pastor so he can go and visit the sick in the hospital and prepare a message for Sunday and read and pray for the rest of us because we just don't have the time. What a great arrangement. We pay money so that we don't have to be spiritual all the time! Shall we flip the coin over? The pastor continues to preach every sunday messages that challenge the congregation to become more spiritual. To read their bible more and to pray more. He sees that they are not doing it as much as they should so he continues to validate in his mind the importance of them paying him. They need someone to watch over them. They are children and he the nanny. This silent agreement happens twice a week all across America. They are satisfied with the status quo. The people expecting the minister to be spiritual because they pay him and the minister expecting the people to be ignorant because they pay him. This, I don't believe is right and it is time for God's people, His body, to grow up.