Lost Potential
The greatest tragedy of the Calvary Temple era is NOT the sexual abuse. It's not just the millions of dollars that have padded the pockets of the head pastor. It's not just the families forced to never speak to their loved ones again. Without a doubt, the greatest tragedy is the stolen moments and wasted time of many of the members. It's the loss of the life, not because of physical death but instead a lifetime of imprisonment.
Fifteen years ago, I knew exactly where my life was going. I was raised in Calvary Temple, was a born again believer, and had a passion for the Lord that was impossible to ignore. I had a family that I loved, and I trusted the church leadership unwaveringly.
I made it to this solid place in my life because I had learned that I didn't need to make decisions in my life. I had spiritual leaders with hundreds of years of combined spiritual experience. In matters of marriage, finance, relationships, and God, I made it my focus to trust leadership more than I trusted myself. As a result, I found myself interacting with my deacons and pastors quite a bit.
When they recommended that I take a job, I took it with confidence. When they told me to marry the girl that I liked, I listened and proposed immediately. When they told me to make certain financial moves for spiritual reasons, I took their esteemed advice. And when the outcomes of that advice yielded negative results, I trusted that this was God’s plan. Now, as I come to peace with my time at Calvary, the one thing that I cannot get back is my time.
Yes, there were times that I grew as a person. Calvary Temple (and Christianity) is an amazing tool to force a person to become introspective about their intentions and their actions. I learned that working hard was necessary to please God, and I love that lesson. I learned lessons about relationships that were unavoidable when you spend every day with the same 350 people for most of your life. And no one knows how to submit to leaders like Calvary Temple attendees. But life is much more than those qualities, and the time loss far outweighs the gain.
Time Wasted
Let's breakdown the different times that we attend Calvary Temple:
Sunday: Every Sunday, the church meets twice for services--one in the morning and once in the evening. Most Calvary folks are absolutely fine with it and therefore never question it. But meeting from 9:30am to 11:45am and from 6:30pm to 8:45pm is 4.5 hours of time that is spent reinforcing a message and providing prayer. This might be in addition to a person's individual prayer time. If you are a Sunday School teacher, you are staying later. If you are involved in some type of ministry that takes place on another day of the week, you might meet before or after. 4.5 hours
Monday: This is the free day! Unless, of course, Calvary's school basketball team is in session. Or if you're involved in a church ministry where folks want to meet. Or some folks might guilt you into witnessing. ~1 hour (based on average of the time spent during bball and other ministries)
Tuesday: Tuesday prayer is essential, because the Bible says that "when two or more are gathered together, there He is in the midst of the them." BUT didn't we just do that on Sunday? And aren't we having our own quiet times with God? At 7pm CT folks arrive, and they promptly leave at 7:30pm. The super spiritual might last an extra couple of minutes, but God always seems to be done around that time. Very convenient. 30 minutes (if you don't stay to play in the gym with the folks you haven't seen in a while, or have an additional ministry that takes your time)
Wednesday: Midweek service! We've obviously seen each other a couple times already this week, but there's nothing like the Holy Hump Day to refresh our minds and ensure that we're on the right track. We get together to hear teachings from the same pastors on Sunday (once again, in addition to the personal quiet time that we already have). We fellowship with folks afterwards, and enjoy the 7pm to 9:00pm time that we spend. 2 hours
Thursday: This is the second prayer day of the week (unless you are one of those Thursday cheaters who skips prayer for personal time). Just a reminder, we are supposed to be having our own personal prayer times in addition to this one, but this is an opportunity for us to come together to pray for things like the prayer list, missions, and the power of evangelism in our community. Mind you, we had prayer time on Sunday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. But how committed are you to seeing God move? 30 minutes
Friday: Once upon a time, we spent personal time with family and friends on Fridays. It was the start to a weekend where we could really solidify the family unit. Remember, most kids are going to bed late in the evening. Not much time to actually interact. However, Pastor was able to see into the spiritual realm and saw that we were wasting our times on Friday with trivial things that don't matter. So we took those trivial things and did them at FNF. Instead of solidifying the family unit, kids and parents are separated, and we spend the next two hours playing with people that we've seen all throughout the week. 2 hours
Saturday: The day of leisure! Except for the 2nd Saturday, which is spent in small group discussions that are made up of either people you talked to all week or folks that you don't really like. If you're a man (i.e. ages 18+), you get to attend Men's Breakfast on that same 2nd Saturday. Basically it's the same discussion you're going to have in small groups, but spoken more so to the men as leaders of their homes. The first couple minutes are spent with the pastors discussing what they liked about the teachings. The next hour is spent talking about what the men didn't understand about the teachings. But then there's more!! If you're a young adult, you get to attend the first and the 3rd Saturdays of the month for a couple of hours. What is a young adult? Basically anyone between the ages of 18 and 55. So to summarize, the first, second, and third Saturdays have meetings for 2-4 hours. 2 hours
Misc: None of these interactions include the random birthdays, church hangouts, and miscellaneous ministries that may account for several additional hours per week. Also, any child from the age of 5 to 18 spend an additional 35 hours (7 hrs x 5 days) minimum in Discipleship Training.
Td;lr We spend a lot of time in church.
Evangelism:
We don't have a lot of free time. But when we are at work, or running errands, we are to be a light. Right now, billions of people on are their way to hell and damnation. The onus on us is to "go into all the world and preach the Gospel." The mandate is to all of us. IN addition, we believe that most of the local and national fellowships are not representing the true Gospel. So we should be the ones who are going out and making a change. As we know, the Lord is working on sinners' hearts, and we are there to plant seed and reap harvest.
The question is, has our evangelism paid off? We have car shows that allow us to preach the gospel, but see little to no converts. We show off our kids in parades, but have little to show for it. Instead, we get so excited when we have edifying conversations with people who are already Christians. We play other teams in basketball, but are kids getting saved? We have been asked time and again about the "Achan's wedge of gold" that is in our midst, but ignore and block out anyone who wants to talk about the Head Pastor's "wedge of gold".
I have personally spent a lot of time on evangelism in my time with Calvary Temple. What I have found is that Christians never team up with us because we see ourselves as better. Because we meet 10-45 hours a week, we tend to judge those who don't do the same. We go as far as to kick out members who don't completely agree with the doctrine of CT. If that's how we treat members, how are other churches supposed to unite?
Which other church has such an extreme message as ours? Why don't we even have satellite churches (other than Africa and a little place in Buffalo)?
It's simple. The message of the Gospel is being obscured by our religious legislation. We preach Grace, but we judge by works. If someone is not in line with our exact teaching, we don't walk with them. We say, "How can two walk together unless they agree," but we ignore the response of Jesus to another man who is doing miracles in his name: "Do not forbid him, for he who is not against us is on our side."
What if our college ministry started working with the Campus Crusade for Christ? "Do you know how many of those kids have sex outside of marriage?" Are they preaching Jesus and him crucified? Are their hearts determined to do what's right, regardless of the poor choices that they have made in the past? How many flawed characters are in the Bible?
We hold our purity up on a pedestal, while we continue to be ineffectual in bringing people to Jesus.
Tony Wozniak once called us the Calvary Catholics. I've got news for us. We are way more pharisaical than the Catholics. Our traditions (meeting for hours a week, and kicking out anyone who disagrees) have made the Gospel of Christ of no effect.
Lack of Mobility/Decision Making
One of the areas that is sacrificed the most in Calvary Temple is the idea of ambition. Jesus says that we must die to ourselves and our desires, and it is a true point of focus in Calvary Temple. Members are not allowed to move to different parts of the country unless Leadership approves. That approval has very rarely ever been given.
If you were a member like me, you probably don't care. "This is the sacrifice that I'm making to follow Jesus." "Sterling is where the Lord has me." How do you know? "Because my leadership says that this is where the Lord has me". Over time, "my leadership says" quickly becomes "God told me".
One of the greatest tragedies is when a human that has been given gifts by God refuses to use them. It would be a shame if Michael Jordan never played basketball because he decided to stay at church and teach Sunday School. AW Tozer left his parent church and started a new church, despite his leadership being opposed to it. Hudson Taylor went to China without an "overseeing church". Almost every invention that is essential to our way of life was created by a person whose ambition allowed them to push to succeed. In a perfect world, if everyone were to follow Jesus in the Calvary Temple manner, we'd probably still be riding horses and carriages.
Tim Tebow
Tim Tebow, a well-known Christian athlete, lived in Florida, but played in the NFL first in Denver. That meant that he was not living anywhere near his home church. If Calvary Temple were his home church, Tim Tebow would never have been the light and the witness that we know him to be today. I can imagine the conversation he'd have with CT leadership:
"So, we've noticed that you've missed a fair amount of church services."
"Yeah, sorry. I'd like to be here but my school is saying that I need to attend games on that day."
"Tim, I'm not going to tell you what to do, but you should seriously consider whether or not Jesus is the most important thing in your life".
"I'm not going to tell you what to do" is code for "you're not in the will of God." But Tim Tebow has arguably been a greater witness for Christ in this era than anyone in Calvary Temple. His gifts gave him the platform to preach the Gospel on a national scale that far exceeds what even Star Scott has done.
Tim's life was extremely different than any CT member. Tim Tebow was given the ability to dream of becoming a football player, and he was given the time to make that a priority. He chose to maintain his faith, regardless of the time that he spent away from his church, and he spent a lot of time away from church. He probably spoke to many, many people who disagreed with his faith, and he was forced to "Give an answer for the hope that was in [him]".
I've spent way too much time talking about one man, but the point remains. If God gave us gifts and talents here on earth, it is imperative that we take the time to DEVELOP the gifts and USE the gifts. When we do, we can truly be witnesses and lights. When you are diligent with those gifts, the door for evangelism can actually open. This can be difficult for people in authority to allow their members the leeway to make personal decisions to grow. But like parents who have children, there comes a time that the parent stifles the child if the child is not given room to grow. We don't want weak, cookie-cutter Christians.
Bringing it all together
While this article might seem a bit rambling, there is a common theme. If we focus so much on meeting together in an isolated place for most of our free time, the ability to grow as a human being is stifled. As such, our level of influence in this world becomes less, and our witness is greatly diminished.
Sterling, VA is not the center the world. It's not even a prominent city in Northern Virginia. If we are going to grow, we have to be willing to go other places. This also means that leadership will have to relax the heavy hand that they have on people who focus on their vocations or hobbies. Church attendance is important, but, as we saw with COVID-19, we can all be strong Christians without meeting 6 days a week.
Independence from God is terrible. Independence from the church is not. Most of the great acts of Christianity have taken place when members no longer hide behind their pews, but step out boldly in listening to the voice of God. Paul exhorts believers not to forsake gathering together, but does not say to meet in a church with the same 300 people. Gathering yourselves together can be having a barbecue with a Christian in Minnesota, as much as it can be meeting in the Sanctuary for service. We can still live lives according to God's Word without being forced to attend the one single church.
Finally, don't let religion be a cop-out for you not accomplishing the talents that God gave you. It can be far easier to say, "I WOULD have been something great, but I sacrificed it all for God. Now I don't have to work as hard." In the long-term, you will become a neutered Christian. Instead DREAM BIG, knowing that those dreams are often given to you by God. Follow those dreams while keeping God at the forefront, and let Him guide you.
