Please, Make Jesus Famous But Stop Spreading Your Religion!

In the first post about our trip to the Ribeirinhos on Marajó Island, I shared an overview of what we did and some of the miracles that happened. Now I’d like to share what I learned of the church in that area.

Many Christians, and most where I live, are part of a religious system that they think is “church” which frequently hurts people more than helps them. It is based on broken foundations and distorted values. That system consumes much of their time, money, and resources and hinders them from fully serving Jesus. Not all, but many leaders in that system are corrupt and self-serving.

Sometimes people say “stop attacking the church” when we speak about brokenness in the religious system. I’m not attacking the church. I love God’s people. But I don’t love the system that so many are falsely calling “church” with the hierarchy, the control, and the tithes.

I pray and consider my words when I write about this because good things are happening in some institutional churches, some have genuine godly leaders who have much to offer the body of Christ, and I know many people in them who are on fire for the Lord. Much of what I received from the Lord when younger was in institutional church settings. But wherever there is tithing and hierarchy rather than Spirit-led giving and mutuality, many of the problems remain. It’s celebrity Christianity.

I hope to help others to recognize how much religiosity is hurting people and to change their paradigms of what Christianity and the church look like. So many who think they are non-religious Christians don’t realize how much religiosity and thinking founded purely on human tradition they still have! Much of the Church is not simply offering people Jesus and the gospel, but rather is imposing a heavy weight of human demands and traditions that many can’t bear. To those who think the church is tithes, hierarchies, and personal pastors, I say “I want you to spread the gospel. I want Jesus’ name to be famous and people to trust him. But I wish you’d stop trying to spread your religion! It is bringing dishonor, and not honor, Jesus’ name!”

The Missionaries at the IDE Base

We had almost gone to the Amazon with another organization, but it seemed they were more interested in money than in God’s kingdom. Thank God our leaders didn’t feel comfortable and finally decided to partner with the IDE base instead.

Thank God for the IDE missionaries! They were full of God’s love and the Holy Spirit. IDE is an acronym for the Great Commission in Portuguese, and it also stands for Institute for the Development of Evangelism. The base was founded by a couple, Paulo and Clarice Friere, who moved to the region with their two children at their own expense. Paulo had a construction business before, and used the money he earned to go as a missionary. They receive about $400 a month of support from a few churches, but they pay for most expenses themselves. They also have Maria working at the health outpost and counseling people who come in, and a couple who teach at the school and receive salaries from the local government. Pastor Josemar works with evangelizing and serving the people as well.

A major part of the orientation was reminding everyone that we were not there to talk about religion. We were not there to promote a denomination, or to argue about Catholic vs. Protestant. It would create resistance if we did that. We were there to share the gospel and talk about Jesus! I yelled “Amen” when they said that!

Paulo had a headache one night, and we prayed for him. I thanked Jesus and blew on his head. He said when I blew, the pain left. On Sunday morning, his wife asked for prayer because she was feeling pain in her legs and body. I had her cup her hands when we were on the boat and we prayed for the weight of God’s glory to come on her hands. She started sobbing and couldn’t answer when I asked what she felt or what was happening. But when I asked if the pain was gone, she nodded “yes.” I’m sure she was encountering Jesus in some way, whether in a vision or a powerful experience with God’s love.

I had a conversation with Lucas, who was there as a teacher. He told me how what he saw in the church didn’t seem like what he read in the Bible. He longed to see miracles, to risk his life, and preach the gospel to people who never heard it before. He found what he was looking for in Marajó. At one point, their boat wrecked and they were stranded for days and then rescued. He started talking to people about Jesus and they said “Jesus? Who is that?” They had never heard Jesus’ name before!

Maria was suffering from bursitis in both shoulders, pain in her body, and emotional pressure from counseling people who’d suffered sexual abuse. We prayed and soaked her in God’s glory on one of the first days of the trip. Most of the pain went and she felt relieved. We prayed again before leaving, the rest of the pain left, and she lifted her arms with no problem.

All of our time together was mutually beneficial and uplifting. It was precious to spend time with believers who have the same heart and spirit. I was able to minister to them, but I also received strength and encouragement from their love. We loved Pastor Josemar. I’ll have to share more about him and his stories in another post.

What Difference Is The Institutional Church Making?

Many people doing the work of Jesus struggle with the current reality of the religious system and environment, and it was the same at the IDE base. Nobody seemed bitter or especially focused on it, but several people I talked to were honest about the harm religiosity does to people and about how little most of the institutional church cares for the situation in Marajó.

I’m not opposed to institutions in themselves, but even things that are not inherently wrong (like a church building) often are not necessary and we don’t realize how much of a burden they are to those we bring the gospel to. Certain distorted values and harmful mindsets are also pervasive throughout many institutional churches, and this is how I see them affecting Marajó.

Giving

Paulo, the founder of the IDE mission, didn’t complain, but rather, was thankful for the help when he told us what support he receives from churches. Still, what he told me was a confirmation of what I’ve seen, about how little most religious institutions care for what is most important. He was paying for most of the work himself. The most a single church was giving was 500 reais, or about $100 dollars a month.

Think about that. IDE is one of only a few bases in the region and includes a health post and a school. This is one of the regions with the greatest need in a country full of megachurches which has more religious zeal than in the United States. It’s a region with 10,000 villages that don’t have a gospel presence. It’s common for many people to go days without eating. Most people who came to our event had never seen a doctor in their lives. How much care do we see from all the large churches in Brazil? What difference are their tithes making?

I believe the money model of most of the institutional church, especially tithing, is hindering Christians from being led by the Holy Spirit and giving towards those things that are most important to Jesus. The priorities of the institution are usually at odds with Jesus’ priorities. I previously commented that a single non-tither can easily, singlehandedly give more to support rescue missions in my city than any church I’m aware of in the city is doing. In the same way, a single non-tither can easily give more to help a mission like that in Marajó than the most that any whole tithe-receiving church gives.

Paulo also shared about receiving significant help from unbelievers and at least one atheist because he saw their work as humanitarian. I may be wrong, but it sounded to me like unbelievers had done more to support their missionary work in Marajó than Brazilian churches outside the impoverished area did!

Many are convinced that human commands such as tithing are necessary to support God’s kingdom and spread the gospel. I would like to hear them explain why, in most cases, their big churches full of faithful tithers give nothing or nearly nothing towards caring for the poor and bringing the gospel to those who have never heard it! Being led by tithing and manipulative practices hinders God’s people from giving as led by the Holy Spirit.

Hierarchy and “Honoring” those “Above” you

I heard about leaders who acquired churches in Marajó coming to collect the tithes so they could travel to Europe, while the local leader who is caring for God’s people goes hungry. They collect tithes from hungry people and ignore those doing the work of ministry.

I’ve often experienced the same value system, even in churches with on-fire Christians and more focus on missions. I just don’t understand how on-fire Christians can keep giving so much to sustain such a system or be convinced that they are honoring God by serving it. The leadership so often are concerned with how people can serve them, but don’t care for the people or for those doing the work of ministry that they themselves are not doing. Are there exceptions? Yes, but most of the exceptions I’ve seen have been when the leaders didn’t teach tithing, which means they probably weren’t part of the system anyway! The tithe is the lynchpin of the whole system that serves a few at the top but dishonors the rest of the body of Christ and hinders the church from functioning as God intended.

“Honoring” those who demand honor at the top of a hierarchy dishonors the whole body of Christ and dishonors Jesus himself.

I thought further. What if some of those “leaders” who are collecting tithes and letting the local servants go hungry, collected an offering to open a church in Marajó? Did the church they opened help people, or keep them in bondage? Did it cause Jesus’ name to be honored or blasphemed? Did it create resistance to the gospel in that region?

Many may have given towards “planting a church in Marajó” and thought they were serving God’s kingdom, but they were really participating in the sins of their leader against Jesus and against the people of Marajó. I believe many people in the church today are participating in the sins of others by where they put their money!

If the religion you support with your tithes and offerings is using people, not serving them, hurting people, not healing them, and creating resistance to the gospel rather than bringing honor to Jesus’ name, you are sinning with your tithes and offerings.

The tithe in the Old Testament was vastly different than anything practiced today, and we are not under it. But even if we were under the Old Testament tithe, it never worked like the practices of churches today. Because so many people today claim that the priest of the Old Testament is equal to the pastor of today, we should note that the priest in the Old Testament only received a tiny portion of the tithe. First it was eaten by the tither, then shared with the poor and Levites, and then the priests got a tithe of the Levite’s tithe. Levites received most of the tithe and had many functions such as worship leaders, judges, doorkeepers, and various helps ministries. But the unbiblical notion of a singular pastor or “apostle” having a super-exaggerated role as the “head” of the local church causes the church to dishonor the work of others who are doing the work of ministry.

Giving must be led by the Holy Spirit, not by human rules like tithing or manipulative practices, and ministry must be about a function, not a position. If not, we have rich orators claiming their “right” to the tithe but the church neglects the servants of Jesus who are caring for bedridden elderly people and need help to buy geriatric diapers for them. (A real situation I see in my city.)

Carnal Sectarianism, Positions To Be Protected, People Seen As Assets To Benefit From Rather Than The Bride of Christ to be Served

Some pastors in Marajó were prohibiting their members from going to the base because they said “If they go there, they’ll stop coming here.” Paulo pointed out that the base is not a church, but they didn’t care. This reveals the self-servingness of the system. Sectarianism and division are completely carnal, but they are pervasive in the mindset of the religious system that some falsely call “church.”

This is not unique to Marajó. It’s the effect of the religiosity exported from the values of most of the institutional church in the US and Brazil. There’s lots of religiosity and very little of Jesus. The only reason pastors would be worried about other pastors supposedly “stealing the sheep” is that they see the “sheep” as assets for themselves, not as people to be served for Jesus’ sake. If the motivation were serving God’s kingdom, they would be happy for more co-laborers to help them in the work.

In such religious environments, the leaders are not really serving God’s people anyway, but if somebody starts serving God’s people and ministering healing and deliverance, the leaders get jealous because they feel their positions are being threatened. How can they continue demanding tithes when they are not ministering healing and deliverance and someone comes along who is, but is not demanding tithes?

Likewise, the mission base in Marajó was feeding the hungry and giving them medical care. Pastors who were NOT doing this got jealous and felt like they would lose their people (assets) to the IDE mission base, so they tried to stop people from going where they would be cared for by receiving food and medical care from servants of Jesus who were demanding nothing from them!

Many leaders, rather than advancing God’s kingdom, are resisting God’s kingdom out of jealousy. Be careful that you aren’t serving a system that is hurting people rather than helping them and using people rather than serving them!

Thank God, the attitude of the missionaries at the IDE base is such a contrast to that carnal sectarianism. Their leader recently wrote to our group, “There are still many rivers in Marajó that don’t have the gospel. If Mova-Se wants to open a base in Marajó, we won’t be jealous at all. We’ll do everything we can to help you.”

Religion Or God’s Kingdom?

I was told that in some churches, members aren’t allowed to show joy, clap, or say “hallelujah.” It’s all right if they are outsiders visiting, but not members. What! Joy is one of the marks of God’s kingdom! (Romans 14:17) Why don’t we stop talking about “my church” and start proclaiming God’s kingdom? We don’t need more merely human religion. It has done far too much harm, not only in Marajó, but in many other mission fields. We are ambassadors, not of a denomination or religious organization, but of the Kingdom of Heaven!

I also heard about a warlock who exercises great influence in the region. They told me that even people from the church go to him when they need a miracle.

1 Corinthians 4:20 (KJV) For the kingdom of God is not in word but in power.

God’s power is not an option. When people come bringing religion without God’s power, they innoculate others against the gospel. They create resistance. Miracles glorify Jesus’ name so that people put their trust in him, but Jesus’ name is blasphemed because of powerless religion. Bringing religion without God’s power only causes harm, training people in unbelief rather than causing them to turn from the power of Satan to God and from darkness to light.

The Mentality of Spiritual Poverty Spread By The So-Called “Prosperity Gospel”

The gospel does bring prosperity through Christ, but I refer to the whole mess some call the “prosperity gospel” that emphasizes giving money, tithes, and offerings as the way to obtain favor with God. Then the Seed that God sowed is all but forgotten. That Seed is Jesus Christ, who died, was planted in the ground, rose again, and is now bearing much fruit. Any so-called “prosperity message” that replaces Jesus’ redemptive work with “miracle offerings” leads people into spiritual poverty.

Giving in the true gospel is the outflow of receiving all God has given us in Christ and participating in God’s nature of love and generosity. It is the result of God’s grace, not a means of attaining it.

We met one local pastor, a godly man, who has sacrificed much to share the gospel with people in the region. However, I was heartbroken when I heard his wife’s testimony. Her grandson got something stuck in his ear, and she was so desperate that she promised God she would give him all her money that month if he healed her grandson.

Some people were impressed by this, but I thought it was terrible. I know God’s compassion for people and desire to heal them. What kind of view of God causes a person in poverty to give their whole month’s sustenance to try to get God to do a miracle? It is a mindset of great spiritual poverty. Look at how much harm religious Christianity, tithe doctrines, “give to get,” and “if you have a need, sow a seed” have done to people! How can Christians keep tolerating this? The so-called “gospel” of tithing isn’t a gospel that works for everybody! It has not met the needs of the poor. It has ravished them! There is a huge mess in Africa and in many other regions caused by ideas exported from American tithe-teachers!

I would have no complaint if that lady gave her whole month’s salary out of thanksgiving to God, even giving it out of her need, but with a desire to express God’s love and participate in His work. But it wasn’t that! She gave her month’s sustenance to try to convince God to heal her grandson. Horrible doctrine about “giving” and “sacrifices” obscured her revelation of Jesus Christ and His great generosity towards us!

We will continue in the next post by examining some of the criteria by which so many people define “church,” but are really just religiosity and ideas foreign to the New Testament. Then we will continue to talk about the growing number of people who are “unchurched.”