A Tale of Two Pastors

The similarities between Ed Young Jr. and John Piper are there if you look hard enough. Both have fathers who spent many years as preacher/evangelists. Both were athletes in college. Both have been married to their wives for many years. Both come from Baptist backgrounds. Both teach the importance of tithing to your local churches to fund the work of ministry. Both have larger than average families- Young has four children, Piper has five. Both have written books and have daily radio programs. But when you examine the men and their teaching closer, the similarities soon run out.


I spent about four years as an attender/member of the Fellowship Church in Grapevine, Texas (DFW) where Ed Young is the lead pastor. The church is one of the largest in the US- over 15,000 attend this church per weekend. The church is high-tech and high-toned. From the auditorium to the Source bookstore/cafe everything is done with a passion to be the best. Most of the people that attend this church also have the drive to succeed.

From the luxury cars in the parking lot to the designer clothes that attenders wear, it is evident that there is some level of worldly success at Fellowship. Fellowship Church is commonly referred to as the church of the "beautiful people".

There is a strong emphasis at Fellowship of building the Fellowship Church brand. The church is run like a fortune 500 company. Ed Young comes on stage like a rock star. He is always dressed in the hippest of designer clothes. He's a polished speaker with a commanding presence. His talks are normally centered on a biblical theme with some creative visuals to illustrate his point. He has created a marketing machine for his presentation- from TBN television appearances, to the Ed Young bookstore (aka The Source), Creative Connection Conferences, daily radio show and website.


John Piper is the lead pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I have been fortunate enough to attend this church several times when I am visiting clients who live in the Minneapolis area. On first impressions, the parking lot is filled with more modest automobiles than the Fellowship Church. The bookstore is stocked with excellent resources to grow in the Christian life- mostly books instead of apparel and knick-knacks. The prices for these items are generally 25-30% less than similar items at Ed Young's bookstore.

There is a strong emphasis at Bethlehem in promoting missions around the world and teaching biblical doctrine. Piper preaches in the more traditional manner of reading a text of Scripture and then explaining its meaning and relevance for today. He worships with his congregation and sticks around after the sermon for a long time to visit with people.

The differences between Young and Piper are many. They represent a clash between how Christianity is in America and how it should be. Young teaches that salvation is walking an aisle, saying a prayer, "doing the deal" in his words. He emphasizes baptism as the first act of obedience and no one baptizes more people than Fellowship Church- over 2000 people per year in their outdoor heated jacuzzi.

Piper teaches that conversion is an act of God and that evidence of conversion will be seen in the obedience that the new believer displays in his/her life. Therefore, the emphasis isn't so much on a one-time decision but instead on a life of continual belief and faithfulness. Piper teaches regeneration, justification and sanctification as requirements for eternal security not a one-time emotional decision.

Ed Young lives the good life. His "parsonage" is listed on the property tax rolls at over $1.4 million under the name of Palometa Revocable Trust. He buys the finest clothes, cars, vacations, swimming pools, nannies for the children that money can buy. He teaches that tithing- giving 10%- to the local church- Fellowship- is required obedience. He preaches that curses await the one who doesn't tithe and blessings are prepared for those who do. His lifestyle communicates that what you do with the other 90% of income is your own business.

Piper believes heaven can wait. His home is valued at $165,000- purchased for $65,000 (Average home prices are higher in Minneapolis than DFW). He dresses and lives modestly. He also teaches the importance of tithing as an act of obedience, but Piper emphasizes radical generosity and self denial. He believes that 100% of income matters to God and that we are merely stewards of His resources. His lifestyle communicates this. He can be seen walking to work- he chooses to live in a urban area of Minneapolis to be closer to his congregation.

Ed Young's website is http://edyoung.com. Piper's website is http://desiringgod.org. I'll let that speak for itself. Ed Young charges pastors $275 each to attend the Creative Conference- C3. Piper charges $125 per pastor to cover the cost of resources at the Desiring God pastor conferences. Ed Young is accountable to God but deems accountability to a board of elders as unnecessary. The finances of Fellowship Church are cloaked in secrecy. John Piper is accountable to God and an elder board- biblical model. The finances of Bethlehem Baptist are transparent and can be viewed by anyone on their website.

I wish America had more of Piper's brand of Christianity than Young's. The exaltation of God rather than self is much needed in our churches and world.

In His Grace,

Ashley Hodge

The Stewardship of Organization

Most people I have met are unorganized. I include myself in this category. The major reason for this is that Americans are over-consumers. We have too much stuff. The stuff starts to choke us- causing a lack of organization and peace.

Another reason I am unorganized is that it is a battle that has to be fought every day. In the past, I have chosen to take many days off in this fight and it has led to disorganization. In this sense, organization goes hand in hand with Christianity. True Christianity is a fight. We are told by the Apostle Paul, "Fight the good fight of faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called..." I Timothy 6:11. Every Christian is called to daily put on the armor of God- truth, righteousness, readiness, faith, salvation, study of the Word and prayer. We are called to put on this armor in order to fight the schemes of the devil and evil- Ephesians 6:10-20.

There are hundreds of reasons to not accumulate possessions. One of them is that it leads to a lack of organization. Solomon said, "God made men simple, but they have sought out their own complexities." Ecclesiastes 7:29. Isn't it amazing how something that was written thousands of years ago still speaks with pinpoint accuracy to our hearts today?

Why should I desire to get organized and stay organized? There are many important reasons: greater peace, frees up time for more important priorities, weans us from the weeds/thorns of this world and saves money. I am re-reading a book by Julie Morgenstern- Organizing from the Inside Out. She has a five-step plan for getting your home, office, files, closets, etc... organized:

1. Sort- Three important questions: Do I use this? Love this? Does it make or cost me money?
2. Purge- When in doubt, throw it out. There are plenty of charities that will gladly take your excess stuff and offer you a potential tax deduction. One man's junk is another's treasure.
3. Assign a Home- with the items you are keeping, put them in a clearly labeled, safe place where you can easily retrieve them.
4. Containerize- have a reasonable size container to hold your stored items. Once that container is full, you need to go back to step #2.
5. Equalize- this is where the daily fight comes in. Organization is a 24-hour, 7 days a week battle. But the rewards are worth the fight.

I have read- I am too unorganized currently to cite where- that a lack of organization has tremendous costs. If my memory serves me correctly, the cost of not having a budget for personal finances is that people without budgets spend 15-20% more than those who have a budget. The cost of a lack of organization in business is that employees spend on average an hour per day looking for papers, files and notes that are needed to properly do their job.

Realtors say that you will get 10% more for the same home that is clean and organized when you go to sell as you would for that same home that is disorganized. I have read that over 50% of the stuff in people's homes is not used once within a 12-month period. Affluenza by De Graaf, Wann and Naylor is a good read that covers a lot of these topics with well-researched facts.

I challenge myself and you to get and stay organized in 2006. Every discipline affects every other discipline in life. If you are organized, I believe you will see many unexpected improvements in other areas of your life. Organization is a move towards godliness. It allows us to work towards the most important calling of being frugal towards ourselves and more generous to others.

For the Glory of Christ,

Ashley Hodge

Bad Math

There are a lot of people these days making stupid investing decisions. A lot could be said about investing money in speculative stocks, real estate and businesses with the desire to get rich quick. But this is not what I am referring to here. I want to rant about two poor trends:

1. Society's trend in general to be obsessed with gambling.
2. The trend in the evangelical church to believe that as long as you tithe, you can raise your standard of living as your income increases.

I am reading a book currently called Gambling: Don't Bet on It by Rex Rogers. It is an excellent book that provides research and perspective on the history of gambling in the US. Rogers chronicles how lives are destroyed by a process that usually starts with friendly neighborhood poker games, recreational visits to Vegas or betting on sporting events to add a little excitement to the event. There is an old saying: "Gambling is investing for people that are really bad at math." A Mandalay pit executive was quoted as saying, "Give me a player for six days and I guarantee he'll leave a loser."

But there is another form of gambling that is in vogue in Christian circles. It is gambling on bad teaching concerning giving/tithing. I used to attend a mega-church in the Dallas/Fort Worth area where there was a strong emphasis on tithing- giving 10% of your income back to the local church. I have no problem with teaching tithing as a spiritual discipline. But these sermons usually emphasized the present day blessings and curses of tithing to the local church which I view as a distortion of Scripture. I attended this church for about three years and I think I heard ten sermons that referenced Malachi 3:8-10- verses about robbing God by failing to give tithes and offerings.

The gamble that many Christians practice is a belief that tithing to receive blessings and a lack of tithing producing curses is true. If this what God requires, then we can do our tithing duty and feel confident that the other 90% of income is at our discretion to do what we want. The evidence that many Christians have been taught this and practice this is evident by lifestyles being led.

I see Scripture teaching something radically different. 100% of a Christian's income belongs to God. It is the duty of the Christian to prayerfully decide how much should be:

1. Kept for the needs of the family
2. Given to the work of spreading the gospel and helping the poor
3. Used to provide for wants- vacations, luxuries, etc...
4. Invested/saved towards the goal of financial freedom

The heart of the gospel is to practice an increasing form of denial towards self and generosity to others. Jesus teaches, "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in Heaven where neither most nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal." Matthew 6:19-20.

Millions of Christians are betting that the 90% doesn't matter to God. This is a very bad bet. Bank on the words of Jesus instead who said to Peter after Peter told Jesus the disciples left everything to follow Him (Matthew 19:27-30). Jesus replies, "Everyone who has left houses, brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, children or lands for My name's sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life." To trust the words of Christ is a good mathematical bet. To believe anything is else is a foolish gamble.

Listen to what was written about George Muller- who gave his life to house, feed, clothe and train over 10,000 orphans with the love of Christ. A.T. Pierson wrote in George Muller of Bristol- His Life of Prayer and Faith, "Muller along with John Wesley limited expenses to the same amount year after year and even though their incomes rose, they used that money to become better givers. His investments were not in tangible things but in the work of God. He never gave a tithe. He gave all that was left after the simplest and most necessary supply of actual wants."

Pierson continues, "While most Christians see themselves as doing their duty by giving 10% and spending the rest on themselves, God led George Muller to reverse this rule and reserve only the most frugal sum for personal needs, that the entire remainder might be given to those in need. Muller said, 'My aim was never how much I could obtain, but rather how much I could give.' He kept continually before him his stewardship of God's property; and sought to make the most of this one brief life on earth."

For His Glory,

Ashley Hodge

How to Live a Miserable Life

I recently read a book called Poor Charlie's Almanack which is a compilation of some of the speeches of Charlie Munger- Warren Buffet's partner in Berkshire Hathaway. He gave a talk to a high school graduation class in the Los Angeles area about "How to Live a Miserable Life." He figured that this would carry the attention of high school students longer than the standard "How to be Successful in Life" speech.

I wrote to my 2-year old son a similar essay on how to be miserable after meditation on the opposite of the qualities espoused in Galatians 5:22-24. So in the spirit of Munger's speech and CS Lewis' Screwtape Letters, I submit to you eight keys to living a miserable life:

1. Practice bitterness. Remind yourself daily of the ways in life that you have been screwed. Life is unfair and has treated you poorly, so you should constantly dwell on that.

2. Complain about everything. Be sure to let others know that you aren't going to sit back and allow the troubles of life to go unnoticed.

3. Envy. Seek contentment in stuff, sex and status. Everyone does it, you might as well join the crowd.

4. Don't wait. You deserve the good things in life whenever you desire them. If you want something, have it now at any cost.

5. Be unreliable. Flakiness is a charming quality. You will be sure to endear yourself to family, friends and co-workers if you are consistently unreliable.

6. Be self-absorbed. The world revolves around you. Make sure you run over anyone who gets in the way between you and what you desire.

7. Lie. Say whatever you gets you ahead. Don't worry about telling the truth. Tell the truth only if it is to your advantage.

8. Indulge. You have one life to live. You might as well eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow you die. If it feels good, do it.

If you are faithful to practice these eight things, you will be virtually guaranteed to live a miserable life filled with regret and lack of purpose. I can testify from personal experience that I have at times practiced the qualities listed above and have found them to be a great way towards the goal of misery. In the words of a U2 song, "The sweeter the sin, the bitter the taste in my mouth." Sadly, as I view the pursuits of many people, I conclude that misery seeking is very much in vogue.

I pray that we all find a better path- Galatians 5:22-23.

For God's Glory,

Ashley Hodge