Mind your own business

A year (or so) ago now, Doug Phillips, founder and sole proprietor of Vision Forum “Ministries” confirmed the worst suspicions of those of us who found him and his work, well, icky, when it was revealed he had seduced the family’s late-teenage nanny. Yup, ick.

Mrs. Curmudgeon follows these things more closely than I, and forwarded to me a comment she ran across on one of the many blogs devoted to supporting survivors of the emotional and spiritual abuse so often attendant upon the home-everything movement/fringe:

I find it mind boggling that we are being told that the local church, not the Internet, is the place to handle a man’s repentance. These parachurch ministries and gurus use all media available to promote themselves and their causes. Then, when one crashes and burns morally, suddenly they run to the local church to hide. If the “local church” was so important, why did Doug spend almost 2 decades building a ministry outside of it? These men welcome any and all non-local church promotion of themselves…until they are exposed as frauds. Then suddenly they are devout believers in the “local church.” It’s ludicrous. You can’t have it both ways, boys.

This, in turn, puts me in mind of one of my favorite New Testament passages: “But we urge you, brothers, to …aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one” (1 Thessalonians 4:10-12). What strikes me, not only about Doug Phillips, but about all the men associated with the “Family-Integrated Church,” is how much they mind the affairs of everyone, everywhere. They are full of advice as to how to run one’s family and/or Church. They seem to aspire to live loudly and publicly so they can be admired and followed.

I recognize I tread a fine line here: after all, I am writing this on a blog which no one asked me to write, in the (admittedly vain) hope it will be read by more than a few dozen people. What man (by which I mean “adult male person”) doesn’t aspire for just a little recognition in this cold, heartless world?

Of course, much the same could be said of the Apostle Paul, whose just-quoted advice was written to a Church in a town where he had stayed only briefly (Acts 17). But I think there’s a profound difference between busy-bodies and Paul (and, I hope, me). Busy-bodies say, “I’ve figured it all out, and if you do what I have done, you can be as successful as me.” Paul said, “I’ve got it all figured out: Jesus.”

So if you’re still reading this, a piece of unsolicited advice: don’t read the blog, buy the books, or go to the conferences of the man who tells you he and his friends are the models for the Christian life. Instead, look for the one who tells you your only hope is being raised up to meet Jesus (1 Thessalonians 4:13-17).