Central Abbotsford

Recently, I had the exciting opportunity to apply online for a new credit card, something I don’t believe I have ever had to do before (I think I’m old enough that the last time I applied for a credit card, I had to do it in person at the bank). One of the fields that needed to be filled out on the application was my employment title.

Naturally, I typed in “pastor”. However, it turned out that this wasn’t one of those form fields that allows you to type in just anything that you’d like. Whether it used artificial intelligence or just some sort of keyword recognition, my answer of “pastor” prompted two possible acceptable employment positions, at least in the eye of this online application: “Religious Professional” and “Actor”.

Now, I presume that these options did not represent the bank offering any type of critique of my walk of faith, and that the former option was how the application form translated “pastor” and the latter was accounting for the possibility that I made a unique set of typos. That’s my best guess, at least.

However, as I considered the two suggestions, I thought about how each of them do, to some extent, represent two dangers that can imperil the faithful walk of the churched person. 

The “Religious Professional” wraps up their entire existence and identity in their observances and moral uprightness. Everyone who knows them knows not only that they are a good Christian, but also knows their strongly-held understanding on what exactly a good Christian must do (or, more importantly, must not do) in order to maintain the status of a good Christian. 

On the other hand, the “Actor” is equally likely to be a regular attender of weekend services. They hear the sermons, they may even have a regular seat, but once they are free from the church building, all that they have heard quickly washes away and has no impact on their daily lives. The idea of any kind of ongoing discipleship during the week doesn’t ever take hold with them; after all, they’re not a “Religious Professional”, just someone who checks “Christian” off on the census!

Of course, these are caricatures – nobody lives their lives exactly this way, consciously or otherwise. But each of these archetypes reveal a different temptation to deny the gospel – the “Religious Professional” believes that he or she is able to achieve righteousness on their own (and probably better than anyone else can), while the “Actor” reduces the gospel message down to “I said I’m a Christian, so I’m forgiven”, forgetting or ignoring that Romans 10:9 requires both confessing with the mouth and believing with the heart as markers of salvation.

How do we avoid falling into these traps? The Bible gives us two remedies. The first is sober self-assessment. The “Religious Professional” must remember Romans 12:3 – “For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.” The “Actor” must equally remember this verse, but must also consider Romans 2:4 – the pointed question that Paul asks – “Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?”

The second remedy is prayer – bringing our failure before the Lord Himself. In the Lord’s Prayer, after we are taught to seek forgiveness, Jesus calls us to plead with God to eviscerate even the threat of sin in our lives in Matthew 6:13 – “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” Do we pray these proactive prayers? We need the Lord’s strength to avoid the twin pitfalls of the “Religious Professional” and the “Actor”; our own strength is likely to take us to one or the other.

The Lord bless and keep you until this weekend (and beyond),

Eric