Secular society is not the only place where your faith will be tested. The evangelical Church may also inadvertently hinder your life of faith.

    An important hindrance to faith comes because the evangelical Church lacks awareness of our secular world's use of functional substitutes for God. (This is true irrespective of how functional substitutes for God may be identified.)

    The Church rarely overtly promotes society's functional substitutes for God. In fact, the evangelical Church seldom has any comment on the subject, which is precisely the problem. Just as the Temple worshipper in the Old Testament should have been concerned by Israel's idol worship, so the evangelical Christian today should be concerned by the encroachment of society's functional substitutes for God on the Church. In reality, the problem is basically ignored.

    It is impossible for the Christian Church to endorse the antithesis of faith while simultaneously trying to encourage believers to live by faith.

    Ignorance of functional substitutes for God is an important reason why a believer wanting to live by faith will encounter apathy from Christian peers. It would genuinely surprise the average church member if a fellow believer were to question unrestricted use of medicine, insurance, investments, or dependence on legal and government institutions. Rather than finding the average church to be an institution which promotes living by faith, the believer wanting to live by faith will realize that he or she is part of a small minority who desire to trust God rather than society's institutions.

    Within the Church today, one will hear reasoning that masks the need of allowing God to lead the believer through faith. The logic sounds good on the surface because it contains some truth. These half-truths include statements such as, "The believer must make reasonable financial provision for his family," or "Because our body is God's temple, health is an important priority for the believer," or "God does not call us to be foolish or unprepared," and so on.

    Members of the early Church did not place an emphasis on protecting personal health when they took mortal risks for the sake of the Gospel. The early Disciples did not secure permanent jobs for the purpose of providing for their families. First century believers often took extreme risks in order to preach Christ.

    The early Church placed a high priority on living and serving by faith.

    In all probability, the evangelical Church hinders a believer's life of faith most because it does not provide role models who live by faith.

    Theological training does not produce faith. Only a life of trusting God will produce a faith that can be modeled for others.

    When a church leader is growing in faith, the result will be an effective personal ministry as well as an example that others can emulate.

    There will, of course, be those who do not wish to forego their comfortable Christianity. When a church leader is actively modeling a life of faith, there will be those who will be strongly attracted to this vibrant Christianity, but there will also be some who will object and ultimately leave the congregation.

    If you are not in a primary position of leadership in your own congregation, you will find that pursuing faith will be even more difficult. In almost any congregation the presumption is that the paid staff members are the most spiritual. It would seem inconceivable that a lay person in the congregation would have more awareness of living by faith than the staff personnel. (This will not be true if the church's leaders are themselves growing in faith.)

    Please do not misunderstand what I just said about the church and its leadership. Most evangelical churches would express no overt opposition to living by faith. In fact, I could imagine that faith experiences would be referred to from the pulpit, would be the object of "praise" mention in the church prayer bulletin, and would be discussed in adult Sunday School classes.

    But I would also expect to see it dismissed (albeit politely) as being your unique experience in the Christian life. It would be viewed as something between you and God with no expectation that it has relevance for anyone else. You would be congratulated, and then the issue of living by faith would again be forgotten. Should you mention other faith experiences, you would soon have the feeling that you were saying too much or that others felt you were attempting to draw attention to yourself.

    I have, of course, overstated my case. Sadly, however, I think there is an element of truth to what I have said.

    You may often feel alone as you learn to live by faith. Certainly, there will be times when you will need to make decisions contrary to the recommendations of those in the medical community or service industries. At the same time, you may also find yourself unsupported by your fellow believers. You may even find that your desire to trust God will become a cause of alienation.

    You will need to be wise in your evaluation of this situation. If the misunderstanding comes because you lack tact or are strident in expressing your views, then it is your responsibility to make corrections. On the other hand, if you have been prudent as you pursue faith, you can almost be certain that relations with some believers will cool because of their desire to maintain the status quo.

    In this latter case, quietly pursue faith in your own life. Do not take this as an opportunity to hold others publicly accountable for what you presume to be a lack of faith.

FOR PASTORS ONLY

    I understand some of the difficulties that you as a pastor face. Your job is difficult because you must be the role model and the administrator for so many different people in the congregation. Nonetheless, you are accountable before God to prepare these people to meet Jesus.

    Think of 10 people from your congregation who have shown the greatest growth during your tenure as their pastor. Now, try to visualize their responses when they first stand before Jesus in Heaven. How do you think they might report their life? Will they recount a life that evidenced biblical priorities, including an effective life of faith? Or will they falter in an attempt to explain their involvement with church programs and numerous religious activities? How well are you preparing them for that first meeting with Jesus?

    May I be candid in my next observation without being judgmental? I believe I see pastors frequently trying to encourage people to grow in Christ without themselves having a clear idea of what that growth should be. I hear sermons dealing with theology, with exegetical studies, with ethical and moral issues, and with correctives for human needs and injustices. But I seldom hear men who can say with credibility, "I have learned to love Jesus, and I have learned to live by faith; now from Scripture, let me show you how you, too, can deeply love Jesus and live by faith."

    Simply stated, a pastor cannot lead his people into a walk with Jesus that he himself has not experienced.

    I trust that it has been clear throughout this book that I have no secret "formula" for living by faith. God leads each individual in living by faith as He chooses. I still must ask if you are living by faith? Have you learned what it means to trust Jesus in a way that pleases God? As a result, are you now able to model and teach that same information to members of your congregation?

    Let me give more detail to the story of George and Mary Müller.^[1] In 1830 at the age of 25, Müller had been the co-pastor of two congregations for several years. Both congregations were showing considerable growth. During that time he concluded that the common practice of pew rent was a violation of James 2:1-6 which forbids preferential treatment of the rich. The rental price for pews at the front of the church was higher than for pews in the back of the church. The fact that his salary as pastor came from the pew rents made this issue personally significant.

    ^[1] This information comes from the book George Müller, Delighted in God! by Roger Steer, Harold Shaw Publishers, 1981.

    Shortly after their marriage in 1830, George and Mary Müller decided that they would no longer accept a fixed salary, but would depend solely on God for their financial well-being. Müller then announced that pews in the church would no longer be rented. Instead, a box was placed at the back of the church for voluntary offerings for the support of the pastors. The Müllers decided from that time on that they would never mention financial need to others, neither for themselves, nor for any ministry they undertook. They took the need to God alone in prayer. (During his lifetime, the Müllers gave almost £1,500,000 [$5,683,000 in 1997 U.S. dollars] to many different ministry needs.^[2] Not once in that entire time was there either a public or private appeal for funds. The printed annual reports never solicited funds. Prayer was their only avenue of request.)

^[2] Expressing the purchasing power of the British pound during Müller's lifetime in today's United States' dollar has numerous complications. Nonetheless, if we do not assign some dollar value, the significance of the Müllers' giving would largely be lost.
    We have arbitrarily selected 1860 as the exchange rate date. (The Müllers started supporting ministry solely through prayer in 1835, and George died in 1898.) The most conservative exchange rate information lists £1.00 as being equal to $4.60 in 1860. The U.S. dollar value decreased from $1.00 in 1860 to $17.43 in 1997. Using this single 1997 value for the dollar, in their lifetime the Müllers gave approximately $5,683,000 in U.S. dollars. Only £1,000,000 ($3,790,000) actually went to orphanage work. In addition, the Müllers supported literature work, schools, and missions. For a period of time, they were almost the sole supporters of the entire China Inland Mission work under Hudson Taylor. At one point Müllers were personally supporting almost 200 foreign missionaries at approximately £10,000 ($379,000) a year.
    However, if we use exchange rates that are adjusted for all inflation and cost of living increases we obtain considerably larger figures because the British Pound decreased sharply in value between 1910 and present. In their lifetime, the Müllers directed £1,453,513 13s 3d to ministry. According to www.ex.ac.uk £1,454,000 in 1860 equaled £66,549,000 in 2000, and the exchange rate was £1 for $1.61 (US) on January 1 of 2000. Using these conversion rates, the Müllers raised $107,143,000 for ministry. At this exchange rate, the £1,000,000 given to the orphanage work becomes $73,690,000.

    For about six years the Müllers' faith grew as they relied on God for everything in their temporal lives. Then they began searching for a way to teach the people in their congregations how to live by faith. In 1836, George and Mary Müller started an orphanage for the primary purpose of demonstrating to others that God was able through prayer alone to provide everything necessary for their orphanage work. The Müllers had already learned many valuable personal lessons in living by faith. Now they wanted to show others how they, too, could live by faith. The primary purpose of the Müllers' orphanages was to model faith in a God who was able to provide through prayer alone.

    Does your faith please God? Is it a faith you can model for believers in your own congregation?