Many, if not most, local churches are hotbeds of strife. 

     Some years ago when I was pastoring, I saw strife first hand. 

     I reached out to a couple, and asked them to serve temporarily in a couple of positions of responsibility in my church.  I knew their reputation.  I don't think there was a church for miles around from which they had not stomped out, or been thrown out.  But I saw a genuine call upon their lives, and the pastor's heart within me reached out to them.  I thought if I loved them, treated them with respect, and gave them a chance, they might rise to the occasion.

     I gave them small opportunities to see how trustworthy they would prove to be.  The Bible says, "He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much."  Luke 16:10.  So if you want to test and see how people will handle great responsibility, the Bible teaches that you are to give them a small amount of responsibility and see how they handle it.  Whatever they do with a little, they will do with alot.  Well, this couple abandoned or neglected every task I gave them.  They even seemed to resent being asked to do anything. 

     They smiled to my face and told me they were behind me 100%.  But I found out that they had constantly ridiculed me behind my back.  Eventually, I caught them in a couple of bare-faced lies, and I had to remove them from their positions of authority, and they left my ministry.

     As the months passed afterwards, I thought deeply on what these two had done.  I asked myself if I had failed to discern something about them, if I had been naive', or if I had missed it somewhere in my dealings with them.  Eventually, I believe God gave me some insight.

     God quickened to me the concept of "spiritual promiscuity."  And I believe the Lord showed me something that we all need to learn.

     This couple, and many others, have a call on their lives.  But with many believers, their ministry call never amounts to much.  You see them go from ministry to ministry, attempt one thing after another, but nothing ever really pans out for them.

     I believe God showed me why, and it has changed my whole outlook on advancement in ministry.  God's word says:

     "For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south.  But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another."  Psalm 75:6,7.

     Who calls a person to ministry? 

     God.

     And who promotes a person from one ministry positon to another?

     Only God.

     God quickened to my heart that this couple's main problem was that they were called, but they were not allowing the Lord to promote them in ministry.  They did not look to God for promotion, they looked to man.  And by doing so, they had become "spiritually promiscuous"--meaning that they would take up with any pastor that walked by, pretend to be loyal to him, and stay with him as long as it looked like he was going to promote them into full-time ministry.  But if that pastor moved too slowly, and they saw a better prospect walk by, they would dump the first pastor and go running after the second one.

     When I served as a pastor, this couple dumped me, and ran after another pastor.  As this happened, I began to see first-hand how sinful this is.  And God brought to my rememberance several pastors in my younger years that I had pretended to be loyal to, looking to them to fulfill my ministry, until I abruptly dumped them when I saw a better looking prospect walk by.  I had not loved those pastors.  I had not been truly loyal to them.  In fact, with one or two I planned out in advance that if they didn't "recognize my calling" within six months or so, I would leave their church and "go where my anointing will be accepted."  Truthfully, through those years I had little if any anointing, and even less success.  I had been guilty of the very sin this couple had committed.  Years later when I began to pastor, I reaped what I had sown.  They treated me just exactly the way I had treated some pastors in the early years of my Christian walk.  

     My friends, in just about every congregation there are people jostling for position, pushing for a title, and trying to manipulate others for their own advancement.  But all of that will come to nothing.  And the individuals may play out their entire lives, never getting into the ministry position and calling that God truly has for them, because they are in strife with their brethren and their pastor as they attempt to promote themselves into the position they think they deserve.

     They are blind to the fact that the Bible says, "Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves."  Phil. 2:3.

     Since promotion comes only from the Lord, getting into strife with others not only won't work, it will actually cause you set back after set back.  God knows full well what He has called you to do, and He already has a plan in mind that is perfect for bringing you into the fulness of your ministry. 

      "Spiritual promiscuity" is not limited to congregation members.  Ministry leaders engage in it too.  One pastor I knew had a wonderfully anointed praise and worship leader.  Whenever that man lead worship, the blessing of God just came down.  But whenever some other musically talented person came along and visited the church, the pastor would abruptly replace his worship leader with the latest new person.  Then after a couple of weeks when the new person proved to be not nearly as talented as the previous worship leader, the pastor would jerk out the new person, and re-appoint the previous one.  This worship leader in only six months was replaced and reinstated numerous times.  He took it in a good spirit.  But the pastor pulled some other stunts, and the worship leader resigned and left the church.  The pastor could not understand the man's "disloyalty."

     The worship leader was not the disloyal one.  The pastor had a problem with promiscuity--spiritual promiscuity--that is.  The eventual result?  Within three years, the pastor resigned from the church he pioneered with such promise.  He claimed that the people were just not being "faithful," and the congregation wasn't growing fast enough to suit him.

     In ministry, what has surprised me the most is the number of ministers that are in some form of constant strife.  They are pushing and shoving, promoting and demoting, initiating fellowship and breaking off fellowship, playing up to this one, and not speaking to that one.  I believe that much of their strife is rooted in insecurity.

     They are insecure, because they are not sure what they are actually called to do.  They have not gotten off alone with God in prayer until they are certain they have His will for their lives.  Unsure of themselves, they fear nearly everyone that comes around them.

     A pastor I revere told me something that I have never forgotten.  He had pioneered and pastored the same church for 30 years, and he shared with me one of the secrets of his success.  He told me that he could drive me through his city and all the nearby towns and point out to me nearly every Charismatic church and tell me who founded them, when, how, and why.  He said, "I've never yet seen one of these churches that was founded through a church split--strife--that ever grew and amounted to anything.  Not one."  He continued, "When I came here, I didn't steal anything from anybody.  I started my church, opened it to the public, and invited people to come.  Mine is the only one for miles around that was not started from a church split, and mine is still here and still growing when many other churches didn't make it."

     Words for the wise.

     "Let NOTHING be done through strife and vainglory."

     Walking in strife, is the opposite of walking in love and walking in the Spirit. 

     "But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.  This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh."  Gal. 5:15,16.