I’ve been involved in blogging for a long time – I’m the blogging equivalent of Noah. Marty Duren, of course, is Methuselah. But as a blogger I’ve been involved in a lot of discussions about a lot of things. And I’m also a part of the workings of the Baptist Convention of Iowa.
And I think, in all of this denominational involvement, strategic discussion and methodological argument, I have come to realize what the biggest problem is that we face in steering the SBC away from the iceberg.
I spent 5 hours in the offices of the BCI Saturday in a major strategical meeting as we tried to map out the future. We generally agreed on two things at that meeting.
1) What we have been doing has not been stunningly effective. We’ve had some good leaders at the BCI (anyone who says a word against our last Exec, Jimmy Barrentine, gets a punch in the nose from me – figuratively, at least). We’ve tried. But in the last 20 years our average rate of growth has been around 3/4 of a percent annually, and we are in the same recent statistical funk as the SBC. We are baptizing fewer people now than we did in several years in the 70s and 80s when Baptist work was much, much smaller in Iowa. Southern Baptist work here is hard and there are lots of obstacles, but we’ve been on about a 3-decade plateau and that isn’t good. I would not like to calculate the amount of mission money that NAMB (and HMB) poured into this work, but we cannot swell our chests and point with (acceptable, spiritual) pride to our great success as a convention.
2) We have to change. We have to change to be effective and we have to change because as a NAMB-dependent state, changes are being forced on us. We haven’t liked all of the NAMB changes, but I am glad that our state staff and our officers are approaching this as a chance to redefine ourselves and reorganize our ministries for greater effectiveness, instead of just whining about how good the old days and the old ways were.
But, in both of these instances, in my blogging days and in our state convention wranglings, one problem we face has come up over and over again. At our executive board meeting Saturday, one pastor stated the ultimate problem. It has also been stated here in discussions about the GCR, about the name-change proposal and many other issues. Let me state is as clearly as I can.
The problems we face are, at root, problems of the heart. Nothing we can do as a state or national convention can fix the real problems that we face!
Problems in conventions are really problems with churches, which are problems with people, which are heart-issues we have not placed under the Lordship of Christ. Nothing we do structurally or strategically can fix the ultimate issue – the spiritual issue.
That’s frustrating!
I thought this was one of the strongest portions of the Great Commission Resurgence report, it identified the root of our issues. The structural and strategic issues were controversial, of course. But the analysis of the problem was spot on, in my view. Why do we have convention financial problems? Simple. Southern Baptists have become more selfish and less missional, as evidenced by our trends in giving. Studies show that Christians (SBC included) are keeping approximately 97.5% of their income for themselves and only giving 2.5% to charitable causes (including churches). We can argue tithing all day, but to keep 97.5% for yourself and give 2.5% to God’s work is pure selfishness! And remember there are a lot of people who tithe or give generously, so to make 2.5% the average, there are a lot of Christians who are giving next to nothing to God’s work. Where your treasure is…
But it’s not just a Christian problem, its a church problem. Churches are keeping more and more for themselves and giving less and less to missions. I remember a time when giving 10% to missions through CP was a fairly standard thing. Today, its a miracle! According to the statistics we were shown, churches are keeping 94% of their income for themselves and sharing only 6% to all missions causes.
So people are keeping more and churches are keeping more. The selfishness of the individual which has come to be reflected in the selfishness of the church has led to major problems in the mission of the convention. Convention issues root in church issues which root in personal issues which are heart issues. We love ourselves more than we love Jesus, and that is reflected in the way we give.
So, what can we do about that as a convention? Well, pretty much nothing.
- We can reorganize to spend more on missions and less on administration.
- We can make sure we have effective leadership with integrity, vision and ability.
- We can hone better strategies to do more with less.
- We can fix what is broken and strengthen what is working.
But ultimately, we cannot fix the real issue.
That’s the frustrating part of convention work. The problems we face, the problems that really cause our statistical decline are not convention problems, but heart-issues reflected in church issues that become convention issues.
And the convention cannot fix heart issues. We can identify them, but we cannot fix them.
I am not saying that we shouldn’t try to streamline the convention or make it more effective. But I am saying that it is frustrating to talk over the BCI’s future for 5 hours, knowing that nothing we do can really work unless people’s hearts are changed and churches adopt the mission God set for us!
The hope for our convention is not a name-change (which I support). The GCR (which I thought was a great thing) isn’t going to turn things around. Its not a new program, or initiative, or strategy, or slogan (please), or anything else. Things will change when Christians who attend Southern Baptist churches die to self, bring their lives under obedience to Christ, are filled with the Spirit of God and begin to serve the Savior and the mission he gave us.
Until we do that, all of our discussions and disagreements will be in vain.
To sum up: The biggest problem we face is that we cannot really do anything about the big problems we face!
‘we’ can’t do the changing, no . . . not on our own,
but ‘heart change’ IS possible,
if the ‘heart change’ is the process of Christian formation
In Galatians 2:20,
St. Paul has described Christian formation:
“I have been crucified with Christ
and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.
The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God,
Who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aHneNl38fM&feature=related
‘Christ-ian’ form-ation . . . to be formed to the heart of Christ,
that is what accomplishes ‘the changing’
Dave,
Great word! One thing we can do is be faithful. And I’m thinking that is pretty much what the Lord requires of us.
Well put. (I know not the things of the BCI; but from where I stand on this side of the Rockies, I agree with your conclusion.)
My guess is that the small-state conventions outside the SBC mainstream share a LOT of similarities.
“Nothing we do structurally or strategically can fix the ultimate issue – the spiritual issue.”
Dave, I couldn’t agree more. Much of the recent blog topics on this and other sites point to symptoms at the heart of the problem in SBC ranks … our spiritual condition. We have been flailing at the branches when we need to take an axe to the root of the tree. From my vantage point, this is not only an SBC dilemma, but an at-large issue with the organized Christian church in America. We are not experiencing spiritual awakening and revival in our churches because our people are satisfied to live without it. We may very well be on the verge of the last and greatest apostasy … unless we have a new and passionate leadership which will rise to the call of 2 Chronicles 7:14. In an earlier posting today on SBC Voices, you asked for input on “The Biggest Problem We Face as Southern Baptists”. This is it.
I meant to say that you asked for input on “What is the #1 Issue for the SBC at NOLA?” Someone please pick up the mic and cry for humility, repentance and prayer! We ain’t going much further in our current spiritual state.
But, to advance my point, the SBC calling for something doesn’t really accomplish that thing.
Not that we shouldn’t do it!
Then to borrow a “Southern” Baptist phrase: “Our goose is cooked.”
Not necessarily. What I am arguing is not that there is no solution, but that the ultimate solution is at the church level. The SBC cannot fix my church or yours. As pastors, leaders, we can seek God and preach truth and lead people in God’s ways.
The SBC can do what it can. I think there are important things that will happen this year at the SBC, but the ultimate solutions to our problems occur at the church level and the heart level.
Am I making sense?
Yes, you make perfect sense Dave – we are in agreement on this. Guess I’m hoping for too much in the way of a national “champion” within SBC ranks whose vision and passion will reach local church pastors and members to call us back to first love. God is still looking for that man, I suppose. In the meantime, I will pray about the condition of my heart and local church.
Here is what I see in the BCI that frustrates me. First, we have a lot of pastors and leaders who are ashamed of who we are. I am a Christian, believer and disciple foremost, that is my core identity. I have, however, chosen (yes, this Calvinist chose) to be a Southern Baptist. We hold to Scripture, lead off in missions, we reach people (or try too), and we have the Cooperative program. I believe that being a Southern Baptist is a good thing. I am not sure many in the BCI think that. They almost apologies for being SBC. Why would I want to join a group of people who are ashamed of who they are? No wonder we aren’t growing, I think we are growing the E-Free churches because they aren’t ashamed or try to hide it. Maybe the GCB name will help, I don’t know.
The other thing I have seen here is that we try to use the models that work in Alabama and Texas in rural Iowa. It’s not working. We build a building, call a pastor, have some Sunday School, people aren’t coming. We need some Cowboy churches, maybe we make a variation call it the Farm Co-Op Church. We need to think outside of the box, but it seems we are hesitant or scared in Iowa to push forward. That is what I see in Iowa, maybe it’s just my imagination. . . but I don’t think so.
Dave,
Insightful post. Thank you.
I would identify the problem in the same way as you have, but I would also say that even if we get our “hearts right at the church level” it will not translate to a thriving Convention–at least not automatically.
What I mean to say is: Jesus left one institution–the Church. He has not promised to bless anything but the Church. There is no power but through the individuals of the Church.
I think it is quite possible (though heretical for some) to say, the Cooperative Program as we have known it has run its course. We can dress it up any way we’d like, but it may be liked dressing a dear loved one in his or her final outfit.
As much as it pains me to say, I feel like if churches get their hearts right, then it should lead to the end of the CP, not a revitalization. Individual churches can now do much more separately than we did corporately through the CP in years past.
For example: our church (120 in worship) right now has a presence in the Middle East, China, and Tucson. The amount of expense in these witness opportunities is next to nothing. Through Email and Skype, it’s like we are right there.
I am not wishing the demise of the CP in any way, but I also think we would be naive to think that it is eternal.
What is needed after the hearts are right may be a wholly different strategy rather than a tweaking of the CP. By the way, this has already started with the new guidelines for what counts as CP giving.
I’m only offering my opinion and “gut feelings,” so please excuse the absence of any solid evidence for my feelings.
PS–We should keep in mind that the CP was a “radical departure from the norm” when it was established.
Maybe it’s time for another “radical departure.”
“For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.”
There was a post recently about the last few presidents elected by the SBC and their church’s giving to the Cooperative Program. We are electing leaders who care very little about the Cooperative Progam and more about building their own empires (based on the evidence from that post). Dave’s point is right on the mark. Churches in the SBC no longer care about Cooperation and it starts at the top of the food chain. We recently elected a new president to NAMB that has very little credibility in encouraging the churches of the SBC to give more for church planting, when the church he lead spent their money internally, but not cooperatively, at least not in the Cooperative Program.
That this is an issue of the heart is a true statement. I would love to hear the “heart” of all the candidates for leadership positions as to why they can’t lead their church to give 10% to the Cooperative Program, but why they feel they can lead Convention. At the very least, are there steps in place to get their churches to that point, have they been implemented, and how long will it take to get there.
It is also my understanding that we have a sizeable number of missionaries who have been trained and are waiting for appointment because we don’t have the funds to send them forth.
I thought the biggest problem we’re facing was Calvinists?
Or was it Liberals? Moderates? Presbyterians? Acts 29?
Fine, who am I supposed to claim to be in spirit of unity with but take every chance to assault their character and malign their respective ministries?
(Hint: My belief at one of the biggest problems is buried within my sarcasm)
Dave, Just to follow up on some of your opening comments concerning the growth of chruch planting in Iowa over the last 20 years, here are the numbers off the state ACP. From 1990-2010. Using these statistics the growth rate has been a little more that 3/4 % on average over that period. And we still have a long way to go.
1990 59
1991 62
1992 62
1993 63
1994 73
1995 80
1996 73
1997 77
1998 73
1999 73
2000 73
2001 74
2002 76
2003 77
2004 80
2005 83
2006 84
2007 85
2008 85
2009 94
2010 94
My stats were based on number of members, not number of churches.
And these numbers don’t really jive with what we’ve been told. This count must be made differently than the more popular counts we got at BCI meetings. Since I got to Iowa, we’ve had “around 100” churches. I am not sure where the statistical disconnect is.
Forgive me, I’m not a big fan of morbid introspection probably because I’ve tried it and it is not a fruitful exercise. Forgive me again, but when we talk of how “we” are giving so little, do we really mean that “they” are giving so little? And is giving the measure of all things SBC?
But if we speak of giving, our biggest problem is the long, long trend of churches giving less of their offering plate dollars to the CP. This is not a Baptist problem but a more generic one across denominational lines. It reflects the decline in denominational identification. We’re not going back to the 10%+ averages, those days are over, but it wouldn’t help to have a threshold for major elective office, say 5%. GCG merely recognized the reality on the ground.
Institutionally, our biggest problem may be inertia. We’ve had six seminaries for half a century or more. We will always have them. They all have too much support to think about major change there. Did we not just go through this GCR business…and seminaries escaped unscathed? Yep, sure did.
NAMB is the only game in town if we’re talking change. If we think it is good to start new churches, perhaps some NAMB critics will get on board, since that is what NAMB believes they are expected to do.
Spiritually, I just don’t think the SBC, state conventions can do much, although that has never slowed down any grand new programs.
I appreciate Dave’s thoughts here.
…uh, wouldn’t HURT to have a 5% threshold…
5% threshold for what?
For SBC presidents, major offices, etc. I made an exception for Bryant Wright and am not displeased with Kevin Ezell’s leadership even though they were below the threshold.
The SBC has never been serious about even an informal threshold on CP giving but at some point if the think the CP to be valuable, there must be some minimum number.
Not sure either. I asked the office to give me just the church numbers reported on the ACP over the last 20 years and this is what I got. These would be full flegged churches not other things that have not constituted. I received these numbers about 6 months back when someone made the statement that there has not been any church planting in Iowa in 20 years…so I asked.
I guess the number I’ve been hearing includes the missions, chapels and preaching points.
There is some interesting stuff going on about counting churches. I’ll wait until later to tackle it. Like lots of SBC stats, numbers of churches have been a very soft number.
Yep.
Fewer baptisms may be a good thing.
Anyway, this article doesn’t say anything about the actual biggest problem we face as Southern Baptists: http://stopbaptistpredators.org/index.htm
“”””Fewer baptisms may be a good thing”””””
I’m sure there must be more to this statement than its face value, otherwise, in light of the Lord’s commission it would seem blasphemous to me.
Yeah, I cannot imagine a situation in which we would revel in the fact that we are bringing fewer people to Christ and to baptism.
Dave, thank you for enduring the five-hour meeting on behalf of the Baptists in Iowa on Saturday. However I think you should be more encouraged than frustrated. Yes, the root of Iowa Baptist’s problem or any problem is spiritual not organizational. But before throwing our hands up and saying “nothing we do can really work unless people’s hearts are changed” we need to be reminded that the body of Christ is the instrument that the Holy Spirit uses to develop people spiritually. Spending time developing the church is both worth it and really the only way to impact spiritual problems.
We should be encouraged that the Baptists in Iowa are restructuring to focus much more on church planting and much less on the state organization, committees, staff, and structure. At least some of the reason that budgets are down may not just be the selfishness that you propose, it may be that only 10% of offerings given for “missions” leave Iowa and only 20% of the funds that stay are used for church planting. It may not be the case that church planting is stagnant because people don’t give. It may be that people don’t give because church planting is stagnant! When BCI refocuses to improve these numbers we may find that the problem isn’t just our people’s selfishness, it may be that we want to support missions and church planting not denominational structure.
Actually, I was very encouraged at that meeting. I’m planning to post, at the proper time, about the “Iowa Experiment.” I’m not completely sure if the new system is good or not so good. Time will tell. But I like the idea that we are willing to try something new.
I was pretty amazed, actually.
Dave,
For the record I agree wholeheartedly with your article. I have a very difficult time understanding your following statement given the theological position you hold:
“But ultimately, we cannot fix the real issue.
That’s the frustrating part of convention work. The problems we face, the problems that really cause our statistical decline are not convention problems, but heart-issues reflected in church issues that become convention issues.
And the convention cannot fix heart issues. We can identify them, but we cannot fix them.”
Where is the sovereignty of God that efficaciously overcomes the unregenerate state but is unable to overcome the apathy of the child of God? For the life of me I find it very difficult trying to reconcile those two perspectives.
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I didn’t say God couldn’t fix them, Bob. My point is that the only cure for the issues that plague us is at the heart-level, which only God can cure.
Until such time as the people in the pulpits and in the pews seek God and and repent, nothing we do as a denomination will likely change things.
I’d rather not make this another Calvinist thing, though.
I just recently attended a three day workshop on ABA, applied behavioral analysis. This is a technique that was addressed for the children I serve as a speech language pathologist. And yet the truth is that ABA is for every communication act that takes place between people. It is based on the truth that one cannot separate the behavior of a person from language and social factors. They all interrelate and cannot operate separate from each other. In any behavior there is an antecedent (what happened before the behavior occured, for better or worse), there is the behavior itself (for better or worse), then there is the consequence (something happens for better or worse because of that behavior). There is also the unknown of what the person brings into the communication act that one has no clue about (forgot to take medications, going through a divorce, history of bad relationships at churches as a child or an adult, n etc.)
As I listened to the psychologist, I knew that there was another element that one could not rationally control: that of the human heart conscience and human soul. Humans are “beings”, not machines or objects. This is what God is trying to get us to get: we are creatures, not Creator. The only way for the human heart conscience to return to behavior-language-social acts that are honoring to ones own body and to the body of others is through the Cross. The flesh is basically selfish and self-centered. Without the mind of Christ through the Word of God which comes through seeking and humbling oneself, human beings will remain selfish and react the way the flesh wants us to react. We think we can control our environment and therefore control other human beings to do that which God has commanded them to do. That is ludicrous! We cannot. That is the point. The only way to walk in newness of life, honoring God’s holy precepts is through a transformation of the heart conscience such that the mind operates from the Truth and the soul (thoughts and emotions) then follow the mind. In turn the body does not defile itself or defile the bodies of other human beings. This is an intrinsic transformation, not an extrinsic transformation. What I say and do on the outside, is only a mirror of what is happening on the inside of me. If I operate on flesh principles (the sin principle of selfishness and self will), I will not do that which I am commanded to do. The Law is good and yet I find that there is something in me that prevents me from keeping the Law. This is why the Cross must be preached and why heart transformation only takes place through the Word and indwelling power of the Holy Spirit.
How do I know this? Because I left the church at age 18 and never turned back. By grace God chose me to return to Jesus, not to the people or the building. If I stayed in the church building because of the people, I would leave again. Why? Because human beings are wounded and human beings are broken. There are plenty of Pharisees in the church body today who shun me still. But my faith is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness. I don’t go to church; I am the church. I don’t go to worship with songs. I go to worship the Creator. I walk in my everyday life in worship, praying that God will guide me and help me to be a reflection of His image to all through my thoughts, words, and actions. It is a very humbling process because my flesh nature fights this and does not want to do that which the Word commands me to do….to be patient, to be kind, to keep no count of wrong, to be longsuffering, to show mercy, to have compassion. And yet this is the way of Christ. It is the narrow way and unless there is a heart conscience transformation, it will not happen. My soul finds its strength through the Holy Spirit only. My soul finds its peace through the Holy Spirit only. There is no other way. People (yes, even so called church people) can be very unkind. My part as a disciple of Christ Jesus is to love no matter what. Without Jesus Christ living in me and moving through me through His Word and the Holy Spirit, this is impossible. My flesh wants to have a selfish love. My spirit demands otherwise of me. And so, it is by grace alone that I love as Jesus loves. I love others even when they don’t deserve love….just as the Lord loves me even when I didn’t deserve love and even now when I don’t deserve love. Love is so much bigger than people, even in the church body, can imagine. The love of God is outside of time; it is a love that gives regardless of receiving. It is a love that forgives regardless of the crime. It is a love that endures and that counts for eternity.
When the church (not building), but people who claim to be believers or Christians humble themselves before God and admit their messiness and cry out for God to give them a new heart conscience that is sensitive and responsive to His holy touch, then the church, body of Christ, will follow His commands. It is not a rationale change; it cannot be logically accomplished. It is a heart change of going low, weeping, asking God for forigiveness through repentance, then seeking Him only in being His child.
Good stuff Gail. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of CCEF (Christian Counseling and Education Foundation), but much of what you said above regarding the need for transformation through the Cross and Gospel is exactly what they teach their Christian counselors to focus on. Some of the leading voices for CCEF are David Powlison, Tim Lane, Ed Welch, and Paul David Tripp. I would highly recommend Lane’s and Tripp’s book How People Change, where they develop this idea further. If you haven’t already, you should check it out.
D.R. , Thank you for your reply. Where I got this from is my heart conscience that has been absolutely invaded by the Holy Spirit. I will check out the book you recommended. I am glad to embrace whatever seed the Lord puts in my way to continue to grow me through His Spirit and His Truth. It is like this: I was like a fish in water that didn’t know there was such a thing called “dry” until I was pulled out of the water. I lived my life blind and deaf and dumb just like the Word says. I was lost. Because I was lost, I was blind. Because I did not have ears to hear, I only heard what the flesh said. Because I was ignorant about the Truth, I was dumb and foolish. Born again is not a cutsey little saying. Born again is the only way to eternal life. Without being born again, one lives for the self. Ego me, my, I does not die easily. It has the curse on it and the only way the curse is put to death is through the blessing of God Almighty by GRACE! I have no credentials behind my new name of Redeemed. The only One with the credentials is God Almighty. I am low and He is High. He lifts me up through faith and it is in faith that I walk in high places, not because I can get there by my own means. When a person cannot wrap his or her mind around his or her personal relationship with Jesus Christ, then there is that “awe” moment of gratitude beyond words. It is then that one knows that “I do not deserve grace; I do not deserve to be saved. I do not deserve mercy. I deserve hell.” Then comes the weeping….the weeping of lost time and lost relationships and most of all the weeping of how much He loves mpre. With that reality comes the realization that this is not my home and that I am a stranger in this land, only here to bear witness to the Cross and to serve God as He so chooses to have me serve until such time that He calls my spirit and my soul home. The spirit breath of life carries us from one day to the next. We go out not knowing where, just knowing that God is present with us and He is forever equipping us and preparing us for eternity to come. It is good to be under God’s providential will.
Having been raised on a farm, I am aware that for fruitful productivity land requires a sabbatical, a period of lying fallow. The same is true for churches and ministers and members. Everything seems lifeless, nothing is occurring, that is, that can be seen or discerned. But God has long range plans. For 39 years (it will be this Fall), I have been praying for a Third Great Awakening. But an awakening requires prayer, sacrifice, suffering, and theology, the right theology. I did not realize that, when I began my praying. And yet the evidence was there all along the way. The theology of the First and Second Great Awakenings was Sovereign Grace, or calvinism as some mistakenly are wont to call it, and it was the same for the launching of the Great Century of Missions. I Leave for those who are willing to make the effort to learn from the sources in Edwards, Whitefield, Gano, Leland, Backus, Prince, and a host of others, the theology that produced such wondrous visitations. Instead I will concentrate on Luther Rice, the Father of missions among Southern Baptists, the fellow who led the Sandy Creek Committee to draw up the Confession of Faith in 1816 which is directly related to the Abstract of Principles of Southern and Southeastern. He, more than any one else, it would seem, sparked Baptists and others to launch the Great Century of Missions. Listen to Rice:
..The doctrine of divine decrees has often, in various respects,
suffered injury. By its enemies, it has been caricatured. Presen-
ted in a distorted shape, and arrayed in tattered garments, its
true loveliness has been concealed from the eye….By some of
its avowed friends, also, it has been much abused:…
“How absurd it is, therefore, to contend against the doctrine of
election, or decrees, or divine soverignty. Let us not, however,
become bitter against those who view this matter in a different
light, nor treat them in a supercilious manner; rather let us be
gently towards all men. For who has made us to differ from what
we once were? Who has removed the scales from our eyes? or
who has disposed us to embrace the truth?(Memoirs,pp.330,332,
333)
David did not want this turned in to a diatribe about calvinism, but Bob raised the issue. The truth is that we are embroiled in a life long struggle with forces of darkness, and in such gloom it is hard to determine what is worthwhile and what is not. If we would understand our present situation, we must consider our past, especially our biblical and theological past as it bears upon the very issues we face today. One issue that we really need to clarify is the issue of what we believe, and the second issue is the increasingly hostile society in which we live. Clearly, that increasing hostility is not accidental; it was planned by forces of darkness with their own agendas for America. Just consider how the Christian Faith is being drummed out of the public domain, shunted on to sidetracks, relegated to irrelevancies, and treated as not only politically incorrect but even as mentally insane. Like a chaplain of the United Nations said some 20 years ago, “We are going to put you Bible believing preachers in insane asylums.”
Staying the course in a society beginning to descend in to the pit of total ungodliness, where the church and its ministries will not be allowed to teach children any more than it was allowed in Communist Russia where a child’s report of teachings at home could result in a parent or both parents being sent to Siberian and the Gulags.
What we really need is the realization that God does not demand 10%. On the contrary, He demands 100%, the whole of us, everything that we have and are and hope to be. When our people wake up to the fact that total stewardship is what God wants and what they must give, then we will have a more committed body of believers in our churches. But 100% is an impossibility, and yet that is what God presents to us: Impossibilities. He demands the impossible. Our pastor said a week ago, “God does not help those who help themselves. That saying comes from Benjamin Franklin. No, God helps the helpless.” It was a lifting message.