Pragmatism vs Principle - Conversation 2

Pragmatism Defined and Why It Can Become a Ministry Problem

So, I heard someone say recently that evangelicals are often driven more by pragmatism than by biblical principles. Do you think that's true?

Oh boy, yeah, yeah. Especially when it comes to issues of money and ministry over the last century, I think it's very true. How so? Well, I think, first of all, we should probably define the word pragmatism here, right?

As I understand it, it's the idea that meaning or worth is determined by practical consequences. It overlaps significantly with utilitarianism, which is the philosophy that things are deemed good by their usefulness.

So basically, it's a way of thinking that judges the goodness of an action based on its outcome. Like that phrase, the ends justify the means.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. So obviously, not all pragmatists would go so far as to say that the ends justify the means, but that's sometimes where people do end up.

Oh, so you mean there are different extremes of pragmatism?

Sure, yeah, yeah. On one end of the spectrum, you have people who define truth by how useful or helpful it is at reaching a certain goal. And then at the other end of the spectrum, you might have those who simply want to get good things done and find practical solutions to the problems they see.

So pragmatism isn't always a bad thing then?

Exactly. But it can become bad when it shifts to becoming the primary guide to life and ministry and theology rather than scripture. So let me give you an obvious example of this. It might be the avoidance of verses in the Bible that might offend people.

Let's say your end goal is to grow your church, right? Which you think is a good thing. And if you preach certain passages, you may turn some people away. And so you skip those passages. That's pragmatism taken to a harmful extreme in the name of good intentions.

Yeah, okay. That makes sense. Basically, you're saying that it's dishonouring to God to accept or reject what he's told us to do simply by whether it works or not.

Mm-hmm. That's right. If we do that, we'll find that lies from the devil can be quite effective and produce impressive results. And on the other hand, we know from scripture that the gospel often produces negative responses.

The Offense of the Cross and the Cost of Obedience

Like what? Well, remember what Paul says in 1 Corinthians, I think it's 1 .23, I believe. To preach Christ crucified is a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles. So in light of that, a bad application of pragmatism would be to remove any talk of the crucifixion from your preaching so as not to be a stumbling block to Jews, right?

But that would be a grievous sin for the sake of accomplishing what seems to be a good thing. I mean, who wants to offend Jews, right?

Yeah, okay. That's a hard one. I can feel the tension there.

Oh, yeah. A lot of tension there. Yeah. And so, it's important to remember that obeying God often involves deep discomfort. You know, it's hard to be perceived as a fool when you preach Christ crucified.

It never feels good to have people respond negatively, especially to that kind of thing, right?

Yeah, it would be painful to keep doing that and see no good outcomes, and then see your friend reaching many people by being more practical.

Yeah, definitely. You know, I've personally found that I have to guard my own heart and remind myself that prosperity isn't a measure of truthfulness. And just because most people are doing something does not mean it's pleasing to God.

It does seem to be a hallmark of modern evangelicals to just do whatever works or experiment until they find something that gets the job done, whether it's in the evangelism or church services or whatever.

Yeah, sadly. And yeah, people are playing the numbers game all the time. Whatever attracts or impacts the most people is justified, even if it goes squarely against Scripture's teaching.

I guess you might say that theology has been forced to bow to methodology.

Yeah, for sure. And this has been around forever. In the last century, we saw in people like Dwight Moody, who was driven by an urgent desire to, you know, quote unquote, get the job done. And then he optimized his presentations of the gospel to get as many decisions as possible.

And of course, Moody wasn't a bad guy. But he was someone who perhaps took pragmatism to extremes for the sake of his good intentions and the urgency he felt to lead more to Christ.

This seems like a particularly Western tendency.

Oh, absolutely. I mean, you've got to realize that so much of our industrial revolution was driven by letting practical concerns dominate over principles. And then you have these horrific examples of what was done to the Native Americans and Africans in the name of pragmatism or economic expediency.

Selling Ministry, Debt, and the Free Gift of God

Wow, that is a brutal legacy. So, how does this all connect to money and ministry?

Well, okay, let's think about it this way. You can imagine that when you're full of ambition, and you have big, urgent goals to accomplish for God, you might be tempted to do whatever works best at a large scale, right?

And money is a very powerful ally for that. But if you can't get enough money to do huge things for God, you might be tempted to get that money however you can as long as it's not flagrantly immoral, right?

Like going into debt? Well, I mean, that's one way, but I'm thinking more along the lines of beginning to sell ministry so that you can do bigger and better ministry. Does that make sense?

What would be a real-world example of that?

Yeah, good question. So, let's say I write a book about missions. So, this is clearly an act of ministry to edify the church through biblical teaching. So, let's say I plan to give it away freely online.

But then I start thinking, hmm, if I sell this book, I can use that money to promote my book and get it to more people, right? Many more people might be blessed that way. And if I sell a lot of copies, I can use that money to live on while I write another book to bless the church.

Brilliant, right?

Yeah, that sounds pretty standard.

Yeah, it is. But do you see the problems with that approach?

Well, I guess it breaks Jesus' command to freely give. The one in Matthew 10, verse 8. Since it's clearly some kind of spiritual gift you're exercising for building up the body, in which case it should only be supported, not sold.

Exactly. And don't miss the fact that my decision would be driven purely by pragmatism rather than biblical principles. And that's just one scenario in a thousand we could imagine. Yeah, that makes sense.

And in a way, selling spiritual things is similar to going into debt. So many people, they go into debt because they refuse to wait on God to provide the money for some big expenditure that they think they need, right?

So like a new church building, for instance. That's not a horrible thing to spend money on, of course. But when you build it on debt, you've trusted the bank more than God to supply.

And you've taken away the option of God directing you by not providing. Maybe he doesn't want you to build a new building. And the way he's going to make that clear is by not providing the offerings you need to do so.

Very true. And here's the thing. We blur God's leading when we go into debt, right? So if the money isn't available for a specific need, our first action should be to seek provision from God through the free generosity of his people, not through a bank loan, and certainly not by selling God's gifts.

Trusting God's Provision Instead of Forcing Results

You know, I think it's in John 14 that Jesus said, whatever you ask in my name, that will I do so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. Whatever you ask in my name, I will do. So honestly, I think we need to take these words seriously.

So are you saying that your example of selling a book on missions is like depriving God of the chance to bless an even greater amount of people if it were free?

Yep. Yeah. And if I rely on the book sales to determine whether or not I write another book to bless the church, I take away the option for God to make that clear through the free generosity of his people instead.

But couldn't God guide you equally as well through the sales of your book?

He could, but it would be forcing God to salvage my disobedience to his word. You know, he's incredibly patient and gracious with us, but that's never a license to sin, which is what Paul taught in Romans 6.

When we sell ministry, we show our allegiance to money and pragmatism and leave God to pick up the pieces, right? To make the best of the mess that we've made. And in his grace, yeah, he often brings beauty out of our ashes, but we miss out on the full fruit and blessing of what might have resulted from obedience.

There must be a lot of authors then who remain mostly in obscurity and have very little impact because they're stuck in the pragmatism mentality of selling their books. And I can't help but wonder what amazing things might happen if they did things more in line with scripture and gave their books away with no strings attached.

Amen to that. And yeah, it's so hard for many believers to give up that addiction to, you know, whatever seems to work for others. They see these big authors, right? Who have reached bestseller status and have impacted millions through the sales of their writing.

And they think, oh, if that worked for them, it could work for me. There's no way it could be bad to sell books because God seems to be blessing them so much.

That sounds like the same reasoning that goes with the prosperity gospel. Those prosperity preachers must be speaking the truth because look at those private jets and mansions God has blessed them with.

You're right. Yeah, it's exactly the same reasoning. And this reminds me of something Mark Noll said about American evangelicalism in one of his books. I remember he said it was a form of culturally adaptive biblical experientialism.

And if that's true, we have to be careful that our eagerness to adapt to our culture for the sake of making a bigger impact for Christ doesn't end up making Christ into a product. Because, you know, that's what the world does.

If the world worships something, they turn it into a product, right? Think about all the celebrities that have been turned into profit funnels. The world often sets up objects of worship, encourages people to idolize them, and then exploits people's adoration.

But followers of Christ, and this is important, we as followers of Christ should never reflect this kind of darkness. We should be distinguished by the opposite approach, that of freely giving, even to the point of losing our lives for the sake of others, and all that out of joy in a beautiful God who is not a piece of merchandise.