I had a lesson in bribery the other day at my job selling cars- yes I am an associate pastor waiting on God to open a door for me to be a Lead or Senior Pastor, but until He does that I believe His will is for me to experience a slice of life that will help me in my ministry. It didn’t take long!
A Pastor came in and we started dealing on a Miata. The Kelly Blue Book was almost 18,000.00 and this particular car was well worth the 14,999.00 we listed it for. I took our man of the cloth for a test drive and he loved it. He told me he was going to buy it for his daughter.
Once back on the lot he said he could offer 13,500.00 so I told him go ahead and see if they'll take it. Instead he offered only 13,000. But before he could make the offer the offer he met my boss Andrew and pretty much said that all car salesmen are liars and untrustworthy. Then he tried to bribe us by asking to pay what we paid for the car and he'd slip us both a hundred dollars.
Now if he was joking he surely didn't chuckle. He wanted us to cheat our dealership -- give the car away at his price, and have us take a bribe. We offered to show him how much we traded for it and countered with an offer of 14,000. The actual ‘cost’ of the trade was just under 14 thousand. This pastor didn't want to see the computer log with the trade in details. We showed him 5 other Miatas for sale in Nashville, all which had more miles and cost between 3 and 5 thousand more than our counter offer. He told us he didn't trust us, and left.
There's more to the story, but for a pastor to offer a bribe and reflect such a worldly attitude was downright ugly. That, my friends, is taking the name of Christ in vain!
Having worked now on the car dealer’s side of the fence, I have a whole lot more knowledge and sympathy for what honest dealers and honest salesmen go through just trying to establish trust. However, a pastor should have a certain amount of built in trust. But I guess we should simply trust Jesus and hope for the best in our fellow man.
So what is the lesson? For me it was a sobering reality check. When God calls me to pastor a church I need to exhibit an integrity that will never allow me to take the LORD’s name in vain. I need to stay steeped in the presence of the Holy Spirit. And while I need only to trust Jesus, there is incumbent on all Christians the charge to do all things in love.
Dave Macy (aka: Dave Deppisch) spent 30 years as a conservative talk host on a variety of stations in markets like Atlanta, Nashville, Toledo, and Ft. Wayne. He was drawn out of his profession into the ministry and now serves as an associate pastor. He preaches several times a year and is also available to bring his unique style of common sense conservative talk along with his faith in Jesus Christ to any setting that is looking for a speaker with humor, common sense, and Christian values.
He is the author of DoubtFreeLiving.com,and has been privileged to speak at CBN and appear as a guest on World Harvest TV.
