Choosing Your Path: The Search for the True Biblical Model of the Church

Copyright © 2021 Dale Saito.

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Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®.

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ISBN: 978-1-6642-3805-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6642-3807-7 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-6642-3806-0 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021912731

WestBow Press rev. date: 06/29/2021

Dear heavenly Father, thank You for this opportunity to

serve. As this book was Your plan and not mine, may these

words be Your words and not mine. May this endeavor

bring about the glory that You and You alone deserve.

To Aileen, my everything—my best friend,

wife, eternal partner, and inspiration.

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Chapter 1   Introductions

Chapter 2   A Simple but Thought-Provoking Warning

Chapter 3   The Business in the Church

Chapter 4   Aspire to Inspire Others

Chapter 5   Turning Staff into Disciples

Chapter 6   The Church’s Identity Problem

Chapter 7   What’s in Your Mission Statement?

Chapter 8   Count What Really Matters

Chapter 9   The Search for the True Biblical Model of the Church

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thank you to Dr. Randall Randy Furushima for your feedback, suggestions, and—most of all—your encouragement.

Thank you to Pastor Jared Yamaguchi for your honest responses and everlasting friendship.

CHAPTER 1

Introductions

Nothing compares to being around a church plant in its early days. In our church’s early months, our experience was much like the early church found in the second chapter of Acts. In that early church, the believers devoted themselves to teaching, fellowship, breaking bread, and praying; they had everything in common, even selling their properties and possessions to give to anyone in need. That early church, which continues to serve as a role model for us today, was the first church mentioned in the New Testament. It’s the kind of church we all aspire to build or be a part of. To experience what the early believers experienced was wonderful. While we didn’t sell all our possessions, we did just about everything else.

The last church mentioned in the New Testament, in the third chapter of Revelation, was so unlike the first. The contrast is startling. This church in Laodicea was lukewarm—neither hot nor cold; their fire for Jesus was smoldering. They were no longer a cool, refreshing spring for lost sojourners. The church in Laodicea had become uselessly lukewarm, on the verge of being spit out! Far from being a role model for us today, it is the church we all dread becoming.

The reasons behind the lukewarmness in the Laodicean Church is an interesting study, but that is not my topic for this book. My message is that the lukewarmness seen in that early Laodicean Church is not limited to the yesteryears. Not only has the church experienced lukewarm periods throughout history, but this is the condition facing us today. The American church is, at best, headed toward or has indeed fallen into a state of lukewarmness.

It took less than ten years for our church to start showing signs of lukewarmness, signs unexplained by the life cycle of a church. Our journey was not ours alone. Pastors across America have and continue to talk about lukewarm signs in their church; they just aren’t calling it by that name.

The Laodicean Church had been infiltrated by demonic forces. The Laodiceans had turned toward the ways of the world. The American church has also been infiltrated. Today, we face a similar condition because we too have turned toward the ways of the world. Many are in denial that the infiltration exists. Others simply don’t know where to look or what to do about it.

God blessed my family with a wonderful church home, a church that we attended at first and then had the honor to lead. Our church’s journey toward lukewarmness, like that of the early churches, is not unique. The early church took many missteps—missteps that continue to plague many of us today. The lessons we learn from the early church will be forever invaluable to us. Likewise, many churches today are plagued by the missteps we took. Hopefully our lessons will prove helpful as well.

Whether you are a pastor, associate pastor, council member, elder, or lay leader in a ministry, or you dream of one day becoming one of these, this book will challenge how you think of and lead your church.

My Story

My first day of working for a church was one of those unforgettable moments in life. While it wasn’t on the same scale as 9/11, it certainly was memorable. That first of hundreds of weekly staff meetings left me uneasy and nervous. Being asked to help lead a bunch of staff and pastors was a humbling experience because every single person in that room had more church experience than I had.

This day also happened to be ten years after my retirement and just days before my sixtieth birthday. This was supposed to be my time to plan and celebrate my real retirement. That was my life plan. I distinctly remember telling God for months now, "I’m done. I’m checking off the boxes that say assignment complete, give back to the community, and head to a life of travel and leisure."

But God had other plans. Rather than sitting on a lounge chair dreaming about my life of leisure, here I sat in a staff meeting. All the while, I was thinking, What in the world am I doing here? Not only am I still working but working at a church? I had never, not once in sixty years, even considered or wished to work for a church.

My tenure with the church ended up being six years in total. The first two years were as the executive pastor of operations, the next year as a colead pastor, and the final three years as the senior pastor. This little church adventure of mine turned into a treasure full of experiences that I will never ever forget or regret. How many jobs can one find where your primary job is to love God and love others?

Yes, it was a blessing to serve God in such a role. It truly was. You may think that I landed a nice, sweet retirement job, but walking into the church offices on that first day as an employee was a wake-up call. The experience revealed that the inside of the church was far different from what I expected. I was naive to think that the culture and atmosphere inside the church would be no different from how it was on the weekends.

I discovered there was a dark side to the church. My experience and perspective from both inside the church and inside the business world allowed me to see that the church was facing many threats. I saw that the internal culture and atmosphere of the church were the result of knowingly and, in some cases, unknowingly adopting many principles and practices from the business world into the church. On the surface, these business practices looked useful to the church. But from my vantage point, gained from years of experience as a leader in the business world, I saw that many of these practices were actually allowing unhealthy values and behaviors into the church.

That dual perspective gave me insight into a big reason for the lukewarmness of the church. That perspective also taught me lessons—lessons that took me by surprise and that I now feel compelled to share.

I grew up in the church and understood well what a church does. Grew up means exactly that. Friends have a hard time believing my stories of crawling around in the church pews and grabbing the few hairs of the balding man sitting in front. As a young boy, I was at the church most weekends while my parents volunteered for something. That left me to explore every nook and cranny of my childhood church. The church became my playground, and like most boys, I got into my share of trouble.

But as I began working for a church, it didn’t take me very long to realize that attending weekend services does not prepare you for running a church. It might help you to know that I am a retired businessman who was asked to do what many, including myself, would never dream of doing. God blessed me with a wonderful assignment when He asked me to work for and then senior pastor our church.

My work tenure with our church started just ten days shy of my sixtieth birthday. This was the special day I had been looking forward to for years, the day of my real retirement. My first retirement came when I turned fifty years old, after having a blessed career in public accounting and consulting. Are you asking yourself, Did he just say accounting? OK, I’ve heard all the jokes about boring accountants, and quite honestly, I laugh with you because they are all true—in my case anyway. But before you put this book back on the shelf or close your Kindle, let me remind us all that throughout the Bible, God was able to use all sorts of characters, like the great Hebrew leader Moses, who stuttered. There was David, the man after God’s own heart, and Saul before he became Paul, who both promoted murder.

My years as a partner and managing director with one of the Big Four global CPA (certified public accountant) firms were fruitful and challenging. For those of you unfamiliar with the accounting profession, partners do more than prepare tax returns and audit and consult with companies. As partners in the business, we also lead and manage the business of our firm.

The responsibilities of my last position spanned almost halfway around the globe. I was the chief administrative officer for our consulting operations in the Asia Pacific region. I helped to build or acquire new offices as we expanded across the region. Then I oversaw all administrative functions of our twenty-two offices in ten countries. Areas under my watch included accounting, legal, property, personnel, employee education, information technology, and more.

My responsibilities required a large staff spread out across the region, many who did not speak English. My duties required that I be familiar with the business laws and practices of all ten countries, plus our own. If all this sounds exhausting, let me simply say that yes, it was.

The position required me to travel a lot—usually three weeks out of the month. My career pursuits turned me into a stranger to my kids. One day, as I sat on yet another flight to who knows where, I thought about taking early retirement to spend more time at home with my family. Perhaps I could instead devote the next ten years of my life to giving back to the community. After talking it over with my wife, I gave my notice to retire. That day was my fiftieth birthday. Years later, in reflecting back on that fateful flight, I believe that it was the Holy Spirit prompting me to retire, to spend more time with my family, and to give back to the community.

The next ten years, my retirement years, flew by as I reconnected with my family and found ways to give back to my community. In addition to giving financially, I gave my time and energy. Some of that time and energy went into my favorite local charity, but the majority of my heart, mind, and soul was devoted to a local community church.

We first stumbled onto our church when it was just a month old. We were running late to the megachurch we had been attending for ten years. Because it would be a struggle to find parking, we decided to check out this brand-new church instead. To say that this church was modest in size would be a wild overstatement. That brand-new church became our church, and although it started out tiny, God grew us to be a relatively large church over