Entitlement and the Local Church

In a previous post, I wrote about the problems with leaders who have a sense of entitlement. Those leaders become self-serving, selfish, and ineffective. But entitlement is not a problem with the leader alone. To the contrary, the dreaded disease is infecting all levels of society in many areas of our nation and the world.

In a very general sense, entitlement typically means that someone is due certain economic or similar benefits. The term is also used to refer to massive federal and state programs that guarantee citizens income or benefits.

Entitlement and the Federal Government

The federal government, as the most obvious example, has 235 entitlement programs that cost the taxpayers over one trillion dollars every year. Those programs present the most serious challenges to the economic future of the United States. The three biggest entitlement programs are Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. In the most recent annual reports of Social Security and Medicare, the respective trustees of the trust funds said the funds are on an unsustainable path. Their very solvency is in jeopardy.

When Entitlement Becomes Epidemic

Entitlement, however, is not confined to certain leaders or government aid recipients. It is epidemic and widespread at multiple levels of family and society.

Have you ever supported someone in need? Perhaps you have been on the receiving end of a generous gift. Many people will be ever grateful, having expected nothing then or in the future. But some people will be grateful for a moment. The gratitude turns to resentment when more gifts are not forthcoming. They have a sense of entitlement.

Have you ever known an employee with a decent salary and benefits to complain because he’s not receiving more? He feels entitled.

Entitlement creeps into our marriages. We expect our spouses to serve us in a particular way because they’ve done so in the past, or because our parents treated us that way.

When the French government reduced the standard workweek from 39 hours to 35 hours in 2000, many leaders and workers lauded the move. They saw the change as a twofold victory. First, they conjectured, the reduction in a workweek would cause businesses to hire more workers to maintain production. Thus, unemployment would be reduced. Second, the move would improve the quality of life of the workers. The French unemployment rate in late 2000 was 8.8 percent. Today the rate is 10.0 percent.

Attempts to move the French workweek back upward have been met with fierce opposition. Many workers now feel entitled to a shorter workweek.

When Entitlement Comes to Church

If there is one place where entitlement should be anathema, it is the local church. Remember the reason Jesus came to earth? “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life – a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45, HCSB). And how are we followers of Christ to live? We are to “make (our) own attitude that of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5).

Servanthood should dominate the lives of church members. Putting others first should be our first priority. Entitlement has no place in our churches.

How do we know when entitlement becomes pervasive in our churches? We can be sure it’s present when we hear comments similar to these:

  • “I have been a member of this church for 20 years, so I deserve things my way.”
  • “Someone was sitting in the pew where my family sits.”
  • “I tithe to this church, so you work for me.”
  • “If I don’t get my way, I’ll withhold my money from the church.”
  • “Some people will be in trouble if they mess with the worship the way I like it.”
  • “We’ll just visit another church until he changes things back to the way they were.”
  • “Why didn’t you visit me? That’s what we pay you to do.”

I could continue. Indeed you could add to the quotes as well. But my point, I believe, is clear. There is no place in the church for a self-serving attitude. To the contrary, we are to give cheerfully and serve others joyfully.

Where Entitlement Must End

Perhaps entitlements will continue to expand in the federal government. There seem to be no signs of it abating. Unfortunately, many marriages will fail because the husband or the wife has an entitlement mentality. And many employees will never be happy at their places of work, no matter how many job changes they make. They will always feel entitled to something more, something better.

But entitlement must end in the church.

Countless believers went to church this weekend in nations around the world. But many of them were not concerned about the music style, how long the pastor preached, or if the budget was to their liking. These believers’ primary concern was for their lives and the lives of their families. Indeed the persecuted church may be the one place where no entitlement exists.

I do not live in a nation where churches are persecuted, at least not for the moment. But I pray God will give to me and other believers a spirit of consuming servanthood. And I pray entitlement will be eradicated from the places we worship the Living God.

 

Posted on July 30, 2012


With nearly 40 years of ministry experience, Thom Rainer has spent a lifetime committed to the growth and health of local churches across North America.
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16 Comments

  • Jim Kennon says on

    I’m preparing a sermon on Philippians 2:1-11. I have a feeling I’ll be using a few of your comments in my message. Thanks!

  • Steve Drake says on

    Jerry,
    Your frustration is understandable; I think we all feel some of it. Maybe the clearest illustration of entitlement is seen in the halls where tax revenues are dispersed. People tend to forget their promises after laws pass and the money is in their hand.
    John the Baptist was telling his hearers to share their garments and their food when the tax collectors asked him what they should do, he said “Don’t collect any more than you have been authorized.” The soldiers asked the same question and he told them, to be satisfied with their wages and don’t forcefully take money from anyone. Entitlements have been with us a long time.
    We have to witness it, but we do not have to emulate an entitlement attitude. I know it doesn’t help much with your point, but the only attitude I can control is my own. I came into this world with nothing and I won’t carry anything out; I’m entitled to nothing, but grateful for God’s grace.

  • Hi Jerry, I’m all for paying back to people what they pay in. But in answer to your question as to why it is an entitlement program, because you don’t receive back relative to what you pay in. Let’s say someone worked and paid Social Security for 50 years. Then they begin collecting at 65. How much money did they pay in? We’re they self-employed (like a pastor) and have to pay double for the same benifits? About 6% of one’s income goes to SS, even of you can live on 1/2 of what you made while working, do you plan on living more than 6 years after you retire? The reality is, most healthy people who reach retirement today live well into their 70s & 80s ipso facto “intitlement program” like I said, I’m all for you getting back what you paid in, but I’m also all for that being a lump sum at your retirement.

  • Thom Rainer says on

    Hal –
    That video is really funny in a sad sort of way. Thanks!

  • Thom Rainer says on

    Andy –
    There is no doubt the consumer approach to church has exacerbated the entitlement mentality. But this mentality was present long before some churches begin to articulate such an approach. I was in a church in the 1960s that split over matters of personal preferences.

  • Thom Rainer says on

    Jerry –
    Thanks for the passionate comment.

  • Thom Rainer says on

    Hank and ME –
    Indeed. The attitude of entitlement is pervasive in many churches.

  • Hal Hunter says on

    Maybe this is what we are talking about http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGEmlPjgjVI

  • The consumerism/marketing model has come home to roost.

  • Jerry Wetzel says on

    Would someone please enlighten me as to how and why does Social Security get lumped in with welfare and other such programs. I worked nearly 50 years and I paid into Social Security each and every month! Our “government” was supposed to invest that money to keep the program running. Instead, our “government” raided those funds to fund their favorite slush fund, and never returned what they had taken! Under any other circumstances this would be called STEALING!!!
    Now they are saying that Social Security will run out. What about all those millions of dollars that they stole!
    How does any of this fit in with the rest of welfair where we have millions of able-bodied men and women who drive expensive cars, watch expensive TVs, have expensive cell phones, wear expensive clothes, take expensive vacations to Disneyland, and then show up in the grocery with food-stamps.
    The Bible says “if you have a brother in need, help him”. The same Bible also says if a man doesn’t WORK then he doesn’t eat!!! This says to me if a man doesn’t get up off his fat lazy butt and go out and get a job, then I have no obligation to do his work for him!!!

  • Spot on. I heard three of those YESTERDAY. And add the statement “you need to satisfy your customers.” my short time with my current church has proven to me the dire need for NA church planting.

  • Hank Ventress says on

    Wow. Too much of this article is sadly familiar and true. May God help us.

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