The Prudent Person

I have told the story, in person or on the podcast, in the past about an encounter I had while at a church association’s annual conference.  I had a man come up to my table to talk with me.  He wanted to let me know that he was a former Marine as well as a pastor and that he felt that God would protect the people in his church from violence or evil.  That there was no need to do anything else.  I told this pastor that he had a very interesting but not original thought on the subject, and,  in fact, I could come up with more scriptures to support being prudent in the security of our churches than he could with his stated belief.  I do not think this is what he expected, and he just stood there staring at me for what seemed a very long time.  I was not sure if he was processing what I said or if he was offended that I challenged his thinking.  Then he actually surprised me when he finally spoke and said, “You know what, I believe that you are correct and I will have to give a more serious look at the security of my church.”  I went to that conference for a couple of more years and never ran into that pastor again.  I would have loved to just see where he was in his thinking. 

Obviously, by the title, I am referencing Proverbs 22:3 that says “A prudent person foresees danger and takes precautions. The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences.”  I am absolutely amazed nearly every day at what God has written in his word and how applicable it is to our lives thousands of years later.  I could take the rest of this blog and unpack this verse in a variety of different directions on how to apply it to our lives, but I won’t. Nor am I going to put a variety of scriptures in here to support church security, but I could.  But I am going to keep it rather simple as this verse relates to the ministry of security in our churches. 
​
Hopefully, we can agree that evil is an anytime, anyplace threat that we must deal with as followers of Christ.  Recognizing that evil is bent on doing harm in a variety of ways personally in our lives, in our marriages, and in our families, what are you doing to take precautions?  If Satan can take us out of the game in any of those areas, then he knows that we are ineffective in serving in ministry in our churches and thus opening the door for him to have his way.  So, from a strictly spiritual sense, Proverbs 22:3 tells us what we can expect if we don’t heed the wisdom.  There will be consequences.  I don’t imagine that the pastor I encountered would want to take a chance on that based on his “belief”.  Yet we have church leaders all over the country that are acting as the simpleton in this verse.  I honestly don’t get it.  So, let’s change gears a bit.

---

Read More