A vision from God

January 25, 2011 By

OK, I admit it: The video with this post is a stretch.

I needed an art element and couldn’t find anything quickly to illustrate a vision from God. So, child of the ’80s that I am, I just knew you’d appreciate Belinda Carlisle’s “Heaven Is a Place on Earth.” Right?

The Chicago Tribune ran an interesting story this week on a minister who says God told him to buy a large church building:

Steve Robledo was a newly ordained minister in search of a flock when he had what he calls a vision from God: He was to start his congregation in a grand church building for sale on the west side of Elgin, a brick and stone edifice with soaring stained-glass windows and dark wood pews.

He had no money but plenty of faith, and sure enough, his vision came to pass. Two businessmen and Robledo’s pastor agreed to provide the financing, and soon his fledgling Lighthouse Community Church had its home.

Five years later, though, this mission of divine inspiration has run into earthly trouble.

Robledo’s nondenominational congregation is a fraction of its 200-member peak, diminished by the recession and an internal schism. With contributions down sharply, the church can’t afford to pay its $3,100 rent or fix maintenance problems that have drawn a lawsuit from the city.

Here’s what I like about this story: It simply reports Robledo’s impossible-to-verify claim and lets him explain it in his own words.

Readers can decide for themselves whether to believe the pastor’s story or not:

Robledo, a former bank manager, was well-versed in the practicalities of business before becoming a minister. But that experience didn’t matter when he received his vision in 2005.

He was looking for a small place in downtown Elgin to host services when one evening, he said, he received a heavenly summons to go to a building just west of the Fox River that was being sold by Grace United Methodist Church.

He arrived in the middle of the night, he said, and as his vision foretold, there was a man outside working on the building. The man showed him around but, upon learning that Robledo had no money, said the minister would need a miracle to acquire the church.

“Sir,” Robledo replied, “I believe in miracles.”

After that, he said, everything fell into place. He ran into a church acquaintance at a picnic and pitched the idea of buying the church.

Here’s what I don’t like about this story: It’s shallow and leaves too many obvious questions unanswered. Admittedly, part of that may have to do with the length: It’s only 830 words, and given shrinking news holes, that may be the upper end of the space available for this particular report.

Still, I couldn’t help but think as I read this report that a Godbeat pro would have filled in some of the blanks.

For example:

– The lede describes the pastor as “ordained,” but the story never explains who ordained him. That might go a long way toward helping understand his theological and denominational background — another hole in the report.

– His congregation is described as “nondenominational,” which could mean any number of things. But no insight is given whatsoever into the theological leanings of the church. In other words, is this the kind of church where visions from God occur on a daily basis or was it a rare thing for this pastor to report a vision?

– The story reports that pastor Larry DeSantis of Aquila Christian Ministries signed the mortgage. Again, readers are left clueless as to the beliefs of DeSantis’ ministry, but its website says:

We may be called full gospel, word of faith, pentecostal, apostolic, holiness, evangelical, non-denominational or what ever! It does not matter to us, as long as we are known as the people of God!

– Mention is made of an “internal schism” and an associate pastor leaving to start his own church, but no explanation is given of what caused the split. Theology? Personalities? Finances? What exactly precipitated the decline from a peak of 200 members to 30 worshipers on a recent Sunday?

– No purchase price is given on the church that this pastor bought. The building is for sale for $590,000, but is that more or less than the purchase price?

– Finally, the story attempts to make the case that trusting in God may lead to unwise financial decisions:

While the particulars of Lighthouse’s struggle are unique, they reflect the financial trouble many churches are suffering: An analysis by Reuters found that church foreclosures have tripled since the recession began in 2007.

Church business matters are often complicated by spiritual concerns, an expert said, creating friction within congregations and sometimes leading to risky decisions.

“Depending on a person’s spiritual commitment and mystical propensities, he may look for divine authority and weight that greater than sound business principles,” said Richard Hammar, a church tax and legal expert based in Missouri.

I wish the writer had found another expert — perhaps a Dave Ramsey type — to discuss what the Bible says about money.

All in all, this is one of those stories that you read, scratch your head and wonder what’s really going on.

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Filed Under: Godbeat, Journalism, Pentecostalism, People, Religion
  • Jerry

    I do appreciate “Heaven is a Place on Earth” even though I’m a child of the 60′s. It’s one of those songs that is very earthly but can be viewed from a different angle.

    To the main point: anytime someone claims to have been prompted by God to do something, I want someone to ask: how do you truly know that it came from God rather than from your ego? Yes there are quite a few web sites that have answers to that question, but even with guidelines, applying those principles to a specific situation is a question.

    And also to assume that God’s voice automatically means success is, from scriptural and other sources, a mistake.

    So that is the #1 question I want answered anytime there’s a story about someone believing that God has called them to do something.

  • http://getreligion.org Bobby

    Good question, Jerry. I’d like to see that one answered, too.

  • Truth Unites… and Divides

    “To the main point: anytime someone claims to have been prompted by God to do something, I want someone to ask: how do you truly know that it came from God rather than from your ego?”

    Akin to this excellent question is when someone claims that they are “Called By God” to do something.

    I mean, unless it distinctly contradicts Scripture, you as a 3rd party observer, can’t really say one way or the other.

    So this pastor says he was called by God to start this church. Who’s gonna say otherwise? I’m not a Charismatic or Pentecostal or a Word Faith person, but if someone says they’re led to plant a church, I’m generally not going to discourage them.

  • http://catholicecology.blogspot.com/ Bill P.

    A few observations:

    When a community of faith becomes communities of faiths, it’s nearly impossible to tell stories with a commonly held and understood hermeneutic. And so concepts like God working in human history through every one of us needs to be explained. For a story like this one, that means more digging and a larger word count.

    Which leads us to word counts. I have had editors write with utter embarrassment that the type of piece they were once able to print won’t fit in the new page design that they were just ordered to use by a corporate office twelve states away—although with e-media, this shouldn’t be an issue, but still seems to be.

    Which leads us to reporters. Today, they need to write tighter and to know exactly what story their telling. And they absolutely must know their readers.

    Which leads us to the first point. Today’s readers very often don’t share a common cultural vocabulary, nor do we see ourselves as having grown organically from a shared past.

    The ancient art of storytelling is in many ways on life support, as this post provides some small evidence. One can almost hear our ancient enemy laughing at the discord and breakdown in communication—and communion—that he’s brought about with our individual quests for individuality.

  • http://catholicecology.blogspot.com/ Bill P.

    Oh, I forgot to mention: the Belinda Carlisle video? Perfect for this post. Dear God, hearing that brought back memories.

  • John Pack Lambert

    Even the 200 members down to 30 attendees seems like a switching of measures. 200 members does not mean that the Church ever had 200 people there on a given Sunday.

    The criticism of the purchase of this building seems built on 20/20 hindsight. If the congregation had never reached a point where it came close to needing the building than the criticism of rash financial decisions would make sense. However, since for a time the congregation was big enough to run the system it did work. The article seems to ignore the positive good from a stately Church building for the statbility and respectability of a congregation.

    Even more confusing to me though is why they the church owes annual rent if they purchased the building? That makes no sense at all. Either they purchased it, or are renting it. At least I have never seen payment on a mortgage called “rent” before.

  • John M

    I also find it curious that an “ordained” pastor started a “nondenominational” church. The two concepts strain at each other.

    -John

  • BJ Mora

    I find that the words “nondenominational” and “evangelical” are just about equally meaningless (apologies to church historian DG Hart). Neither in the common journalistic use explain what a church’s beliefs are, and when a church uses the former term, they’re basically saying, “We’re independent.”
    Sigh. Another byproduct of our anti-intellectual, anti-creedal age.

    John, it’s possible that a pastor was ordained in a legitimate church of some kind, then started his own church. Of course, normally the “sending” church or denomination should approve such a church plant but in our anti-ecclesial age, who knows?