This picture is a cell phone tower. Cleverly disguised as part of a church. I know. You’ve likely seen them everywhere and ignored them al the same. Even when they bear the cross of your saviour.
And it is exactly because of that subtle but pervasive ignorance, that I bring up to you, you’ve never seen one with a star of David or a Muslim Crescent moon and star, have you? But you have seen these. Seen these enough to know that you didn’t notice crosses were the only thing ever put on these, if not left blank.
Go on. Touch grass as they say. Venture out into the world offline and look for the towers that facilitate the online world. Of any and all accumulation of G’s. 3G, 4G, 5G, who cares? It will not matter. You likely won't find one of these towers near anything but a protestant church, or if near another house of worship, clad in their religious symbols. But every time they are posted on the corner of a Baptist parking lot, they will have a cross on it. For some unknown reason, no one else observes this religious construction practice.
And all I want you to do is ask why?
Why are cellphone towers and large protestant churches seen together like this? Why isn’t the biggest mosque in your town on a similar date with this technology? Why are the ever increasing number of Hindu temples, found with no cell phone tower near by? Even the Catholic’s seem to keep their distance.
Again. Can you bring yourself to ask why? Or maybe a How will suffice.
Do you know how these towers work?
I do.
Part of my testimony involves being in charge of facilities at a large church that had one of these in our building. Not even just on our property. That inside scoop was just business as usually to me when I worked there, until I didn’t, and began to notice what you’re recognizing now. That these don’t exist as religiously clad radio towers, anywhere, but decently sized protestant churches. Our church would bag several thousand dollars a year for utility usages and rental for the tower. Which came came in handy when there was a budget to pad.
And that’s where the rubber hits the radio signal. It does pay to follow the money. A heuristic worth every penny, as it were.
Knowing that these things pay well is one kind of discernment. Extrapolating that a church that seeks that payment is another. These towers go up everywhere they can. Because the function of them demands it. We need wider, faster, more pervasive coverage for our phones. Because we have all but abandoned life in the real world to life of the real world through them. And as such their facilitation is necessary. We’re not going to call it evil, because tech isn’t evil. Postman taught us well. It’s also not good and not neutral, but it can be sinful. Which is why it showed up at protestant churches.
They’re the only ones that deal with actual sins.
Temptation does not need to be present where sinners call evil good. Where a false gods are worshiped or the true God lumped in with other letters in the coexist bumper sticker. Or other lesser idols. But where the cross of Christ means something, there, compromise will mean just as much. You’ll see these towers outside rainbow clad “Churches” that have the same declarations about the role and authority of the Bible as your reformed church does. But for some reason never preach Leviticus 18. The same way you’ve likely never seen many 12 step programs from a mosque.
You won’t find these towers where the temptation to acquiesce for secular tech money would mean anything. Who cares, biblically, if the mosque compromises its message to have better 5G coverage? Anyone not reading 1 Corinthians 1:20 seriously, that’s who. But a church that can know that a Hindu temple and a unitarian church might be seats of worship for something other than Jesus, would need something to cast a long shadow over their orthodoxy, something to cause temptation.
It’s the same temptation you see routinely every, summer, when VBS becomes the solitary vehicle for church growth. And the call for volunteers goes out into the darkness of the seeker sensitive sanctuary. The call will be simple. One for bodies. “We need 100 volunteers to make this year’s VBS program a success.” And it’s an earnest and honest plea for people to get involved, do good work, and serve their church.
But have you ever asked why we don’t run the size of VBS that our church could manage? Why every weekend we only need a handful for people teaching kids about Jesus, and one week a year in the summer we need an army. Well it’s the same reason you want a cell phone tower on your property. Budget. But you have to be willing to follow money and exercise a bit of judgement to see that.
“For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish.” Luke 14:28-30 KJV
Now this verse is about building the damned tower, not getting paid for it. So bear with me as I point you further back in scripture for financial management in a ministry setting.
“This they shall give, every one that passeth among them that are numbered, half a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary: (a shekel is twenty gerahs:) an half shekel shall be the offering of the Lord. Every one that passeth among them that are numbered, from twenty years old and above, shall give an offering unto the Lord. The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel, when they give an offering unto the Lord, to make an atonement for your souls. And thou shalt take the atonement money of the children of Israel, and shalt appoint it for the service of the tabernacle of the congregation; that it may be a memorial unto the children of Israel before the Lord, to make an atonement for your souls.” Exodus 30:13-16 KJV
There is a noticeable difference between extending yourself in faith and extending yourself in ambition. One see’s the ask that ministry provides and sacrificially gives more than they’re able. Knowing that at the end of all days. God covers the tab. The other assumes that spending more than we have is always something God will provide for. That we can ask what ever we want and act like it’s always gonna be ours. That if we want 100 different ministries at our church that money will be there simply because we’re asking for the right kinds of things.
And that would seem good and godly were it not for the rest of the bible we need to hold in tension.
“He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much.” Luke 16:10 KJV
The reason the children of God had a flat tax of a tithe that everyone could afford but some could afford less, was because we need to be faithful with little before we are tasked with being faithful with much. That leading with asks and demands of much before we are faithful with littles is not the way to a successful kids ministry and VBS program.
But don’t worry, when you need that extra funding for projects you’re over extended by, in the church, there's a cellphone tower that will make up for the lack of tithe in your church. Want to fund a youth group that needs a a couple grand a year in pizza funds and concert fees? No problem. Give us 50 square feet in the corner and we’ll erect a 5G tower that will cover the spread between your faithless congregation. And your desires for a big and influential ministry to the youths. All to the glory of God, too. That’s why there’s a cross on it. Duh.
What you see when you notice one of these cellphone towers with a cross on it is not faith and tech coexisting in harmony. But rather evidence that the church its on or near doesn't do its ministry by faith alone. They do it with tech adjacently also. Because there will be thousands of dollars placed in the coffers for fair use and rentals, that has nothing to do with Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith. What you see is a church that does not need to be faithful in little because it has options for much.
It’s not always that. But it’s never not at least that. When a church tithes and invests said tithe money, it’s being faithful with little before it receives much. But every time you see one of these cross clad towers, the church it’s associated with is being paid something that is not a tithe by the tower's owners, for their tower to wear the cross of a Christ they do not serve. And don’t get me wrong. I am all for plundering the Egyptians before worshiping the Lord, but I also know that if not properly discerned, it will only be a replacement of obedience and faithfulness in the pew.
Money is not just a means to exercise spending and value. It is a principle means of worship for the modern Christian. And a church should be warry and jealous of who gets to fund their ministries. Because when the only reason a youth group or VBS or any given ministry exists, is because an entirely secular company funds it, what happens at the ministry is not faithfulness and service, but transaction. It’s not the first time savvy money makers have done this song and dance. But you have to be willing to treat the tech wizards who make the magic of the internet work, like the sorcerers they sometimes are.
“But Peter said unto him, Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money. Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter: for thy heart is not right in the sight of God. Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee.” Acts 8:20-22