J.R. Briggs

Why churches must think like Satan

July 2, 2012

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Recently I read an article in Fast Company about Laura Mather, Cofounder and Chief Strategy Officer at Silver Trail Systems, a website security firm. She poses this question to job applicants: “How do you a scam a company into renting you a car for $20?” The point, of course, is to see if applicants can think like their enemy – fraudulent scammers.

Here’s her own answer:

I’d probably get a prepaid card that only had $20 on it, and mess with the mag stripe so they couldn’t swipe it. Then I’d try to convince them the card was fine and that it is an emergency. I’d bring my baby and take his pacifier out so he’d cry, and say, ‘I need to take him to the doctor,’ and I’d offer to leave the card with them. Play on their sympathy. I’d have enough to make it look legitimate. A frazzled mother is not someone who would defraud you.

Brillant.

This made me think about this in relation to the enemy of the local church: If Satan was to try to take down your church, how would he do it?

It is an incredibly important question for leaders and pastors to process through.

We had a great conversation in a recent elder meeting about this question. We took the time to list, in detail, how and where Satan might want to work to bring our church to ruin (because, of course, that is his direct intent in every Jesus community). Our answers were all in the area of relationships and truth. Notably, none of the answers had to do with the size of a building, number of staff or the amount of money we had or didn’t have.

Think about your church. How might you answer that question? And in what ways will you provide accountability, truth, grace, wisdom and fervent prayer to those significant areas so they will not be attacked? 

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