More Thoughts on the Church

Last week, I posted some thoughts about the church and what is required for the church to actually be the "called out ones" indicated by the church's "original" name: the ekklesia. Well, the actual earliest name of Christians was "followers of the Way", but you get the point. Here are four things that are required for the people called the ekklesia to be about the work of transforming the world and making disciples for Jesus (and the list below is not at all intended to be exhaustive).


1. A complete trust and reliance upon the Holy Spirit.

2. A relinquishment of ego.

3. An outward focus.

4. A shared vision.

Of course, there is much that could be written on any one of those four particular aspects and I may write more about them at a later date. As I've been thinking about the nature of the church over the past week, I'm slowly beginning to construct a cohesive ecclesiology in my head (at least it feels that way to me). I'm blogging about this stuff because I want to see if what's in my head can be put on paper and perhaps put into practice. So, for this entry, I'm going to list some statements of fact concerning the church (at least I believe them to be true). These are convictions that I have arrived at through a lifetime in the church and 10+ years doing "church work" at various locations. Here we go:

1) The church does not exist to meet the needs or wants of its current constituents. This is very important (and related to the relinquishment of ego). There are an unbelievably high number of church-going Christians whose primary criteria (and in some cases sole criteria) for assessing their church's effectiveness is how their own personal needs/wants are being met. This is a particularly pernicious consequence of reducing the church to simply one more service institution among many others. The job of the clergy/staff/leadership is to meet the needs of the consumers, according to this mindset. The job of the consumers is to be served. And, following the dictates of the marketplace, the "customer is always right." Should the church meet needs? Absolutely. One particular blessing of the church is its unique ability to make deep connections between people, and between people and God. Those connections are invaluable as we serve one another in the midst of the needs that we all have. However, if the church is operating primarily with this mindset, the community ceases to be the church, in my opinion. You can go to Philippians 2:5-7, or Matthew 20:28, or Mark 8:34-35, or Acts 2:43-47, among others, to see Scriptures that might form the beginnings of an appropriate attitude that Christians might have in relation to church.  Not to mention I Corinthians 12-14.

2) The church is essential for Christian faith and practice. More times that I can count, I have heard the following sentiment expressed (usually in college after acquaintances found out that I was going into the ministry): "I'm a Christian, but I don't think I need to go to church. I can worship God in my own way." While people in the church in America may not necessarily express things that way, their level of involvement in the church indicates that we have plenty of self-professed Christians who have little to no use for church. Last week, I was looking at some statistics concerning the population within a 5 mile radius of my church. There were two statistics that spoke directly to this. 39% of people in Thomasville identified themselves as "conservative evangelical Christian". However, only 17% considered it "important to attend religious services". Less than half of those who consider themselves "conservative evangelical Christians" think that it's important to be involved in church. I am convicted that you cannot grow as a Christian, you cannot live the Christian life as God intends it unless you are involved in some way with the ekklesia. Being involved in the church does not guarantee that you will be a disciple (some people who have sat faithfully in a pew for years know nothing of Jesus), however I am convicted that being a disciple requires that you be involved with the church on a regular basis. I could (and probably will) go into a lot more detail, maybe I'll devote another post to this one.

3) In order for a particular church to survive (not to mention thrive), the church must embrace change. Many of my colleagues in ministry and my brothers and sisters in mainline Protestant churches are worried, even fearful, about the future of the church in America. There is good reason to be worried, though Jesus told us (a) not to worry, and (b) not to fear, so I'm trying to take him at his word. The church is struggling in many areas. In many churches, we don’t see the faith being passed down from one generation to the next because the younger generation is simply not there. We also see an older generation that, by and large, is not terribly interested in initiating change in the church to address this problem. That is a very broad generalization and any of us can produce anecdotal evidence to the contrary. In fact, a few of my greatest advocates for change in my church are older adults. But the exceptions are just that, exceptions to the rule. There are many more people (in my experience in several different churches) that don't care enough to do the work required by radical change, that are too tired to do the work, or that actively resist the entire idea of change, even in small ways. The prevailing logic here is that "it worked for my parents/grandparents/when I was growing up, therefore it should work now." I cringe when I hear someone say, "when I was younger" or "We used to…". I don't believe in a "golden age of the church." I believe that, at least in this part of the world, going to church was, for most people, primarily a social expectation. I also believe that 50+ years ago, the church was pretty much the only game in town in terms of widespread community involvement for all generations. These two things have changed dramatically. What disheartens me is the response I see by the older generation in response to this change. Many shrug their shoulders as if to say, "what can we do?" They relieve themselves of any responsibility. Many are defensive and angry, blaming the church or the culture for what they perceive as the declining health of the church. For them, the blame lies outside of themselves for the situation. After all, they haven't changed, it's the world or the church that has changed.

4) Jesus is Lord. Earlier, I used the word "radical". I think this word gets thrown around a lot and the meaning of it is not really known. The word comes from the Latin "radix" which means "root". When I say "radical change", I don't necessarily mean massive, overwhelming, completely unanticipated change. I think that change for change's sake can be damaging and is mostly ineffective. However, "radical" change, in the appropriate sense of the word, is a change at the root of things. It means a transformation of understanding about primary motivations and mission. In other words, the mainline Protestant church in America must rediscover (or arguably simply discover) the depth of Christianity's earliest creedal statement: Jesus is Lord. Our goals, however lofty they are, must fall under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Our positions, no matter how scripturally rooted we understand them to be or how in keeping with "traditional Methodism" they are, must fall under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Our missions and outreach efforts, as noble as they can be, must fall under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. And here's the thing, the church is the only community that I'm aware of that has been blessed and equipped to discern together what it means to be under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. The church is God's chosen means for working out His will in the world for the sake of the world's reconciliation to Him. The Lordship of Jesus Christ, the active role of Jesus as Lord in our lives, is the root of our faith, our church, our very lives as Christians. And if we take seriously what Jesus says to us in Scripture and how we encounter Jesus in prayer, worship, and fellowship we will be changed, our selves and our churches will be transformed. Jesus is an agent of transformation. And, related to number one above, Jesus' goal for your life is not happiness, but holiness. Jesus died, not so you could have nice things, but so that you could have eternal life in God. Jesus rose from the dead, not so you could do things half way, half-heartedly, but so that you could live life to the fullest, trusting in God's grace in every aspect of your life. God has given to us His presence in the Holy Spirit, not so we could whine and complain, but so that we could live the Good News, share Jesus with broken people, work for the Kingdom. Thanks be to God!