{ I wrote this blog a few months ago considering how we need to be careful NOT to love an "Ideal Church" more than we love the actual people God has surrounded us with. Then I saw a similar blog on The Gospel Coalition--so I decided to share this as well. }
I’ve noticed a couple of strong patterns over the last fifteen years.
FOR PASTORS & LEADERS
- The first pattern I’ve observed has to do with pastors and leaders in churches. It is the tendency to love the “Ideal Church” (out there in the future) instead of the present church—“as is”—meaning the people that make up your church.
{ Check out this other blog: Love the Church More Than Its Health }
Many pastors and leaders have been exposed to the different views of what makes up a “healthy church,” or what makes up a “Biblical church.” Most pastors desire to see their congregation grow in knowledge of Christ and into maturity through solid Biblical teaching and methods. There is nothing wrong with that.
Where things go wrong is when pastors stop loving the people God has placed around them to become so frustrated with their lack of knowledge or understanding of what makes a church healthy.
At that point, the pastor has begun to love his “Ideal Church” more than the actual church he’s in.
Many pastors find it easier to lock themselves away in their study chamber in order to read more and more while never engaging with the actual people in their congregation—much less lost people in their community. This focus on being so “right” or “doctrinal” in their teaching can lead to a disconnect in their own loving engagement with others.
That leader’s influence can also create a congregation that comes to listen and take notes—but just like their pastor—with no intentions or plan for actually lovingly engaging with lost people or even immature believers.
That church has become too doctrinal. Not loving. Not growing. Not mature. Not producing disciples who know how to produce other disciples.
But because of their doctrine—they measure spiritual maturity in head knowledge. This is common in many churches who start off desiring to have that rich Biblical teaching.
If you’re a church-goer, you may not know this, but pastors get to hear, all the time, their congregants giving their own suggestions and preferences of how the pastor should run the church.
Sometimes that’s ideas the church member has heard from some detached television preacher or from a sermon they’ve heard online. “Why don’t we just do it like they do, Pastor?”
Sometimes pastors hear opinions being handed down from any number of pastors or authors who have horrible theology and overwhelmingly unhealthy church practices. But it seems like such a good idea until you do some research and study.
Pastors deal with people in their congregation who have never read two paragraphs—much less— thirty books on what the church’s purpose and practices should be. Hopefully, pastors are trusting that God’s word will always be the authority for all life and growth of the church.
Yet people have their personal preferences. Pastors deal with Christians who would consider themselves mature, but their immaturity shows up in incredible ways when something doesn’t go their way. They deal with people who listen to various dangerous, if not false prophets, on a daily basis. They deal with people who love the emotional rush of shallow worship songs with man-centered theology. They deal with people who don’t realize they’re serving an emotional need in their own heart and not Christ when they serve in their position.
And many churches have pastors doing the same things!
But for those who’ve been exposed to rich doctrinal stances and the reasons those are so significant—it is easy to become frustrated with the congregational make up they presently serve and become fixated and in love the Ideal Church they want to transform their people into.
Now, in expressing the danger of loving that ideal of the “healthy, Biblical church” to the detriment of loving your actual people—I do not mean to imply that we should not strive to grow our churches in solid Biblical teaching exposing them to the whole counsel of God and the rich doctrines that guide our message and methods. We must strive for those kinds of churches! But we do not become disdained, indifferent, or unengaged with the people who make up our current landscape.
“CAN’T WE ALL JUST LOVE JESUS AND GET ALONG?”
Sadly, many people would cry, “Can’t we all just love Jesus and get along!” Some of that crowd thinks that drawing lines in doctrine or practices is a negative thing that wastes time. It only takes a few paragraphs of church history (I would suggest Historical Theology by Dr. Gregg Allison) to see WHY doctrine and practices do matter.
- But, our theology and doctrines should lead us to more loving lives of grace and truth.
- That grace and truth and love should be what people run into when they come across us both in the public square and our local assemblies.
- Can’t we have churches that are filled simultaneously with rich Biblical teaching and doctrine that leads to immeasurably loving expressions seen clearly in missional endeavors? Can we not be churches characterized by that?
I say this first because I’ve spent so much time around other pastors and leaders in many various churches, seminary classes, conferences and ministries. The tendency is to love that “Ideal Church” we would all like to see formed (sometime in the future) while looking right past the very people God has placed directly in front of us.
When it comes to discipleship, this danger of loving the “Ideal Disciple” will immobilize you!
I’ve had many guys come up to me who desire to truly start discipling other men. Often, they ask how to know which guys they’re supposed to disciple. That usually means they are looking for that sharp, intelligent, mature, impressive, no-messiness, got-it-all-together person, right! Well who doesn’t want a church full of those disciples!
Thankfully, Jesus didn’t have that perspective. His select few screw-ups set the world on fire! All Jesus had to work with were people like us.
Many times I ask men which guys God has placed right in front of them on a weekly basis. Many times, people want to disciple someone who has it all together or at least doesn’t have such rough edges. God usually has different plans.
So, whether it’s a “healthy church,” or a “missional church,” or a more “Biblically-minded church,” that we’re after—we need slow down and evaluate whether we love that Ideal Church or the actual people we see face to face each week. Do you love your Ideal Church or do you love the people surrounding you?
FOR CHURCH MEMBERS & THE FLOCK
- The second pattern I’ve observed is from the perspective of the church member. Many times people look for a church that meets all their ideas of what makes a perfect church FOR THEM.
The difficulty is that human, flawed, sinful, opinionated, imperfect people are all that makes up a church. Jesus knew this.
For some people—they focus on their “Ideal Church” and miss out on the lives and relationships of the church God has placed them in. It’s so much easier to love the “ideal church” than the actual people around us who have strong opinions and rough edges.
This pattern is expressed in many ways. We’ve all heard them.
“Well, we like the preaching, but we want worship that is __________ (fill in blank).”
“We love the style of worship of your church, but I want preaching that is _________ (fill in blank).”
In both of these cases, I would love to awkwardly and confrontationally, yet lovingly, remind them that the entire setting for Sunday “Worship Services” should all be expressions of worship: the excited, expectant arrival to hear God’s very own words to us,
the gathering as God’s family,
the fellowship of the redeemed,
the singing of songs TO GOD (not unto us),
the preaching of God’s word,
the tithes and offerings,
the Lord’s Supper and Baptism,
the reading of God’s word,
the prayers of the saints,
the teaching of lessons,
and the response of God’s people
—all of it—expressions of worship TO GOD (not to us).
So we have people who are either uneducated on the purpose of people gathering as local assemblies, immaturity in faith, and naivety in the structures and forms of churches. But in all those cases, it is easy for people at all levels of maturity to have their own preferences and falling in love with that “Ideal Church” out there instead of plugging in and trying to see their current church take steps at becoming better in those areas.
I think that teaching people to love “the church” means teaching them to love and engage with the people around them—looking past their opinions and shortcomings. It means to look past their own preferences of style or format or preaching or song lists to actually focus our minds on what God has done and what Christ has accomplished in our place. It means to worship the Trinity for enabling former rebels to gather together in unity to worship. All that we have in common is our sin and His provided reconciliation.
- So, we need to LOVE GOD MORE—instead of our “Ideal Church.”
- And we need to LOVE PEOPLE MORE—instead of our “Ideal Church.”
We do desire to see growth and further Christlike transformation occur to become more Biblical and healthier local assemblies of Christ followers.
But most importantly, we want love for God, overflowing from the very heart of God, to spill into love for others that creates an environment of true Christlike love.
- Again, our theology and doctrines should lead us to faithful love for God and for one another filled with good deeds.
I appreciate immensely a team of pastors at New Beginnings who, behind closed doors, truly care for, pray for, and strive to shepherd the flock under their care as “those who will give an account” one day to the Chief Shepherd.
I appreciate also the beautiful arrangement of people God has placed us among over the last fifteen years. Whether it was a discipleship-oriented church plant in NW Arkansas, a large number of twentysomethings and young marrieds in Tahlequah, or the parents and families we work with at NB.
Thanks Phil, Terry, Matt, Mike, John (and Todd) for loving the church we know as New Beginnings!
Sankie P. Lynch
www.nbchurch.info
www.nbfamilies.info
sankie@nbchurch.info
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