Chapter
2 : History & Ministry
…
his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean,
was given her
to
wear. [Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints]
(Revelation
19:7,8)
2.1
Church, not so good
As much as we'd all like to lay claim to upholding the Scriptures,
the reality is that the Bible is a book which needs interpretation,
and very often we interpret it through the filter of our own experiences
in life. We act out church according to what we have heard (from other
distorted beings!) and what we have experienced ourselves. Some of our
past experience of church life will have turned us off church, some
of it will have influenced us, so that we are now in a particular mould
as far as church ‘experience' is concerned.
I'm no different, and so what I write comes through what I hope
is careful study of God's word, and then through my observation of 'church'
for the past forty years. In Chapter 1, I shared something of my own
personal history as far as good aspects of ‘church' is concerned. By
God's grace I've seen a lot, some good, some bad.
The
Not-So-Good Face of Church
Over the years I've been an observer of a whole range of things
that I believe must grieve the Lord's heart.
On one occasion, in one church during an 'interregnum',
I saw in-fighting between the people, for the next pastor, that would
gain the admiration of hardened politicians. It should not be so.
I've watched at a Bible week when a leader was obviously
going against the flow and received the cold shoulder of the other leaders.
It should not be so.
I've been put out of a small denomination because they
misunderstood the moving of God, thought the worst, and refused to talk.
It should not be so.
I've been part of a leadership break-up, partly my own
fault. It should not be so.
I've watched people shopping from church to
church until they run out of local churches to try. It should not be
so.
I've watched people give up on church and stop going anywhere.
It should not be so.
I've also watched people go off and start their own group
because they could not take leadership. It should not be so.
I've watched heavy authority in a variety of places tell
people to go if they don't like it. It should not be so.
I've watched leaders being put out by their congregations
and I watched members being put out of churches because they found the
leadership oppressive. It should not be so.
The
Frailty of Church
It should not be so, but it so often is. Why? Because we're still
human beings and, as Book One went to some lengths to explain, we often
get it wrong. So, as we asked in Book One, what happens when it goes
wrong in church life? How do you cope? How can we actually avoid it
going wrong in church life? What can we do to minimise these things?
My hope is simply that this book will in some way contribute
to ‘minimising' some of these things. Because we are these frail human
beings, it will still 'go wrong'! Leaders will still fall to temptation
and be put out of ministry, Christian people will still refuse to be
disciples and so go off in high dudgeon, we will still get our priorities
wrong, we will still make a mess of ‘church' – but we'll still be loved
by God, and with His grace, even our failures can be transformed into
triumphs, because that's what He's like!
2.2
The Fundamental Heart of Church
The fact that we have so many different expressions of the Christian
church (denominations, streams, individual churches etc.) indicates
that the Bible gives plenty of leeway for different styles of church
life.
For some who may have stumbled across this site on the
Internet and came to see what was here in this book, it may be necessary
to clarify just what is 'church'. The Church is the gathering of individual
believers with the Spirit of Jesus within them. The Greek word used
for church means “a called out people” and was used of the townspeople
who were called out by a town crier.
Similarly, the Bible teaching is that we who are Christians,
have been “called out” of the world by God and into His kingdom. Church,
therefore, is people, not structures or institutions, people who now
have the Spirit of Jesus in them. If you are uncertain about this then
I simply invite you to go to the Resources section of our sister site
– www.Rochfordcc.co.uk
If Christians are people with the Spirit of Jesus within them,
and church is simply the gathering or corporate expression of Christians
together, any expression of church life ought to be an expression
of Jesus.
Therefore we would hope that this expression of Christ
is clearly seen in us but if the fundamental nature or character
of Christ is missing from the local expression of church, then
perhaps we've missed the point all together!
If you've read Book One, then you'll know that when it comes
to creating a secure church I am suggesting that acceptance, love,
care and compassion make up this fundamental characteristic of
the church.
Let's consider what John's Gospel tells us about Jesus: he came
“full
of grace and truth” (Jn 1:14).
Grace?
Vines Expository Dictionary defines this “grace” (Gk. charis
) as “friendly disposition from which the kindly act proceeds”,
i.e. God's love that we see expressed in Jesus comes with a friendly
(as opposed to hostile) disposition, which brings constant kind
acts.
In Book One we saw how Jesus expressed that
grace – that friendly disposition from which kindly acts proceed
– which was expressed to a whole variety of people.
So, when Jesus is being expressed in our church life, we
would expect that expression to be full of friendliness towards
one another and full of kindly acts. I'm sure we know it with our
heads, but is it the genuine expression of church life – all the time?
We'll examine that in the rest of this book. Just think about
it, the church is to be a place or people where Jesus continues to be
like this to us – through one another.
Wow, that sounds a good place to be! Accepting, loving,
caring etc. in the ways that we have already suggested above. Can such
a church exist? The assumption of Book One is that it can if the individuals
know who they are in Christ, but that book only focused on the God-relationship
side of being a Christian. This one extends our thinking to consider
the corporate dimension, how this loving, accepting and caring outlook
can be taken into all of the relationships that exist within the church.
That's what much of this book is about.
Truth?
The dictionary definition of truth is “the reality behind
the appearance, nothing pretend, nothing false, nothing unreal”.
Now Jesus is full of that and if the church is his body (see 1 Cor 12:27
& Eph 1:22 ,23 & Eph 4:15 ,16) then the church should
be the same.
Wow, that sounds dangerous! The church being a place or people
where there is “nothing pretend, nothing false, nothing unreal”? Can
such a church really exist? Thus one of our primary goals, and this
is the heart of this book, should be working to create such an environment
where people are not pretending, are not false but are able to be real,
so that they can then let Jesus minister to them and change them, and
reach out and bless the world.
Reassessing
this Nature of the Church
Perhaps in the light of this, we would do well to extend our
definition of what I called the “fundamental nature of the church” from
simply “acceptance, love, caring and compassion” to “acceptance, love,
caring, compassion AND truth”, and the truth aspect is as it's defined
above, for these are the fundamental characteristics of Jesus that we
noted – grace and truth.
So what are the things that dictate the type of church we are?
It would be great to think that every church is conforming to Christ
as shown in Scripture, but that's not how it is sometimes. Sometimes
it's not, simply because we've never thought about it, or if we have
we've never really grasped it. Sometimes it's because we get sidetracked
by our personal history or by a specialist ministry. That's what the
remainder of this chapter is all about.
2.3
Our Church History
What are the things from the past that shape the
nature of our church, how it came to be, how it actually is in reality
today? Remember we are looking at these things because they can hinder
us being or becoming a secure church.
I've said here the things that shape
‘our' church because I believe it is easier to think about these things
practically when we consider the local church, the expression of it
to which we belong. The following are some of those factors that come
from our history, our past. They are just some examples of the sort
of things that get in the way.
Denomination
or Group
Being part of a denomination, group or stream should not be the
issue here but so often it can be. If denominational or group loyalty
and practice has become very strong, it often becomes easy to forget
this ‘fundamental nature of Jesus' that I'm talking about that should
be there to help create real security. Instead we may replace it with
an artificial security that is an emotional feeling based upon a building,
a form of service, our denomination or group, or even ‘our history'.
Whether it be denominational, or free, or new churches, the danger
is always lurking, that we conform to a particular way of thinking,
that lacks the crucial characteristics of the person of Jesus Christ.
Why should it be like that? Because it is so easy to focus on “other
issues”, things that are important to our group that are other than
these characteristics we've been considering.
Having been part of a large denominational church in the past,
I am aware that it is only natural to feel secure because we're part
of a large institution, it's only natural to feel secure when we're
part of a large organisation, but the church was never meant to be an
institution or organisation and such feelings of security are actually
expressions of false security that we referred to in Book One.
Consideration:
Dare we face why we are like
we are? Have we made the values and name of our church group, the things
from which we gain our sense of security? Are we afraid of new things
so that the Holy Spirit is not allowed to touch our hallowed ways? Indeed
if other Christians met me, would they be able to identify the group
or denomination I come from by the language I use, or the particular
practices we hold onto that may not be so godly and righteous as we
think? We may be living in a fools' paradise.
Crisis
Situations
A church that is going through a crisis easily loses focus. The
crisis may be one of pastor versus deacons, leaders versus the rest,
disagreement over a building project, upset because of lack of communication,
the list is endless. In such situations the ‘issue' becomes all-important
and the enemy has a habit of helping us forget what we're about. In
such a situation people try to create an artificial security for themselves
that is based on the paper-thin belief that “We're right!” or “They're
wrong!”
In such situations there is almost a security in what I
can only describe as a crusading spirit, where we take up arms to ‘fight
for justice' or ‘fight for right'. In fact we are very often destroying
what is good and right in the name of justice. In a confrontational
conflict, words like “love, acceptance, respect and caring” take a back
seat, and truth may be far from us.
Consider by way of illustration, the scene in the first chapter,
where Pastor John suddenly finds himself confronted by his other leaders
with a demand that he resigns. What are the indicators in that situation
that say that here is an insecure church?
•
It was a church that focused on ministry
and programmes and little on
open, personal relationships.
•
The church was too busy and people didn't
have time to get close. As a
result there was a measure of unreality that was
felt by many but
recognised by few.
•
In their growing frustration at seeing
a number of ongoing, unreal areas of
church life (as they saw it) and being powerless
to do anything about it (as
they felt it), the other leaders began to discuss
their frustrations behind
Pastor John's back. It all happened so gradually
that none of them noticed
it. Indeed they each quietly justified it by “we
are right”.
•
Accepting that perhaps Pastor John had
become stale, services had
become lifeless and communication was zero at the top,
the other leaders
exhibited their insecurity by bringing about the Conference
Room Coup
with no room for talking. The lines had been drawn long
back, without any
awareness on Pastor John's part. He had learned long
ago to look positively
on all aspects of church life, and this had now meant
he missed the growing
wave of grievance right before him.
•
The result was that the Pastor, who desperately
needed care and
consideration himself, was suddenly alone, feeling very
needy, and was
wondering whatever had happened. It would take him months
if not years
to understand the dynamics behind the coup.
After such a crisis, the church is not the same. Where there
is a split, leadership loss, general upheaval or whatever, if we use
the Scriptural analogy of the church being Jesus' body, it's like the
body has been through a major accident or trauma. Many people are in
a state of shock, because such a thing is completely contrary to the
working of the Holy Spirit and He is severely grieved (Eph 4:30). How
important it is, therefore, that we seek to do all we can to avoid such
things happening.
Consideration:
When next there seems a conflict
of ideas or of principles, dare we stand back and lay down our stronghold
and seek to view everything through a filter of the fruit of the Spirit
(Gal 5:22,23)? As soon as we sense a loss of these fruit, can we lay
down our arms and call a cease to the potential conflict?
The
Latest Project
Churches are good at projects and when there is a project on
the agenda then mundane issues such as the very environment of church
life get forgotten. The focus is placed on the goal of the project and
everything and everyone can become subservient to it. Concern for individuals
can often be the price paid to achieve ‘great things'. It's only years
later, as we view the scattered bodies who are the casualties, might
we wonder about what we achieved.
Consideration:
Is it possible to be a project
church AND have the environment I've referred to? Yes, but I suspect
there are various checks and controls we need to have to do it:
•
Is the project the brain-child of one
person, or has it been owned by the
whole church?
•
Has it been owned by the whole church
by a vision being caught instead of
being imposed, so that people who aren't so clear
on it aren't made to feel
bad?
•
Does the project mean the people of the
church feel excited by faith instead
of being under pressure to give or to work?
•
Have we become so caught up in our project
that we have lost sight of the
environmental factors referred to in this chapter?
2.4
Ministries
Because different leaders have different gifts, it can
mean that different churches take on different ministry emphases. This
is not to criticise the ministry, merely to point up the potential problems.
It is so easy to get so caught up in one aspect of Christ's work or
ministry, that we loose sight of the very nature of Christ that should
be revealed through it all.
When I first wrote this book, this chapter contained various
examples of different ministry gifts which can easily forget this central
focus that we have been writing about in this chapter, simply because
of the enthusiasm or zeal for a particular ministry. However I do not
wish to be negative and so all I would wish to ask here is, are we ensuring
that the central ‘love nature of Jesus' is central to all that
we are and do, as we be the people He's made us to be.
Jesus'
Ministry
When we watch what Jesus did, he seems to have two areas of focus: