Attempts at Honesty

Reflections on the interplay of the Bible and Culture

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What the Church can learn from Penn State

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See no evilSomething went horribly wrong at Penn State, that much is clear from all the dialog on the news and sports radio in the last week. The evidence points to the fact that evil was being perpetrated and nothing was done to stop it. If people were ignorant that something bad was happening, it seems as though that ignorance was intentional. Like the little monkeys with hands over eyes, ears and mouth, it appears that the leadership pretended not to see or hear and certainly did not speak out about the evil.

When an organization looses sight of its mission and perpetuation of the organization becomes its central focus, then compromise is likely to occur.

Years ago, Oral Roberts shocked Christendom with his claims that if he did not raise enough money to send out missionaries from his medical school, that God would kill him. Mr. Roberts effectively held himself hostage demanding a ransom from his followers painting God as the knee breaker.

The point is that when the success of the medical school took priority over accurately portraying God to the world, then Oral Roberts chose badly. When the football program became more important than the well being of young lives entrusted to their care, the leadership at Penn State chose badly.

The lesson for church leaders is that your ministry, no matter how important to you, is a very small part of what God is doing in the world. When you begin to think that God’s mission will collapse if your ministry does not move forward, you are heading toward irrelevance at best and scandal at worst.

If God is doing great things through you now, are you willing to step aside and play a lesser role so that God gets the glory? If your ministry is taken away, will you think less of God? Can you pray with Job, “The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised” (Job 1:21 NIV)?

If the answer is no, then I recommend that some soul searching is in order. The Church is God’s to lead and to develop. He chooses men to be the ones through whom God leads his church. Yet, the ultimate purpose if for God’s glory and he will not share that glory with the leaders he chooses (Isaiah 42:8 and Isaiah 48:11).

The organization exists to facilitate accomplishment of the mission, it is not the mission itself.

If you are seeking glory for yourself through your ministry, if you your goal is to propagate the ministry rather than the gospel, if you are feeling yourself to be an indispensible part of God’s program, remember Penn State.

When Church Becomes a Battle Ground – James 4:1-3

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Polished RocksPut two humans together and there is bound to be conflict. As a result of the Fall, conflict is in our DNA. If you put a whole bunch of humans together in a local church the potential for conflict greatly increases. If the conflict escalates, the church can experience an internal battle that should not take place.

In a rock tumbler, the impact of stone upon stone in the presence of grit wears off the rough edges of the stone and brings out the beauty of the granular structure of the stone.

In the same way, by being in relationship in the local church body, we are bound to bump up against those with whom we don’t agree, or whose personality is out of phase with ours. God calls people into relationship with himself including some we struggle to get along with. The beauty of this is that by interacting with the other person, my shortcomings and sin get exposed, and I grow as a result.

If rocks had feelings I suppose that they would not like to be forced to bump up against each other and endure the polishing process. I don’t always like it either, but the Church is how God has chosen to operate in the world and prepare us for eternity. The polishing process can be painful, but it is necessary.

Conflict is inevitable, but when the response is appropriate it can lead to growth and reconciliation. Love is best demonstrated when the object of love is not lovely.

But there is another type of conflict that is not healthy and is very destructive to the church and body life.

In the forth chapter of his letter, James indicates that little conflicts can escalate to “wars and fights” (NKJV). Wars and fights are not healthy or helpful for any church. War is destructive and there should be no place in the church where these conflicts are tolerated.

A few verses later, James identifies the source of the wars and fights. They come as a result of selfishness and self focus. When the focus is on me and my pleasures, nothing good can come of it (James 4:3).

Paul gives us the antidote to this selfishness that results in wars. It can be found in Philippians 2:5-8, where Paul points to Jesus as our example of love being demonstrated through humility. If we respond to others in the church (even those who are not loving or lovable) by following Jesus’ example, the problem of wars and fights goes away. It takes two to fight. If one bows out or gives in, the fight ends.

The point is not that we should waffle on doctrinal issues. It is not necessarily wrong to be grieved or angry at the actions of others in the church. The point is that any response to the wrong doctrine or behavior must be rooted in love and guided by Scripture. Remember Paul’s injunction to “be angry and do not sin” (Ephesians 4:26).

The only correct response I can have to any such conflict is to repent of my part in escalating it, seek forgiveness of God and the one I’m in conflict with and forgive the other person in return. If all those in the body responded in this way when problems arise, the burden upon the church leadership would be less.

If this response was practiced, you might also find that your church is a place where people want to be because they feel nurtured and loved. That would indeed be a Biblical church growth program.

The blessing of being poor (in spirit) – Matthew 5:3

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Matthew 5:3 reads:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (NASB)

One must assume that Jesus knew what he was doing when he put this Beatitude first in the list. Blessed are the poor in Spirit. Luke’s record shortens this saying to simply, “blessed are you who are poor” dropping the qualifier “in spirit.”

Most of us spend a majority of our time and energy in an effort to avoid being poor, so this blessing seems to be at odds with our understanding of what life is about. Is Jesus talking about material poverty? Or does the qualifier in Matthew force us to limit our application of this blessing to the spiritual realm only?

The third possibility is that material poverty and spiritual poverty are connected in some way.

Poor

The word that is translated “poor” conveys the root meaning of “crouch” or “cringe” and carries the sense of absolute destitution. This is the word used to describe Lazarus in Luke 16:20. To be poor in this sense is to be without resources.

In Matthew 19:23 and Luke 18:24 Jesus indicated that it is particularly difficult for those who are rich to enter the Kingdom of God. Why is this? Certainly it is not because the rich are necessarily more evil than the poor. It is not because God’s grace is insufficient to save a rich man. And it is certainly not because God loves the rich any less than he loves the poor.

It is easier for those with material prosperity to maintain the illusion of control in their lives. They can think that they have achieved their wealth by their own effort and skill, and as a result they may be more likely to think that no-one else’s help is required. They are susceptible to thinking that they are self sufficient.

The good news of the Gospel is that we can inherit the Kingdom of Heaven, the precise blessing associated with being poor in spirit. Why do those without resources have an advantage in gaining the kingdom?

To appropriate the good news first requires that bad news is understood and accepted. The bad news is that without the work of Jesus on the cross, I am not able to attain entrance into Heaven. I must first admit my inability to make myself worthy of Heaven before I can accept the offer of salvation from Jesus. To achieve spiritual health, I must first acknowledge my disease and accept the cure.

This is precisely where the poor have an advantage. They do not have any pretense about whether they are in control. They are dependent upon others for their day to day existence. It is much easier for them to acknowledge their need of a a physical and a spiritual savior. Their eyes are not clouded by their material possessions.

I suppose the take-away for those of us in Western Society, who are rich enough to afford computers or access the internet, is that we cannot let our resources inhibit our relationship with God. It is so easy to be distracted in obtaining and maintaining stuff, that we can forget the God who made the stuff possible.

It is my belief that one can have wealth and still be poor in spirit, but it is difficult. Being poor in spirit is to come to terms with our helplessness in the spiritual realm and seeking the one who promised to never leave us (Matthew 28:20).

Throughout the rest of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus shows us how helpless we really are. If we are honest when reading this sermon, our eyes will be opened to what true righteousness is and we will be forced to admit how far short of the standard we fall.

As we move forward in the study of the amazing sermon, may it cause us to realize our poverty and turn to the one who promises spiritual riches (Ephesians 1:18).

Life on the wheel – 5 reasons why your church calendar is out of control and what to do about it

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Hamster WheelA pastor friend recently referred to the sum of all the activities at his church as “the wheel.” Hearing him say this, a vision of a large hamster wheel came to mind.

There often is a sense in a church body that things need to happen and that everyone needs to pitch in to keep the wheel turning. We have programs that need to be staffed, teaching times, activities, concerts and meetings. Every day of the week has opportunities for people to be involved in some church activity.

At some point, it becomes exhausting and people settle for activity in place of relationship because it seems to be expected of them.

The point of this post is to look at why we fill up the schedules and work people to the point of exhaustion and the talk about what to do about it. We add programs and ministries because we think we must. As a result, we fall into the trap of busyness. I can think of five reasons why churches fall into this trap:

  1. Expectations of People coming from other churches– They have expectations of what it means to “do church.” They evaluate a new church based on whether or not their favorite ministry is done at that church. If enough people express this expectation, then the leadership may feel pressured into providing that ministry.
  2. The church program du jour– Church strategists tell us that this or that program will draw in the un-churched and will promote growth. The experts sometimes promote programs intended to attract a different demographic than currently attends. Remember the fad of adding a “contemporary” worship service to attract or keep a younger demographic?
  3. Desire to be or appear spiritual– If I am doing spiritual things, it means that I am spiritual doesn’t it? We can fool ourselves into thinking that we are indispensible to God’s program and work ourselves to death trying to accomplish what God can do by simply speaking it into existence.
  4. The need to be needed– Similar to #3, we can fall into the trap of needing to be needed which results in the desire to be available 24/7 to do anything that needs to be done, regardless of calling or gifting.
  5. Lack of a clear vision to God’s calling – Without a clear vision of what God is calling me to do, I am subject to being pulled in many directions, some of which God never intended for me to go.

Let’s be honest for a moment and face the fact that at one time or another each of us is drawn toward one of these traps. Expectations, tradition and a false sense of importance each has a strong pull. It does not require much thought to just do what you think is expected of you. I can easily do church activities because that is “how it is done” based in my prior church experience. This same thoughtlessness can happen in a group like a local church.

A wise man once said:

The man who knows how to do something will likely always have a job, but he will work from the man who knows why he should do it.

Strong leaders, who will be especially vital to lead the church through the 21st Century, need to resist these pulls to busyness. We need to ask the question of why we are doing the things we do. We need to seek God to determine if He thinks these things are necessary.

Jesus tells us in Matthew 28:19-20 that the mission of the church is to make disciples. This mission should be the “why” behind every activity of the church. Making disciples is a relational business. The Apostle Paul repeatedly endorses the concept of imitation as the means of raising up disciples (see 1 Thess. 1:6, 1 Thess. 2:14, 2 Thess. 3:7-9, 1 Cor. 4:16, 1 Cor. 11:1, Eph. 5:1 and Phil. 3:17). Imitation implies repeated contact which implies relationship. We are called to be in fellowship and body life so that this imitation can take place.

If people in the church are experiencing burn-out; if some leave the church because they did not feel connected; if it is becoming increasingly hard to staff church ministries, then your church has a bad case of busyness caused by doing replacing relationship.

The fix for busyness is to step off the wheel and begin asking ourselves why we have each activity and asking God to show the real result. We need to have the discipline to drop the activities that are not producing healthy disciples. We need to do a gut check and be honest about how relational our church is and whether we are laying a foundation of love and fellowship on which the good work can be based.

We must be people oriented and not program oriented. Church programs were made for man, not man for the church programs.

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