In his book Center Church, Timothy Keller compares the ideas of faithfulness and fruitfulness in ministry.

Those who emphasize faithfulness, point to the accuracy of their teaching and their diligence in presenting scripture as the guide for life and godliness. They point to the fact that regardless of the apparent results, they remain steadfast in proclaiming the truth.

Those who emphasize fruitfulness point to the results of their labor such as attendance, giving, the vibrancy of their worship, etc. The drive for fruitfulness causes everything that is done to be evaluated as to how it impacts the measured results.

This comparison was called to mind when I read Isaiah’s recording of his vision of the throne room of God recorded in Isaiah Chapter 6.

In that vision, Isaiah is overwhelmed by the glory of God to the point where he exclaims:

“Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”

Isaiah 6:5 (ESV)

After the atonement for Isaiah’s sin, he receives his call to ministry to the nation of Israel and exclaims, “Here I am! Send me.” (Isaiah 6:8)

This is very heady, how cool would it be to get such an amazing call to ministry?

But it is instructive to read the rest of Chapter 6 to see the message that Isaiah is to carry to his people and the response which he is to expect to that message.

Isaiah is called to speak a message to people who will remain deaf and blind to the message he bears to them. He is called to be faithful in the midst of seeming unfruitfulness.

I call it seeming unfruitfulness because we have to be careful as to who defines what fruitfulness looks like. If we have the wrong definition of fruitfulness, we have the potential for getting severely off track in ministry.

I really don’t know the answer to the questions I’m about to pose. I have no idea what the church should look like as we move further into the 21st Century in the United States. It seems to me that it should look vastly different than it did 10, 20, or 50 years ago. It also seems to me that the current emphasis on growing large churches isn’t always producing the desired result of spiritual growth in the people who attend the church.

Should we gauge fruitfulness by Sunday attendance? Do we have some means of measuring spiritual grown our members? Do we know if we are making true disciples of Jesus Christ or just fans who will ride the bandwagon as long as it seems to be getting them where they want to go?

Gathering a crowd is not necessarily indicative of real spiritual growth.

Jesus gathered a large crowd while he entered Jerusalem; the same crowd called for his execution just a few days later. So numbers are clearly not the best gauge of fruitfulness.

Let’s go back to the comparison of faithfulness with fruitfulness. It seems to me that without faithfulness to our Savior and to the accurate presentation of the message of Scripture, very little good will result, no matter what the numbers say.

But on the other hand, faithfulness cannot be an excuse to not do the hard work of showing to the current culture how relevant the gospel continues to be, even in a culture that feels that they have moved on from religion.

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The third of the Ten Commandments says this:

“You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.”

Exodus 20:7 (ESV)

Growing up, this commandment was considered satisfied as long as a person didn’t use the words, “God,” “Jesus,” or “Christ” in an oath or curse. While I agree that using these words in curses, exclamations of surprise or expressions of frustration are violations of this command, it seems that the command goes so much deeper.

I have long thought that what God is asking of us in this command is that we don’t do anything to misrepresent His character to those around us.

The Nation of Israel in the Old Testament, and the Church in the New, are called to be a witness to those who surround us. We are called to accurately reflect God’s character to those who are not yet in relationship with him.

Yet, sometimes what happens in churches misrepresents the very God we worship.

I grew up in church systems where harsh (and sometimes abusive) discipline of children, if not encouraged, was certainly tolerated even when it was done by church leaders. I grew up in church systems where external compliance to an arbitrary system of rules was more important than developing a godly character or the Fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). I grew up in church systems where leaders were more concerned about their own reputations than how they represented the God they claimed to worship.

Basically, I grew up in Church systems that portrayed God as a taskmaster who only cared about external compliance to a set of arbitrary rules and did not actually care about the well-being of those who worship him.

It has taken me years of reflection and counseling to overcome some of the false messages about God that I internalized as a child. Violation of the third command by church leaders caused significant damage to my soul.

Because of the consequences of misrepresenting God, those of us who consider ourselves church leaders should take the third commandment to heart.

Am I, in my words and actions, demonstrating the love of God for the world He created? Do I demonstrate a desire to represent the holiness of God along with his love of humanity? Am I living in a way that brings glory to the God I claim to worship?

Truthfully, the answer to these questions is not always in the affirmative. Like everyone else, I fail in these things and often have a need for repentance.

But my inability to keep the commandment does not nullify it.

In Philippians 3:13, the Apostle Paul writes this:

“. . . forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on . . .”

Philippians 3:13b -14a (ESV)

With the exception of Jesus, there is no one who has gone through life without racking up some regret for past failures or bad choices. I’m not referring to that really bad haircut you once got or the clothing styles that seemed cool at the time but now look downright silly.

We all have stuff in our past that hurts when we remember it.

In the context of Philippians, Paul is writing about things that he has done that would be considered good things. In verse 7, he refers to them as “things that were gain to me.” It is these that Pauls is leaving behind.

But we can also use the same principle for the not-so-good things, they should also be left behind. Neither the good things nor the bad things will change our relationship with Jesus. That relationship is based entirely on grace.

Furthermore, the very nature of the resurrection shows us that God can use even the bad things for his glory.

So while we may not totally forget the failures of the past, we can live knowing that we are not stuck and those failures don’t define us.

In the end, we are not saved by what we do or don’t do, it is our relationship with Jesus that gets us through. He is not going to be the one who reminds you of your failures, it is our Enemy who will do that.

Forgetting what lies behind involves not listening to the lie that your failures define you.

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I recently had an encounter with a bully. He did not try to steal my lunch money, but he did use threats in an attempt to get me to validate his inappropriate behavior. The threats came because I disagreed with how he is handling a situation and I pointed out the harm that he is doing to some of God’s people.

While formulating a plan to respond to this situation, in my daily Bible reading, Luke quotes Jesus as saying this:

“To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also”

Luke 6:29a, ESV

Whether it is by personality or by training, or some combination of both, I like to have rules to assist in making decisions. But one thing we learn from the gospels is that Jesus often didn’t play by the conventional rules and sometimes it is difficult to discern if a rule is from God (and inviolable) or from man (and can be ignored).

Earlier in the same chapter of Luke, this is illustrated by Jesus defending his disciples for eating grain on the Sabbath. Jesus allowed the eating while the Pharisees condemned it.

But Luke 6:29 begs the question, should I turn the other cheek to a bully? Should I not, rather, take the fight back to him to protect myself and others from his threats? Should I not expose his inappropriate behavior and threats? Is there a rule which governs this situation?

Conventional wisdom is that the best response to a bully is to stand up to him. I should set a boundary and not let him cross it. We love stories where the bully is set in his place by a former victim. Who doesn’t cheer when Ralphie unloads on Scut Farkus in the Christmas Story?

Should I take the fight to the bully?

One thing I learn from Jesus is that he always did the right thing and did not worry about how his behavior was perceived. Jesus knew that the religious leaders were looking for a reason to accuse him but this did not stop him from fulfilling his mission. In short, Jesus was not worried about his standing or reputation with those religious leaders, his only concern was obedience to the Father’s will.

In this case, the bully can only attempt to ruin my reputation among fellow church leaders. I am willing to allow the evidence to be examined, and if I have erred in my judgment of the matter that caused the angry response, I am willing to be corrected.

So, I will turn the other cheek and will not respond to the angry outburst and threats. This is not because I am refusing to set a boundary for the bully.

The boundary that I am setting is that I will not allow the bully to dissuade me from my assessment unless he proves by Scripture that I was wrong in it. How he responds is between him and his Creator.