"And let us consider how to stir up one another
to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together,
as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another,
and all the more as you see the Day drawing near."
Hebrews 10:24-25
During our church retreat, in May 2011, we were amongst other things looking at what church should look like and what our church could look like. Over the past few months I’ve been quite excited and challenged by this form of discussion and felt like sharing some of my thoughts and the helpful things I’ve come across during this journey.
I suppose, to my shame, I started thinking more about what is church because I was becoming disillusioned with my own church. I could see tension points and ineffective ministry coming from the church as a whole (not just individuals). I continued to ask myself why this was happening: Why wasn’t God using his people in this local entity of His global church? Why was our church not growing? Why am I struggling with serving with my church family? Why are more people not coming to know Christ? All these questions and probably a lot more were piercing my heart and mind. So I set about trying to understand my church body, what was it’s vision, how are we achieving that vision, who is leading the church, who is serving the church, who is using the church.
Through this time of discovery I realised that I was becoming a ‘church dater’ as defined by Joshua Harris in his book “Stop Dating the Church”. I was becoming critical of the leadership, not feeling loyal to their headship and to be honest was looking and finding what I perceived to be fault in our church. Although this process has brought about a renewed attitude within me towards church I had to repent of these sins and instead of pointing out the flaws and talking about the leadership behind their backs I have been challenged by God to seek to serve in a way that edifies the whole church and respects the labour put in by those in leadership.
Our church has three aims:
Community, Communion and Commission.
I wholeheartedly love these aims as I believe this is the direction that God intended His church to go. So often we look to the book of Acts for inspiration as to what ‘church’ should look like and it is clear from Scripture that the early Christians enjoyed real community together, where they were able to share real communion with God together and they proved to be effective in the Great Commission.
“And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.”
Acts 2:42-47
It’s really quite evident that the early church had a similar vision of community, communion and commission and seemed to be effective in it. But I have also had to recognise that the early churches of the Bible weren’t perfect either. We just have to look a few chapters onwards in Acts to see how a few members of the church try to deceive the church leaders and the Holy Spirit, we also see major problems in the churches that Paul has to write letters to and we see Jesus’ message to the seven churches in Revelation. So what should we take from this? What have I taken from this? No church is ever going to be perfect because they are filled with people who are sinners. As many people, articles and books have told me in the past – if you find a perfect church don’t join it.
I found this poem whilst preparing this blog and was particular struck by the truth that it expounds.
The Perfect Church
If you should find the perfect church
Without one fault or smear,
For goodness sake! Don’t join that church:
You’d spoil the atmosphere.
If you should find the perfect church
Where all anxieties cease
Then pass it by lest joining it
You’d mar the masterpiece.
If you should find the perfect church
Then don’t you ever dare,
To tread upon such holy ground;
You’d be a misfit there.
But since no perfect church exists
Made of imperfect men,
Then let’s cease looking for that church
And love the church we’re in.
Of course, it’s not a perfect church,
That’s simple to discern
But you and I and all of us
Could cause the tide to turn.
What fools we are to flee our post
In that unfruitful search
To find at last where problems loom
God proudly builds His church.
So let’s keep working in our church
Until the resurrection.
And then we each will join that church
Without an imperfection.
Mavis Williams
Although I haven’t been searching for the perfect church I have still been challenged by the fourth stanza of the poem. What does it mean to love the church we are in? I’ve come up with some ideas (taken from “Stop Dating the Church”).
- Join the church
- Make your local church your priority
- Try to make your pastor’s job a joy
- Find ways to serve
- Give sacrificially
- Connect with others
- Share your passion for church
What do these ideally mean?
Join the church
If you’ve found a church that your passionate about then you should officially join – become a member so that the pastors and others know that you are part of the team. Hebrews 13 urges Christians to “obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls”. But you will struggle to do this well or even at all if you are not plugged into a church. Becoming a church member gives you specific accountability, care, encouragement and leadership.
Once you’ve joined stick with it. Remember no church will be perfect so you should be expecting problems but instead of being critical seek to serve and work within the church in order to edify it and encourage others.
Make your local church your priority
We all build our lives around our priorities. Do we consider work to be at the top of our priorities, do we consider family at the highest, what about leisure time and our hobbies? Sometimes we can side step our church as a priority for some of the other things in our lives.
We live in a culture where church is being pushed out of our day-to-day lives. In fact its been pushed so far that on occasion it’s not even part of our week-to-week lives. Church shouldn’t just be for Sunday. I’d even go as far as saying church shouldn’t be just for Sunday and the night we do Home group Bible study. (I’ll be writing about this when I write about what community could look like within church)
We should be looking forward to church. It should feel like the chore that blocks up our diary but should feel like an awesome blessing to join our family in Christ, celebrating his work on the cross and in our lives and seeking to show others how amazing Jesus is and what he has done.
Try to make your Pastor’s job a joy
Back in Hebrews 13, just after where we left off, it says that we should let our pastors take joy and not groaning in keeping watch over our souls, for that would be to no advantage to us.
So how can we let our pastors take joy in how they watch over us? Well firstly, we can embrace, obey and love God’s Word personally because nothing will make a pastor happier than when he sees his flock growing in godliness. Secondly, we should be praying for protection over our pastors and refusing to engage in slander against him. Something I’ve realised is leadership is not easy. I had a recent chat with my pastor and found out that he has so much stuff to get through in the daily life of our church and that’s before he even has a chance to get stuck into the things he wants to be doing. So leadership is very hard and takes great character to deal with. So instead of critiquing your pastor; pray for him and encourage him. And if others engage in gossip or slander, challenge them and refuse to participate. When you make your pastors job a joy, it will be of advantage to you spiritually.
Find ways to serve
Serving in the church is spending our most valuable individual resources – time, energy and gifts.
“As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace.”
1st Peter 4:10
Serving is the best way to get involved in a church, and to get to know people and build relationships. “Membership in a church must not be spectatorship”. Paul writes in his letter to the church in Ephesus, the church “grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work”. So the church grows as we get involved and serve within it.
Some may be asking how can I serve?
Perhaps ask yourself…
- What am I good at?
- What am I not good at?
- How much time can I sacrificially give?
- How can I show that I am willing to serve?
Once you have answered these questions and perhaps found an area in which you could serve, speak to your pastor or someone else in leadership and let them know that you would like to serve in this or that area of the church.
Give Sacrificially
Giving shouldn’t be about earning brownie points with God, or as an obligation. God gave His Son to die for us and we can know the free grace of God. In response, the Bible calls us to live lives of sacrifice to Him. To give all we have (including our money) for the glory of our God.
We should give “not reluctantly, or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Corinthians 9:7). The Bible teaches us to give in faith, joyfully, out of a commitment to Jesus Christ.
The actual amount we give isn’t as important as the heart that gives it (remember the poor widow in Mark 12), but even the poorest can give to God’s work! Pray about what you can give, and study what the Scriptures say about money (such as the example of the Macedonians in 2 Cor 8, Paul’s instructions on giving in 2 Cor 9:6-15, or Jesus’ teaching about money in Matt 6:19-20, 24). The biblical pattern is for regular, generous giving, flowing from a love for God.
Connect with others
Passion for the church involved diving into the community of the local church. It means “doing life” with people, which means that it can’t just be Sundays and Homegroup nights. To do life with people we need to know them and be able to trust them. This is all about fellowship with one another which essentially boils down to belonging to one another. We are commanded in Scripture to act certain ways with one another especially with our Christian brothers and sisters. Here are some examples (taken from “Stop Dating the Church):
- Love one another (John 13:34)
- Be devoted to one another (Romans 12:5)
- Honour one another (Romans 12:10)
- Rejoice with one another (Romans 12:15)
- Serve one another (Galatians 5:13)
- Carry one another’s burdens (Galatians 6:2)
- Forgive one another (Ephesians 4:32)
- Encourage one another (1 Thessalonians 5:11)
- Offer hospitality to one another (1 Peter 4:9)
- Confess our sins to one another (James 5:16)
- Pray for one another (James 5:16)
All of this shows that the church isn’t just about Sunday. It’s about sharing life with one another otherwise these things just aren’t possible. If this is happening in your church already then Praise God! However, I imagine for a number of people we are missing out in true community with each other. So seek out relationships that you can do all these things with. Take the initiative and invite someone else into your life instead of waiting for them.
At our church retreat we watched a short video from a church in Tacoma, Washington. It shows how having community within the church really develops the church as a whole. Why not check it out as a break from reading J
Soma Communities - Tacoma, WA from Verge Network on Vimeo.
Stuff like this isn’t easy. It will take hard work and persistence. But it’s fruit is a real blessing both to individuals and to the church body.
Share your passion for church
Have you ever noticed the things you are really excited about are the things you always talk about? For me it’s macs and sound equipment. For others it might be the lastest console game or a holiday or a toy. Either way we talk about the things we are excited about. Much in the same way when you get involved in our church and get excited and passionate about it, you want others to experience your joy. You want to tell others about it. You can’t help it because the joy and passion and excitement just overflows from you.
Passionate involvement in church should never be a reason to escape from the world, to hide in your church Christian bubble. God’s mission for the local church is to reach the world, therefore we should be looking for interesting, creative, exciting, enthusiastic ways to reach those who don’t yet know Christ personally. We should be sharing the gospel with them in whatever ways we can, we should be inviting them to our church and being relational with them (not as a target but as a friend).
Whilst doing a mission in Durham I found out some staggering stats. I’m not totally sure of the figures but it was along the lines of 70-80% of people are likely to go to a church if they are personally asked by a friend and brought along. Whatever the figure I was shocked at the fact that I never really invited my University friends to church. I invited them to some services and largely they came but I never made a habit of it and maybe that’s why they never made a habit of it either.
So how does Community, Communion and Commission work so well together?
It all starts with Jesus,
It all continues with Jesus,
and it’s all about Jesus
As a group of people loving Jesus and loving his Bride, the Church, they begin to form a community. A community which is centred not on social class, political viewpoint, education, job, or status but on Jesus Christ who died and rose again for the sins of the world. I once heard it described as being a bunch of weirdo’s (such a diverse group of people who would never naturally be found together) joining together as brothers and sisters to sing, to pray to learn and to fellowship because of their love for Jesus. As they grow together and speak the Gospel into their lives a real gospel community will form.
A community of sinners forgiven by Jesus death on the Cross, seeking to tell other sinners of how to be forgiven, which is only through communion (relationship) with Jesus.
Church should be a place of love, support and encouragement to one another through the active work of living and speaking the Gospel into people’s lives and our own lives.
How does your church measure up?
I'd love to hear some of your views on this topic so feel free to post a comment below.
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