Tag: Getting the church right

Morning Musing: 2 Timothy 4:1-5

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“I solemnly charge you before God and Christ Jesus, who is going to judge the living and the dead, and because of his appearing and his kingdom: Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; correct, rebuke, and encourage with great patience and teaching. For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, will multiply teachers for themselves because they have an itch to hear what they want to hear. They will turn away from hearing the truth and will turn aside to myths. But as for you, exercise self-control in everything, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

We had our regular business meeting this past Wednesday night at church. We Baptists love our business meetings. Fun fact for you: When the Southern Baptist Convention meets for their annual meeting each June, that is the largest business meeting in the world. My guess is that if you have heard of the Baptist church, you’ve probably heard about Baptist business meetings. My further guess is that what you heard wasn’t very flattering of them. They are boring at best, and at worst they are prime examples of every negative stereotype about the church that you can think of. Well, ours aren’t like that. Instead, we get together and celebrate everything God is doing in and through our little body. This past week’s business meeting was particularly encouraging. In fact, we gave so much attention to celebrating what God has been and is doing in our midst that we ran out of time for me to offer a little concluding devotion. Here’s what I was going to say.

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Working Properly

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This week we are in the fifth part of our teaching series, Authentic Church. So far we have talked about both the foundation and the context in which all of the different elements that make a church a church happen. These are Jesus and worship, respectively. We have also talked about two of the pillars that hold up this structure. These were sharing the Gospel and growing one another in Christ. This week we are tackling another one of the pillars of what makes the church the church. This one has everything to do with our actively being the body of Christ. Let’s talk about serving.

Working Properly

Let’s do a bit of imagining together this morning. First, I want you to imagine a company. Let’s say it’s a large company. It’s a large and successful company that has recently rolled out a new product that is promising to be a huge success in terms of sales and advancing the corporate brand in the minds of present and potential consumers. Managing to create a product like this is the goal of pretty much every company that has ever existed. This kind of product-launch that puts a company on the map can set a company up for success for many years into the future. But with this particular company, not all is well behind the scenes. The CEO is a tyrant who rules by threatening fiat and a demagogic personality. He’s brilliant, but mean. He rewards employees not for their character and competence, but for personal loyalty to him and their demonstration of a willingness to step over or even on top of their fellow employees in their attempts to advance their own careers in the company. This promising product was the CEO’s idea and he doesn’t let anyone forget that fact. Beyond this, though, innovation is stifled and new ideas are generally not welcome. Now, think on this for just a second: How successful do you think this company is going to be in the long-term? 

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Digging in Deeper: Galatians 6:7-10

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“Don’t be deceived: God is not mocked. For whatever a person sows he will also reap, because the one who sows to his flesh will reap destruction from the flesh, but the one who sows to the Spirit will reap eternal life from the Spirit. Let us not get tired of doing good, for we will reap at the proper time if we don’t give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us work for the good of all, especially for those who belong to the household of faith.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

One of the best ways to grow a church is to invite new people to come. That sounds like it should be obvious, but perhaps not as much as you would think. Inviting people to church is such an old-fashioned idea. Surely there are more modern, seeker-sensitive methods of getting them to come. I mean, if that’s all it really takes to grow a church, how is anybody going to make money off of gimmicky approaches that guarantee successful church growth campaigns for only $199? Don’t you worry. Those will still be there. In any event, the trouble with this is that it feels awkward to invite someone to church. So we don’t do it. Especially if you are an introvert like me. After all, they may not come in response to our invitation. That’s true, but they almost certainly won’t come without one. Well, the other day, I invited someone to church. What I got in response was a bad church story. The invitation may yet play out, but if it doesn’t, that bad church story will have a lot to do with it. The whole thing got me thinking about why people have those and what we can do about it.

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Policing the Ranks

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This is a tough sermon. I knew it would be when I planned out this series several weeks ago. I knew it would be when I wrote over the course of the last week. I knew it would be when I preached it yesterday morning. This is one of those hard truths from the Scriptures that we would rather ignore than heed, all things considered. But if we want to get being the church right, we can’t. This is not something many churches practice, and when they do, they often don’t practice it well. But if we will commit ourselves to getting it right with all humility and love, it will make the church a much, much stronger people than we will be without it. Let’s talk today about church discipline.

Policing the Ranks

Do you remember your parents’ punishing you for various things when you were a kid? What was that? You were being held accountable for the house rules. You may not have liked or agreed with those rules, but as a kid, you probably didn’t get much of a vote. As I told one of my boys the other day: “You are living in a totalitarian dictatorship and I’m the dictator.” That kind of accountability likely didn’t feel very good either. But if they got it right—and not all parents get it right—you are probably grateful now for the boundaries you hated then. Discipline is often like that. In fact, it’s almost always like that. And this is not something new. Almost 2,000 years ago, one of Jesus’ followers who wrote a letter that today we simply call “Hebrews” made this observation that is just as true today as it was back then: “No discipline seems enjoyable at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” 

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Well Led

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For all of the nuts and bolts of getting being the church right we’ve talked about so far, many of them are dependent on what we are talking about this time. We can have all the big dreams and plans for the church in the world, but if there is not solid leadership in place, we aren’t going to be able to move smoothly or easily toward any of them. This week we are talking about church leadership. Let’s see what the Scriptures have to say and what one important implication of this is for our lives.

Well Led

Have you ever had the pleasure of strolling through a really well-tended garden? When I think about that, something like the Biltmore Estate immediately comes to mind for me. Those gardens are absolutely exquisite. There’s beauty everywhere you look. It is a place of peace and tranquility—even in the winter—and a nice escape from the world. The whole estate is like that, but the gardens up near the mansion are a particularly good place for it. Imagine, though, that you were walking through a forest and came upon a garden like that. Your first thought would not be anywhere in the universe of, “Wow! What a beautiful garden that grew up here like this out in the middle of nowhere all by itself.” No, you’re thinking something along the lines of, “Someone did beautiful work making this garden look like it does.” You might also be thinking, “Uh-oh! Whose land have I accidentally trespassed on? I hope they don’t have a big, vicious dog guarding it.” 

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