02/03/2008 - Healthy Congregations
I’m a vocal critic of the media making a meal of the church, but in all fairness, a reporter would have to be half-dead to not cover the unsavory fare Christians have dished out.
In the waning years of the 20th century, it was the scandalous excesses of independent televangelists like Jim Bakker, Jimmy Swaggart, & Peter Popoff who made the leading news stories. Greed & sex always sell.
In this century, though, American Christianity is marked not so much by personal indignities, as by denominational disgraces.
Look at the rift between Roman Catholic parishioners & their clergy regarding the sex abuse scandals.
Or, take the widely-reported schisms rending the Presbyterian Church USA, the American Baptists, & the Episcopal Church USA. Mainline denomi-nations that once dominated the U.S. spiritual landscape are being torn asunder by the most embarrassing of un-Christlike name-calling & lawsuits. Episcopalians, historically regarded as the most civil & tolerant group of Christians in the country, have spilled onto front page stories. Their in-house disagreements & willful sparring with the worldwide Anglican communion have cast them in a most unflattering way. At a time when our federal government has gleaned international disdain, one would hope for a healing example from the church.
It’s not just the major denominations that experience embarrassing conflict. So many individual churches & congregants are in disarray because of severe disagreements among members. Many of you can name one or more churches where “conflict” is the byword.
Two weeks ago, I was corresponding with a pastor from Albany, Georgia. He gave me permission to tell you a story from the church he serves. He wrote:
In the “South” the rage & fights come (because of) the gods of college football, that is, the Southeastern Conference. I have people, who, during the time between September & January will not appear on Sundays, because they are somewhere, wherever their team plays: Hawaii, California, Tennessee, Arkansas. It doesn’t matter. And if they play a team who has a fan from that school in our church, they don’t talk (to them) until the season is over.
This isn’t all in the spirit of fun & good sportsmanship, he notes. Members of his flock refuse to “fellowship with an enemy.” If Jesus hadn’t been resurrected, he’d be rolling in his grave at this kind of behavior.
We chuckle in disbelief, but the problem of Christians not getting along is so widespread that books about church conflict are hot titles in Christian book-stores. Courses on how to handle these matters fill the continuing education requirements of many Protestant ministers. A few days ago at a gathering of clergy, I remarked that pastors should be working to build “healthy congreg-ations.” A colleague sarcastically chimed in, “Healthy congregations? That’s an oxymoron!” Such is the state of the church in our day. These are not churches filled with souls transformed by the Spirit of Christ.
Preach as I may, the Apostle Paul would have been unfazed by all of this. His letter to the Christians in the cosmopolitan metropolis of Corinth was addressed to believers whose dissension in the ranks became a major distraction for the body of Christ. Their fights overtook their ministry.
I’ve often said that 1st Corinthians 13 -- that oft-quoted chapter about love -- should not be read at weddings, but at the newlywed’s first fight. Paul wasn’t talking about romance in his letter, but about how disagreeing parties should find unity in Christ, then take that unified witness into the world. The fact is that just the opposite had occurred in the Corinthian church.
The ways of the world had encroached (upon the church of Jesus Christ) in most hurtful ways. Riches became a sign of class in congregations, just like they were in the culture, rather than blessings to share with the poor as Jesus taught. Persons with the spiritual gift of speaking in tongues thought they were superior Christians. Even communion became something that divided, rather than a sacrament of unity & grace. In Corinth, Christ’s’ teachings gave way to the dominant culture which was familiar, comfortable, & pressing in on every side. Old habits & allegiances crept in, & crowded out Jesus’ ways.
These were the fledgling years of the church. Much was at stake. Could the gospel compete & win in the market-place of ideas? Jesus announced that he had overcome the world (John 16:33), but could his followers live that victory? It was up for grabs, but Paul had faith that Christ would prevail.
Indeed, Christian faith & the transformation Jesus promised won (out). A small band of believers left behind after Jesus’ crucifixion & resurrection received a great commission to teach about him & baptize in his name. Following those instructions, 70 years later, that group grew to 100,000 (by 100 AD/CE). Add another century, & there were 1.5 million Christians. By the year 300, there were 6 million. In a Roman empire of 60 million citizens, Jesus claimed 10% of the population before the internet (Jos. Hellerman in The Ancient Church as Family, 2001).
Why did the Body of Christ grow as it did? Three reasons.
First, Christians embraced Paul’s advice to have Jesus as Lord, & no one or nothing else, not the idols of wealth & status & spirituality, not even good church leaders like Peter, Apollos, or Paul, himself. They couldn’t be Lord. Jesus was Lord. Jesus died & rose for them. No one else did that.
Where there are distracting divisions in churches today, Jesus is not Lord. Among the glorious diversity of the early centuries of the church, as well as the 21st century church, uniformity is neither demanded, nor expected, but a unity in Jesus is essential for the church to honestly be the Body of Christ. We’ve got to agree that He’s the one!
The second reason the church grew was because, in true unity, early Christians proclaimed Jesus as Lord with one voice, one mind, & one purpose (Sampley in New Interpreter’s Bible, vol. , 806). They didn’t only make Jesus their Lord & Savior. They lived that faith in their community & shared it far & wide.
At Christ Church, we know the benefit of acting on a unifying mission: “Transforming lives in the love of Jesus Christ.” Whether it is the song which the choirs ring, sing, or sign, or the teaching in the Sunday School class, or the student ministry service project in Michigan or the women’s circle at Manna on Main St, we seek the transformation of lives in Christ’s love. It’s not just a love of music, or a fondness of learning, or do-gooding as citizens in the community. It is because we are disciples of Jesus who serve him by serving others, as he came to do (Reggie McNeal in The Present Future, p. 38).
The third reason the church grew is because its singular purpose of Jesus as Lord played out in unprecedented ways in the pagan Roman Empire. Early Christians stood against the popular culture by opposing “the casual practice of infanticide & the abandonment of unwanted babies…opposed the exploitation of children for erotic pleasure, elevated the status of women, [&] accepted & broadened the Jewish tradition of concern for the poor” (V. Carroll & D. Shiflett in Christianity on Trial: Arguments Against Anti-Religious Bigotry, 2001, p. 7).
There are lots of things that Christians are against today, too. My concern is that we’re often better known for what we’re against, than what we’re for.
Early Christians had that one figured out, too. It was, perhaps, their concern for the poor & needy that most marked Christians in a positive way. They couldn’t beat converts over the head with Bibles, since the church’s first few hundred years didn’t have Bibles. Instead, it was how Christians lived their faith that proved so magnetic.
Scholars remark that early house churches & congregational gatherings were not ritzy, glitzy, & glamorous. The persons invited to worship - to be served & fed & healed & given all sorts of care - were unattractive, ill-mannered, dirty, & stinking. Churches weren’t pretty places, but they were venues that brought honor & glory to Christ because of the way Christians loved their unlovable neighbors & enemies.
In a small way, I look at how worn our Fellowship Hall has been. Believe me, Sunday Schoolers here for less than one-hour each week don’t take their toll on that wing of our building. All of the community groups & activities that are here the other seven days of the week do. That’s not an indictment. That’s a “Thank you, Jesus, for allowing us to share with others the gifts with which we’ve been blest.” Fellowship Hall, itself, is a mission of this church.
Christians, as a group, have made it our practice to think of others & put them first.
Much like firefighters in our day who run into burning buildings when everyone else is running out, early Christians remained in cities to care for victims of lethal epidemics, while the rest of the populace fled. As normal people were leaving by every means of transport, Christians, risking their lives, stayed to nurse the sick & dying. The notorious Plague of Galen claimed 1/4 to 1/3 of the citizenry of the Roman Empire, taking 5,000 lives a day, just in Rome.
Despite the fact that many heroic Christians died as testimonies to their faith, the charitable & healthful practices of Christians are credited with cutting the death toll by two-thirds. In a day when classical philosophy “regarded mercy & pity as pathological emotional defects of character to be avoided by all rational men,” the pagans saved by hospitable & compassionate Christians had to re-consider their negative opinions of these folk (Jos. Stowell in The Trouble with Jesus, p. 115, 2003). Those reconsiderations became lives transformed for the kingdom.
Our gospel lesson talks about the transfiguration, or transformation, that Jesus underwent. The three disciples who were with him were understandably distracted by the grandeur & sparkle of that divine light show. They wanted to remain distracted by it. They didn’t want to leave their mountaintop experience. They didn’t want to allow that encounter to transform them, & in turn, transform others. You see, a transformed life is not just reserved for Jesus as God’s Son. Transformation is what God desires for all of His children. Early Christians proved that fact. So can we.
In the Name…. Copyright 2008 by G.D.Knerr at Lansdale, Pa. All rights reserved.
Christians, quite obviously, took St. Paul’s advice from today’s lesson. That advice was to be a genuine follower of Jesus.
When Jesus called his disciples in our gospel lesson, contemporary translators use the English word, “follow.” Matthew actually uses three different Greek words, each one providing a slightly different shade of what following is.
First, “to follow” means “to replicate” Jesus in attitude & action. Any truly devoted follower of a great teacher will spend so much time with that leader that s/he will begin to talk, act, & think like the teacher. Followers become identified with their leader. In the case of Jesus & we, his followers, that’s a good thing (to be identified with Him.) It sure beats being identified with the stuff that opened this sermon!
Second, to follow means “to pursue.” As we pursue our desires, dreams, & goals, are they inspired & created by Jesus? In other words, are we pursuing Him in our daily lives, with our daily lives? As I said two weeks ago, there are a lot of church converts, but how many of us have experienced his transforming power & are in “hot pursuit” of Jesus Christ?
Third, after dropping their nets & following Jesus, the disciples began walking in Jesus’ footsteps. “To be found in the way,” is another connotation of following. Regardless of the distractions around us, & most notably when there are distractions all about us, will we be found in the way, walking in the same steps Christ lays out before us?