« Why I Could Not Blog Anymore | Main | Am I Blogging Again? »

July 05, 2007

How Church Should Be Done

So over at Thinklings they're talking about how church should be done. It's an interesting question and one that pastors, theologians, lay leaders and all too often "Christian consumers" ask frequently.

What makes "how do you do church?" such an interesting question is that when you think about it, the question just doesn't make sense. After all it's me asking "how do I do Bryon?" I can't "do" Bryon. I can only "be" Bryon.

I think what faith geeks like me are really asking is "is the church still 'being' the church?" We start to see the church expressing itself in different ways and it scares us. Fear causes us to condemn. Here's the problem: It's easy to judge from a distance.

You know what scares me? The church condemning the church. "Felt-needs is wrong focus." "The church should be run by the older elders." "Purpose Driven is heretical." "Preaching topically is Satan at work."

Allow me to respond to this theologically: BULL!

Here's what Jesus said:

"My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me." (John 17:20-23 NIV)

This is Jesus' prayer for the church. Notice He's not praying for the apostles. Neither is He praying any of the other 500-5000 disciples that at one time followed or were currently following Jesus. In this part of the prayer, Jesus is praying for those who "those who will believe...through their message." That's you and me.

What's His prayer? It is that we be unified. He could have prayed anything. He could have prayed that we be accurate, or effective, or perfect or any of a couple-o-dozen concerns. But He chose to pray that we be unified. Us in Him, Him in us and we in each other.

Why did He pray this? It's no mystery, He tells us. He says if we are unified, then "the world will believe that You (the Father) have sent me."

Did you catch that? He didn't pray that we have an awesome outreach program. He didn't pray that we get the Gospel down just right. He says the best way to convince the world that Jesus is the Son of God is for us to be unified. That ought to make us stop and think before we start to rant about how someone else is "doing church" wrong.

What's the measure of church? Again, let's go to Jesus:

"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." (John 13:34-35 NIV)

"This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples." (John 15:8 NIV)

Love and fruit. If we love Jesus we will obey His commandments. If we love Jesus we'll love each other. If we love/abide in Jesus we'll bear fruit. It's that simple.

The question we should be asking isn't so much "how is church done elsewhere?" Instead it should be, "What's the best way to be the church where I am at?" "How do I love those Jesus has put in my community?"

If that means I show middle-class yuppie types that, yes, the only fulfilling purpose in this world is to align with Jesus and the Father then that's what I do. If it means I stand in the gap for the alcoholic father so he can come face-to-face with his destructive habits and finally find true freedom in Christ than that's what I do.

But it never means I look at what God is doing in another church through other methods and judge it as "watered-down" Christianity. Because I'm not there. I'm here. God hasn't given me that population/community/people-group to love. He's given me this one.

And if I don't get this one right...

Posted by bubba138 at July 5, 2007 10:07 PM