January 02, 2007
Mutiny
During the most recent edition of the TV show Survivor, the host gave contestants on the two tribes the option to mutiny. Each individual had 15 seconds to make their decision, leaving no time to confer with one another. Two players took the opportunity and joined the other tribe changing the dynamics of both teams. I wouldn’t exactly say we have mutinies in the church, but on occasion we do have people jumping ship. To be honest, I do a little rejoicing in my heart when my church gains a new member from another church…especially if that new member is a ‘body builder’ and ready to actively contribute to our tribe. On the flip side of the coin, I’m discouraged when biblically well founded teachers and leaders hop into a life boat and paddle to the church across the street. Actually, God can and does use people in both scenarios, but it can take a year or more for people to establish their credentials in a new congregation. My regret is for the loss that any of our churches suffer while gifts of service are set aside until a person can build their relationship in another church.
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Gail;
----I really like what the church was in the New Testament. Granted, there is not a lot of detail given about the precise structure that it came to have, but we do see the concept of a more general church in the addresses of the epistles and the narative of Acts. They were regarded as the church at Corinth, the saints in Ephesus, the saints at Philippi, the holy and faithfull at Colossae. Revelation addressed the church at Ephesus, the church at Smyrna, etc., and I believe we can safely presume that Paul's address to the churches in Galatia was addressed to the church at each of the cities in Galatia. This mentality carried throughout the first century into the second.
----But today, we dare to use the term "denomination" without considering that for there to be a denominating, there must also be a dividing. And that is what the church at Montrose, and most everywhere else, has come to be. We talk about each church in Montrose, and each church having its leaders who each have their own ideas of what "their" church should be about and be doing. And we are fed this continual littany of thoughts about "church home" and "church family". Yet, these are actually acknowledgements that the churches of the community are separable groups, each divided into its own little space, like coals of a fire spread about on the cold ground.
----The perpetuation of this situation comes from the jealousies of the church leaders regarding their ability to maintain control over the saints with them. From the jealousies of the leaders the saints become influenced into a level of distrust for anyone who comes into their midst from the church down the street. What a sad fracture for the church at Montrose!
----God gave leaders to the church so that it could be built up in godliness and so that it could maintain its doctrinal foundation upon the elemental doctrine that the Bible has itself clearly and expressly set forth in unequivocal terms. I know that what I've written now has many leaders going in a whirl about how the church's mission is to PREACH JESUS AND SPREAD THE GOSPEL! And preach Jesus more and spread the gospel more. But they fail to see that their own murmurings against this simple expression of their function is itself attestation to their desire to be domineering over the Lord's saints. Preaching Jesus is a part of elemental doctrine, but it is not the only elemental doctrine. God has given many gifts to all His saints which in their combination become all of the godliness and doctrine of the Lord in the church. Control over a group of people is not what God has called us to be jealous about.
----So imagine if the jealousies of the leaders and the squeemishness of the saints regarding "church rovers" were reduced. I am persuaded that more people would rove through the churches. If at the same time, godly behavior and regards toward one another were more prevalent and Biblical (the promotion and influence of this is actually the leaders given role), then the movement of these "roving saints" would be less about finding a church they like better and more about desiring to have formal and worshipful fellowship with a broader cross section of the church at Montrose. In place of the squeemies and jealousies would be acquaintance and mutual welcome.
From that would exude a clearer image of the Lord from which a more intelligable call could be made to the unchurched of the community to know the Lord and fellowship with the saints at Montrose.
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