August 09, 2007
Missing in Action
In the church hallways people are recycling the mantra of leaders who say, ‘just look at all the new faces we’re having in the worship services’. I’m glad we have visitors but for me, having new faces doesn’t necessarily translate into reaching the lost for Christ. Rather than rejoicing in the sea of new faces, I’m concerned with the lack of familiar faces. For a time I reasoned some people were on vacation, attending one of the other service times, or that I’d just overlooked them. With a few telephone calls I learned that some of the old faces are just MIA because they are tired of treading water of today’s church environment.
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Gail;
-----Some things have a natural attraction. Magnets and steel. Cellophane, hair, synthetic fabrics, and static electricity. Boys and girls. There are just certain patterns that fit. God planned for His forgiven children to also have a natural attraction. It goes beyond theology, church programs, worship styles, and mission statements. The essence of what we are in the Lord is humility within our surroundings, attention given to others, and obedience to the principles given by God. These are the substance of the fruit of the Spirit. I believe these elements of character are referred to by Paul as “fruit” not just because they are produced by a tree and thus analogize growth, but even more because they are influential and magnetic to others who have given their lives into the fertile fear of God. And like both the seed and the food that it is, it nourishes the growth of this same fruit in others.
-----I believe that it is the fruit of the Spirit that Christ had in mind when He spoke of the good tree bearing good fruit. I am sure it was not just actions and doing things, because He acknowledged the many actions “for God” the Pharisees produced, yet recognized them as embedded in hypocrisy. Nor was it shear numbers of people who are brought. Jesus pointed out that Pharisaical proselytizing will simply generate converts who are twice the children of hell. Paul, Peter, James, John, Jude, and the author of Hebrews all warned against the misleading results of novice teachers, inept teachers, and false teachers. There is something more to the purpose of a church than just generating warm bodies. And I think the clues to what that is are the theme of internalized law in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount and the growth aspect, reproductive purpose, and nourishing qualities of the fruit which Jesus looks for us to bear.
-----As you look around your church and see the missing faces in the river of new faces that now flows there, consider the growth that the leadership exemplifies. Their aim has always been first to bring and include into their worship the seeker, the unchurched, and the greater part of the unwashed community, if they could. Then, when the newcomer has acclimated, introduce him to the rest of the things about Jesus and teach him godliness. I know they teach the things of the Spirit, I have been there and heard them. But we all know that what is taught is either reinforced by, or washed away by, what is practiced. If the fruit of the Spirit is practiced, then there is reinforcement and growth.
-----But continually telling someone the hymns he grew up with are passé and unwanted by the Lord was not kind. Removing them from the morning service with all other familiar elements of worship and demanding their own way of worship was not love, was not gentle, and does not produce joy or peace. It was not goodness to refuse the requests for familiar elements of worship to be returned to the service for the edification, the good, and the pleasing (Rom 15:2) of those who needed them. Telling people they need to go down the street to a church where they will be happier was not patience. Failing to read the Word of God about these matters and obey it is not self-control. Rather, these actions proceed from envy and selfishness. And they produce enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, dissention, and party-spirit.
-----For years the leaders of your church were called upon to make their love genuine in consideration towards all those injured by the changes demanded of them. For years it was pointed out that they were leading with favoritism. They forgot that they were called not to lead and shape a group of people into what they believed about church purpose. They forgot they were called to exemplify the reproduction and nourishment of the fruit of the Spirit in a gathering of born-again souls. Their given mission to teach was how to use the Bible to acquire knowledge about God for godly living, not what music, what manner of dress, and what line of buzz words was necessary to get the neighbor into the auditorium.
-----They imagine that their purpose is to attract multitudes by a cheap knock -off of the Ed Sullivan Show for a worship service, then to talk to seekers about godliness. But their purpose is really to be examples of the effects of the active and living Word of God upon their lives - to grow the fruit of the Spirit and to feed it to their neighbors. But the missing show of goodness, kindness, and gentleness toward those whose familiar worship had to be destroyed in order for the leaders to have their own way diluted the strength of the new life’s attraction towards each other. That turned the peaceful pond of familiar faces into a river of coming and going faces. Nevertheless, the Lord, in His greatness, will still extract usefulness from their efforts and welcome them on that Great Day with a big, “Well done, My faithful servants! A bit burnt around the edges. But still, well done!”
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