January 16, 2008
Who Needs to Know
Oh the drama! Who can be distraught by the TV writer’s strike when you can watch reality church politics? Right before our election to confirm elder candidates, one candidate was disqualified and his name removed from the ballot. Last Sunday I learned two currently serving elders resigned, although one later reconsidered and within a matter of days returned to his position. I’m sure we’ll never fully understand what’s happening. The leadership has long since abandoned publishing the minutes of the elder’s meetings and quite honestly, I’d be surprised if anyone even takes minutes any more. It’s as though the leadership has sworn each other to secrecy and will give us only what they think we need to know. Oh…did I mention that the elder who quit and did not return to his position actually resigned a few weeks ago? I wonder if, or when, they were going to tell us.
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Gail;
-----Everyone in your church needs to know, “…for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness, and truth.” (Eph 5:9) We would expect elders, of all people, to be above reproach and to have the courage to speak the truth. We would not expect them to have ambitions that might be jeopardized by the congregation’s knowledge of what is occurring amongst them. On the other hand, someone might argue, there are matters of church business the general congregation does not need to know, or should not know. But anyone who holds such a perspective misunderstands what is church business. The people are the church, and therefore, the business of the church is whatever is their business. Any other business of the church is the personal business of the leaders. They are servants of His people, not servants of themselves. Yet the church has become an organization in the mind of man, and the leaders bring to it their business to load upon the others. But in the mind of God it is still a gathering of His people, whose business is its business.
-----And His people have the need to grow up in all ways into Him. Their growth involves who they are, and must begin there. Why be so generous with the buzz phrase, “Come as your are,” if those who come are not going to be met as they are. And from what they are they grow up into who God has planned them to be. He is the potter. If He does not shape each of His children into unique individuals, then why does Romans 14 call for so much respect for that individuality? True life in the Lord is highly individual, although it is yet very corporate. It must be allowed to be both. Church is the gathering of His people, each bringing needs to be met by the others, each having supplies for the meeting of the others’ needs. Church is His people, and its business is their business.
-----Part of the needs His people have are the needs to be examples of the light to the world. There is a certain “missionary” aspect building in each of us. And it is different in each of us. In some, it is strong and big, so much so that they go off to wherever their eyes see the need for them to be. In others, it is very subtle, maybe hardly detectable. But it is there in all of us, for we all must respond to the Great Commission. But we each must respond in our individual capacities, given to us by the Lord, because these are the only capacities we have. Church leaders, however, have made church into an organization having a mission of their own. Be sure, they call theirs a vision from God, though. Then those who come through the doors of their church will eventually be expected to serve the leaders’ mission to whatever extent they are able. As the elder body slowly changes from this group of men, to that group, to the next, the mission chosen by them for their church slowly changes as well. The way the church moves in fulfilling the mission, the programs it offers for the people who come to it, and the services it offers also change slowly with the changing of the elders. Some churches are staff controlled, and these changes can happen much more rapidly, and much more often. Either way, this is discernable evidence that the church is directed by the leaders, be them elders or staff, towards the fulfillment of a mission shaped by their own consciences, their own understanding, and their own faith. To them, it seems great work for God.
-----But the mind of Christ is towards others, not self. He emptied His self to serve, looking at our needs, not His own, looking to His Father’s instruction, not His own. In reaching understanding of church mission, then, why has the needs and consciences of those who come through the doors been excluded from consideration? They are others; they are the church. And why is there disagreement to the extent of resignations from the eldership? Each elder is an other to the other. Has the mind of Christ not been practiced amongst those whom we choose to lead? Has it not been understood that unity is not conspiracy, rather, it is acknowledging the things that are important to others also? If that had been understood, there would not be these resignations. There would be agreement with one another.
----Agreement with one another rules out fighting, arguing, and wars between each other. Agreement with one another looks to the interests of one another for the facts and circumstances upon which to base a conclusion, not to one’s own interests. Agreement with one another sees one’s self as involved in a process, not controlling one. It is evident from the behavior of these men that they have not learned the mind of Christ, or at least they have not brought it to their duties in the Lord’s body. So their selfish ambitions, each one being puffed up in his own imagination of what the church should be and who should be in its control, are bringing destruction to the body. Each one takes his own understanding more seriously than that of His neighbor.
-----And the first business of church is the mind of Christ. This is what we have died to live for, the mind of Christ. This is what is necessary for us to please each one his neighbor for his neighbor’s good and his neighbor’s edification (Rom 15:2) so that the whole body might, “…be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” (Eph 4:13.) No one man can even begin to hold all of the truths and all of the supplies and all of the understanding of what that building up entails, nor of what is the fullness of the measure of Christ. That is why agreement must be with one another, not with one. That is why interests looked at must include those of others. That is why the neighbor must be pleased. That is why growing up into Him requires telling the truth to one another. That is why everyone needs to know. Because we must have the mind of Christ if we are to think like Him and lead like Him.
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