May 01, 2009
Filter
I recently read an article on how to build your credibility if you want to establish a blog. One suggestion is to “Become a filter – the go-to person for your area of expertise. People love filters and when you’re a filter, you’re considered an expert.” It’s an interesting thought. Generally speaking the perceived filters in today’s church are the preachers and teachers. Not surprisingly most of us shy away from being the go-to person because, ‘when you’re a filter, you’re considered an expert’. Who would have thought the go-to fellows of the early church were simply fishermen and tax collectors.
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Gail;
-----As illustrated in your blog of yesterday, church leaders become a little too enamored with the concepts of being experts and filters. At the end of your blog of today, you lightly touched upon the medication for this problem. The go-to-fellows of the early church were certainly fishermen and tax collectors. The Lord selected these men from common positions in life because they had the proper character traits for the tasks He laid before them. Our first clue to knowing the medication, then, is that in the church, expertise matters less for the role of filter than does character. For the church’s matter is not only the spreading of the gospel among men, but it is also, and at least as importantly, the growing of the gospel within men. The gospel is less a complicated theological issue than it is a deeply behavioral one. Although there may be some psychological aspects useful to the behavior of the new life, simple and humble submission is the lens through which the Holy Spirit shines its light upon the Word to make an “expert” of a fisherman. The Spirit can certainly make use of expertise, but It performs a symphony with good character.
-----There is something about good character and limits. I rather believe good character understands not just the limited capacity of the self, but also the boundaries between self and others. And when it limits the self by recognizing the individual rights of others, the second clue emerges. The purpose of a filter is to separate, whether or not it is to throw away or to keep what is separated. Whether filtering church direction, mission, message, even if filtering sin from the church, the leader must proceed with extreme concern for the boundaries where his self ends and those of others begin. For Paul makes it very plain that the most of what is considered sinful, detrimental, or beneficial is discernable only by yourself for yourself. “The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God; happy is he who has no reason to judge himself for what he approves.” (Rom 14:22). “Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the master is able to make him stand.” (Rom 14:4). “For why should my liberty be determined by another man’s scruples?” (I Cor. 10:29b). Yet the Bible is just as plain about what is definite sin. “But rather, I wrote to you not to associate with any one who bears the name brother if he is guilty of immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or robber - not even to eat with such a one.” (I Cor 5:11). “Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual should restore him…” (Gal 6:1). The church leader with good character understands he is no more a filter than he is an accurate reflection of the Word of God. And he will limit himself wherever his reflective “expertise” is weak. Thus, the first focus of his filtering is to properly separate his self, not others, so he can lead where he shines, and follow others where he is dim.
-----Therefore Christ has built His church of all His fishermen and tax collectors, expert only in their shiny areas and properly filtered, so that its direction will emerge from the assembled shining, and its service will be from the Word there reflected. Every fisherman and every tax collector of it becomes a go-to-person, in his own redeemed capacity, when the church leaders are indeed medicated by the Word. For even the leader is no more individually significant to the church than his reflection is faithful to the Word, the real filter, through which the Spirit will have us all pass.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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