When Jesus
was left at the temple he said that he had to be about His Father’s
business. That should also be true for
the church, but exactly what does that mean?
If the church is the body of
Christ on earth, what does it look like when the church is about the Father’s
business? For the purposes of this essay
we are not going to discuss what is the Father’s business, rather, how does the
church best carry out that business. Here
again there are two ends of the continuum and the church needs to find itself
somewhere in the middle.
The Church as doing
For the
church to be about the Father’s business it means that the church is active in
serving the lost, the community, and the local congregation. As the church discovers either a felt or a real
need, the church, to the best of its ability, develops a program or ministry
lead by passionate and gifted people to meet that need. The church develops a bias towards action-constantly
discovering the felt needs of the community, then developing ministries to
apply the good news of life via those felt needs. If the community lacks recreational
activities, the church will develop a ministry by which to reach the community
with an athletics league or sports ministry.
If the community has a number of disconnected moms, the church will find
a way to connect those moms in a program or ministry. From newborns to senior citizens, the church
is on the look out for ways to serve the community. Such a church places an emphasis on the word
“Go” in the great commission. The church
presumes that behind and beneath every felt need there is a ministry
opportunity to be exploited. As the
number of ministries grows, so will the church.
The evidence of the church as doing is a church calendar filled with
highly visible needs-focused ministry.
There is always something going on; the church is very active.
The Church as being
If the church
is to grow in wisdom and stature as Jesus did, the church focuses its life and
energy on developing its character so as to be like that of the Father. It is the holiness of the body and the love
for the saints that are the real power of ministry. In such a church, there is a profound
realization that those who have been rescued from the power of evil still carry
many hurts, scars, and habits that will need healing. The healing of the wounded soul did not occur
completely at the point of salvation.
The new young Christian will have much to learn about the ways of the
Savior. They will have to learn to
forgive, love, and accept the grace in which they now live. The disciplines of discipleship will not
occur simply just because the new life has begun; rather, they will need to be
mentored and taught. The church must
focus on teaching the believer that grace is not an excuse to sin, but a
delightful reason not to sin based on the acceptance of the Father and His love
for the returning child. There will be
in the lives of many new Christians, places where the demonic might find a
strong hold; therefore, there will need to be teaching about spiritual warfare
and the authority of the believer. Acts
of service and love for the lost world will grow naturally from a relationship
with God and fellowman. Sheep that are
healthy naturally reproduce. The witness
of the changed lives of converts will be the best and most effective tool for
evangelism and church growth.
Taken to
either extreme the church is likely to be misled. If the church focuses on doing, it can become
a program-driven machine in which it is easy to forget why things are being
done. It becomes easy for the church to
pay attention to the wrong score card, focusing on numbers of participants,
volunteer hours given, or activities offered as being the true measure of
success.
But tip the
scales too far in the other direction and the church can become self-absorbed
in finding a state of Christian “Nirvana” in which the objective of personal
wholeness and healing points worshipers toward the idol of self. Attention on sanctification, inner healing,
and holiness edge out the call of service until some undesignated point in the
future. The church and the Christian
become so “heavenly minded, it is no earthly good”.
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