Three drifts in the church…..
This is not original with me but I thought that this would be helpful for church going people and especially pastors. If we are really going to take the Bible seriously as we should, do we not have to reflect on our practices as a church every so often? Can you improve your church and the mission that God gave the church by being content where you are as a church? Contentment produces stagnation, stagnation left long enough turns into death. We should be constantly evaluating our practices as a church but never changing the message by which we reach those on the outside.
What is the primary mission of the church?
Matthew28:19
19 Go thereforea]" >[a] and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Andy Stanley talks about several church drifts that we need to avoid. The early church faced these same drifts as well but how they handled it was monumental in the church moving forward. Why? These distinctions could have separated the early church when there was much persecution against it. I’m primarily referring to Acts Chapter 15, what we do when situations arise in the church, when a difference of theology is brought up, and a split seems unavoidable.
Drift #1: The drift from a passion for the outsiders to pacifying the insiders.
All churches tend to do this. No church is immune. Most pastors especially where we live never actually seen this happen because the church was established well before they ever stepped behind the pulpit. When a church first starts however the membership is low, however in order to grow the church they reach to those on the outside, they pull them in, they feverishly build the body of Christ with enthusiasm. Once they are established though, the church begins to be consumed with thoughts about themselves. We have needs you know, the parking lot needs paving, the computer system needs updating, the seats aren’t comfortable enough, we have so many people now if we get any bigger I’ll just be a face in the crowd, etc. Quick side note: I will never advocate for anyone just being a consumer Christian but also in the grand scheme of things but the focus should never be on us but on the gospel and on Jesus. Anytime we say that we don’t want our particular church to grow too large, we may need to ask ourselves do we care more about people noticing who we are in the church or do we care more about reaching those on the outside so that they notice Jesus. Congregations have made it hard on pastors at times because the pastor has his own preferences just like you but at the same time he wants to make his congregation happy. He wants his job approval to be high probably the same way you do at your job. The ones within the church are the ones who write the letters to him complaining, the people who don’t come, don’t complain. So it becomes easy for the pastor to re-design the church to please the congregation.
We should not make it hard for the gentiles [unbelievers] like in Acts 15 to come to Christ. It is sad to go into churches where the average age is in the 70’s, families have been sitting in the same seats since WWI, where if the 1940’s ever role back around they will be completely in style But they will not change, even though they know and can see they are not reaching the next generation for Christ. That is extremely sad because they love their traditions [pacifying the insider] more than they love their grandchildren.
Every church needs to at least ask the question are we more worried about pacifying those on the inside over reaching those on the outside. Every church needs to hold a Jerusalem council [Acts 15:6] and ask the question do we want to keep doing what we are doing for the sake of preserving our traditions or do we want to reach those far from God. Are we growing because kids are being naturally being born into the church or are we growing because we are reaching those in our community who have never heard the gospel? So, the drift from a passion for outsiders to pacifying the insiders; from advancing the mission to preserving the tradition.
Quick Example: I can’t help but notice that Jesus was always reaching out to the outsider. The economic outsider [poor] the gender outsider [women] the racial outsider [Samaritan], the physical outsider [lame] the social outsider [leper or tax collector]. Jesus was primarily reaching to those on the outside. The times when He conversed or reached out those on the inside [religious] He was usually scolding them or showing them the problems within their heart where their religion had caused a rift. He was usually breaking down their self-righteousness to show them that true righteousness was only found in Him.
Drift #2: The drift from grace to law.
The people in Acts 15 were calling out for circumcisions were saved. They knew that they were saved by placing faith in Christ, but afterwards they started to drift back into a rules based relationship with God. That is what always happens. Martin Luther said that the human condition is hardwired for works based righteousness. For example the human heart is like a car severely out of alignment, the moment you take your hands off the wheel it begins to drift slowly off the road. Most of us in modern times don’t consider circumcision a measure of spirituality but we have our own list now do we not?
We have our own list of external things that we measure spirituality by in the church. We begin to replace inward transformation with an emphasis on outward conformity. When this drift begins to take place in a church almost inevitably we have a whole plethora of things that become laws to determine whether you are spiritual or not. Here’s the thing, these things are not usually bad things in and of themselves …..Such as are you involved in ministry? Do you do a quiet time? How many people have you shared Christ with? Are you open to adoption? Do you give? Does your family act like the perfect family? Have you been divorced? These are all good things but these become in many churches the measure of our spiritual lives and the measure by which we evaluate others. Ask yourself can any of these good things cause you to be saved, then why treat them as if they are the ultimate thing. Is the ultimate thing not placing faith in Christ and trusting Him and Him alone for salvation? Religion says obey and you’ll be accepted, the gospel says your accepted therefore you obey.
Not only does this make us lose the significance of the gospel in our own lives but it makes it very difficult for others to come to God. They see the gospel from the outside as “Clean up your life and then come to God.” But the gospel is come to God and He will do that in you. The gospel is that you are purified the moment you place your faith in Christ, not faith in your own ability but on what He has done. Jesus last words on the cross were “It is finished” not “Go fix yourself and then it is finished.” He did everything necessary, Jesus work on the cross is just as finished for the believer as it is for those who are extremely lost.
Drift #3: The drift from a focus on the internal transformation to one of external conformity.
The focus of the gospel is transforming the heart.
Jesus said that the essence of the law was to love God above all else and to love your neighbor as yourself, everything else is an outworking of that. In other words if you keep these two then you will naturally keep all the others. The bible gives us direction on what that love looks like. The core of the gospel is producing a heart of love; this heart is only produced however by placing faith in Christ. You cannot produce a heart of love by someone giving you a laundry list of laws to follow, I mean this is why Jesus had to come in the first place, is it not? The Israelites had been given 613 laws to follow and they repeatedly failed at keeping the law, but all churches over time want to drift back into this old system that never really worked. God gave us a new system, faith in Christ, seeing what He did on the cross for us in love; our response to that love is keeping the law. Outward conformity cannot replace inward transformation; you can look like a Christian on the outside but be far from God on the inside, only obeying out of fear or selfish motivation. Perfect love cast out fear. Could this be why so many church goers feel the Christian life is so hard, not only do you retain while on earth your sinful nature but they have been obeying God out of fear, obeying out of a fear that grows of how others will think of them.
The early church in Acts 15 the issue was circumcision, but I doubt that many of you think that circumcision is a measure of spirituality anymore. But we have come up with many to replace that in our common church backgrounds have we not? What about alcohol, how we dress, how we speak, politics. Many of us grew up in churches were tattoos were completely out of the question, they need to be covered , or not had at all in general. If you don’t have a tattoo that’s wonderful, I don’t either, but let us not make a secondary thing a gateway to the primary thing. The gospel message does not tell people to go dress a certain way, not drink alcohol, cover you tattoos, and speak a certain way. We have to trust that through the gospel Jesus will change their hearts internally and they will begin to act a certain way out of a love for God instead of trying to get them to conform first to our outward standards.
Some churches however instead of leaving these secondary things as a matter of conscience pick a side and make them law. If you want to be a part of our church you need to act like this, sign this covenant. Should we not trust that Jesus will do all of that in their heart after they go down the road of discipleship? Let us not judge another person’s heart based on whether or not they conform to our political or man-made laws, but instead bring them the gospel message and let Jesus make the change in them. Yet again I go back to Jesus’ example. I can even recount all the times that Jesus could have dismissed people that He came into contact with because they didn’t meet up to the religious standard of the day. The woman at the well would be one, what about Zacchaues, what about the lady who washed His feet with her hair? Jesus trusted that the love, truth, and grace He imparted to those He met would change their nature after accepting Him as the Messiah, should we not trust that the same will happen today? After all many peoples favorite Bible line is God is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Let us try not to make external conformity a sign of internal transformation. I recently heard a friend say that a guy was running for class president in a Christian college and how he had led a guy to Christ. The guy began describing the change that took place in the new believers life, the change was how the new convert stopped dressing like a gangster and began wearing khaki’s and polo’s to church. I know that dressing a certain way is common in churches but that is never the mark of inward transformation.
Small afterthought
After saving the lady caught in adultery from the scribes and Pharisees, Jesus tells the lady “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.” Now when I read this account [John 8] I can’t help but ask “why did Jesus not tell her “Go and obey this law, this law, this law, this law, this law.” Why just say go and sin no more? He must have knew that she already knew the law, she didn’t need a recounting of the law, she needed grace for one and she needed a love for a Savior that would give her the power to obey the law. She couldn’t have obeyed the law before meeting Jesus if she wanted to. Why? She couldn’t do it in her own strength, neither can you, you have to meet Jesus first and accept Him as Lord and Savior. Yet again the gospel is not keep the law then being accepted by God but realizing that you have been accepted by God for while we were still sinners Christ died for us, then this will give you the power to obey the law. Let us not make keeping the law a gateway to the primary thing which is the gospel.
This is not original with me but I thought that this would be helpful for church going people and especially pastors. If we are really going to take the Bible seriously as we should, do we not have to reflect on our practices as a church every so often? Can you improve your church and the mission that God gave the church by being content where you are as a church? Contentment produces stagnation, stagnation left long enough turns into death. We should be constantly evaluating our practices as a church but never changing the message by which we reach those on the outside.
What is the primary mission of the church?
Matthew28:19
19 Go thereforea]" >[a] and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Andy Stanley talks about several church drifts that we need to avoid. The early church faced these same drifts as well but how they handled it was monumental in the church moving forward. Why? These distinctions could have separated the early church when there was much persecution against it. I’m primarily referring to Acts Chapter 15, what we do when situations arise in the church, when a difference of theology is brought up, and a split seems unavoidable.
Drift #1: The drift from a passion for the outsiders to pacifying the insiders.
All churches tend to do this. No church is immune. Most pastors especially where we live never actually seen this happen because the church was established well before they ever stepped behind the pulpit. When a church first starts however the membership is low, however in order to grow the church they reach to those on the outside, they pull them in, they feverishly build the body of Christ with enthusiasm. Once they are established though, the church begins to be consumed with thoughts about themselves. We have needs you know, the parking lot needs paving, the computer system needs updating, the seats aren’t comfortable enough, we have so many people now if we get any bigger I’ll just be a face in the crowd, etc. Quick side note: I will never advocate for anyone just being a consumer Christian but also in the grand scheme of things but the focus should never be on us but on the gospel and on Jesus. Anytime we say that we don’t want our particular church to grow too large, we may need to ask ourselves do we care more about people noticing who we are in the church or do we care more about reaching those on the outside so that they notice Jesus. Congregations have made it hard on pastors at times because the pastor has his own preferences just like you but at the same time he wants to make his congregation happy. He wants his job approval to be high probably the same way you do at your job. The ones within the church are the ones who write the letters to him complaining, the people who don’t come, don’t complain. So it becomes easy for the pastor to re-design the church to please the congregation.
We should not make it hard for the gentiles [unbelievers] like in Acts 15 to come to Christ. It is sad to go into churches where the average age is in the 70’s, families have been sitting in the same seats since WWI, where if the 1940’s ever role back around they will be completely in style But they will not change, even though they know and can see they are not reaching the next generation for Christ. That is extremely sad because they love their traditions [pacifying the insider] more than they love their grandchildren.
Every church needs to at least ask the question are we more worried about pacifying those on the inside over reaching those on the outside. Every church needs to hold a Jerusalem council [Acts 15:6] and ask the question do we want to keep doing what we are doing for the sake of preserving our traditions or do we want to reach those far from God. Are we growing because kids are being naturally being born into the church or are we growing because we are reaching those in our community who have never heard the gospel? So, the drift from a passion for outsiders to pacifying the insiders; from advancing the mission to preserving the tradition.
Quick Example: I can’t help but notice that Jesus was always reaching out to the outsider. The economic outsider [poor] the gender outsider [women] the racial outsider [Samaritan], the physical outsider [lame] the social outsider [leper or tax collector]. Jesus was primarily reaching to those on the outside. The times when He conversed or reached out those on the inside [religious] He was usually scolding them or showing them the problems within their heart where their religion had caused a rift. He was usually breaking down their self-righteousness to show them that true righteousness was only found in Him.
Drift #2: The drift from grace to law.
The people in Acts 15 were calling out for circumcisions were saved. They knew that they were saved by placing faith in Christ, but afterwards they started to drift back into a rules based relationship with God. That is what always happens. Martin Luther said that the human condition is hardwired for works based righteousness. For example the human heart is like a car severely out of alignment, the moment you take your hands off the wheel it begins to drift slowly off the road. Most of us in modern times don’t consider circumcision a measure of spirituality but we have our own list now do we not?
We have our own list of external things that we measure spirituality by in the church. We begin to replace inward transformation with an emphasis on outward conformity. When this drift begins to take place in a church almost inevitably we have a whole plethora of things that become laws to determine whether you are spiritual or not. Here’s the thing, these things are not usually bad things in and of themselves …..Such as are you involved in ministry? Do you do a quiet time? How many people have you shared Christ with? Are you open to adoption? Do you give? Does your family act like the perfect family? Have you been divorced? These are all good things but these become in many churches the measure of our spiritual lives and the measure by which we evaluate others. Ask yourself can any of these good things cause you to be saved, then why treat them as if they are the ultimate thing. Is the ultimate thing not placing faith in Christ and trusting Him and Him alone for salvation? Religion says obey and you’ll be accepted, the gospel says your accepted therefore you obey.
Not only does this make us lose the significance of the gospel in our own lives but it makes it very difficult for others to come to God. They see the gospel from the outside as “Clean up your life and then come to God.” But the gospel is come to God and He will do that in you. The gospel is that you are purified the moment you place your faith in Christ, not faith in your own ability but on what He has done. Jesus last words on the cross were “It is finished” not “Go fix yourself and then it is finished.” He did everything necessary, Jesus work on the cross is just as finished for the believer as it is for those who are extremely lost.
Drift #3: The drift from a focus on the internal transformation to one of external conformity.
The focus of the gospel is transforming the heart.
Jesus said that the essence of the law was to love God above all else and to love your neighbor as yourself, everything else is an outworking of that. In other words if you keep these two then you will naturally keep all the others. The bible gives us direction on what that love looks like. The core of the gospel is producing a heart of love; this heart is only produced however by placing faith in Christ. You cannot produce a heart of love by someone giving you a laundry list of laws to follow, I mean this is why Jesus had to come in the first place, is it not? The Israelites had been given 613 laws to follow and they repeatedly failed at keeping the law, but all churches over time want to drift back into this old system that never really worked. God gave us a new system, faith in Christ, seeing what He did on the cross for us in love; our response to that love is keeping the law. Outward conformity cannot replace inward transformation; you can look like a Christian on the outside but be far from God on the inside, only obeying out of fear or selfish motivation. Perfect love cast out fear. Could this be why so many church goers feel the Christian life is so hard, not only do you retain while on earth your sinful nature but they have been obeying God out of fear, obeying out of a fear that grows of how others will think of them.
The early church in Acts 15 the issue was circumcision, but I doubt that many of you think that circumcision is a measure of spirituality anymore. But we have come up with many to replace that in our common church backgrounds have we not? What about alcohol, how we dress, how we speak, politics. Many of us grew up in churches were tattoos were completely out of the question, they need to be covered , or not had at all in general. If you don’t have a tattoo that’s wonderful, I don’t either, but let us not make a secondary thing a gateway to the primary thing. The gospel message does not tell people to go dress a certain way, not drink alcohol, cover you tattoos, and speak a certain way. We have to trust that through the gospel Jesus will change their hearts internally and they will begin to act a certain way out of a love for God instead of trying to get them to conform first to our outward standards.
Some churches however instead of leaving these secondary things as a matter of conscience pick a side and make them law. If you want to be a part of our church you need to act like this, sign this covenant. Should we not trust that Jesus will do all of that in their heart after they go down the road of discipleship? Let us not judge another person’s heart based on whether or not they conform to our political or man-made laws, but instead bring them the gospel message and let Jesus make the change in them. Yet again I go back to Jesus’ example. I can even recount all the times that Jesus could have dismissed people that He came into contact with because they didn’t meet up to the religious standard of the day. The woman at the well would be one, what about Zacchaues, what about the lady who washed His feet with her hair? Jesus trusted that the love, truth, and grace He imparted to those He met would change their nature after accepting Him as the Messiah, should we not trust that the same will happen today? After all many peoples favorite Bible line is God is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Let us try not to make external conformity a sign of internal transformation. I recently heard a friend say that a guy was running for class president in a Christian college and how he had led a guy to Christ. The guy began describing the change that took place in the new believers life, the change was how the new convert stopped dressing like a gangster and began wearing khaki’s and polo’s to church. I know that dressing a certain way is common in churches but that is never the mark of inward transformation.
Small afterthought
After saving the lady caught in adultery from the scribes and Pharisees, Jesus tells the lady “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.” Now when I read this account [John 8] I can’t help but ask “why did Jesus not tell her “Go and obey this law, this law, this law, this law, this law.” Why just say go and sin no more? He must have knew that she already knew the law, she didn’t need a recounting of the law, she needed grace for one and she needed a love for a Savior that would give her the power to obey the law. She couldn’t have obeyed the law before meeting Jesus if she wanted to. Why? She couldn’t do it in her own strength, neither can you, you have to meet Jesus first and accept Him as Lord and Savior. Yet again the gospel is not keep the law then being accepted by God but realizing that you have been accepted by God for while we were still sinners Christ died for us, then this will give you the power to obey the law. Let us not make keeping the law a gateway to the primary thing which is the gospel.