Jesus’ love for His Church is so fiercely consuming that He gave himself up for her, cleanses and washes her, and will present her to himself radiant without stain, wrinkle, or blemish. (based on Ephesians 5:25-33) As such, it matters to Him what we do in and through His Church, and how we stay in relationship with one another. It also matters to a watching world that is waiting to experience His love through us.
Since the Church is a physical presence of the body of Jesus in the world, nonbelievers will know of Him and experience His love by knowing and experiencing life with the members of His Church. Without our love and the ministry of the Holy Spirit, Jesus will live only as a man in history, and the Bible will live only as a book on a shelf – just another collection of stories and poems competing for readers of fantasy, adventure, or science fiction.
Constrained
Jesus has deliberately constrained much of Himself in us, His body, by making us His legs to go out into the world, and His arms and hands to minister to those who are in need. As much as He would like to physically feed starving children, if we do not, they starve. As much as He would like to physically comfort those who mourn, if we do not, they remain alone in their suffering. It is not that all starving children and all of those who mourn will not be fed or comforted, because just as Jesus told a man in Matthew 8:22, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead,” the “dead” will continue to feed and comfort at least some of their own. The only questions are, “Who will be glorified?” and “Who will be rebuked for the dead having to feed and comfort their own?” Of course, those who are hungry and mourn could not care less from whose hands they are fed or in whose arms they are comforted. Little do they know that the testimony of their lives will be very important one day.
Jesus intends that those who are hungry or mourn will receive food and comfort from Him through the members of His body whose hearts have been transformed and whose minds are being renewed. Not only will those who hunger and mourn have their physical and emotional needs met, they will also hear of, and possibly receive Jesus Himself. When they do, He also will provide for their spiritual life as they enter into a vine and branch relationship with Him, and a branch and branch relationship with other Christians.
An Imperfect Body
The body of Christ is always an imperfect work in progress. His Church is not quite radiant yet, and still needs some cleansing as it struggles to grow corporately with members who at the same time are also struggling to grow individually. What complicates the growth of His body is that members continually leave to be with Him, while new members join and must learn the same spiritual lessons their predecessors had to learn.
People who do not know Jesus are watching and waiting for His Church to reach out to them. As such, Jesus needs the Church of each generation to grow and actively reach out to those who are alive during its generation. Past accomplishments are laudable, but today’s hungry cannot re-feast on yesterday’s meals.
For the remainder of this section, when I use the terms body and Church I am speaking spiritually as opposed to a local expression of His body, which I will refer to as a congregation.
The reason for this distinction is that speaking of His body or the Church can sound spiritual, yet remain distant and sterile when it comes to serving as the body of Jesus in a community. As such, congregations are the legs, arms, and hands of Jesus that He uses to reach out locally to both believers and nonbelievers in need.
It is unsettling to imagine a local congregation with Jesus as its head that does not reach out to its local generation. Unfortunately, some congregations do not reach out, and are content to only reach in, to and for themselves. These congregations cease to be the body of Jesus with the purpose of living His love to the world, and become a Club whose members are concerned primarily with maintaining the standards and comfort of the Club. I will refer to this Christ-decorated facade as a Club of christ (lowercase “c” intended). When these Clubs fail to allow Jesus to live through them, they are consigned to studying dead Christians, and piously impersonating Jesus to a watching and rarely fooled world.
As I describe the differences between a healthy congregation and a healthy Club of christ, it is important to understand that all congregations fall somewhere between these two extremes. Every congregation evolves over time in either direction as its members continually face the challenge of what it means to be the local body of Jesus in their community. As you look for a congregation to join, it will be helpful to keep the following characteristics in mind.
Characteristics of a Healthy Congregation
1) A healthy congregation is organized with Jesus as its head, and pastors as servant leaders. It consists of members who are connected first individually to Jesus as their head, and second to one another as members of His local body.
2) A healthy congregation accepts its unique distinctions such as type of music and order of worship as no more than preferences that are subject to the authority of Jesus and the moving of the Holy Spirit, as long as all are done in order with reverence to God.
3) A healthy congregation understands that fellow believers can have differing preferences and still be members of the body of Christ. Those who choose to leave the congregation for another, do so with the assistance and pastoral care of its leaders, and are as blessed when leaving as they are when staying.
4) A healthy congregation is an oasis of hope consisting of imperfect believers whose extended arms hold and comfort both members and non-members who are weary, burdened, and in need of rest.
5) A healthy congregation understands and practices disciplines of grace such as studying the Bible, praying, and fasting when able. These disciplined activities are responses to God’s grace, not requirements for His acceptance.
6) A healthy congregation is a safe place for people to be honest about their struggles with spiritual growth, and to be open about their wounds and personal pain.
7) A healthy congregation views the Bible as a record of God’s interactions with mankind in the past, which is to be studied and discussed to provide guidance for today’s decisions. Members look to the Holy Spirit to direct and empower them as they allow Jesus to live and work through them daily. They understand that it is Jesus who is responsible for their activities as they take Him as their yoke, and remain in a vine and branch relationship with Him.
8) A healthy congregation emphasizes a centered approach to the continual conformation of its members to the image of Jesus. As such, a member who is closer, for the lack of a better word, in his or her relationship with Jesus and personal walk with Him, and is drifting away, raises even more concern than someone who is further away and continuing to move closer. The former needs urgent and loving reconnection, while the latter needs consistent and loving encouragement.
9) A healthy congregation focuses on repentance and relationship with Jesus as the basis for belonging, and its members lovingly lift one another up to the hope that He has placed in each of them. Salvation and the ministry of the Holy Spirit are the only requirements for members to serve others in their congregation with the personal and spiritual gifts that God has given them.
10) A healthy congregation is a welcoming body that embraces people at all phases of their spiritual journey. It provides love and compassion in the context of discernment, and administers discipline when necessary.
Unfortunately, congregations do not always start out or remain healthy because they are an imperfect family made up of imperfect people. In addition, congregations are led by imperfect leaders who themselves are at varying stages of personal growth and spiritual health. This is why each member of a congregation needs his or her own vine and branch relationship with Jesus so He can live His life through them both individually and corporately.
Characteristics of a “Healthy” Club of christ
As I mentioned previously, all congregations fall somewhere between what I have just described as a healthy congregation, and the following description of a healthy Club of christ.
1) A healthy Club of christ has leaders who control the activities of the Club, and who perceive themselves as Executive Officers, or worse yet, owners of the Club. They surround themselves with like-minded people to prevent the emergence of differing views and personal accountability.
2) Members of a healthy Club of christ are first committed to one another as a clan under the banner of the Club. The Club functions as a closed-in compound of conformity whose characteristics differ minimally from other secular clubs and organizations.
3) Members of a healthy Club of christ are offended when people decide to leave, and often label them as “church hoppers,” or accuse them of “looking for the perfect church.” Of course, if they ate repeatedly at the same restaurant, and always left feeling hungry and they continued to lose weight, they would hopefully find somewhere else to eat. Imagine the chef scolding them by saying, “You are just looking for the perfect restaurant,” or “You should only be coming to my restaurant to cook and serve tables for me and my patrons, not eat for yourselves.”
4) A healthy Club of christ focuses on extra-biblical rules that are additional yokes for its members to wear. The Club’s extended arms toward members and non-members hold hoops of works through which everyone must jump in order to join and remain.
5) A healthy Club of christ understands and practices disciplines such as studying the Bible, praying, and fasting when able as requirements to be achieved in order to be accepted by God.
6) A healthy Club of christ reinforces a façade of spiritual growth, because honesty about one’s spiritual struggles, wounds, and personal pain is often responded to with discomfort, disapproval, and avoidance. As far too many Christian authors have noted, Christianity is the one army that shoots its wounded.
7) A healthy Club of christ views the Bible as a record of God’s interactions with mankind in the past, which are to be studied and discussed to provide guidance for today’s decision making. The Club treats the Holy Spirit as a figurehead dignitary whose influence in the Club’s day-to-day activities is minimally acknowledged. They see Jesus as someone to work for in order to win His approval.
8) A healthy Club of christ focuses on a bounded rather than a centered approach to belonging, which emphasizes rules and standards for inclusion that serve primarily to establish and maintain the Club’s brand.
9) A healthy Club of christ often requires Christians to be on the Club’s roster before they are permitted to use their personal and spiritual gifts in the Club. This requirement is often promoted by leaders who say a roster is necessary for them to know for whom they are responsible, and who is qualified to serve. This reliance on a roster reveals a deeper ignorance and poses a serious threat.
The deeper ignorance is that pastors have an ongoing responsibility for every person who comes through the church door, saved or not, on the roster or not. Otherwise, a “non-member” could be as disruptive as he or she pleases with the pastor not having the authority or responsibility for asking the person to refrain or leave. The serious threat is that no membership class or slot on a roster validates someone’s ability or suitability to serve, nor does it prevent someone who fulfills the requirements of the roster from becoming a predator of the lambs or sheep.
The qualifications for serving within a congregation are found in the Bible, and come from Jesus and the ministry of the Holy Spirit alone, not from attending a membership class and signing a form. And when problems arise, spiritually applied church discipline with discernment in the power of the Holy Spirit is adequate for protecting a congregation and the name of Jesus before a watching world. Requiring someone to be on a roster in order to serve within a congregation is adding man’s law to grace, which is not a yoke made of Jesus.
Of course, membership rosters are fine for congregations who prefer to use that form of governing for managing organizational issues such as approving budgets, administering church assets, or making personnel decisions. Obviously, no one wants a situation in which 500 people masquerading as new members show up at a business meeting to replace a pastor or to vote on the sale of church property.
10) A healthy Club of christ is highly selective about who is welcome to join and who is allowed to remain. I have heard it taught that churches should guard their front door by raising their standards for joining, and be more willing to exclude those who were not sufficiently committed by opening the back door and encouraging them to leave. The reason for this strategy was that a church should maintain its holy separation from the world. The biblical support for this stance was Matthew 7:14, “ But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” I understand that the road to life is narrow, but is it possible that the pew in the Club is narrower? This begs the questions, “Just how wide is the blood of Christ?” and “How conformed to the image of Jesus does someone already need to be before being allowed to enter through the Club’s front door?”
If a healthy Club of christ wants a guard at the front door, it had better not ask Jesus to do it because He has a nasty habit of welcoming prostitutes and tax collectors, and me, as well as people who think the front door of His Church needs guarding.
If Jesus is not qualified to guard the front door to keep the right people out, who is? Not I or anyone I have ever known. Think for a moment of a guard who must decide which person can or cannot enter in the same way that admittance to an upscale night club is controlled. Now picture the guard looking down at someone and saying, “No. You are not conformed enough to the image of Jesus.” Do you want to be the one who then finds himself face-to-face with Jesus when He asks, “How dare you turn away someone just like you for whom I suffered, died, and rose again?”
If you think this section on a healthy Club of christ sounds harsh, recall what Jesus did to the money changers in the temple.
13 When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. 15 So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. 16 To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” 17 His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.” (John 2:13-17)
If Jesus’ zeal was this great towards those who were turning His “Father’s house into a market!” think about how He will respond to those who are using His name to edify and serve themselves and are turning His body into a Club, or even worse, are turning His back on those in need. For them, a mere whip would be a welcomed relief.
Guarding a Congregation
Every congregation experiences the tension between the pull of the culture in which it finds itself and the drawing of the Holy Spirit. For this reason, the pressure on a congregation to deform to its culture is often as insidious as it is pervasive, which is why guarding a congregation is everyone’s responsibility. If spiritual attacks are as deadly as the Bible claims, the entire congregation should be vigilant at all times. Everyone needs to be on guard against predators and the eroding destruction of being deformed to the “pattern of this world,” rather than being conformed to the image of Jesus. One of the greatest threats to a congregation is self-serving leaders who want to take it captive.
Self-Serving Leaders and Captive Congregations
Remaining in a vine and branch relationship with Jesus is difficult work and often confusing, so congregations can easily become deceived into following a leader’s simplified list of vine-like rules. This vulnerability of Christians for following manmade rules is not lost on self-serving leaders. These leaders learn that it is easier to control committed and energetic followers if you can get them to obey a set of rules that use spiritual sounding words, but are devoid of the life of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. Followers who succumb to this deception often become branches from the leader’s vine with 1) a flow of life that is not from Jesus, 2) a feeling of belonging that is not in His body, and 3) a sense of power that is not from the Holy Spirit.
Being a servant of a self-serving leader eventually becomes debilitating because it is like a horse eating poor quality hay; its stomach feels full while its body continues to waste away. Rather than being a living sacrifice on God’s altar, these servants become a living sacrifice on their leader’s table. They are led to believe they are needed, but in reality, the leader is kneading them into a dough for baking in his own image to be consumed for his own purposes. Self-serving leaders become masters at siphoning life from a follower’s true vine and branch relationship with Jesus, or worse, they provide a counterfeit faith that intercepts and aborts a potential believer’s God-initiated drawing to Himself.
A common technique of self-serving leaders is to isolate their followers from family and non-following friends in the same way that child abusers isolate their victims. If this happens to you, your temple of the Holy Spirit will at best be shared with another, or much worse, may never have been the Holy Spirit’s at all. I would not like to be a self-serving leader who God finds in possession of His hijacked children.
Questions
1) What traits of a healthy congregation or a Club of christ characterize your congregation? Remember, every congregation of believers is somewhere between the two extremes that I described.
2) What traits of a healthy congregation or a Club of christ characterize your own walk with Jesus?
3) How would you know you were serving a self-serving leader?
4) What wisdom regarding self-serving leaders can you pass on to a new believer? This wisdom is not gossip if it is true and your intent is to protect the body of Christ.