Tag: Body of Christ

  • Letter #60 (The Body’s Head–3)

    Dear Small Church Congregation,

         You begin to feel rough and sluggish.  You decide to go see your doctor and discover that you have gained too much weight and are taxing your circulatory system to the point that it has affected your overall physical abilities.  Your doctor suggests a change in diet, more exercise and regular checkups to keep a watch on your progress toward better health.  You now have to decide if you are going to follow his suggestions or continue doing what you have been doing that has created this poor health.

         Now your brain takes over, and you have to choose to ignore the warning signs of a possible heart attack, or even a stroke, or are you going to do what the doctor suggests.  The situation now becomes a matter of your will, your ability to choose.  You know the consequences of each choice.  Why in the world would you choose poor health over improvement when your brain is trying to get you to make a good choice?  Why would you ignore your doctor?

         Suppose that, instead of poor physical health, that rough, sluggish feeling, we are talking about your spiritual health.  Maybe you don’t feel like you’re as close to God as you once were.  Maybe you know you have slacked off on reading your Bible and you seldom pray.  Perhaps you have not attended a worship service or Bible study in a week or two, or a month or two.

         And then it happens—the Holy Spirit nudges your spirit and reveals to you that you need to do some correcting in your spiritual disciplines so you can gain spiritual health again.  A friend tells you he has missed seeing you in the congregation, and you respond with, “I’ve been really busy lately,” knowing that is not really why you missed worship services.  The pastor sends a text or calls to check up on you, and you begin to feel like “they’re harassing me.”

         It’s at this point that your spiritual brain (the will of God being presented to you through Jesus) lets you know what you’re going to have to do in order to regain your spiritual health.  I have to ask the same questions I did about your physical health—Why in the world would you choose poor spiritual health over improvement when your spiritual brain is trying to get you to make a good choice?  Why would you ignore the will of God for your life?

         In the physical realm, we ignore our doctors because we simply do not want to do what it will take to improve our health.  We like potatoes with plenty of butter and sour cream.  We enjoy the chocolate-glazed donuts.  We see no reason to have to do without the foods we have always relished.

         And exercise?  Why would I exercise when I know I already walk plenty at work?  I’m active.  I’m no sluggard.  I’m not a morning person, and I can’t see myself getting up an hour early to go to a gym.  And in the evening, can’t a guy (or gal) simply rest in the lounge chair after a good supper?

         In the spiritual realm, we ignore that spiritual nudging because we simply do not want to do what it will take to improve our relationship with Jesus.  We’ve always enjoyed our favorite singers, regardless of the song lyrics.  I relax while I’m watching  those sit-coms that present all of life as one long laugh, regardless of their themes.  I see no reason to change what I’ve always done when it comes to entertainment.

        Spiritual disciplines?  Why would I attend every worship service possible when I can tune in on the net without having to get out of my pajamas.  Bible study?  I get bored reading the Old Testament.  Prayer meetings?  I can pray at home. (But will I?) 

         If we make a poor choice when it comes to our physical health, the result can be devastating.  If we make a poor choice when it comes to our spiritual health, the result can be just as devastating, only this devastation can last for all eternity.  If we refuse to listen to our spiritual brain, if we reject God’s will for our lives, if we choose to reject a close relationship with Jesus, we have chosen spiritual death over life. 

         It has often been said that people do what they want to do.  When it comes to your spiritual life, what do you want to do?  Do you want to listen to your spiritual brain and act on the will of God that the Jesus reveals to you?

    Sincerely,

    A Small Church Pastor

  • Letter #51 (Whose Church Is It?)

    Dear Small Church Congregation,

         I saw a t-shirt recently with the statement, “I Love My Church.”  I thought, “how nice.”  The person “loves” attending a worship service at that church facility.  Or does the person “love” the people who worship there?  Or does he/she “love” the activities or the youth group or the music team or the style of preaching from the pastor? 

         Just what constitutes “loving my church?” 

         As I thought about this question, I remembered a situation that occurred in the city of Corinth in the New Testament.  Some of the attenders were associating their faith with the apostle Peter.  Others were connecting with the orator Apollos.  Still others were saying they were following Paul.

         Paul asked a simple question of the people:  (Paraphrased)  Did Peter or Apollos or I die for you?  He did this to refocus the people on who it is who should be the center of their worship.  Paul pointed out that only Jesus should be followed and worshipped.   

         Let me get back to the t-shirt.  Is the church a facility, a set of programs or a following of one particular pastor?  Your automatic answer should be an unqualified, “NO.”  The church described in the New Testament is not a place or a building.  The church is not a denomination or a fellowship or an association of congregations.  The church is not a man-made construct.

         The church originally began as a synonym for all the disciples of Christ.  It was the assembled believers in Jesus.  It was referred to as the bride of Christ.  It was what made up his “body” on this earth after Jesus ascended to the father and sent the Holy Spirit to dwell in the believers.  It was the physical,  living, breathing, ministering group of people to whom Jesus said, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel (good news).

         The “church” did not belong to a human.  It belonged to Jesus, because he paid for the people who made up His church with His blood sacrifice on Calvary.  It (everyone in the world who believes in Jesus, has repented of sins and been forgiven through faith in His name) still belongs to Jesus.  The church is His!

         That means it’s not ours.  The body of disciples is not ours to do with as we please.  It is not ours to control, to manipulate or to regulate to a set of rules. 

         Since the church is not ours, how should we approach the concept of being part of the church?  Allow me to recommend something to you.  Stop equating the world-wide group of people who follow Jesus with a building or a denomination or a certain pastor.

         A bit of history so we can get this concept into perspective—the disciples of Jesus did not construct buildings into which to gather for services for about 200-220 years after Jesus ascended.  (ChristianityToday.com)  Fast forward to the early settlers in North America—buildings were constructed for general community uses, and those uses included worship, education and civic meetings.  Many towns during the expansion westward had buildings dedicated to worship, buildings which doubled as the local school because they were used to teach people how to read scriptures.

         As time passed, the buildings were called “church houses,” and later the “houses” part was dropped and shortened to “church.”  That one word was then used to represent the followers of Jesus in general, not referring to the building, but to the people.  However, the term eventually took on the location meaning instead of the people who met there.

         Back to today.  The vast majority of the people who attend worship services refer to “the church” as the location of the building and not the people in the building.  They say they are “going to church” when they actually mean they are gathering at a location for worship.  But the worship has been overshadowed by the location.

         Many I have encountered are more concerned about the building, the programs, the events and the pastoral staff than they are about being a part of the body of Christ, the church of the living God, the bride of the coming King. And that concern has prompted people to take ownership of the building, programs, etc. because they have invested their time, talents and treasures in constructing and maintaining these things in what they consider important aspects of spreading the gospel of Christ to all the world.

          People begin to look at anything they invest themselves into as being “theirs.”   I fear it is for this reason that some say, “I love my church.”  They mean they love being part of a particular group in a particular building promoting a particular doctrine under the leadership of a particular pastor because they have invested significant amounts of time and money into the upkeep of that building, administering the programs, cooking meals, cleaning the bathrooms, mowing the lawns, playing the instruments, sitting on the pews/chairs, attending business meetings and a multitude of other activities that focus on where they are instead of who they are and whose they are.       

         I’ll say it again—I fear some have forgotten what the church is and whose church it is.  We’ll look at congregations who remember the “who” and “whose” in the next letter.

    Sincerely,

    A Small Church Pastor