Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
“I love those that thunder out the Word. The Christian World is in a dead sleep. And nothing but a loud voice can awaken them out of it.”
…George Whitefield.“The world is changed. I feel it in the water. I feel it in the earth. I smell it in the air. Much that once was is lost, for none now live who remember it… And some things that should not have been forgotten were lost.”
..Lord of the Rings Monologue
“You Can’t Handle The Truth” …Or Can You
This is an article about two things: redefining church and rightly understanding pastoral ministry. Like the feverishly intense confrontation between Lieutenant Kafee and Colonel Jessup when Kafee (played by Tom Cruise) leans in and says “I want the truth!”, this discussion may run close enough to take your breath away at a few points but stick with me. These are big things to tackle. Things, however, that interconnect in so many ways, especially with respect to the content of this post, that it is fair and beneficial to talk about both together here. First, how we think about Church touches everything. We have to be extremely careful how we define, talk about, and walk out church. The Church is not just — not even primarily — that institutional, somewhat theatrical, show-based thing that we have come to identify as Sunday morning meeting. In fact, in our day this kind of boxed-in thinking has done far more damage to the cause of Christ than good. We often get theological, intense, deep, and inflated in our discussions about what church is. But to me the answer has always been exceedingly, painfully simple: What does Jesus say the Church is?
“For where two or three gather together in My name, there am I with them.” ..Matthew 18.20
Could it be as simple as that? Church (greek word “ekklesia” = “an assembly of called out believers”) is any place where two are three are gathered together in His name? All the extravagant rhetoric and discussion is sliced away with a razor-like simplicity when we begin to hear Christ’s description of His body, the Church. And what about house churches and small gatherings in living rooms? Are those okay? Can we call those churches? Again, let’s embrace the straightforward and striking clarity that is everywhere present in the Word Itself. Truth that is just waiting to be unearthed by searching and hungry minds.
“Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my co-workers in Christ Jesus. They risked their lives for me. Not only I but all the churches of the Gentiles are grateful to them. Greet also the church that meets at their house.” ..Romans 16.3–5
Wait, what did he say? Whoa… phzzt. I think we just blew a fuze. “Hello, did I hear you right? Greet also the church that meets in their house… wha!?! You mean Paul treated this thing that met in a house like a real, true church? Hmmm. I’m not sure about that, I mean, did Priscilla go to seminary?” It flies in the face of much our conventional knowledge about church, but could it really be that completely obvious? It’s a lot less fuss and fluster, certainly. But if this truth is so frankly evident, and if we can handle the truth, then it puts us face-to-face with the pressing awareness that if we have the Scriptures, and Christ in our midst, and the Holy Spirit present in us — then probably we have absolutely everything we need to know the heart of God: the Church is — at its essential core — nothing more than intentional, missional, gathered, spiritual community coming together for the sake of His name, fame, and glory. And maybe, just maybe, the problem has more to do with the business-like, institutional approach to church life and not that people are too dumb or distracted to get it.
Either church is a Spirit-driven enterprise, or it isn’t.
Daring to follow the Spirit’s lead in attempting to “do church” will lead us right up to the thing itself. Like an archeologist excavating a dig site, it is well worth our time to be intentional and careful on this point. Ponder with me for a moment: what if the disciples, Peter and Paul, were to arrive on the scene in our time? Would they recognize what we are doing as church? Slow down and really think it through, brush the dust off of this idea. I sincerely imagine that they might say something like, “Okay yeah, but where is the Church?” It seems like we have a Baskin Robbins thing going on: 30 flavors of style, all trying to have some distinctive niche, but no matter the flavor it doesn’t seem to truly capture or convey the aroma of Christ. If, after their Sunday morning experience, we engaged the disciples in a more prolonged conversation over lunch (because they would certainly hang out after church, wouldn’t they?), I wonder if they might describe to us how Church in our day feels more like greek theatre and performance to them than the Church they knew. And how communion seems out of place, detached, and more akin to something like moving around costume props than communion like they experienced it — in the midst of spiritual family and community and celebration. I think they might explain to us how today we seem to be looking at church, and the whole of Christian living with it, through a skewed lens. Then, I think, they would take us right back to the Source Text.
“X” Marks the Spot
Scripture is a treasure trove of truth that lies open and ready to be discovered by anyone pursuing truth and the knowledge of God. The problem is emphatically not the clarity of Scripture. The problem, unfortunately, lies closer to home: far too often we have not intentionally sought out biblical knowledge, understanding, and insight when having our long and enamored debates about things. We have floated our ideas in places where we should have turned, in earnest, to Scripture for answers. If we let it, this sort of lazy, consumer-based, “what’s-in-it-for-me” Christianity will continue to leave the Church impoverished, listless, and drifting. On the other hand, there is boundless reward to be found in wading out a little deeper into the Word. For instance, if you read the context around the Romans 16 passage above, you’ll find that the Apostle Paul is an intensely relational guy: he’s deeply interested in what is going on in the individual lives of those that are being transformed in the churches that he’s planted and visited during his missionary travels. He continues to earnestly pray for those he has seen Christ at work in. He’s just as interested in the big-scale formation of the churches as he is in the small-scale transformation of particular lives and personalities. In fact, as I read the list of 27 people that the Apostle Paul refers to specifically and individually in Romans 16.1–16 (even to the degree that he shares distinct details about most of them), I cannot help but wonder if I’m reading an excerpt from the Apostle Paul’s prayer list. The man cares deeply for those he is ministering to and with and alongside. And seems to care quite little about himself in the scope of things (2 Corinthians 12.15). Even further, he is more likely to use the word “we” when referring to his ministry efforts than “I”. The lesson here is intense, it’s relational, it’s alive with meaning. And it’s right there for anyone looking. “X” marks the spot. This is the place where the twin issues of rightly understanding pastoral leadership and correctly defining church directly and profoundly meet. They touch at exactly the point where the real need for relationships and community enters the conversation.
When someone asks me how I define church (which happens with some frequency), my most common and often repeated answer is: real church is biblically-functioning community.
Because again (you may grow tired of me saying this, but) community only exists where there are real, meaningful relationships. And church only exists where there is real community. I don’t mean to step on toes, that is not my aim, but there is something here that must be said. It just must be.
- If you hate real estate or walking around homes, if it seems messy and boring to you: you probably shouldn’t become a realtor.
- If you faint at the mere sight of blood: it would be an unwise career choice to become a nurse or a doctor.
- If you hate livestock, early morning work, and manual labor: don’t become a farmer.
- If you can’t stand sheep, if they annoy you and make you want to spit: don’t become a shepherd.
- If you don’t really care about people, if it doesn’t intensely excite you to know the details of how God is working in someone’s life, if counseling and meeting with and praying for people is an annoyance in your otherwise clean and focused daily schedule: then don’t become a pastor.
Seriously, can anything be more plain to see? We live in a time when true spiritual leadership and soulcare seems to be a lost art. We live in the day of the superstar CEO pastor who cannot be touched or bothered by the everyday concerns of people. But can I just say it? This isn’t pastoring at all. The real pastoral culture that we find in the Word is one of incredibly close empowered service carved out of an atmosphere of humility and selflessness.
Real pastoring doesn’t happen under stage lights.
It happens over coffee and at unexpected moments. Real pastoring is soulcare, period. You say, “I’m an introvert. People annoy me. I have a hard time listening.” I say, “Hand me your pastor card.” Literally, I’m not kidding. Fork it over. Step away and find something else to do. Because, of course, the real issue is not what your personality-type is, where people fall on the personality spectrum will be rich and varied. The real issue is: What are you buying into? A relational, service-driven ministry model or a self-centered, positional one? Is authentic church leadership based on spiritual, relational authority or positional authority? (But here I digress, this last question raises a much bigger conversation for another context, but it has to be obvious that spiritual leadership is servant leadership, right?) Isn’t it clear which side Jesus prefers? Aberrant and self-motivated ministry has stained and clouded our picture of the church itself for too long.
So You Want to Be a Rockstar?
“I don’t know how to put this, but I’m kind of a big deal. People know me. I’m very important. I have many leather-bound books and my apartment smells of rich mahogany.” ..Ron Burgundy (yeah, I went there).
Christ’s charge to those desiring to be leaders stands in stark contrast to the world’s idea of importance. “Not so with you,” Jesus says, “Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant.” (Matthew 20.26) The Apostle Paul, “the pastor of pastors,” has a list of 27 people in just one of his many churches at one moment that he is praying for and intensely concerned about. In a time when writing was expensive, an exercise reserved for the wealthy, and when only the most important, life-changing information was communicated in writing: during this historical moment, the Apostle himself — the man called of God to take the gospel news to the gentile world — reserves a whole page of text just to say in essence, “Hey, I care about these people and so does God.” Wow! In fact, this is so much the aim of this text of scripture, that at one particular point Paul just comes out and says exactly that! Look in verse 10.
“Greet Apelles, a good man whom Christ approves.”
Paul himself, the big important man among big important men, prince among princes, leader among leaders, takes the time to stop and say, “Hey, you know that guy there in Rome, Apelles? Last time I talked to him he was struggling with acceptance over his past and had a hard time feeling the love of God and too often he’s not sure where he stands with the Lord. Well, the Lord wants him to know something: Christ told me to tell him that he’s a good man in His eyes and that He approves of him.” Whew! And this letter was to be read aloud to the church in Rome upon its arrival there. Can you imagine the life-impacting power that this simple little line must have had for Apelles when it was read in front of the whole church in Rome?! Soberly stop and think about this with me. Because, to be painfully forthright, there have been times in hanging around with pastors and leaders (while living life inside of “ministry circles”) when I have honestly wondered if these leaders could have listed ten people in their church by name, much less what was going on with them individually and what spiritual struggles they were having. In most cases, these weren’t even traveling pastors or itinerant speakers, these were men that had spent decades with some of the people in their church and still hardly knew them. Brothers and sisters, what has become of us? No wonder we are dazed and confused when we try to define “church” now: it’s become this distant, impersonal, and stage-driven thing! No wonder the world looks in from the outside with a mixture of contempt and disinterest. Church in Paul’s day was incredibly close, relational, alive with communication and activity. And the Lord was right there at the center of it all. As I ponder these things, as I have before over frequent and prolonged seasons, it makes my heart ache.
“Lord God, raise up some Pauls and some Timothys that can blaze the trail of love and truth again. Help our hearts to come alive to each other and You. Help us to see clearly once again.”
As a parting thought, let me say that I think one of the things that needs to be read and repeated over the church again and again in our time with an extremely loud voice (as George Whitefield said in the quote at the top), is the lesson that the Apostle John “the disciple whom Jesus loved” taught in 1 John 4…
“7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another… 19 We love because He first loved us. 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from Him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.”
The Shot Heard Round The World
“I am the greatest.” ..Muhammad Ali
“The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life.” ..Jesus
Emerson’s “Concord Hymn” that contains the line above (“the shot heard around the world”) is forever memorialized because it sparks something deep within our hearts. It speaks to us about something big enough to give our lives away to and for it. You see — it doesn’t matter whether you are a pastor, a leader, or an ordinary, everyday Christian — if you cannot love people in your life or (as in the case of a pastor or leader) in your care, Christ says, “Let’s take a step back here. I don’t think you understand Me at all. Let’s sit down and talk about this. And when you’re ready to start loving and caring again, then we can talk about putting you back in the game. Until then, stay right here on the bench.” With all the contemporary talk about discipleship, isn’t it apparent how badly we are missing the mark? You cannot have discipleship without relationships and you cannot have communion without community, you just can’t. In the same way that being sixteen is a necessary prerequisite to getting your driver’s license, you cannot have one without the other in place first. In the classic and timeless words of longtime, Christian songwriter Steve Camp:
“Don’t tell them Jesus loves them until you’re ready to love them too,
Until your heart breaks from the sorrow and the pain they’re going through.
With a life full of compassion may we do what we must do,
Don’t tell them Jesus loves them until you’re ready to love them too.”
