Not Your Church

I’ve noticed two unhealthy extremes when it comes to church membership. On one end are those who won’t join a church, and when anything happens that they don’t agree with, they quickly find a new church. On the other end of the spectrum are members who claim ownership of everything related to the church and won’t relinquish control to anyone, even the pastor. This seems particularly true if the church is part of a denomination where pastors are assigned by an outside body and rotated frequently.

For the first person the mindset is “I don’t need to tie myself down to any church. I can go wherever I’m most comfortable.” For the second person it is “This is my church and I will outlast anyone who wants to change it.” I believe God’s response to both people would be “Remember whose church it really is—Mine.” Jesus said, “I will build My church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18). God “put all things under [Christ’s] feet and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all” (Ephesians 1:22-23).

If we are committed first to Jesus’ lordship, we will endeavor to obey His commands, including all the commands that require us to commit to one another in love and fellowship, “that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another” (1 Corinthians 12:24). Those who are inclined to church-hop are a bit like adopted children who only want to be in relationship with their Father and won’t connect with anyone else in the family. While all Bible-believing churches are part of the universal Church, God has given us localized bodies so we can relate to one another on an individual level.

If we are committed to His lordship, we will also obey His command to submit to those in authority over us, including pastors we may not agree with on everything. “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you” (Hebrews 13:17). That’s not to say that pastors and other leaders never make mistakes, but unless it is a doctrinal issue or a legal issue, there should be abundant grace extended. The wise pastor will seek counsel and weigh it carefully to avoid unnecessary conflict.

Christ is still the head of the universal Church and, whether we acknowledge it or not, the head of the local church. It’s not the pastor, not the elder board, not the bishop, not the denomination. Each of those may have some measure of delegated authority, but they are ultimately accountable to Jesus Christ. Much has been said about the increasingly rapid decline of church membership in the West. I believe that is largely due to a faulty understanding of the church. If it is merely a club to which we belong, then we can come and go as we please. But if it is a Body under the headship of Christ, we need to take seriously all the commands from our Head as to how we are to commit to and submit to one another out of love for our Lord.

“And He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything He might be preeminent” (Colossians 1:18).

© 2021 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture are ESV and all images are copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

Follow Me

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the church—both our local church and Church universal—and wondering whether the church is accomplishing what it is supposed to be doing. Even before the pandemic, nationwide church attendance and influence on culture has been on the decline. It’s easy to get discouraged and think perhaps we’ve failed. Or we get so hung up on traditions that we lose sight of our purpose.

If we remember that we are the Church, the question becomes more personal. Are we being the church as God intended? Are we fulfilling the “one anothers” of Scripture? Are we increasingly exhibiting the fruit of the Spirit? Sometimes I find myself thinking, “I wish church members would do ____,” but I’m not doing those things myself. I can’t judge others without passing judgment on myself. 

Dan DeWitt comments on Peter’s conversation with Jesus in John 21 following the resurrection:

“Peter turns toward the guy who is constantly referring to himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved, likely points his finger at him, looks at Jesus with eyebrows raised, and says in a huff, ‘What about that guy?’

“Jesus’ response to Peter is short: ‘What is that to you?’ In other words, that’s none of your business. Then Jesus repeats those two life-changing words: ‘Follow me’” (Sunny Side Up, 77).

“Not only does Jesus prevent us from comparing ourselves with others; he also doesn’t give us a ton of details about where he is going to lead us. That’s hard for all of us because we want to know what’s next. What comes after this first step of obedience? I can do it today, but what about tomorrow? But Jesus gives us a directive (follow me), not directions (this is precisely where I will lead you)” (79).

My path is not going to look exactly like someone else’s path. My gifts and ministry will take a different shape than yours. So the question is, am I doing the specific things that God has called me to do? Are you?

“Following Jesus isn’t easy or cheap. It will look different for all of us. Don’t be mistaken—it will cost us all something. But so will disobedience. Which will you choose?” (80).

“If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me… For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?” (Matthew 16:24, 26).

© 2021 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture are ESV and all images are copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

Growing Up Together

In his book, Why We Need the Church to Become More Like Jesus, Joseph H. Hellerman paraphrases author Bruce Malina’s description of a “strong-group” mindset:

“The individual person is embedded in the [church family] and is free to do what he or she feels right and necessary only if in accord with [church family] norms and only if the action is in the [church family’s] best interest” (ch. 3).

I suspect that in many churches if a pastor made that assertion this Sunday, he would be labeled as “cultist” and would soon be shown the door. In our individualistic Western culture, we don’t trust those who claim that “the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or the one” (to borrow a phrase from Star Trek). Yet isn’t that what Scripture consistently teaches?

“So with yourselves, since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church” (1 Cor. 14:12).

“…to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Eph. 4:12-13).

Hellerman goes on:

“It is not hard to see how (1) the anthropocentric approach to evangelism found in gospel tracts like The Four Spiritual Laws, (2) the framing of spiritual gifts in terms of personal fulfillment, and (3) the felt-needs focus of the seeker-sensitive movement contributed significantly to the seismic shift from ‘us’ to ‘me’ that occurred during the latter half of the twentieth century among American evangelicals” (ch. 5).

Is it any wonder that in the twenty first century we struggle to get people to darken the doors of the church with any kind of regularity? If the church is all about me, then I can choose my own path. But if it is about the wellbeing of the local body of believers, then my church family needs me and I need my church family.

“The church is a family, not a business. It is an organism, not an organization… The commitment to which Jesus calls us is a relational commitment, not an institutional commitment... To become a follower of Jesus is to become loyal to the people of God, not to a pastor’s vision or to the demands of a large church’s calendar of programs” (ch. 2).

Where the rubber meets the road for many of us in church leadership is in discerning how we can build that relational connection and commitment to the body either through the programs of the church or apart from such programs. Are the events on the calendar facilitating the growth of the church family or are they leftovers from a different era? Are we connecting people to one another or only introducing them to God? Are church members committed to each other’s growth or just checking off one more obligation?

“We grow in our faith as individual Christians to the degree that we are deeply rooted relationally in a local church community that is passionately playing its part in God’s grand story of creation, fall, redemption, and restoration” (preface).

Or as my pastor put it, “We grow together or we don’t grow at all.”

“We are to grow up in every way into Him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which is it equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love” (Eph. 4:15b-16).

© 2020 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture are ESV and all images are copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

Hearts Revealed

Once in a while I like to read The Message paraphrase of the Bible. These verses jumped out at me:

“It is God’s will that by doing good, you might cure the ignorance of the fools who think you’re a danger to society. Exercise your freedom by serving God, not by breaking the rules. Treat everyone you meet with dignity. Love your spiritual family. Revere God. Respect the government” (1 Peter 2:15-17).

Some of the actions we’ve seen this year make me wonder how many so-called Christians have actually read the Bible and know that there are verses like this in there. But then I saw Christianity Today’s article that there’s been a 5% drop in daily Bible reading among Americans in recent months. They speculate on lack of time and lack of in-person connection with the church during the pandemic. While that may be true in some cases, I think there is a more fundamental problem—a lot of people who call themselves Christians have no real interest in God or the Bible. If they are only reading the Bible or attending church out of guilt, peer pressure, or habit, the pandemic has not really changed their hearts but revealed them.

Many churches witnessed a temporary increase in engagement when we all went online at the start of the pandemic. Now the numbers are lower in many cases. And if you don’t count the people who are watching multiple church services online every Sunday, I suspect that most churches have seen an overall decrease in participation. The faithful Christians have remained faithful while many of the nominal Christians have dropped off the radar. I’ve never understood how a church can report more members than active members, and the gap between the two numbers is getting wider.

Although we may bemoan the statistics when this season is past, I don’t think it is necessarily a bad thing. Jesus recognized that there would be weeds growing among the wheat up until the harvest time (Matthew 13:24-30). He warned, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 7:21 ESV). It may take a pandemic to reveal which church members are actually followers of Jesus Christ and which ones are simply along for the ride. Pastors and leaders need to be able to see who are the true disciples of Christ and who are the ones still in need of salvation.

And church members themselves need to realize if they are among those whose hearts are not engaged with God. Some may be thinking, “You know, I really don’t believe this stuff and I don’t care about it,” and in their departure we need to be praying for God to change their hearts. Others may be realizing they’ve drifted away from their first love but they want to return, and so we welcome them back and pray for God’s continued work.

Jesus said, “A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits” (Matt. 7:18-20). All too often, it seems like we’ve accepted participation in church activities as the only evidence needed of good fruit, even if it has only been artificial fruit. And now that church activities are curtailed, we’re seeing that some people have never actually borne any fruit because they are not connected to Jesus Christ in a life-giving way.

So, to return to where I started, are we bearing the fruit of good works that point to God as our source of life and hope, and silences the ignorant talk of unbelievers? Are we truly living as “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9-10)? If not, we need to check our hearts.

“For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? …Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good” (1 Peter 4:1-19).

© 2020 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated all images are copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

Skinny Cows

Last fall Christianity Today published an article called “Here Come the Skinny Cows.” The authors present several cautions as well as valuable reminders as they look at trends in the church and culture. However, I admit I struggle with their concluding assessment, “To position our churches for long-term sustainability we must avoid unnecessary fears and the intrinsic limitations of a scarcity mindset.” The question for me is: what are unnecessary fears and what are realistic concerns?

I agree we can’t just hunker down and only do the bare minimum of ministry to try to make funds last. We always need to exercise faith in the One who gives us all things. But at the same time, we need to be good stewards of what He has already given us. Just as Joseph helped Egypt conserve grain for seven years before the seven years of famine came, we need to plan carefully for what seems likely to come. God put Joseph in that position for that very reason (Genesis 50:20).

Jesus, in His parable, commended the steward “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much” (Matthew 25:21 ESV). The servant who was chastised was the one who buried his talent in the ground so it couldn’t be lost or used for anything. He wasn’t willing to try something and risk failing.

At another time, Jesus said, “For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?” (Luke 14:28). While it is tempting to claim this as a divine mandate for strategic planning, that is to ignore the greater context of counting the cost of discipleship. “Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple… So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that He has cannot be My disciple” (27, 33). Perhaps then our planning needs to take the form of reminding church members that what they have is not their own.

The early church was fully invested in following their Savior as a united body. “And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need” (Acts 2:44-45). The “rugged individualism” of America today makes this seem like an impossibility. In many cases our churches are funded by what’s left, not what’s first. We are reluctant to surrender any of our comforts or advantages in order to follow Christ wholeheartedly and contribute freely to the ministry He has given us. It’s hard to even get church members to give of their time to assist in the functions of the church, much less contribute sacrificially.

If the “skinny cows” are indeed coming in the near future, we as leaders need to begin preparing now by clearly teaching the cost of discipleship and all that means for our tithes and offerings, our time and talents, and our daily priorities. If members aren’t willing to commit to their church body while things are easy, what will they do as our culture continues to turn away from Christian values? In some countries around the world the decision to be a Christian is a choice of life or death, not a choice of whether to go to church or to the kid’s ballgame. We’ve had it easy for a very long time when compared to the majority of church history.

I believe the other tangible step that we as churches and denominations can take is to assess the true needs for ministry in our communities. Do we need to have church buildings, land, and parsonages that require maintenance? Do we need to purchase Sunday school materials and bulletins? Do we need as many paid staff members? Are there things we should be doing that we aren’t? Are there less expensive ways to do what we believe God has called us to do? We should count the cost, not just in dollars and cents, but in obedience to the One we claim as our Savior and Lord. If we are not following His lead both individually and collectively, we are not being faithful stewards.

Even as we see the trends and evaluate where we are, we can find hope and peace in the fact that God will build His church “and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18). Our favor with culture may disappear entirely, but God’s purposes will prevail. We may lose everything else, but no one can take us out of the Father’s hand (John 10:29). If we continue to plant and water by faith, God will give the growth as He has determined (1 Corinthians 3:6-7).

“For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39).

© 2020 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated all images are copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

Dismembered

I’ve been reading an interesting fiction book Daughter of Time, by Sarah Woodbury, about a twentieth century woman who finds herself in thirteenth century Wales. At one point she is comparing social interactions between the two cultures, and she says of the twentieth century:

“As a rule, you’d never look at or talk to a person you didn’t already know—whether on the street, at a meal, or in a shop. Everybody behaves as if they are completely alone, even when—or especially when—surrounded by a crowd… Because chances are, you’ll never see any of those people again. It isn’t worth the time and effort invested… It’s because we don’t depend on each other anymore” (204).

That seems to me to be an apt description of our culture and, unfortunately, even many of our churches today. I was reminded of what we’ve been discussing in Sunday school about the Israelites preparing to enter the Promised Land. Obviously they had to work together to conquer the land, but there was more to it than that. From the time of the Exodus and the giving of the law at Mt. Sinai, the people had to gather together regularly to hear the word of the Lord and hear the law explained. They didn’t have written copies of the Scriptures in every household. Worship and sacrifices had scheduled times and places. Their religious experience was communal, not individual.

Western culture today has made everything individualized. We all have access to multiple Bibles, commentaries, studies, sermons, podcasts, and other media that make it easy to “do religion” without ever interacting with another person. Yet that was never God’s intent for the Body of Christ. We can tend to resemble a bunch of scattered parts rather than an assembled body.

One of my jobs for the denomination is to compile the statistics submitted on church reports. It has long been the case that out of all the church members reported in our denomination, only about 64% are considered active members, and only about 60% are attending regularly. (However, I will say that we don’t have consistent definitions of member, active member, or attendance.) In some churches, only 20-30% of those listed as members are actually attending. Our denomination is not alone in this. An article on Christianity Today comments “Today, if ten people become church members, average attendance grows by five or six.” That article refers to an article by Thom Rainer that is both compelling and convicting. He offers five reasons church attendance is declining:

1) We are minimizing the importance of the local church.
2) We worship the idols of [personal and family] activities.
3) We take a lot of vacations from church.
4) We do not have high expectations of our members.
5) We make infrequent attendees leaders in our churches.

It can be depressing to see the trends and wonder what we can do to change them. It has become apparent to many leaders in many churches that our first responsibility is to pray. We must pray for God to work in the hearts of those who have walked away from the church (or even from the faith). We must pray about our own priorities and submit them to God’s will. We must pray about who we will put into leadership positions, and then continue to pray for them once they are there. We must pray for our church leadership to put God’s glory above all others things and to seek His will in all decisions. “You can do more than pray after you have prayed, but you cannot do more than pray until you have prayed” (John Bunyan).

“To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of His calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by His power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Thessalonians 1:11-12 ESV).

© 2019 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated all images are copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

Family Camp 2018 and Other Thoughts

Last week at Family Camp Pam Buchanan was teaching from two books—One Month to Live, and The Four Things that Matter Most. The discussion centered around Psalm 90:12, “So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom” (ESV). What would you make sure to do or say if you knew you only had a month to live? We often live as if we have unlimited tomorrows. Early in the week I happened to read the following from Liturgy of the Ordinary by Tish Harrison Warren:

“Christians are people who wait. We live in liminal time, in the already and not yet. Christ has come, and he will come again. We dwell in the meantime. We wait. But in my daily life I’ve developed habits of impatience—of speeding ahead, of trying to squeeze more into my cluttered day. How can I live as one who watches and waits for the coming kingdom when I can barely wait for water to boil? …Time is a gift from God, a means of worship. I need the church to remind me of reality: time is not a commodity that I control, manage, or consume” (104, 108).

Our priorities get distorted and we often fail to do the things that matter most—seeking God, mending and tending our relationships with others, and making disciples of all nations (starting at home).

Ron Thomas was the Bible teacher at camp, and part of our discussion was on the relevance of the Church in today’s culture. Once again I stumbled across a couple quotes in Liturgy that directly related. (God does that to me frequently.)

“If we believe that church is merely a voluntary society of people with shared values, then it is entirely optional... Our relationship with God is never less than an intimate relationship with Christ, but it is always more than that. Christians throughout history—Protestants, Catholics, and Orthodox alike—have confessed that it is impossible to have a relationship with Christ outside of a vital relationship with the church, Christ’s body and bride” (118).

“We profoundly need each other. We are immersed in the Christian life together. There is no merely private faith—everything we are and do as individuals affects the church community. Yet many believers of my generation are not sure what the church is for. Some have denigrated the need for it all together. We have produced a me-centered faith that would be foreign to most Christians throughout history... But if Christianity is not only about my individual connection with God, but is instead about God calling, forming, saving, and redeeming a people, then the church can never be relegated to ‘elective’ status... The preservation of our faith and the endurance of the saints is not an individual promise; it is a promise that God will redeem and preserve his church—a people, a community, an organism, an institution—generation after generation, and that even the gates of hell will not prevail against it” (120).

This dovetails nicely with discussions we’ve been having at our church on what the church is and what it means to be a church member. Church membership is about more than having your name on a list somewhere, or showing up for an occasional service. It is a commitment to a group of people who love Christ and desire to encourage, equip, build up, serve, help, and hold one another accountable. We are to be partners in spreading the good news of salvation and teaching new believers how to follow Christ. We are brothers and sisters in Christ with a bond closer than that of blood.

“The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you,’ nor again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you’” (1 Cor. 12:21).

© 2018 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated all images are copyright free from pixabay.com.

Fully Invested

In Philip Yancey’s book Vanishing Grace, he shares part of the story of Gina Welch, an atheist journalist who decided to research Christianity from the inside. Her story of involvement with a church eventually became the book In the Land of Believers: An Outsider’s Extraordinary Journey into the Heart ofthe Evangelical Church. Over the course of a year she went undercover to join a new members’ class at Jerry Falwell’s church, attended their singles ministry and worship services, got baptized, and joined a mission trip that included street evangelism… all without becoming a Christian. Her conclusion? “What I envied most about Christians was not the God thing—it was having a community gathering each week, a touchstone for people who share values, a safe place to be frank about your life struggles, a place to be reminded of your moral compass. Having a place to guard against loneliness, to feel there are others like you.”

That comment made me wonder whether many who call themselves Christian would say much the same thing. Particularly in America, it seems that the church has become more of a social club for moral, likeminded people than a place to meet God and learn to follow Him. Some mega-churches continue to thrive despite obvious faults in the teachings being presented. Families seek out churches with lots of programs for their children. Church social events draw bigger crowds than Sunday school and prayer meeting combined. It’s been noted that the more spiritual the activity, the fewer people interested in attending. Pastors and church leaders have a pretty good idea who is fully invested and who is just along for the ride. Although statistics can be misleading when it comes to spiritual growth, they do reveal what percentage of the membership shows up for different types of events. Faith can become a tangent for church members rather than the central purpose of life.

As was noted in Sunday’s sermon on Jesus the Teacher (podcast here), within the church we tend to focus more on the fact that Jesus is our Savior than on His teaching. If we pay attention to what He taught while on earth, as well as what is taught in the rest of Scripture, we may be challenged to do some things we don’t want to do. Having Jesus as Savior is comforting, but calling Him Teacher and Lord can take us out of our comfort zone. Having a circle of supportive friends is comforting, but holding one another accountable to be obedient to Scripture can be uncomfortable.

In thinking about this subject, I looked at several different church covenants and how they define membership. While they vary in the wording and specific expectations, the general idea is that members are to participate in the activities of the church and in the spiritual disciplines for the purpose of growing in relationship with God and with one another as the Body of Christ. How many people would forego church membership if such membership covenants were always taught and members were held accountable by one another? But we don’t want to step on anyone’s toes and imply that freedom and independence are not biblical values, so we build our cozy social club sanctuaries and then wonder why people only show up when they feel like it.

We’re treading on dangerous ground when we treat church membership with such nonchalance. On the Judgment Day, there will be many who say, “Lord, didn’t I attend church frequently, and helped clean up after the potluck dinners, and sorted clothes for the shelter?” And He will say, “I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness” (Matthew 7:23 ESV). I certainly don’t want to hear that for myself or for any of those within my church family, do you?

“Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these [the new heavens and new earth], be diligent to be found by Him without spot or blemish, and at peace… Take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.” -2 Peter 3:14, 17-18