I guess you are familiar with that phrase. It conjures up a somewhat ridiculous mental image of a shotgun-toting redneck hunter slavering over a packed barrel of dead fish as he explosively unloads cartridge after cartridge. He can hardly miss. You would be surprised if he ever did.
Finding fault with the Church of Jesus Christ is a similar pastime. You don't need a microscope to discover flaws, uncover discouragements, see areas to improve or identify glaring shortcomings in our people and in our programmes. The very nature of the church as a community of spoiled human beings, saved from sin but nowhere near perfected, turns these possibilities into inevitabilities. I have been a Christian for 24 years and a deacon, elder or Pastor for 17 years and my honest appraisal of the thousands of Christians and scores of churches that I have encountered has led to two conclusions:
1. Christian churches are not faultless.
2. Christian people are not always what we would wish them to be.
If you are a new believer that may surprise you. If you are a new arrival at a large urban congregation with an engaging ministry and a dazzling array of programmes, that thought may not have crossed your mind. Nevertheless, the ideal of a perfect church this side of heaven may be attractive, but is no more than a naïve illusion.
Churches are populated by broken people and led by imperfect leaders, and at some point will grieve you. Unbelievable as it may sound, you may even grieve them too.
This week I have spent some time chatting to two different ministers - both of whom have given me permission to write this posting (hence the delay in approving and uploading it) - who know all about the pastime of barrel hunting.
Two churches.
One is at risk of implosion because of unguarded criticisms, internal gossip, and unwise words.
Whatever other problems may exist, her unity is in grave danger because unhappy church members have found it easier to flock together in criticism than to deliberately ‘love the brethren with a pure heart fervently’, speaking well of one another in love. Rather than sorting out their concerns, they are spreading them out. It was true what they said during WW2 – ‘Loose lips sink ships’. Sadly, loose lips also damage churches and spoil fellowship. Always.
The other has an imperfect Pastor. His ministry, to which I listen with some regularity, only manages to produce life changing sermons that leave me on the edge of my seat and longing for a deeper relationship with God about 70% of the time. The majority of the other 30% fails miserably and can only be categorised as ‘good’. Many of his congregation own mp3 players and are keenly aware that there are far better preachers to whom they can listen. His pastoral care of God’s people also appears inadequate, as he is only able to deal with the labour intensive, the urgent and the catastrophic on a regular basis, and needs to prayerfully prepare for pastoral visits rather than just arrive cold.
I am certain that their experience is not unique, and equally sure that I have only a partial awareness of two imperfect sides to each sad story.
I am grateful for the company of people here at WHBC. I am deeply grateful for a church that recognises the necessity, where possible, for plural, mutually supportive full-time ministry. I am thankful to God for a congregation of brothers and sisters who, broadly speaking, know that we are in a spiritual battle.
The conversations I have shared have reminded me again of the preciousness of unity and the beauty of unselfish mutual concern. It has driven me to personal prayer and to an increasingly urgent desire to see every believer here at WHBC commit to prayer for the presence of God in our midst.
Ephesians 5 tells us that Jesus, our Saviour, ‘loved the church and gave himself up for her’. He loved the church!
In her imperfections? In her failure to live up to my expectations? In her blindness to need? In her slow progress in all sorts of frustrating areas?
Yes. He loved the church.
And so should you.
We are to love his church because he commands us to do so.
It is easy to love the church in theory. We can pray for distant missionaries because we never have to worship in their alien culture; we can listen to recorded ministry from that American megachurch or that British community of Christians in another city because we never have to go there. Should we do so, I suspect it would not be long before the soap bubble of their perfection pops with a wet splat. It doesn’t take long for distant lush grass to reveal its weeds and bare patches when viewed close up.
You and I have to live in the real world – the location and time where God has placed us, and with the feeble individuals that God has positioned around us – not in an idealised Utopia. We have to love real people.
So how do we cope? How do we handle whatever disappointments we encounter? So what can I do to bless others and mirror the love Jesus has for the church?
Let me give you some practical and I hope simple suggestions:
1. Pray for the whole church family where you worship, and in particular those friends you know less well or enjoy speaking to least. Ask God for a new and deeper love than has been your experience previously. Pray for meaningful unity and harmony!
2. Deliberately seek to be a friend to others, seeking to reach out with determined encouragement to one fresh person every single week. Choose a random act of kindness and do it – regardless of how you feel or whether they reciprocate. Don’t wait for others to reach out to you – take the initiative.
3. Forgive anyone who may have ever hurt you. Unconditionally.
4. Confess your own sins before God. Sins of pride, criticism, gossip, careless words, unkind thoughts. Name them and forsake them. Indifferent about your church? Critical of her? Cynical? Ask God to help you and change you.
5. Pledge before God to always speak carefully and kindly of your fellow believers.
6. Pray often for the leaders of the church you attend and seek to encourage and support them.
The fact is, we don’t have the luxury of hermitage or isolationism. We have been called to community – ragged, imperfect, community - often alongside Christians who seem dysfunctional and weak. The rampant individualism of our post-modern, consumer culture where church is somewhere we attend to have our needs met is unbiblical and unhelpful. We need one another. More than that, we need to take our eyes from self and seek to truly love others around us – even when they are dissimilar to us and sometimes distasteful to us.
Isn't that what Jesus did?
Perhaps you could ask God to make the sentiments of this hymn real to you:
I love Thy kingdom, Lord,
The house of Thine abode,
The Church our blest Redeemer saved
With His own precious blood.
I love Thy Church, O God,
Her walls before Thee stand,
Dear as the apple of Thine eye
And graven on Thy hand.
Should I with scoffers join
Her altars to abuse?
No! Better far my tongue were dumb,
My hand its skill should lose.
For her my tears shall fall,
For her my prayers ascend,
To her my cares and toils be given
Till toils and cares shall end.
Beyond my highest joy
I prize her heavenly ways
Her sweet communion, solemn vows,
Her hymns of love and praise.
Timothy Dwight, 1752-1817
Posted by Danny at December 15, 2006 10:25 AM | TrackBack