In the last few years I have been trying to summarize what I have learned about “church”  over the last forty five years and found it near impossible, much like when I tried to write about the importance of love.  Writing about “church”  is like trying to tame a hydra… as soon one head (topic) is addressed, two more pop up.  This is my attempt to identify the most essential truth I think people should know.

TL;DR

• Church is not optional: You aren’t going to find a perfect church, but get involved in a church that allows you to build a community of love.
• God is the head, not human leaders: Don’t let human created rules, programs, initiative, etc step on people. Leave room for the Spirit to lead and grant individual freedom to respond to what God is calling them to.
• Everyone is important: The church is to function like our body, each person has a unique and valuable role to play. All gifting is important. Everyone should have a way to contribute to the church, not just “clergy”.
• Love is the measure: Put simply by Jesus: the world will know we are His followers if we are loving each other. The mark of a Christian, and the mark of a healthy church is one that is characterized by love and care.

Church isn’t Optional for Christians

I know many people today who have become disappointed with institutional churches. They see originizations driven by humans who hunger after power, money, sex, and/or fame. A place that uses fear to control people rather than love to empower.

This is tragic… but Jesus doesn’t want us to give up. In John 13 He said the world will know we are His by the love we have for each other. The author of Hebrews urges us not to abandon the gathering together.

Don’t give up. Find a local church you can be part of. The question I would encourage everyone to asks is  “What church is God calling me to in this season of life”? Don’t be constrained by things like denominational alignment, narrow theological orthodoxy, or a particular worship style.

God is the Head

Too often members of a church, especially the leaders, forget that the church is God’s. It doesn’t matter what we want, what we think is best. The questions are:

• What is important to God?
• What does God want us to do?

I have seen numerous churches lock in on a very particular theology, methodology, or program, and insist that this is “the way” to believe, to act, or orginize. Everyone is expected to “fit in”. While this can produce a very “efficent” and “effective” orginization… this is not God’s recipe.  It’s ours.

I think there are three things which help us live into the truth that God is the head of the church:

1. Focus your attention and worship of God. Fall in love with, be amazed by God’s wonderous nature. Look to please Him, no one else.
2. Major in the Majors.  Simply put, recogize what’s important to God and focus on those things, not on human created orthodoxy.   Learn the most important lesson from the parable of the prodigal son.
3. Leave room for the Spirit to work. Grant people freedom to follow after how God is leading them. Don’t use a one size fits all program, system, etc. People who are living this way will exhibit humility. Those to are driven my their self will be arrogant.

Everyone is Important

I Cor 12, 14, and Ephesians 4 makes it very clear that the church is strongest when every person uses the gifting God has granted them to love and serve others. Leaders’ job is to equip and encourage every person to live into God’s calling, not to do all the “work” themselves, or to tell everyone else what to do.

There are several practical applications for this.

• There need to be meetings / gatherings that are small enough that everyone can contribute using their gifting.  See notes about group size.
• Significant roles must be availible to people who aren’t “on staff” or “clergy”.
• The church leadership needs to value all gifts and roles in the church. Too often I have seen churches that placed excessive emphasis on numerical growth and focus on leadership gifts to the exclussion of the other gifts. Other church emphasis “power” gifts or speaking in tongues, even though Paul pointed out that there is no gift that everyone has.
• The church needs to recognize that God gifts people, and calls them to service. There need to be opportunities for “grassroot” initiatives from people who aren’t “leaders”.

The book The Spontaneous Expansion of the Church by Roland Allen looks at the growth of the early church. Roland argues that the church doesn’t need complex structures and systems to be effective. Rather the church needs to free its members to follow after God. Too often, church leadership trying to control what is happening and how it’s happening. This is a mistake. The church is a group of people who are together, trying to follow after God and responding to what they are learning. The work of George Patternson and others has applied this lesson to the mission field. I think the out of print book The Church Unleashed by Frank Tillapaugh did a great job explaining what this might look like in a “modern” church in America.

Love is the Measure

Put simply by Jesus: the world will know we are His followers if we are loving each other. The market of a Christian, and the mark of a healthy church is one that is characterized by love and care. This means loving each other and finding true unity through that love. This is a theme well explored in Francis Schaeffer’s short book The Mark of the Christian and is discussed in the book A Church Called TOV.

If we care more about a narrow doctrine, a particular political or social issue to the point that we are hurting people, we are lost.

so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord. – Ephesians 3:10-11 (ESV)