The minister's family - Chauncey and Jessie
Children from left to right: Autumn (8), Eric (10), Austin (11).
Although I hope to come to you soon, I am writing you these instructions so that, if I am delayed, you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God's household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth. (1 Timothy 3:14-15, NIV)
“It is more important than ever for the church to be healthy. It is often poor and dull, but it’s the best thing available. However sick the church is, this land would be much sicker without it… If Christians could see the church as a society of ministers in the world, they would approach the radical change Christ sought to initiate. If that were generally accepted, the change would not be small. It would be enormous.” – D. Elton Trueblood
It is way past time for the church to have a “checkup”! Maybe we would be healthier if we had an annual checkup, as our physicians recommend for our physical bodies. Why? A major reason is that, in terms of the metaphor used most often, the church is a body. Look again at the passage from Paul to Timothy! He defines “the church of the living God” in terms such as people and “God’s household.”
It is an error that borders on heresy to define the church in terms of buildings and staff… those only tempt us to do “attractional” ministry. For too long a working description of the church has been that it is “attractional, propositional and colonial” (So Beautiful, Leonard Sweet). So we invite people to “come to church” rather than inviting them to be a part of the church; we have defined church in terms of what, instead of who; and we think of “going to church” more in entertainment terminology and buildings, sanctuaries, pews, hymns, etc., when we should be saying that we are going to join with the rest of the church to worship, study, prayer, the ‘breaking of bread’ (communion), and fellowship.
In a communication received on Monday morning, Leonard Sweet spoke of how he was “fed-up” with what he categorized as “One-Calorie Christians.” The conversation had to do with how many Christians opt for a lifestyle that is best described as “bland, safe, dull, tasteless.” I was immediately reminded of the above quotation from Elton Trueblood. When the world in which we live is ‘sick’ is so many ways (economy, ecology, morality, etc.), it is all the more urgent for the church – the ‘body of Christ’ on Earth – to be healthy.
Maybe the best prescription is a hardy dose of Romans 8:12-17 and Romans 12:1-2. Paul’s descriptions are rather radical – “putting to death” and “being transformed.” In chapter 8 Paul instructs us as to what the Christian life is all about – “by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, [so that] you will live.” The Greek word he uses in Romans 12 for transformation is the same word from which we get metamorphosis – the process that makes a butterfly out of a caterpillar! Radical change!
The world needs something different. We are experiencing the frustration of using old, worn-out methods to bring about “new” results! The world needs for the church to be the church. In the words of 1 Peter 2 – we need to be “a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God.” Only in this way will we be able to “declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”
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