Reading: Ephesians 4:1-16
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Church has evolved quite a bit from the first century that it’s hard to read about these churches in its proper context. Today, we have churches at every corner. It seems rather fitting in our consumer-driven society. What flavor do you like? How much Calvinism would you like with your cup of tea? How high would you like your hierarchical church? Do you like greater denomination accountability or less? What type of polity sandwich would you like? How hot do you prefer your corporate worship – the mild organ or the flaming electric guitar? Oh, the choices we have!
On one hand, choices are good. As a friend of mine says, “It takes all types of churches to reach all types of people.” On the other hand, choices can limit us. They can limit us because what we look for in a church are people who are just like us. They believe the same things (or close enough to it), they act the same, they look the same as us, perhaps they are in the same economic class. We go where we’re most comfortable. That doesn’t stretch us very much, and as a result, we’ve become very bad at working out our differences.
In the first century, because accepting Christ often meant being ostracized from one’s family, finding people who were also believers was everything. They didn’t have an extensive library on how to live the Christian life, lessons on theology, or sermon podcasts. Forget the notion of “Bedside Baptist” or “Mattress Methodist.” For them, church was their community, their kinship, and their family.
There weren’t churches on every corner; generally there was just one for every major city or so. The church had a challenge. People brought their baggage – their sinful habits, their heresies, their personal problems, their emotional tendencies, their cultural differences to the group. In 1 Corinthians, we get a hint of just how screwed up that can be. The church had to balance the seeker sensitive and the mature. It had to take stands on theology, and it didn’t even have a canon of Scripture. Imagine the difficulty they had in working out their differences. They couldn’t just leave. They didn’t have anywhere to go.
Over the years, I’ve seen people leave a church and go to another one for a variety of reasons. Most of us have done the same. But can I be honest with you from a leadership standpoint? One of the most frustrating things is when someone leaves over an issue without trying to help fix the problem. I could understand it if people said, “I brought this issue up to the leadership months ago and nothing seems to have been resolved, and I’ve done everything I could.” But many times the individuals do not say anything, let the situation brew, and finally they just leave. “This is what the problem is, and by the way, we’re outta here.”
Could you imagine having a home with a leaky roof and saying, “Okay family, we’re leaving this house!” No, of course not. You have too much invested. Unless you’ve got oodles of money, you’re going to have to sell the home (after you make the necessary repairs) and buy a new one. You don’t just leave. You do what you can to fix what’s broken.
Churches are not perfect and never will be. Period. That is such a critical point to understand. We all have issues because the church body is made up of people with issues. We all bring our baggage to the table. Nobody is perfect – not the Sunday School teacher, not the Elder, not the Pastor. We have quirky personalities and odd habits, not to mention our wide spectrum of beliefs. The key is to commit ourselves to a ministry of love and grace. Church isn’t just a place to be entertained and be ministered to, it is a place where we minister, and we ought to expect the changing power of the Holy Spirit to work in both our lives and those within our church community.