A Post-It Theses for these Newfangled Glass Church Doors
by
Jared Wilson
In October of
2006, at
BCC is Broken, I posted 32 theses, a rambling rant of sorts reflecting my
convictions on the brokenness of the Church. I've excised some. Here's what
remains.
1. Discipleship is designed to be experienced in community. God saves
individuals, but He does not save them to an individual faith but to a kingdom
life populated with other citizens who share that faith.
2. The Bible designates one vessel to hold this kingdom community, and it is The
Church. You might fraternize with other believers in coffee shops, informal
communes, online chat rooms or forums, blogs, bars, or the big outdoors, but
only biblical churches satisfy the discipleship need for The Church.
(from DLE “But,
in the spirit of blogging, I will take exception to a couple of the points.
On #2: The Church isn't defined by its meetings. The Church is defined by the
Holy Spirit indwelling believers. You are the Church. I am the Church. We are
the Church. And we are the Church wherever we go, even to all those other lesser
encounters you mentioned. You are correct in #1 that God sets up His Kingdom as
a community. But to say that only happens within a formalized meeting of the
local church may be pushing that point too far and in too limited a direction. I
disagree that discipleship only occurs within a local church meeting. We both
know that no one church seems to have it all together on all aspects of the
faith. Where then do we find those missing pieces? I would contend we find
them in the very places you diminish. I would go so far as to say that in
today's churches MOST discipleship is found OUTSIDE the church proper. We can
debate whether that's the way it should be or not, but that doesn't change
reality.)
(Ian
said... “To continue DLE's thought regarding #2: Did Jesus do church? What did
that look like in the Gospels compared to our forms today? - no music, sometimes
stories, sometimes discussion in a small group, one on one. God was there for
sure. What did the church look like in Acts? They mostly met in homes that is
for sure. Mostly, it seems to me, that they are not very similar in what they
did in the meetings nor very similar to what we do most Sundays. Much of what
the church does and the structures and programs it runs today cannot be found
the bible. So my question is how does your definition of the church line up
with the bible?”)
3. Honest Christians will differ on what constitutes a “biblical church,” and
while disagreement is understandable and okay, beware of any church that says,
explicitly or implicitly, “we do it right” or “we do it better” than the church
down the street.
4. Ecclesiological one-upmanship (“My church is better than your church”) is a
sin.
5. The reason you should not give up on church or The Church is because Jesus
did not give up on you. And if He calls the church His Body, giving up on it
means giving up on Him.
(DA – I would
agree that we shouldn’t give up on being part of ‘His Body’ …. As
Jesus-followers, it seems important and expedient for us to stay connected with
one another … the follow-Jesus journey is difficult – it’s easier to do it in
the company of friends. However, commitment to Jesus and other Jesus-followers
is not necessarily the same as commitment to local organisations called the
church. We use the word ‘church’ in about 10+ different ways … my understanding
is that the one that Jesus calls his bride is the universal church – all
Christians who have ever lived – rather than a local organisation that calls
itself the church)
6. There are no perfect churches, especially if they have people in them.
7. Expecting a church to “fit” you or to always be comfortable or catering to
your needs is arrogance and foolishness.
8. You can pick your friends and you can pick your church, but as in all
families, you don’t get to pick who’s in The Body. Only God can do that. And
when you decide certain people (or certain churches) are not worthy of your
presence, ask yourself if you are worthy of God’s. (Hint: You’re not. But he
came into your life anyway.)
(DA – I think we
need to pick our ‘church’ very carefully – not because we need to find if they
are worthy of us – but rather because if we are going to commit ourselves to
joining to a body, we need to be sure we can relate well to some of the people,
and there aren’t any major differences/problems with control, beliefs,
practices, values etc that will cause trouble in the future)
9. My friend Bill Roberts has been doing church work for years. Two blog posts
he’s written you really should read are
More on “Why Church?” and
Is the Bride Beautiful?.
Seriously, click on them and read. They are important.
10. If the entirety of your churchy desires consists of filling a seat to
experience a good service, you are not a congregant in a church but a consumer
at a concert.
11. What you win people with is what you win them to. Win people with flash,
spectacle, presentation, etc., and that’s what you win them to. Don’t be
surprised if, like all consumers and what attracts them, they eventually get
tired and move on to the next attraction. Don’t be surprised if, provided they
remain, they continually request more, better, higher . . .
12. Church leaders don’t really need to choose between fidelity to the Gospel
and engaging the culture. They just need to make sure they put them in order.
First things go first and inform secondary things. Fidelity to the Gospel should
inform your cultural engagement, and not vice versa. If your first aim is to
please man, you will please some god, but it won’t be the God you want to
please. But if your first aim is to please God, you will please some men.
13. Some men won’t be pleased if your first aim is to please God. This is called
“the scandal of the cross,” or “the offense of the Gospel,” and it can’t be
helped if you are faithful to God’s Word.
14. Decide if you’d rather give people what they want to hear or what they need
to know. People need to know they
are sinners in need of a Savior. People want
to hear that deep down they’re okay and their good buddy J.C. affirms them in
their okay-ness, which is b.s. that helps nobody.
(DA – I’m not
convinced ‘you’re a sinner needing a saviour’ is necessarily the main/first
thing people today need to hear, or that it is necessarily/always even high on
the list. Jesus didn’t seem to spend a lot of his time telling people this)
15. You don’t have to beat people over the head when telling them what they
need, and in fact, if preached well and practiced incarnationally, you will find
that you will win more than you’d think.
(DA – heck,
there’s the ‘preach’ word … I wonder what he means … it seems evangelical in
this context)
16. You cannot program a church into success. Programs are great, but they are
applications. They are the “how” of doing church. Give up the tyranny of results
and start with the “what” and “why” questions first.
17. A church’s success should be neither entirely nor primarily measured by its
attendance. Also, a church’s growth should not be entirely or primarily measured
numerically.
18. It is okay to think about numbers and numeric growth. Beware of church
growth philosophy extremes. But the litmus test for whether something should be
done in or by a church should never be “will it increase attendance?”. Naked
ladies giving away free Krispy Kremes will increase attendance. Hiring Oprah
Winfrey to speak (preferably clothed) on self esteem will increase attendance.
It is okay to think about and strategize for numeric growth. But when you cut
corners on the Gospel or pander, you are not trusting God for that growth; you
are trusting yourselves.
19. Churches that advertise more in terms of what they’re against (“religion,”
“tradition,” “formality,” other churches, etc.) are playing to people’s
bitterness and will likely be filled with bitter, prideful people.
Defining yourself by what you’re not
gets old quick.
20. Let’s be clear: It’s not a sin to be unhip. If “religious” to you just means
“not down with the times,” religion is not your problem; idolatry is. C.S. Lewis
said, “To go with the times is of course to go where all times go.”
21. It’s not a sin to be unhip, but it is a sin to be boring when talking about
God or presenting His Word. It doesn’t actually
say that in there ;-), but if you
believe it is true when it says we shouldn’t be ashamed of the Gospel because it
has power to save, you should at least act like you believe it. This means that,
whether you’re doing the preaching or listening to it, if you are angry, sad, or
cynical more than you’re happy, joyous, and hopeful, you’re doing it wrong.
22. On the flipside of “it’s a sin to make the Gospel boring,” is that you can’t
make the Bible relevant. The Bible’s already relevant. Generations of churches
made it sound irrelevant but it wasn’t because they were unhip but because they
were unfaithful. Be honest about, engaging with, and faithful to the Gospel of
Jesus Christ, and people will see its relevance.
(From DLE – “I'm
not sure that people necessarily made the Gospel sound irrelevant because they
were unfaithful. If our idea of being faithful means we go down to the local
streetcorner with a megaphone and preach the Gospel, that may have worked a 100
years ago, but I doubt it would have the same impact today. People today want to
see us demonstrate in a practical way what we say we believe. Just don't shout
to me that I'm a sinner that needs God's grace, love me as Jesus loved. Be
willing to draw alongside me for as long as it takes for me to see Jesus. That's
not the way it used to be. We might say that the lack of love for others by some
Christians caused this "Prove it!" stance in people, but that doesn't change the
fact that what we once did may no longer work the same way.”)
23. Lots of people who think they have traded religion for a relationship with
Jesus have actually done no such thing. They’ve just traded an outdated religion
for a newer model. It is true that works will not save you – in fact, the truth
of salvation by grace in Jesus Christ should be shouted from the rooftops – but
if your “Christianity” is about incorporating Jesus into
your life in order to be happy or
successful or generally more at peace with yourself, guess what? That’s
religion. And it ain’t even a good one.
24. You can be just as prideful and in just as much “stale religiosity” in a
casual, informal, rah-rah “yea Jesus” church service as you can in a dressy,
formal, “serious” one, particularly if you are proud of being casual and
informal and rah-rah.
25. Worship is about connecting with God, telling Him and your fellow
worshippers how much He is worth. You can just as easily do that with loud drums
and electric guitars as you can an organ (and vice versa), provided your heart’s
in the right place. It has nothing to do with style and everything to do with
substance. You know you care more about the former than the latter when you
start thinking more about performance than praise.
(DA – even the
first sentence
of this really limits worship …. My understanding is that worship is, or should
be, an all-of-life thing, and then occasionally we might want to sing or shout
about it)
26. Worship is not just something you do to music. The quality of the Christian
life is one of worship.
27. These things are not things I’ve known so much as
learned in my slow, imperfect
journey with Jesus, and in the ongoing purification process the Bible calls
“sanctification” but which I frequently think of as “becoming less stupid.”