Assessing Threats to Church Effectiveness

He leads me …

Should Christians pay attention to any transgressions in the church? Some people think that this issue can be complicated. In fact it is quite simple. If the church gets its own house in order, then it will be seen by those outside the church to be practicing what is preached and leading by example. With the resulting credibility that comes from this, the church’s impact in the community is likely to be positive for both sides.

Churches can find that they are concerned with all kinds of issues in the world like the homeless, poor, elderly, drug addicts, and sick, while ignoring the sin in their own congregation. It is very easy to get worked up about cultural problems that face people in the surrounding suburbs, while overlooking any problems with our own spiritual standards.

 The apostle Peter told Christians in Asia Minor (modern Turkey) that ‘the time has come for judgment, and it must begin with God’s household.’ (1 Peter 4:17 NLT). This means to purify and save people, starting with the church folk. Then those who are saved and purified are then able to minister effectively to those outside the church.

Christians are people who look both outward and inward. The apostle James’ caution to the first-century church reads, ‘The Christian who is pure and without fault, from God the Father’s point of view, is the one who takes care of orphans and widows, and who also remains true to the Lord - not soiled and dirtied by their contacts with the world.’ (James 1:27 NLT).

We see from this that the church should first make sure that any sin is dealt with among the believers, so that they can effectively serve those in need outside the church. However, they are to ‘remain true to the Lord - not soiled and dirtied by [their] contacts with the world.’ As much as the ideas and actions of those outside the church may look appealing and convincing, the apostle James says that we are to stay true to what the Lord expects of us. People will then see why the Christian way is the better way.

How can the church be seen as having a better type of lifestyle if it is basically no different from everyone else? What standards are going to attract non-believers to God and the church if they are just the same as what everyday people are already experiencing?

Some church goers think that by making adjustments to their culture so that outsiders can relate and therefore feel more comfortable will make church more attractive. After all, it will increase the numbers in the church and therefore the income, thereby enabling the church to have more money to be more effective in the community. The problem with this is that while it may work in the short term, in the long term visitors will see that there is nothing really that makes the church stand out in general society, so that all they are really just another service club.

Parents, pastors and any Christian who teaches should be able to provide discipleship that prepares believers to live out their faith in a world that opposes Jesus. In fact all Christians are required biblically to humbly keep their personal spiritual lives in order. This then includes the sins inside the church, which when dealt with simultaneously provides a faithful witness to the watching world while also helping the congregation to keep their eyes focused on Jesus Christ.

This means that Christians will need to humbly resist any cultural pressures with kindness and gentleness, as well as with courage and civility, knowing that any faithful believers will always be strangers in this world until Jesus returns (1 Peter 1:6-7).[1]

Before we start to think that these points are not the reality of how church is run, let us consider what worked in the Book of Acts. Remember that that the Christians in the first churches had no examples to work from. Their only option was to trust the Holy Spirit.

The disciples had been commissioned to evangelise the world, but this call was looking incredibly daunting. The world as they saw it was and broken and spiritually contaminated, and their first major obstacle was that both the Jews and the Romans were a significant threat to getting the Good News out to the people.

When the Holy Spirit came upon them, they began to see the world in a completely different sense. This was to be expected because the Spirit works in and with all faithful Christians the same way  

·      ‘Don’t you realise that you yourselves are the temple of God, and God’s Spirit lives in you?’ (1 Corinthians 3:16-17 Phillips)

·      ‘Now God gives us many kinds of special abilities, but it is the same Holy Spirit who is the source of them all. The Holy Spirit displays God’s power through each of us as a means of helping the entire church.’ (1 Corinthians 12: 4,7 TLB)

·      ‘The Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name [Jesus], will be your teacher and will bring to your minds all that I have said to you.’ (John 14:26 Phillips)

·      ‘When the Helper comes, He will show the world the truth about sin. He will show the world about being right with God. And He will show the world what it is to be guilty.’ (John 16:7-8 NLV)

·      ‘And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness.’ (Romans 8:26-27 NLT) 

With the Holy Spirit’s help the killers and assassins who the disciples had previously been afraid of, now became people who needed to hear about salvation. The disciples were obviously the only ones who could tell them.

With the disciples vision of the world changed, their own attitude changed as well. Fear turned into boldness and anger turned into love. They were ready to do the Lord’s work of spreading the Good News to the lost. This was a really significant change in the disciple’s lives, and the church needs this shift again today. 

According to Luke, the spread of the gospel required a break from what the disciples had been used to. They stopped obeying the rules of men and started following the direction of God, even if it brought suffering. We read this with the courage shown by Peter and John in the presence of the authorities (4:19); how the first Christians cared for the poor (4:32-35); and in the error of Ananias and Sapphira (5:1-11).

God was changing how they saw the world in order to change their attitude to the world. In Acts 10:9-16 Peter learns about the salvation of the Gentiles, showing that being led by the Spirit brings some unexpected results. 

The book of Acts provides other passages that show that when someone exercises their faith, changes occur with the power of the Holy Spirit - but only when the believer looks for it. Not to see this change could identify a ‘heart not right before God’ (8:21). The solution - ‘repentance and prayer’ (8:22).[2]

This model has proved to be the way to get the right results ever since the New Testament church began. Now it is over to us to continue God’s way to provide Him glory.

Dear Reader – If you have found some value in this blog, please feel free to send a copy on to your family and friends. Kind regards, John

[1] In Here, Out There: On Assessing Spiritual Threats, Dan Darling, One Little Word, Substack

https://dandarling.substack.com/p/in-here-out-there-on-assessing-spiritual

[2] How the Unified Church Can Respond to Global Corruption: A Call which Will Impact Millions, Robson Pereira Category, Lausanne World Pulse.com; https://lausanneworldpulse.com/perspectives-php/145/12-2005