Yeshua Explored

14th February 2022

Inherited ways

Difficult questions for the Church today

(This series of articles was written at the beginning of the first lockdown in March/April 2020)

Previous articles are still available on the Premier Christian radio website – https://www.premierchristianradio.com/Blogs2/Yeshua-Explored  – (until they finally pull the plug!)

Let’s first return to the questions posed in an earlier article:

• How many true discipled converts have you seen arising from within your local Church?

Firstly, personal observation. In my 33 years of Christian life, I have been part of three fellowships and can count on one hand the number of converts that I know of, who have been produced through the endeavours of these churches. This is not a criticism of these churches, just the system. A friend of mine, an “itinerant” Anglican vicar, regularly gets called up by parish and village churches to give “the sermon” on a Sunday. I asked him how he pitches it, when he doesn’t know the spiritual state of the congregation. His answer was, that’s easy, I just expect none of them to be true born-again believers … even the vicars! On the other hand, I have been privileged to meet many individual evangelists who God has used mightily to bring people into the Kingdom, through chance encounters, personal contact … very rarely within a local church setting. In short, I have seen more breakthroughs from individual Christians than from within local church initiatives. The Great Commission is alive and well and living within the hearts of individuals, it seems, but not so much within the structures we create around it:

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:28-30)

I have spoken at scores of fellowships over the years, as have other teachers from our Foundations team and, sadly, we can all testify to the sorry state of the local church in terms of lack of real organic growth of soundly-discipled believers. Of course, as already noted, this is not intended to be a sweeping condemnation, as there are local fellowships that are flourishing and not just producing converts, but discipling them too.

• Are all pastors truly called into ministry, or are some no more than professional clergymen seeking to satisfy their own dreams and ambitions?

There is the function of pastor …

So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, (Ephesians 4:11)

Then there’s the “office” of pastor, where the function (or calling) may or may not be apparent. The latter may dominate with those who insist on the title (“pastor”) or who operate in ways other than as a gentle, servant-hearted shepherd of the flock. Such a situation can lend itself to abuse in two ways; they can end up being the go-to “professional”, taking on tasks they are clearly not gifted for, or they can create an atmosphere of control, where all activities of the congregation have to be cleared first by the pastor.

• Does everyone within a local church system always find their true calling and discover the gifts that God has freely given them?

This is one of the features of Hebraic Church, mentioned earlier. It seems to me that the problem in today’s Church is that there doesn’t seem to be a culture of identifying and encouraging gifts. Sadly, evidence seems to indicate that the only gift that is encouraged by those in leadership and running para-church ministries is the gift of giving. The impression seems to be, as a consequence of the continuous influence of Platonism, that we still have a divide between clergy and laity, where the latter’s main role seems to be that of resourcing the former! Grand words such as “angels” and “partners” should cut no ice. If you give the impression that the vast majority of Christians have no other role than sending cash to the “clergy” (particularly those with media ministries) then you are depriving them of developing and using the gifts that God has given them or wants to give to them.

I once met a “pew filler” at a thriving church who turned up to services and mid-week meetings. He had been an apostle and church planter in Zimbabwe before moving to the UK. His new church knew nothing of his past life, nether was there a structure in place to accommodate his unique giftings. I am sure we all have similar stories, folk that we know with the most wonderful gifts from God, but never called up to use them by their local church.

• Has God ever spoken to you during a service and have you had space and time to respond?

You sit there listening to a sermon and something stops you in your tracks. You want to think and meditate on it, but the service has moved into the next item of the agenda. You are hearing church notices but all you want to do is to thank the Lord for His life-giving Word and want to do it now! Or, something has hit you deep in your spirit and brought up an issue that you need to deal with, now that you are in the moment.

So the preacher has hit a spot. What do we do with it? Yes, the flower rota is interesting, but I’ve got issues to deal with … now! Sometimes we just need to have some space to respond. This is not consistent with the linear nature of ‘doing Church’ we have inherited, with ‘orders of service’. Orders of service? Since when has God done anything in order? He has a tendency of breaking into our lives when we are not expecting Him, or disrupting our plans. He is, of course, a ‘God of order’ but He is not a God Who we can order about. That would be a very English God, one who abides by our programmes and schedules. Who heals only when we ask Him to, Who wakes up just in time for our earnest ‘times of worship’. We must think Hebraically, as He does, expect the unexpected, even when it gets messy!

• How well has your local church adapted to Flockdown? Have the leaders seen it as a temporary disruption, to be swiftly abandoned when things get back to normal?

Only time will tell on this one. Let’s revisit Haggai:

“You have planted much, but harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.” (Haggai 1:6)

The thrust of this seems to be that the inherited ways of doing things may not be the very best in God’s eyes, and, therefore, may not produce much fruit!

Let’s consider the hiatus we have been presented with through Flockdown. It is a window of opportunity to re-evaluate how we’ve always ‘done Church’. Are there things we have missed doing, or have not missed doing? Have we considered whether, Biblically, we should have been doing them in the first place or are they just man-made products of Church tradition? These could be matters of ritual, liturgy, bricks & mortar, doctrines and practices. Are we brave and forward thinking enough to be considering these things?

We may not get another chance to do this.

This is an extract from the book, Flockdown: Is the Church out for the count?, available for £5 at https://www.sppublishing.com/flockdown-263-p.asp