The Goldilocks Church

And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything. For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come (1 Thessalonians 1:6-10).

I’m not a church romantic.  By that I simply mean that I don’t believe there has ever been a “golden era” for God’s people – a time when we had it all together on every front.  I do believe that some churches are healthier than others.  The New Testament alludes to that in several places.  I think we can see it today, too. 

The reading from First Thessalonians sets off a variety of experiences in me.  It encourages me. It offers a sketch of a young church coming to its feet and what life for them was like, at least in the early going.  It also exists as a kind of mirror:  What do you see in you…in your people…in your generation’s discipleship that resembles the snapshots of faith and community “back then?’ 

A simple reading of First Thessalonians discloses a picture of people coming to faith amid considerable trials and suffering…by choice.  They had to count the cost before they made the good confession and entered community (3:1-5).  They didn’t grow up “in church.”  They had to think about what they believed and whether or not they wanted to give their lives to a message that was going to cost them something, maybe everything.  Gospel and confession preceded community.  Trying to woo them with a latte bar and playground would have been ridiculous (Acts 17; 1 Thess. 2:14).  In fact, Paul didn’t do that.  He told them something else.  Read 3:1-5!

Fast forward to the present.  I listened to a handful of believers lament the decline that is evident in evangelical churches in general.  “We are losing people right and left,” one said.  Churches are shrinking.  Over 2000 churches close their doors in this country each year.  Some decried the growing irritability and restlessness that plagues so many churches.  “It’s just difficult to keep people happy,” another said.  "Ministry just isn’t much fun anymore."  Fun?  Hmmm.  Let’s think about that one for a minute.  

Sometime later I made the comment that the choice to leave faith community and go on a spiritual boat ride to "wherever" can be diagnosed a lot of ways.  Every congregation has things that can and should be improved.  People have emotional and spiritual needs that should be addressed.  However, what is happening is people simply “quitting on the Lord.”  Nobody wants to put it like that.  But the sad truth is we are buying the lie that “being in Christ but in my privacy is okay" and “being in the body as a known, present, engaged person" is little more than a subjective preference.  Being in the body of Christ is…well…optional.  It’s impolite to suggest otherwise.  We aren’t really into salvation and “thy kingdom come”.  Evangelism has been tailored by a variety of things to mean…well…whatever.  It’s really about being polite and deferring to sophistication and being a part of what we deem church to mean.  We read scripture selectively.  The various things in the air we breath have affected in unmistakable ways how we think about faith and kingdom.  And, it has become a machine that dictates what we can say and who we can say it to.  Please don’t misunderstand me.  I’m not talking about being rude and weird.  Or, whether we read from the KJV or what women can and can’t do, or 29 other things that we allow to intrude into this conversation.  I want to go deeper than that.  The symptoms we are experiencing right now – the stuff my chat group was talking about earlier! – are pointing to something else.  The ground is shifting beneath our feet and we need to pay attention.  I’m talking about how we think about our faith and commit ourselves to it.

Remember the story about Goldilocks and the Three Bears?  “Goldi” had trouble finding “just right.”  The soup was too hot and then too cold.  The chairs were too big and too small and then the right one broke! The beds were too hard and too soft.  It took a while to find “just right.”  But she did…eventually.  Good for her.

 

That’s well and good for soup, chairs and beds.  But what about church?   

We are a consumerist culture that shares much in common with the story of Goldilocks except for the “just right” part.  We are in a constant state of “dis-ease” that has created all kinds of diseases of the mind and heart.  We can’t sleep or eat in peace because we are constantly looking for some adjustment to make church worth our while or that will fill our need.  That’s the problem.  We begin with “our need” which has become a euphemism for narcissism. 

I was struck again while reading several stories about Christians around the world with the gap that exists between their conversations about kingdom, faith and life and what preoccupies our chat time.  Traditionally, such stories have proved to be a good exercise for me personally.  It helps me keep my wits about me.  I read about congregations that are half the size they were two years ago because of death by persecution or, because several of their members had to flee to another area.  Story after story sketched out the daily trials people contend with that are faith related.  Believers living in duress have to fight to be together.  Community is a struggle to sustain and regarded as a treasured possession given to them by the Holy Spirit.  They are together because of the gospel first and secondly because of “who is in the room with them.”  Theology drives and regulates sociology.

We have this inverted in America!  Sociology and consumerism determine the extent of our engagement with community and our commitment to the gospel.  Don’t like something….leave!  The other store…I mean…the other church….will prepare it the way you like it.  Goldilocks! 

You can see it and hear it in how we talk about doctrine, especially baptism.  Doctrine is selectively embraced depending on who is standing in front of us.  Professionalism, money, their “potential” determine what “welcome” means.  We “need them” originates in a human place with a little theology thrown in for spice.  Being a part of us is more about us than the “confession of faith” we are supposed to hold in common.  Come to think of it, what does “us” mean?  Are we essentially saying, “thanks for your work Jesus and apostles….we will take it from here!  For some reason Ephesians 2:20-22 comes to mind. 

The Corinthians tried this and Paul countered.  He asked them, with sarcasm mind you, “ For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?  Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich.  Without us you have become kings! And would that you did reign, so that we might share the rule with you!....Or was it from you that the word of God came? Or are you the only ones it has reached? (1 Corinthians 4:7-8; 14:36).  Sometimes arrogance will not bend an ear to kind reason. “Who do you think you are?” Paul asks. The tragedy of it all is that they thought they were so far ahead (progressive?) that they had forgotten what it means to be a community in the Spirit (3:1-3, 16-17; 6:19-20; 11:17-30; 13:1-13; 15:1-58). 

 

We need to get some things figured out soon before the three bears come home and a whole lot more! 

Are we people of faith or people of the Christian religious gathering?  There’s a difference.  We need to think about our preaching.  I know I do.  What are we talking about each week that matters…really?  If an apostle spent six months with us would he understand our talking points?  What are we doing in our small groups?  Are we gathering and growing or just gathering?   Elders need to do real diagnostic work.  We might ask, “Where are we…really?  What’s happening to our people?   Do we know?  What new trumpet charge needs to sound that will awaken our people to the call of the Lord?  Does it begin with us?  When we talk about church, faith, ministry and such are we, to borrow a west Texas adage, “all hat and no cattle?”  Do we major in meetings and minor in ministry?  Let’s throw pride and sophistication to the wind and lay ourselves before the Lord.   

Summon the body of Christ to think about their faith.  Moses and Joshua did it.  The prophets did it.  Jesus and the early Christian writers did it.  We need to do it, too.  Sluggish thinking and novel conversation make us weak.  We need to get personal.  Why are you in this?  We aren’t ordering hamburgers here or asking about your favorite devo song.  What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus…to you?  Are you torqued about something?  Fine.  Is your beef worth our time?  Should we listen to you?  Make your case…if you can.  And, do you serve as much as you gripe?  If not, take a number and get in line. We’ll get to you once we have finished with “Thy kingdom come Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”  May take a while.  Be patient. 

Faith is confessional first and communal second.  We are introduced to community through the gospel.  Acts 2:41 says “and there were added to their number about 3000.”  If we think community first and gospel second it’s a short walk to consumerism and community according to “me.”  Every believer should obey from the heart that form of doctrine which saves (Romans 6:17).  When the gospel is central then community takes its cues accordingly.  That’s the message of Philippians 2.  Paul says, “Look at Jesus…now look at yourselves” (Phil. 2:12-18).  Getting this order right is first order business.  We spend absolutely too much time thinking about ministry, community life and kingdom business in the order “people first and gospel second.”  We say it in reverse but that’s not how we talk it.  “Who is God and what does the gospel look like in this situation” is the line of thought that should drive every conversation.  And, the church comes along for the ride. 

We are body builders.  Ephesians 4:16 says that every member contributes to the growth of the body.  There are no extraneous members in the body of Christ.  Our posture should be toward what benefits the body.  With all the mess going on in the church at Rome Paul commends people who were in the middle of it “working hard in the Lord” (Romans 16:1-16).  Nobody is born again and added to “hermitville.” 

If we hope to see any of the above get traction in our congregations, we must think small and intentional.  This kind of conversation will not be sowed, nurtured and harvested in a big setting.  We need conversations….lots of them.  We need settings in which disciples understand that everybody is expected to bring something to the table.  This is not a spectator sport.  Jesus’ parable in Matthew 25:14-30 about the three stewards reminds us that everybody is a steward of the manifold grace of God.  Nobody watches from the sidelines.  On this team…everybody is in the game!  In such gatherings we will learn about each other.  We will discover our “real needs.”  We will hear the call of the Lord in deeply personal ways.  We will stop worrying about the soup and the bed and begin to think in terms of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.  And, each day we will arise from our beds knowing that we are a part of a community of believers who are also rising from their beds praying “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven…here am I, Lord, send me.”  And church will be just right. 

Randy Daugherty

Stephenville, Texas