Mar 2009
Pondering the Church Part 2
20/03/09 01:28
The other day one of the pastors of the church I attend said as he was preaching about relationships that the church was a safe place to be vulnerable, to receive healing and wholeness. In his experience it has been, which is amazing and wonderful, but in mine it hasn’t been. It is especially hard on leaders. The expectations are so high and any sign of vulnerability seems to loose a feeding frenzy amongst the sheep. Is it possible to be gummed to death?
There are such high expectations for churches. As I said in the previous article the world expects the church to be different from what they experience outside of it. No matter how we lament about the state of godlessness in our western societies there is still perceptions about what the church is to be. We had a young lady who had recently come to believe in Jesus as her Lord and Saviour attend our church. We were trying to be an emergent, cutting edge church without all the Christianise vernacular or songs that were older than 5 years. We met on various days of the week other than Sunday in a home. We changed the days when people started saying ‘oh, your church meets on Tuesday!’ We didn’t want them to associate a day or a place with the church. We were the church and just like Elvis the church would leave the house. Even with all our radical contemporary methods she thought that the only way she would see her friends saved was through getting them to a church building on a Sunday. Where did she pick that up? She had no church background; everything she learned was new, never heard of before. Yet she struggled with this one thing. She needed to get them to church on Sunday. What is even weirder is she came to faith at a church conference not a Sunday service.
People enter church with expectations of what church should be. I suppose its like we all have an opinion of God that we believe. We might say we don’t believe or that God is distant or a higher power. We all have the ability to envision what we think God or an institution should be, based on nothing other than our thoughts. So we can bring our warped concepts of what church is and what the role of leadership should be in with us when we get involved. That alone is enough to cause misunderstands and offences that created disillusionment and abandonment of the church.
There are other expectations that we bring as well. We are all a product of the cultures we have grown up in. We eat certain foods because they are acceptable in our society. Marmite is acceptable in England but a complete shock to someone from North America. If we don’t think our culture affects us, why do we dress the same as everyone else?
Cultural expectations are so strong that you use them as a filter to interpret the truth through. The disciples are a prime example of the strength of cultural expectations. After Peter had the revelation of Jesus as the Christ, the son of the Living God, Jesus started to teach them of His death and resurrection as the key to bringing the kingdom of God. He had spoken consistently on the kingdom of God from His first message to His crucifixion. He was trying to prepare them for what would happen. He said it was necessary for Him to go away so that He could send the Holy Spirit to them as a guide, a teacher, and a comforter. After His resurrection He spent 40 days teaching them about the kingdom of God. Let’s look at Acts 1:3 – 6.
“After his suffering, he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: "Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit." So when they met together, they asked him, "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?"”
He tells them that they are to stay in Jerusalem until they are baptised with the Holy Spirit. It can’t be much clearer. He is resurrected from the dead, He has taught them on the kingdom of God and He had told them they must have the baptism of the Spirit. Then they ask: “Is this the time that you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” He must have been beside Himself with that question. How can you get through to these guys? What is blocking their minds? In Luke 24 it says Jesus opened their minds to the scriptures. So they have understanding there and yet they can’t see the truth.
At that time all boys attended Synagogues where they were taught that the Messiah would come and restore the Kingdom to Israel. This was the interpretation and hence the expectation that they derived from the scriptures. It was engrained in them. That’s why Jesus said to the Sadducees that they erred because they neither knew the scriptures nor the power of God. The Pharisees who were steeped in this cultural expectation more than anyone could not see the truth even though He was standing in front of them. They couldn’t hear nor see. Their expectations blinded and deafened them. Even John the Baptist asked if they had made a mistake and should look for someone else. POWERFUL!
There are such high expectations for churches. As I said in the previous article the world expects the church to be different from what they experience outside of it. No matter how we lament about the state of godlessness in our western societies there is still perceptions about what the church is to be. We had a young lady who had recently come to believe in Jesus as her Lord and Saviour attend our church. We were trying to be an emergent, cutting edge church without all the Christianise vernacular or songs that were older than 5 years. We met on various days of the week other than Sunday in a home. We changed the days when people started saying ‘oh, your church meets on Tuesday!’ We didn’t want them to associate a day or a place with the church. We were the church and just like Elvis the church would leave the house. Even with all our radical contemporary methods she thought that the only way she would see her friends saved was through getting them to a church building on a Sunday. Where did she pick that up? She had no church background; everything she learned was new, never heard of before. Yet she struggled with this one thing. She needed to get them to church on Sunday. What is even weirder is she came to faith at a church conference not a Sunday service.
People enter church with expectations of what church should be. I suppose its like we all have an opinion of God that we believe. We might say we don’t believe or that God is distant or a higher power. We all have the ability to envision what we think God or an institution should be, based on nothing other than our thoughts. So we can bring our warped concepts of what church is and what the role of leadership should be in with us when we get involved. That alone is enough to cause misunderstands and offences that created disillusionment and abandonment of the church.
There are other expectations that we bring as well. We are all a product of the cultures we have grown up in. We eat certain foods because they are acceptable in our society. Marmite is acceptable in England but a complete shock to someone from North America. If we don’t think our culture affects us, why do we dress the same as everyone else?
Cultural expectations are so strong that you use them as a filter to interpret the truth through. The disciples are a prime example of the strength of cultural expectations. After Peter had the revelation of Jesus as the Christ, the son of the Living God, Jesus started to teach them of His death and resurrection as the key to bringing the kingdom of God. He had spoken consistently on the kingdom of God from His first message to His crucifixion. He was trying to prepare them for what would happen. He said it was necessary for Him to go away so that He could send the Holy Spirit to them as a guide, a teacher, and a comforter. After His resurrection He spent 40 days teaching them about the kingdom of God. Let’s look at Acts 1:3 – 6.
“After his suffering, he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: "Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit." So when they met together, they asked him, "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?"”
He tells them that they are to stay in Jerusalem until they are baptised with the Holy Spirit. It can’t be much clearer. He is resurrected from the dead, He has taught them on the kingdom of God and He had told them they must have the baptism of the Spirit. Then they ask: “Is this the time that you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” He must have been beside Himself with that question. How can you get through to these guys? What is blocking their minds? In Luke 24 it says Jesus opened their minds to the scriptures. So they have understanding there and yet they can’t see the truth.
At that time all boys attended Synagogues where they were taught that the Messiah would come and restore the Kingdom to Israel. This was the interpretation and hence the expectation that they derived from the scriptures. It was engrained in them. That’s why Jesus said to the Sadducees that they erred because they neither knew the scriptures nor the power of God. The Pharisees who were steeped in this cultural expectation more than anyone could not see the truth even though He was standing in front of them. They couldn’t hear nor see. Their expectations blinded and deafened them. Even John the Baptist asked if they had made a mistake and should look for someone else. POWERFUL!
