A lot of people like their church and that’s great. But many, many people struggle with the whole concept of church. So much so, that many who passionately believe in Jesus, have opted out of church. And I think that that is something that’s definitely worth talking about.

We weren’t made principally, to be cogs in a production machine, you and I. We’re unique, we’re creative, we love encouragement, we love being part of something we believe in, that we value and we love it when we’re valued. But systems, cubicles, targets – they can squeeze the life out of us.

Church – A Four Letter Word

I have often thought, if I were a marketing consultant and I won a tender to run a marketing campaign to give the term ‘church’ a positive position in the contemporary mindset; the secular psyche – if I can use these words, I wonder if I would actually want the job. I mean this word ‘church’ has almost become a four letter word in society today – scandal after scandal. So many people see large parts of the church as being anachronistic, outdated, irrelevant – the vestiges of some old style religion that appear to be alive and well today.

For me, the greatest indictment of the church in my living memory has been the whole issue of child sexual abuse. It seems to spread across so many denominations and so I just don’t want to single any one of them out. And it’s not so much an issue but a string of countless thousands of cases of the most appalling abuse of position and trust imaginable. People who claim to be God’s emissaries sexually abusing children and not just children but adults too and then if that’s not terrible enough, there have been more than one or two systemic cover-ups by denominations.

I was reading a government report into this issue in one major denomination in one particular country and the report concluded that the senior levels of this church denomination had – and I quote – ‘obsessively and systematically covered up the wide-spread sexual abuse of children by its clergy for decades’. And this has happened over and over again.

You Google ‘church sexual abuse’ on the internet and, aside from the fact that you get four million hits – four million – you discover church essays, position papers, enquiries, policy papers, white papers on this whole subject. Now you may well ask, ‘Why is it that Berni rabbiting on about this? Why is he being so critical about this? Well, simply to demonstrate why this word ‘church’ has such an image problem. The easiest thing in the world is for those of us who live inside this thing called ‘church’ to completely lose sight of how people on the outside see and think about this thing we call ‘church.’

Has the whole church gone bad? Of course it hasn’t but there’s enough mud flying around for it to stick. And then there are so many other issues. The church seems to be so anti so many things – anti abortion, anti this, anti that. And please, right not I’m not making any comment or judgement about the validity or otherwise of those positions, one way or the other – that’s not the point of what I’m saying. As it turns out I have very strong views on some of these issues but it’s not the views or the beliefs that I’m talking about right now, it’s the perception of society as a whole, that this thing called ‘church’ can hold itself out to seemingly proclaim judgements on such issues when, I mean, look at the whole issue of child abuse in the church! Is it any wonder that people look at the church and think, ‘What a bunch of hypocrites?’

And then there’s a church not far from me – the denomination that lost one hundred and sixty million dollars on some bad stock market investments recently. These days there are so many Bible believing Christians having been burnt by this thing called ‘church’, they are leaving it in droves, while still hanging onto their faith in Jesus Christ. In fact, the academics are writing text books about this group of people.

Perhaps some of this is treading on some sensitive, even painful ground for someone listening today and the last thing I’m about is dragging down the church. But if you belong to God’s church – whatever denomination; whatever shape or form that takes – do you see the image problem that the church has? ‘Church’, these days, is very definitely a four letter word, out there in contemporary society. The sad thing is that so many good things are happening among this group of people we call ‘church’ around the world.

It’s not bad at all – far from it – but we live in a world today where people both inside and outside the church – many of them are struggling so deeply with what church means, what it is, what it’s supposed to be and what it achieves – that I believe we have to talk about it on this program. So that’s what we are going to be looking at over the next few weeks.

And as you may have noticed, I’m not going to pussy-foot around. Let’s call a spade a spade; let’s see things for what they are. And there’s a good reason for that because, like it or not, whatever you think about this thing called ‘church’, it is part of God’s plan and it’s something that lies at the core of God’s plan for this world – for humanity. Have a listen to what Jesus said to Peter, the Apostle. It comes from Matthew chapter 16, verse 18. He says:

I tell you, you are Peter and on this rock I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.

Jesus said that He would build His church and make her strong. God also refers to the church as His bride. Ephesians chapter 5, verses 25 to 27. If you’ve got a Bible, grab it, open it there. It says:

Husbands love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word and to present her to himself as a radiant church without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish but holy and blameless.

God’s Word calls the church ‘His body’, First Corinthians chapter 12, verse 12:

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptised into one body – Jews or Greeks, slaves or free – and we all were made to drink of one Spirit.

And as individualistic as we may have become, in contemporary society, here in the twenty-first century, after the time when Jesus walked this earth; as much as we have focussed on ourselves, God’s plan … God’s plan is for His children to be a family. It’s a powerful plan; it’s a good plan. To be sure, sometimes church hurts; sometimes it disappoints; sometimes it falls such a long way short of what we expect these people of God to be and how we expect them to love us, but it’s God’s plan, never the less.

I saw a sign outside a local church recently that said. ‘Don’t let Christians put you off Jesus.’ As bad a piece of marketing as I think that is, leading with the chin like that, this sign, somewhat clumsily and intensively, puts its finger on the problem we have been talking about today – that church is a four letter word.

So the thing we are going to look at today and over the next few weeks is this: despite so much doom and gloom and obvious failures of this thing called ‘church’, how do we make sense of God’s plan? How do you and I, if we hunger after God, grow and thrive in the body of Christ, the church, despite all the things in this world that scream at us that we should run a mile? How do we do that?

People Are a Pain

The one that is absolutely, without any shadow of a doubt, number one on my list of problems with church: it’s other people. As sure as God made little green apples, you get a bunch of people together and some of them are going to be a pain. They’re going to rub us the wrong way; they’re going to disappoint us and hurt us.

‘You and I,’ as Mary Poppins would say, ‘may well be practically perfect in every way, it’s just all those other people; they’re the ones who are pain and if it weren’t for them, church would be a fantastic place to be. But they’re the ones that ruin it. They’re the ones that rob it of what God meant it to be. To tell you the truth, I’m just not prepared to put up with them any more – that’s it! I’ve had enough – I’m taking my bat and ball and going home.’

And that, my friend, is exactly the attitude that so many people have towards ‘church’ in this consumer oriented world. My expectation of church used to be that it would be something like … like a zoo. You know, when you go to a zoo you go to the different animal enclosures and you see a series of perfect, well fed, well looked after specimens: the lion enclosure – perfect lions, the elephant enclosure – more perfect specimens; the giraffe enclosure – yet more perfect specimens. You see, you experience what you are expecting – what you paid your money for – perfect specimens. That’s what we go to the zoo for; to see what we expect to see.

And that’s how I first approached this thing called ‘church’. I expected to see and to meet a whole bunch of perfect specimens – people who would give me what I came for: the perfect preacher, the perfect pastor, the perfect community, the perfect worship service, the perfect … well, everything really. Boy, was I disappointed!

And as time went by, here’s what I discovered: church isn’t so much like a zoo full of perfect specimens; it’s more like a rehabilitation ward, full of broken people, being restored back into health. Now some of them are pretty healthy, to be sure; some of them are getting closer to being perfect specimens than you and I, but pretty much each person in that church is going to be a broken person, somewhere along that journey of rehabilitation.

Can I be really honest with you? I have met some really, really bad people in churches and that shocked me. Of course, I’ve met some utterly fantastic people too and no matter what churches I’ve visited or been associated with or been a part of, it’s always the same – it’s invariably a mixed bag. And this reality doesn’t fit with our expectation. Deep down we expect them to be perfect and so our natural reaction is to think, ‘Boy, something is seriously wrong with this place!’ But is there?

Interesting that Jesus’ disciples had a similar perception of these people who turned out to be a pain, so Jesus told them a parable to explain what was going on. And just as it explained the reality way back then, it’s still explains so graphically and perfectly, the reality of today. So have a listen to what He said to them and what He’s saying to us two thousand years on. It begins in Matthew chapter 13, verse 24:

He put before them yet another parable. He said: ‘The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?’ He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The slaves said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he replied, ‘No; for in gathering the weeds you will uproot the wheat along with them. Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, ‘Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’

So, here Jesus is dealing with this idea that we have, that a church should be perfect and if it ain’t perfect, then it’s not the church for me. What Jesus is saying, quite simply, is that in God’s Kingdom – and remember, THE tangible reality of that Kingdom on this earth today is God’s church – in God’s church, there is always going to be a mixed bag. God plants the good seed in His church; He calls good people into His family but the enemy comes along and plants some weeds too.

Remember, among the twelve disciples whom Jesus chose, the enemy, the devil, got hold of one of those – Judas Iscariot – with devastating effect. The enemy’s going to get hold of some peoples’ hearts right in the midst of the body of Christ and instead of delivering a good harvest; they’re only going to produce more weeds. And Jesus was saying, ‘Listen guys, that’s normal.’ And when the servants say to the Master, ‘So do you want us to do some weeding?’ He says, ‘No, no, leave them there; I’ll get them at harvest time.’

The sovereign choice of God is to leave the weeds in with the wheat. Did you pick that? He chooses not to make His Kingdom into a zoo full of perfect specimens but a mixed bag – that’s a reality; that’s God’s choice. And my hunch is, He puts those people there, not so we can be victims but so that we can learn to love and to overcome and to suffer and to give and to serve, even our enemies. Even those people who play ‘politics’ and those who are selfish or nasty or painful or however they rub us the wrong way.

My friend, ‘church’ is never going to be perfect! Ever! There are always going to be some weeds scattered through the crop but what Jesus is saying is this, ‘Leave them to me. I’ll deal with them in due course. I’ll sort the weeds from the wheat on the day of harvest; the day of judgement. Meantime, get on with it. Let the good wheat grow and yield its grain.’ As I said, thoroughly realistic! And when we take this parable of Jesus into our hearts, it puts those difficult people in church, well, it shines a whole new light on things. All of a sudden, the Lord is giving us a licence to just get on with it.

Programs, Programs, Programs

Almost two decades of my life, I worked as a consultant in the Information Technology Industry. Worked around the world and so I have been into hundreds of different organisations – private sector, public sector, in many different places and cultures. And over the years I’ve seen how systems and key performance indicators and the drive towards more and more profits impacts peoples’ lives. What I saw all too often, were workers lined up in small cubicles, driving to targets, to increase company profits.

Nothing wrong with companies making a profit of course; there’s nothing wrong with them having performance targets and incentive schemes and all of that. But after years and years and years of seeing this, I’ve come to the conclusion that there’s a line somewhere that companies and organisations can step over – there’s a ‘tipping point’, to use that familiar term – where the systems and the performance indicators and the profit motive, take people from being ‘free range’ to ‘battery’. Does that make sense?

Some work places I’ve walked into, the people have been working incredibly hard and yet they’re energised and happy and there’s some laughter in the place but mostly, that hasn’t been the case. Insurance companies, banks, call centres – so many of these places, where all that drives management is the profit motive, then ultimately, that line is crossed and the people become like … like battery hens.

We weren’t made principally, to be cogs in a production machine, you and I. We’re are unique, we’re creative, we love encouragement, we love being part of something we believe in, that we value and we love it when we’re valued. But systems, cubicles, targets – they can squeeze the life out of us.

Sometimes when I travel into the city on the bus or the train – something I used to do a lot, in my consulting days – I looked at the faces of people and you don’t see much joy or a sense of anticipation in most of their faces. There’s a greyness; a lifelessness that happens when beautiful, amazing, creative, emotional, intelligent, funny, spiritual, wonderful people are squeezed into a production mould. It’s the issue of balance that’s missing. That’s the conclusion I’ve come to. And here’s the thing – this is something I’ve seen in churches too!

Over the course of this week and the next few weeks on the program, we are taking a really frank look at this thing that we call ‘church’ and one of the things that appears to have emerged in contemporary church is the ‘program’. What do I mean by that? Well, we grow and so we organise ourselves and our activities and the members of the church and the way we organise things is that we institute programs – we have the weekly home group program, the ladies meeting on a Wednesday morning, the young mothers meeting, we implement a number of evangelism programs, we set budgets, we look at outcomes, we assess the return on investment, we run events – the Easter event, Carols by Candlelight at Christmas, we have food appeals, we go door knocking around the neighbourhood.

Now, let me say something at this point. There is nothing intrinsically wrong or bad or sinful about any of those things – their all good, in and of themselves – okay, so I’m not knocking any one of them, per se, but just as in everything else, there’s a line we can cross. You know, you can step over this line … the line where we turn church into purely an accumulation of events and activities and meetings and committees and programs … I think some people know what I’m talking about. And that point – and I’ve been to churches where I’ve seen this happen – where the only way that you can be part of the church is to participate in programs.

I’ve heard this come from the pulpit – ‘If you want to develop friendships and relationships, you have to sign up to join a home group.’ Now, program driven may have worked at some point in time at some place, but remember that so many of the people who come to our churches – are these same people who spend their lives working as virtual ‘battery hens’ at the office.

If there’s one thing … just one thing – that so many people are looking for in a faith community, is just that – a genuine sense of community. And community … community isn’t an accumulation of programs and events – it’s not a by-product so much, of signing up for this program or that program, because we can have as many programs as we like at church – listen to this – we can have as many programs as we like at church and have almost a nonexistent sense of community.

See, community is a mindset; it’s a heart attitude. I’ve been to a church where it took them nine months – listen to this – NINE MONTHS to invite us to anything and then it was a programmatic newcomers luncheon. That’s not community – community is when you walk in and someone greets you and smiles and they are interested in you and they share things with you and they get to know you over a coffee or a lunch or a dinner.

Jesus didn’t say that, ‘By this you will know that you are my disciples if you have effective church programs.’ He said, ‘By this people will know that you are my disciples if you have love one for another.’ There’s something organic and spontaneous about that sort of love.

The two words used for ‘church’ in the New Testament are ‘ecclesia’ and ‘koinonia’. The first ‘ecclesia,’ means ‘a meeting’ – that’s what churches do when they meet. And the second, ‘koinonia’, it means literally, ‘a fellowship’; a joining together – it’s a relational word – it’s a word of organic love and organic community.

My friend, I know that you may have walked into churches like this before. I know that you may even be part of a church like this and it feels like a little bit of a straight jacket. And you haven’t maybe quite understood why that is and now all of a sudden it’s as though we are putting our finger on something that’s been there, under your nose the whole time, staring you in the face but you haven’t been able to put a name to it. This sense that in order to participate in the church, we have to sign up on the sheet for the programs that someone decides we’re going to run.

That’s not community! Community is about being together. Community is about disconnected people … people who sometimes work as battery hens by day, coming together. That’s what people are looking for. They’re looking for a sense of welcome and fellowship and spontaneity; a sharing of lives together.

The Apostle Paul put it this way when he was talking about each one of us being part of the body of Christ. Have a listen: First Corinthians chapter 12, verse 26:

If one member suffers all suffer together with it. If one member is honoured all rejoice together with it. Now you are the body of Christ and individually you are members of it.

That’s community!! Rejoicing together, laughing together, suffering together, crying together. If there’s one thing … just one thing that people are hungering for in this increasingly technological, disconnected, individualistic world in which we life … just one thing it is this: it is a genuine experience of the love of Jesus Christ through community. And the place they’re meant to find that is the place that you and I will call ‘church’.

So have you ever been crying out to God during a difficult time in your life and you pray and pray and pray and … nothing. Dead silence from above. So you think to yourself – Flourishing in the House of the Lord.

Some people go to church as consumers; as spectators – almost as though they are attending a concert. But I’m not sure that that’s what Jesus actually had in mind when He said this: ‘This is my commandment: that you would love one another as I have loved you.’

The Book and It’s Cover

My favourite definition of marketing is this: that’s it’s the ultimate triumph of style over substance. Not sure where I first heard that but it stuck with me for a good many years now – marketing: the ultimate triumph of style over substance. And you see it all the time – big impersonal banks where the customer is just a number and our needs and problems have to fit into their systems and products. And where, increasingly, the only way we can interact with them is through disempowered and sometimes poorly trained anonymous operators, jammed into their cubicles like battery hens in some call centre.

Those same banks will run ads on the TV with families and happy smiling faces and friendly bank managers. There can be a complete discontinuity between the substance of who they are and what they provide and the style they hold out in their advertising and marketing campaigns. But that doesn’t stop them because, after all, marketing is the ultimate triumph of style over substance.

Well, maybe that’s a bit cynical but you know what I mean. Spin doctors and advertising agencies – they’re paid trillions of dollars each year to put a friendly face on unfriendly corporations and to put a positive spin on the most awful of all realities. And they do such a great job of it that Mr or Mrs Consumer out there in consumer land, well; we struggle to know the difference anymore, between the style and the substance. The two have blurred – reality is a combination, not only of the service provided but of how we feel about the provider – and that last bit was shaped by the marketing.

What’s the truth; what’s the reality? Well, it doesn’t really matter – many of us have in fact, given up caring because it’s all too hard. And so we kind of passively, implicitly accept the blurring of style and substance – we don’t think about it too much anymore and so we carry this blurred reality into our experience of church.

Now, there are so many different forms of church – from the small group that will be meeting in my family room and back yard this coming Sunday, through to a big traditional cathedral, with a prayer-book liturgy and hymns sung to organ music, through to contemporary mega church down the road with seven services of five thousand people each, packed in every Sunday, to the community church of eighty or so people in our local suburb. And everything and anything in between!

Some seem good at developing contemporary packaging and branding and signage and web sites – others seem a bit stuck in a time warp. Some seem to be having dynamic preaching up front – they talk about things that appear to be relevant. Others have these men, droning out a sermon that goes on interminable and it doesn’t appear to have anything to say for my life and yours for the coming week.

Some churches – they appear to be steeped in the tradition of religion – men in gowns and set prayers and specific terminology – things like sanctification and propitiation. Others talk in a different language; a plain language and you’d be flat-out recognising the full-time minister because that guy looks like everyone else.

You see what I’m saying: there are so many different styles of church – some follow almost a rock concert approach or style for their weekly meetings or services, others use a liturgy that was developed back in the sixteen hundreds. The array of approaches and styles – the packaging if you like – is so incredibly diverse. Some churches are huge, some are tiny – an incredible array.

One of the questions people often ask me – just had an email the other day from someone in South Africa – when they first give their lives over to Jesus; when they accept Him as the One who saves them from their sin; when they accept Him as the Lord of their lives, they ask me, ‘Which church should I go to?’ And in one sense that’s a bit like asking, ‘Which shirt should I buy? Which pair of shoes should I buy? Or should I live in a house or an apartment? The answer is, ‘I don’t know,’ because churches come in all different shapes and sizes – different styles. And the church that represents a good fit with whom I am and where I’m at, maybe entirely different to the one that’s a good fit with you, given who you are and where you’re at.

For instance, being a baby boomer, the whole idea of denominationalism – it doesn’t fit well with me. Now, there is nothing wrong with having denominations, per se, in fact, there can be some very good things that come along with that, but you see it’s just not me. I’m concerned more with who we are as a church in the suburb where I live and how we can be the hands and the feet and the heart and the voice of Jesus in the context of our local community. Now you may have an entirely different viewpoint – just fine and dandy.

So the first thing … the first thing to recognise is that books can have a similar message, even though they can have quite different covers and even if the authors have different styles and different ways of telling the story. And rather than dismissing that reality, I think it’s something we should deal with, directly and openly because it is the reality.

There are quite a number of styles of church that I don’t plug into easily and the sooner that I accept that reality, the sooner I’m going to discover the place that God means me to be. But as important as it is to recognise the differences and to figure out where we’re a good fit and where we aren’t, there’s something more important than the style and that’s the substance.

I’ve seen plenty of churches that have a great contemporary style that I think I can plug into; in fact, I went to one for a while. But after a few months I realised that there was something significant lacking there when it came to substance. And the first was this: I realised that I could give up taking my Bible with me to the church each Sunday because I was never called to open it. And secondly I realised – and this is what we were chatting about last week on the program – that the only way to become part of the church was to participate in their programs. Community was program driven – it wasn’t genuine; it wasn’t organic; it wasn’t heartfelt.

So I think the substance of the church – what lies at the heart of a church – is really important. And the three things that I look for when it comes to this whole thing about substance are these: firstly, I want to see that this is a bunch of people who are passionate about Jesus – whose trust is in Him, whose lives are bowed down to Him and whose love flows out to Him. That’s the first thing. The Apostle thing talked about that sort of substance verses style. He said to the church in Corinth – First Corinthians chapter 2, verses 1 to 5. He said:

When I came to you, I did not come to you with a bunch of fancy words and great ideas. I came imperfectly – I came to tell you about Jesus – I wanted you to know His wisdom and His power.

So, that’s what I’m looking for, first and foremost. People who are passionate about Jesus – forget about everything else – people who believe that Jesus can and is and will make a real difference in their lives – that’s the first thing.

The second thing is that they actually open their Bibles – that when they gather together, not only do they worship God with their lips, but they want to hear what God has to say to them. God’s Word is alive, it’s active, it’s sharper than any two edged sword. I’m looking for a bunch of people who are serious about learning from God and changing and growing to be more like Him.

And finally, I’m looking for a genuine community – people who love others with the love of Christ. Not just with words and with platitudes but with their genuine actions – by inviting others to a meal; by being there when others need them. That’s the sort of church I want to be part of. I don’t expect everyone to be perfect but that’s the substance that I’m looking for. Style is great, it has its place but it’s the substance; the heartbeat of the church that really matters.

And what I believe we should all hear in our churches, if we are prepared to stop, to be still, to listen – I believe we should hear the heartbeat of God and if that’s missing, the church is dead and we are only hanging around a graveyard, however alluring the style might be.

Church, Authority and Me

So many things have changed of the last fifty years. I mean, half a century ago, the church played a key role in society here in Australia where I live … a huge role. And whilst in some countries it still does, it’s not always the case – it certainly isn’t here. In fact, you go back a few centuries and they were holding inquisitions and executing people in some places.

Interesting how the position and the role and the influence of this thing we call ‘church’, has waxed and waned over the last couple of thousand years and not all of it historically, has been good or positive. The Crusades, the Inquisitions, the trial and conviction of eminent scientists like Galileo and Copernicus, for holding incredibly, heretical views like … like the earth is not the centre of the universe and the earth isn’t flat. No, not all of it’s been that good!

That’s why I’m such a great fan of the separation of church and state. It seems to me, as I look back in history, whenever the church became too involved in the running of countries, it’s rarely been a happy outcome. And so it’s easy … very easy to become very suspicious and edgy and concerned about manipulation and control when you hear someone talk about ‘church’ and ‘authority’ in the one sentence.

But we can’t talk about ‘church’ without talking about this notion of authority – what it means to us here and now. I remember when I first gave my live to Jesus a decade and a half ago, I was very suspicious of churches – there are some pretty whacky cults out there and the last thing I wanted to do was to end up in one of those. And the thing about cults is that, invariably they have leaders who abuse their power; leaders who insist on so many strange things being done in the name of loyalty and submission to authority.

Maybe, like me, you are old enough to remember the Jones Town massacre in South America, back in 1978 when James Jones, the leader of the temple cult, convinced nine hundred and nine of his followers to commit suicide by taking cyanide. Now, it’s extreme, but it shows the sort of disastrous consequences that can happen when there is a blind allegiance to religious leaders. That’s one extreme. And so because many of them hold deep suspicions about the authority of so-called ‘religious’ leaders, the pendulum in many countries, including my own, has swung in completely the opposite direction.

These days, churches are filled with people who believe in Jesus but who don’t accept the authority of the leaders in their church. They see themselves as members; consumers of church; people who attend to receive advice, perhaps, but not as people under any kind of authority or accountability in this place called ‘church’.

There are two extremes, both, in my view, are disastrous. The one leads to legalism and at its worst, cults. The other, which means that, instead of being the body of Christ – people who work together to bring the love of Christ into a lost and hurting world – well, we become just a bunch of semi-interested, variably committed volunteers who help when it suits us.

So it’s a really, really interesting question – this whole question of authority in the church and it’s one of the things that many a person; both people who believe in Jesus and those who don’t, have against church. So what’s the answer? Where’s the middle ground? Well, there are a couple of really interesting passages that we are going to take a look at today. Here’s the first one – it’s Jesus talking – Matthew chapter 18, beginning at verse 15:

If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one. But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If the member still refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if the offender refuses to listen, even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

Now, the church is the body of Christ; it belongs to Jesus and what Jesus is talking about here, is authority and accountability. It begins with a mutual accountability – church members are accountable to one another for their behaviour. That’s why if someone does something wrong against you Jesus says, ‘Look, the first thing to do, just take him quietly aside and deal with it. Don’t sweep it under the carpet – deal with the issue and chances are it will be resolved at that level.’

But if it doesn’t, it’s time to take this matter of accountability just a bit wider. Get a few other people; witnesses involved and then if that doesn’t work, take it to the church. And if the leaders try to deal with it but the person who did wrong in the first place still won’t listen, then, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. In other words, boot them out. Why? Because Jesus has given the church the authority to do that! Truly I tell you; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. This is delegated authority – straight from Jesus to the leaders of His church. Most of us have never seen that happen and it would be an extreme step to take

I was in a church once where a couple were removed from the church because they continued to sleep together before they were married. This is not so long ago. It was done in love but with a clear understanding that this is what Jesus told us to do. And without going into the details, this act of authority and accountability by the leadership, which was exercised with great wisdom and compassion, had a really positive outcome.

The second passage I would like to look at is the sort of leadership and authority the church leaders are called to exercise. Peter the Apostle – have a listen – First Peter chapter 5, beginning at verse 1:

Now as an elder myself and a witness of the suffering of Christ, as well as one who shares in the glory to be revealed, I exhort the elders among you to tend the flock of God that is in your charge, exercising oversight, not under compulsion but willingly, as God would have you do it – not for sordid gain but eagerly. Do not lord it over those in your charge, but be examples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd appears, you will win the crown of glory that never fades away. In the same way, you who are younger must accept the authority of the elders. And all of you must clothe yourselves with humility in your dealings with one another, because God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. So humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you in due time.

I love that! Leaders are called to lead well by examples; as shepherds guiding the flock, rather than lording it over them. And the rest of us, we’re called to humble ourselves under this good leadership because God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. So what I discover is that when it comes to leadership or authority and accountability in the church, God isn’t interested in the two extremes. He doesn’t want harsh, cult like leadership anymore than He wants us to imagine that church is a free-for-all where anarchy prevails and where we each do as we like. That kind of volunteer mentality.

The heart of God is to see godly leadership on the one hand and humility amongst each one of us on the other, where we are prepared to submit to godly authority. You look at it God’s way and it just sits well, doesn’t it? We know it’s right! The truth … the truth inevitably rests well in our hearts because that’s where it belongs.

What Are You Looking For?

So next week on the program we are going to start having a good look at what it means to actually flourish in the house of the Lord – to grow, to develop, to mature. But before we can do that we have to ask ourselves a question and answer it with brutal honesty. And that question is this: what are we looking for in a church? Come on, what are you looking for, what am I looking for? Are we looking for the perfect church? Now most people would say, ‘No, no, there’s no such thing as the perfect church.’ But deep down, let me ask you, are you looking for the perfect church?

You know one of the things I’ve noticed these days is that the wealthier a country becomes, the more it strives for perfection – the perfect cup of coffee in the perfect cafe, the perfect child with the perfect education. We think somehow, that money can buy perfection. But it can’t! See, I enjoy going out for a good coffee with my wife Jacqui and there are several good cafes within easy walking distance and driving distance from our home. But the one that has the best food is often crowded and noisy. Now there is another cafe where the tables are more spaced out, the coffee is great but the food and the service, they leave something to be desired. And then there’s another one where the people are really friendly but it’s small and pokey and the coffee is not that great.

See, there’s always something isn’t there? Something to complain about, something that offends this idea that we have, that if you are going out for a coffee, the whole experience should be perfect. And by that we mean it should perfectly fit my needs and my wants and my desires. To be honest, I wonder sometimes, whether without even realising it, I wonder whether if that isn’t the way we approach this thing called ‘church’.

I was struck by this deep truth in a rather old-fashioned, quaint little poem that I stumbled across. Why don’t you have a listen with me?

I think that I shall never see a church that’s all it’s meant to be.
A Church whose members never stray beyond the straight and narrow way.

A church that has no empty pews, whose pastor never has the blues.
A church whose elders always speak and none is proud and all are meek.

Such perfect churches there may be, but none of them are known to me,
But still we’ll work and pray and plan, to make our church the best we can.

I know it’s quaint, but have you ever stumbled across the absolutely perfect family, or the perfect cafe, or the perfect bank, or the perfect workplace, or the perfect anything? No, because each of those social units is made up of imperfect people … people like you and me. So it seems to me, we can kid ourselves by poking fun at church – seeing all its faults and problems, using all the excuses under the sun for pulling back, or we can accept the reality that we are never going to stumble across the perfect church – not in this life!

But in that church there is someone who needs me – what I have to offer. And in that church there’s someone who needs you and what you have to offer. The things that you can do that no one else there can do – a word of encouragement maybe, a friendship, a cup of coffee, a smile, a strong shoulder to lean on, some wisdom that you have hard learnt. Whatever it is that God has endowed us with, there’s someone in that church who needs what He’s given us.

I wonder sometimes, if people who go to church, before they went, if they just paused for a moment and prayed and said, ‘God, show me who needs me today. Show me the person who is going to walk into that church today who needs what you have given me – who needs the particular gift or encouragement or help that I can give them. Father, show me that in Jesus name, I pray.’

I wonder if we all prayed that before we went to church, man, I wonder how different church would be. Some people go to church as consumers; as spectators, almost as though they are attending a concert but I’m not sure that’s what Jesus actually had in mind when He said this – John chapter 15, beginning at verse 12. He said:

This is my commandment: that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, than to lay down his life for his friends.

Powerful statement! Love always costs – love always involves sacrifice – love inevitably isn’t convenient. See we expect the church to serve us but we don’t expect to go in and to sacrifice for others and the whole ‘church’ thing only becomes real … it only become a community … it only becomes a place that we value when we have got skin in the game – when we go there to serve.

My friend, I want to ask you again – what sort of church are you looking for and what are you looking for in a church – the perfect thing or a place to serve?

Church has its ups and downs. Sure it does. Anybody who’s ever been part of a church will know that. And so many people are just hanging in there. At best. But would it surprise you to know that God’s plan for your life – is for you to flourish in the house of the Lord?

God’s not interested in looks and feelings, God’s interested in fruit. And in the church God wants it to be full of established trees producing fruit. Flourishing in the courts of our God; flourishing in the house of the Lord.

Community and Commitment

Have you noticed, the more money people earn, the more choices we have; the more choices we have, the busier we are with work and with kids, and we get tired. And so these days, getting a sense of community going is pretty hard. There are lots of lonely people around the country and around the world and yet God has this plan for His family. God has a plan that His family should get together and be a family and that plan is called ‘church’.

Now, for a lot of people ‘church’ is a four letter world. A lot of people are browned off with church. They’ve tried it and they’ve had enough. People are starting to write text books about this huge number of bible-believing Christians who have decided they are not doing Church any more. And for someone who hasn’t come to faith yet in Jesus Christ, the whole notion of ‘church’ can be old-fashioned, out of date and irrelevant.

So ‘church’ gets a lot of bad press. Yet God writes Himself in Psalm chapter 68 verse 6. It says:

God sets the lonely in families.

So God has a plan for His children, for His people, to be part of a family. And that family is called ‘the church’.

Our society’s struggling with having this sense of community. Just out there in everyday life lots of people are struggling to connect with one another and a lot of people never do. A lot of people are very lonely and to tell you the truth in a lot of quarters the church is struggling as well to create this sense of community.

You see, so often churches come up with programs. You know, they have a program for this and for the youth, and they do all these programs. It’s almost sometimes like you’re going to McChurch. But community’s about relationship; community’s about … well, it’s organic isn’t it. It’s naturally people getting on with one another living with one another as a family. Helping one another and compensating for one another.

I was reading something that a man by the name of Malcolm Langford once wrote. He’s a lawyer and a musician. This is what he wrote, a little poem:

I have a dream of a Christian community that when I entered you were excited to see me.
When I revealed my wounds, you held me close.
When I lost my job, you paid my rent.
When I needed a home, you became my family.
When I followed billboards, you led me to the cross.
When I ran after many loves, you opened my eyes to the Lover.
When I was self-absorbed, you taught me to love the broken.
When I hurt others, you showed me the struggle for justice.
When I destroyed everything, you helped me to create beauty.
When I let you see my true self, you celebrated my journey.
And when one day Heaven’s glories open to call me home, I was torn.

See that’s a beautiful verse isn’t it? It’s a beautiful picture of what Christian community should be like. But sadly a lot aren’t. Sadly a lot of people attend Church with the right intention: the intention of worshipping God; the intention of hearing His Word proclaimed; the intention of being a part of the family, don’t ever experience that. This place where they’re loved and they love; where they support and they’re supported; where they’re cared for and they care.

People go to Church with that intention, yet so many churches struggle in this area of community. After all, if church isn’t a family, if the church doesn’t provide community, well, we might as well just stay home and listen to sermons on the radio or on CD. That’s great, but it doesn’t help us to be part of a family.

I want to strongly encourage you, if you’re struggling with church hang with us this week and the next couple of weeks on the program because I believe that God wants us to flourish in the house of the Lord.

Churches can do programs, they can do ministry activities, we can do that till we’re blue in the face, and yet not build relationships and not have a sense of community. Community: it’s the Holy Spirit stirring in our hearts and moving our hands – you and me. And today in this message I have called Flourishing in the House of the Lord we are going to look at the three key impediments to that sense of community. We’re going to name them, identify them and I pray, help to remove them.

The first of those impediments is the one of Commitment. When you think of a relationship as a relationship between two people matures, it moves from being casual to ultimately becoming a relationship of commitment. Marriage is like that, you know, boy meets girl; they’re attracted to one another; they might date for a while; they might stop dating; they might date again. Progressively they go through a process of growing commitment, of becoming engaged, of spending time together in engagement and then becoming married and the whole marriage thing is supposed to be a life-long commitment to one another.

And as that commitment begins with marriage so the relationship deepens and matures that’s God’s plan. I know it doesn’t always work out that way, I know that half of all marriages almost end in divorce. But God’s plan of a mature relationship between a man and a woman is that they be a husband and a wife.

In the New Testament the word ‘church’, well there are two words for it. One is the Greek word ecclesia. Now I don’t normally talk about Greek word but this is important. One is the Greek word ‘ecclesia’. It means ‘assembly’. I guess that’s what we do in church on Sundays, mornings or evenings or whenever … when the church meets and gathers together. It’s the word where we get ‘ecclesiastical’.

The other word for church in the New Testament is ‘koinonia’. It means a fellowship. It comes from a group of words that have a root meaning of ‘to share something in common’. You can do ‘ecclesia’, you can meet together Sundays, Saturdays, whenever you meet as an assembly and yet have zero commitment. But you can’t do ‘koinonia’ church, that’s fellowship church, without commitment being the foundation of the relationship.

You might say, ‘Well, I’m committed to church, I think’. Well, let’s have a read of what God says in Psalm 92 and verses 12-14: If you have a Bible grab it and open it up. This is a great passage. He says this:

The righteous flourish like a palm tree and cedar in Lebanon. They are planted in the house of the Lord and they flourish in the courts of our God. In old age they still produce fruit. They are always green and full of sap showing that the Lord is upright. He is my rock and there is no unrighteousness in Him.

See, the plan for us is that we should be trees like the cedars of Lebanon; like the palm trees planted in the house of the Lord. The problem is that these days many of us want to be pot plant Christians. We don’t want to put our roots down in the house of the Lord. We don’t want to be part of the fellowship. We want to say, ‘Well, I’m a Christian and I don’t need those other Christians. After all many of them are a pain in the neck so what I’ll be is, I’ll be a pot plant Christian in my pot I’ll be protected. I won’t be hurt, I won’t be disillusioned, I’ll just keep myself to myself.’

Maybe you’ve been through that in the past in a church and you’ve had enough. The hurt has never gone away and so you’ve put yourself in a pot instead of being planted in the house of the Lord.

You’ve put yourself in a pot instead of being there in God’s house where we’re intended to flourish. Now, you put a pot in the wind and it dries out, it blows over. Ultimately, you put a pot out there in the weather and the chances are the tree will die. To flourish means to grow well, to thrive, luxuriate, to be at the time of the highest productivity and excellence and influence.

My hunch is, it’s not up to us to transplant ourselves from one church to another. You’ve probably heard of that term, ‘going church shopping’, well Isaiah chapter 61 verse 3 says, that we are all trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord and we are planted where God chooses to plant us. I’m planted in the right place? Am I? Well, there are two answers to that question.

What does God want? And what do our feelings tells us? And frankly sometimes those two are different. Are we prepared to put the calling of the Holy Spirit above our feelings and say ‘Lord, am I planted in the right place? Have you got me in the right place?’ If the answer’s ‘Yes’ from God then it’s time to get committed. But if the answer’s ‘No’, well, we better find out where God want’s to plant us and go there and be committed.

Pot Bound Christians

We’re taking a look today at what it means to flourish in the house of the Lord. See, ‘flourish’ is this wonderful word, such an abundant word. And that’s God’s word for what He wants for you and me in His family in this thing we call ‘church’.

Now sometimes people who call themselves Christians, well, they’ve had enough of the church thing. Lots have. Lots have left and yet still believe in Jesus Christ. Instead of being planted in the house of the Lord, they’ve become pot plant Christians. Have you seen a tree or a plant that’s pot bound. You pull it out of its pot and its roots are all gnarled and sometimes you can’t even get it out of its pot. De-potting can be painful and sometimes you even have to break the pot or prune the root ball, but it’s necessary for a healthy tree. Psalm chapter 92 and verse 13 says this:

When they are planted in the house of the Lord they will flourish in the courts of our God.

Have you ever been in an office building and seen some pot plants and they’re in the individual pot plants but they are put into a container or trough and they put bark or stones over the top and there’s this illusion that they are all in one pot. But in reality, under the stones or the gravel or the bark, they’re still in separate pots, separated from one another.

Let’s look at ourselves. Am I pot bound? Are you pot bound? Are we attending a church or being part of a Christian fellowship and yet still not putting our roots down, not truly being part of God’s plan. What’s my pot? What’s your pot? Is it maybe a past hurt, is it maybe a cultural thing, you don’t feel that you fit in with the other people. Have we become cynical? Are we afraid of being hurt? I don’t feel like this or I don’t feel like that. Or I feel like I’m out of place. There is so many reasons for us being pot bound.

But an amazing thing happens. When you take a plant out of the pot, maybe the plant’s small and stunted and you put it in the ground and you let it’s roots go down deep into the ground, like an attitude, a heart that we need to have, a deep attitude of heart, it gets strength. It grows. It does things it could never have done in the pot and bears fruit.

Now, you might say to me, ‘Berni, I’ve been to a church or I go to a church, I just feel dead in this so-called fellowship. I feel like there are no connections, there’s no relationship.’ Have you ever seen a deciduous tree during winter. It looks dead, it looks just like a bunch of sticks that have died. And yet, in the season of winter in that time of trial – cold, windy, blowing – that tree is storing up sap and getting ready to blossom in the spring.

So often God calls people to a fellowship, calls them into a place and they transplant themselves before they ever bear fruit. In Luke’s Gospel chapter 13 verse 6, flip there if you have a Bible. This is a parable, a story that Jesus told. He said:

A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard. That was an odd things to do. And he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the gardener, ‘See here, I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree and I still haven’t found any. Cut it down. Why should it be wasting the soil.’ And the gardener replied, ‘Sir, let it alone for one more year until I dig it around and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good, but if not you can cut it down’.

What, let me ask you, was a fig tree doing in a vineyard? The answer is, the owner planted it there. Sometimes we feel a bit like that fig tree in the vineyard. Sometimes we look at the vines and they look at us. They’re growing grapes and we’re the odd man out growing figs and we think, I don’t belong here. Yet in this parable it was clearly the owner’s choice where to plant the fig tree.

And in God’s family I believe its God choice where to plant the fig tree – you and me. Oh I feel this; I feel that; it’s hard. The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. I don’t believe it’s up to us to get up and go. Are we operating in the flesh or are we operating in the spirit? Are we following our feelings or are we following God?

If the owner came looking for you where He planted you, would He find you there? And we find you bearing fruit because a mature tree should be producing fruit. It’s not a tree inspection. The owner isn’t coming to look at the bark or the texture, shape and colour of the leave, the owner is looking for fruit.

God is the owner. God’s not interested in looks and feelings, God’s interested in fruit. And in the church God wants it to be full of established trees producing fruit, flourishing in the courts of our God, flourishing in the house of the Lord. Something is wrong if there’s no fruit.

Maybe if you go to God and you pray about it, maybe God will tell you you’re in the wrong church, I’d like you to move over here. Go on, go. Now my hunch is that’s going to be far the minority, vastly in the minority, because there is no perfect church. But if you feel that God’s saying to you, ‘I’ve got somewhere else for you to go, there’s a new fellowship, a new thing that I’m doing, get up and go’. Well, go.

But if God comes back to you when you pray about this and says, ‘No, No you’re in the place that I planted you’. Well maybe it’s time to say, ‘God, if I’m in the right place, if this is where you have me planted even though I feel as if I’m a fig tree amongst the grapevines, I am going to break the pot, I’m going to get committed. I’m going to put my roots down here in the house of the Lord where you’ve planted me. That’s the first impediment – the lack of commitment.

The second one is being judgemental. Flip in your Bible to Matthew chapter 7 verses 1-5. You may have heard me speak about these verses before in a different context. Here Jesus says:

Look, don’t judge so that you may not be judged. For with the judgement that you make you will be judged and the measure that you give you will be measured. Why do you see the speck in your neighbour’s eye but you don’t notice the log in your own. Or how can you say to your neighbour, let you take the speck out of your eye while a log is in your own eye. You hypocrite. Take the log our of your own eye and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbour’s eye.

We love to judge other people, especially if we’re a fig tree and we’re a grape-vine. We love to condemn. We love to back stab and to gossip. People do. I can’t believe what Mary did the other day. I don’t mean to gossip but … I would never have done it that way. How often do you sit down with people who say I’m a Christ follower and you hear them talking like that about other people. It’s judgemental. Jesus said ‘Don’t do it, otherwise you’ll be judged’.

I used to be in bondage to this. I used to have a saying before I came to Christ. ‘It’s so hard to soar like an eagle when you’re surrounded by turkeys.’ I was critical. I used to get so frustrated and it was ruining my life. I remember my wife, when we were first married, when she washed her hands she would never wipe the sink down. It used to drive me nuts because I grew up in a house where we learned to wipe the sink down. Does that make me better than her? No. She just doesn’t wipe the sink down after she has washed her hands. Mind you, she does a lot of others things that I’d never do.

See, it’s the little foxes that spoil the vine. And the same is true inside a church. Let’s get a revelation here. I have enough of my own sins that God is working through with me without being in bondage to your sins. Let me tell you, you have enough of your own without being in bondage to mine or the sins of other people in your church. And we get in bondage to other people’s sins when we judge them because it drives us nuts. Because we focus on the things they’re doing wrong. And when we become judgemental it tears the family apart just like it does brothers and sisters and husbands and wives and fathers and mothers.

My friend, there is no perfect church. If there was and you and I went to it, it wouldn’t be perfect any more. There are no perfect people. That’s an absolute given. If we say, ‘Hang on a minute, God’s called me to be in this church, He’s called me to be in this place, I’m going to break the pot.’ If we put our roots down we will experience first hand the sins of other people. That’s the nature of the church, that’s the nature of the beast. We need to stop fighting that. Come on. We have strengths and weaknesses. The next person in the church has different strengths and weaknesses and if I’m going to be a godly Christian, spirit-filled, committed, brother in the body of Christ will accept the responsibility of saying to my brothers and sisters, ‘I will love you any way, even when you fail me’. How about it? Will you do that?

It’s Not that Hard Really

Today, we’re looking at the fact that so often we come to the church with the lack of commitment. We come to God’s family with a lack of commitment and sense of judgement. We wonder why church feel like a community. It’s so easy to go to a family to a church and expect to served rather than to be one of the servants. You’ve probably heard that expression ‘church shopping’ so many times. It’s not about saying ‘What’s in it for me?’ for me, the only reason that I would be part of this church rather than that church is that God’s called me to be in this church.

Well, it’s all well and good to talk about trees and roots and pots and figs and grapes, but exactly how do we do this? Romans chapter 12 verse 2 says:

Don’t be conformed to the ways of this world.

Can I take the ‘world’ out and stick in ‘church’ for the moment? ‘Don’t be conformed to the ways of this church’

Sometimes in our churches, sometimes in our families, we’re dysfunctional. The grapevines are screaming at the fig trees: ‘Be a grape!’ The fig trees are screaming at the grape-vine. ‘Be a fig!’ Yet God’s Word teaches that we are all different and complimentary. Me, I’m not someone for having lots of people around all the time. I like my own space, I like my own time and that can lead to dysfunction. I’ve had to learn and spend some time reading God’s Word and discover there is some different ways of doing things.

So I can bring gifts and weaknesses to the table just as I am, different to the ones that you can bring to the table. If we can only be who we are and open ourselves to the Holy Spirit to work out His love in us, what a wonderful place church would be. Yes! Grow, Yes! Become Holy but don’t try to make grapes if you’re a fig tree. Make big, succulent, juicy figs whatever the grapevines think about you. We can over-spiritualise this stuff sometimes, but there are so many little things that you and I can do to exercise our giftings in church. To put our roots down; to share the goodness of God in our lives with other people.

I remember the first church I ever went to. There was a man called Peter. He looked like a big, retired sea-captain with the grey beard, straight out of central casting. Let me tell you something, if Peter hadn’t come and shaken my hand and smiled and spoken to me, you know, I was scared of going to church that first. It wasn’t what I wanted to do. If he hadn’t come and done that and served me, truly I don’t know if I had gone back the next Sunday. I don’t know even if I’d be here with you today.

Sometimes we see someone when we go to church on Sunday morning or whenever it is and think, ‘I don’t know, maybe they just need someone to lean on. Maybe I should invite them out for a cup of coffee during the week.’ Maybe during the week you could think about someone. Maybe you could pick up the phone and call them. Can I suggest that it should be a priority for each one of us to build at least one or two close friendships in the family of God.

It’s the little things, the phone calls, the words of encouragement, the prayers. If you believe that God has planted you in this family, will you also believe that He will lead you to people for whom He has custom-made your fruit.

We need to be committed in order to flourish. We need to have the courage to stop judging, to set ourselves free from the weaknesses of other people. We need to have practical acts of love going on. It won’t always be convenient, the flesh won’t always like it, and probably, you know, we’ll get hurt more along the way, but will you be part of this community for Christ’s sake? Will you go to the house of the Lord, put your roots down and flourish where God’s planted you.

Despite what some people think, church is NOT a spectator sport.  If you belong to a church, you’re meant to be one of the players. And what I’ve observed over the years, is that there are too many – way too many people – who just want to sit on the sidelines, and pick faults with the players.

God’s plan is that you and I would flourish in the House of the Lord. He never promised that it would be perfect, or that it would be easy – just that it would work.

Eternal Results

Today on the program we are continuing in our series called the The Problem with Church is … As God calls us into His family; as we become one of His children, what we discover is that we have brothers and sisters in Christ; people who are our family – brothers and sisters.

Now being part of a family can be difficult – being part of a family, frankly, can be a pain in the neck some days – but it’s part of God’s plan. Part of God’s plan is that we should be together as His family. And that thing is called ‘church’. For some people that sends shivers down their spine but it’s part of God’s plan and if it’s God plan, then I truly believe that we are meant to flourish when we are planted in the House of the Lord.

One of the reasons we don’t flourish sometimes is that we get tied up in doing a whole bunch of things that never actually impact on peoples’ lives. I’m a great fan of the British comedy series – I don’t know if you have ever watched it before – called ‘Yes, Minister’ and then ‘Yes, Prime Minister’. One of the funniest series that’s ever been on television since television was invented. And a senior public servant by the name of Sir Humphrey Appleby says to a junior public servant called Bernard – he says: ‘Remember Bernard, politicians love activity – it’s their substitute for achievement.’ That’s a great line, isn’t it? Activity is a substitute for achievement. Can I maybe twist that around a little bit and say, ‘Remember Bernard, Christians love activity, it’s their substitute for achievement.’

What can happen in God’s family; in God’s church is that we all race around doing different things, being busy, being involved in this and that and the other thing. We think, ‘WOW, we’re doing a great job.’ But the only real measure; the only true measure of the effectiveness of a church is its eternal results.

Have you ever been on a sporting team that always loses? I have! When I was in the Army – a Cadet at the Royal Military College, Duntroon; our officer training academy – I was a part of the bottom of the rung football team and we didn’t win a single game the whole season. It was cold, it was wet, it was sleeting, it hurt and to be tackled, it was muddy, it was dirty and you don’t win a single game! Let me tell you, it’s not a lot of fun being part of a losing team.

Yet a lot of Christians see themselves as exactly that in their churches. Are we actually involved in the business of winning, maturing and discipling souls for Christ? Are the nets of our church straining under the weight of the catch or are we just a dysfunctional family going nowhere? Has activity become the substitute for our achievement? Has activity become my substitute for achievement? Because Jesus said to His disciples … He said, ‘I’m going to make you fishers of men.’ If you have a Bible, grab it; open it up at John chapter 21.

Here’s the picture: Jesus has been crucified, He’s risen again from the dead – they’re out fishing – they’ve gone from Jerusalem about one hundred and twenty kilometres north, back to Galilee and they are on the Sea of Tiberias. And they’re out there fishing. They have been out fishing all night and no catch. And a man calls out from the shore and says, ‘Oi, throw the nets out the other side,’ and all of a sudden they recognise that … they recognise that because it reminds them of something.

Let’s have a quick read of this passage in John 21, verses 1 to 8:

After these things Jesus showed himself again to the disciples on the Sea of Tiberias; and he showed himself in this way. Gathered together were Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples. Simon Peter said to them, ‘Look, I’m going out fishing,’ and they said, ‘We will come with you.’ They went out and they got into the boat, but that night they caught absolutely nothing.

Just after daybreak, Jesus stood on the beach; but the disciples did not know that it was him. Jesus said to them, ‘Guys, why haven’t you got any fish?’ They answered him, ‘Well, we didn’t catch any.’ He said to them, ‘Listen, cast the net on the other side of the boat, and you will find some.’ So they did, and now they weren’t even able to haul it in because there were so many fish.

The disciple whom Jesus loves said to Peter, ‘That’s the Lord!’ When Simon Peter heard that he put on some clothes, because he was naked, and he jumped into the sea. But the other disciples came in by boat, dragging in the net full of fish, because they were not far from the land, only about a hundred yards.

So the crucifixion, which was a horrible thing – Jesus has risen again, He appears to His disciples who fled out of Jerusalem, north back to Galilee. They are out doing, what? They’re out doing what they always did before they met Jesus; they were fishermen. They’ve gone back to work, the party’s over, Jesus is crucified. People were after them because they were followers of Jesus. That’s it. There they are fishing and all of a sudden Jesus comes and they recognise Him because they’ve had this experience before.

Flick back if you will to Luke’s Gospel, chapter 5, verses 1 to 10:

Once while Jesus was standing beside the Lake of Gennesaret and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had got out of them and they were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon.

So this is three and a half years before the instance in John chapter 21 that we talked about. This is the first time Simon Peter meets Jesus, so they go out in Simon Peter’s boat and Jesus sits down in the boat and from the water teaches the crowds. When that’s done He says to Simon. Listen:

Let’s push out into the deep water and let’s let down the nets. And Simon answers, ‘Master, we’ve worked all night long but we haven’t caught a thing. Well, if you say so, I’ll let down the nets. When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were about to break, so they signalled to their partner in the other boats to come and help them and they came and filled both boats, so they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw this he fell down on his knees and said to Jesus, ‘Go away from me Lord because I am a sinful man.’ For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken and also were James and John, sons of Zebedee who were partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, ‘Don’t be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.’ When they had brought their boats to the shore, they left everything and followed Jesus.

I love this story because it begins with Jesus having to go out in a boat – there were so many people, He can’t talk to them on the land – He goes out on a boat, it says, ‘The crowd was pressing in on Him to hear the Word of God.’ Let me ask you, in your family; in your church, where you go, is the crowd pressing the doors down to hear the Word of God? Tell you what; there are a lot of churches where that’s not happening. There are a lot of churches where people are walking in with bored faces, they are singing songs with bored faces and they are walking out with bored faces.

I love this! The crowds had seen the wonderful things that Jesus had done and they were there pressing in on Him to hear the Word of God because He spoke with authority; He healed people, His reputation had spread and He had rock-star status. I mean, what if people came to our churches and were healed like that? What if people came to our fellowship and wanted to hear more? What if they were astounded? What if they said, ‘Man, this stuff really rings true – powerful, authoritative proclamation of the truth – healing and deliverance’.

That’s the stuff that makes God’s love real in peoples’ lives. It’s the stuff that makes people hungry for God’s Word. Is that happening in your fellowship? Are you flourishing in the House of the Lord or is this some kind of boring thing that happens and you go along every Sunday? You don’t know exactly why you do, but you just do out of habit.

Simon Peter and the team had been fishing all night – they came back, they were tired, they were unhappy, they were labouring – it’s been hard work. There was no machinery; they might have had some ropes and pullies, but that’s about it. They worked all night and they caught nothing – tired, unhappy – then a Carpenter comes along – a Carpenter, not a fisherman; a Carpenter from Nazareth and says, ‘Let’s put out; let’s take our nets out; let’s put them down where I say.’

Now these nets aren’t like nets that you and I might understand. They were more like thick cheesecloth – they were for night fishing, they weren’t for day fishing. Now if you or I had been like Simon Peter; tired, exhausted, dejected, would we have pushed out? I think when this Carpenter gets into our boat, there are three possibilities; three reactions we can have.

The first is to say, ‘Come on, you stupid carpenter, what do you know. You’re not a fisherman.’ Or the second response is to be so dejected and tired and say, ‘Look, I’m tired, I’ve had enough, I’m giving up, I’m not doing this fishing thing anymore. Every night we go out there, we don’t catch any fish. That’s it! I’m sick of fishing – I’ll go and hire someone else to do it.’ And the third option is to do exactly what Jesus asks.

Saying Yes to Jesus

If you have spent any time listening to these programs over the years, you’ll know that I believe in calling a ‘spade’ a ‘spade’ when it comes to the failings of the church in society today. But here’s the thing: we can examine it, we can criticise it, we can continue to try and come up with a better approach or to address some of the endemic weaknesses but at some point are we going to do something about it? Are we going to sit on the sideline and poke fun at it? Or are we going to get into the game and become part of the solution to the problems we see?

It’s one thing to be honest and direct about problems in our churches – that’s good, that’s healthy but it’s another thing entirely to spend a life time whinging and complaining about this thing called ‘church’, as though it’s our job to be judge, jury and executioner.

Jesus said, ‘I’ll build my church and the gates of Hades won’t prevail against it.’ Church is His idea for His purposes and as we saw before the break, there are so many well meaning people in the boat, trying to catch fish – labouring hard, toiling until they’re exhausted, but for all intents and purposes, having no real impact in the lives of people. And that’s a problem in many a church.

Well, we are on the boat and it seems to me, that we have three options – as I said before, when this Carpenter says, ‘Throw the net over the side,’ we can call him a crazy Carpenter, we can give up and hire someone else to do it, or we can actually go and do what He ask us. That’s the third option. It’s the one I’d like to look at right not.

These disciples, if we look back at John chapter 21, were tired and exhausted – they’d been to hell and back. They’d seen Jesus crucified, they’d seen Him die, they’d lost all their hopes, their dreams, their lives were threatened. They’d fled back up to Galilee – they went back to work as fishermen and they went out fishing and they saw Jesus on the beach. We saw that earlier.

Now have a look at John chapter 21, verse 9:

When they came back to shore, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish on it, and bread. And Jesus said to them, ‘Look, bring some of the fish you’ve caught.’ So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of fish – a hundred and fifty three of them; and although there were so many, the net still wasn’t torn. And Jesus said, ‘Come on, have breakfast with me.’ Now none of the disciples dared to ask him, ‘Who are you?’ because they knew it was the Lord. Jesus came and took bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. This was now the third time Jesus had appeared to his disciples.

So they’re tired, they’re hungry, they’re dejected – there’s nothing like getting off the boat and sitting down and having a barbecue with Jesus, letting Jesus feed you. Imagine how that felt for them. Imagine the sense of wonder and awe and joy, at sitting down on that beach, eating with Jesus.

Well, let’s be candid and honest here: the nets of many a church simply aren’t bursting with a catch. Some of the things we have talked about here – they may apply to you, they may apply to your church and probably some of us are feeling kind of condemned and hopeless. We know we should be catching men and women; we know we should be making a real difference in their lives but we are not flourishing. Something is wrong – I feel so condemned and Jesus comes along and you are feeling condemned and He says, ‘Hang on a minute, have a rest. Come and have breakfast. Let Me feed you. Have some fish, have some bread. Sit down with Me and let’s have a yarn.’

See, there’s no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Just when we’re feeling down; just when you’re feeling condemned, Jesus helps you. Jesus invites you to a barbecue – Jesus feeds you. And He picks the least faithful one, Peter, who denied the Lord three times when Jesus needed him most and three times He now asks Peter to do something.

When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?’ And Simon Peter said to him, ‘Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my lambs.’ A second time Jesus said, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ And Simon said, ‘Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Tend my sheep.’ And a third time, Jesus said, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ Peter felt so hurt because he said for the third time, ‘Do you love me?’ And Simon Peter said, ‘Of course, you know … you know everything; you know that I love you.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my sheep.’

Three times Peter denied Jesus and three times Jesus gave him an opportunity; an act of friendship. And in response, Jesus said, ‘Go and feed my sheep.’ Don’t know about you, but what I hear Jesus saying to me right now, through this story is: ‘Church, do you love me? Feed My lambs, tend My sheep, feed My sheep, do My work. Not the works of your hands; not the programs that you’ve planned; not the things that you think – do My work; follow Me. Put the net down where I call you to – flourish with Me. Be prepared to lay down every last little bit and do it My way.’

How would you react when the Carpenter gets into your boat with you? Stupid carpenter, give up completely, hire experts or is your heart saying ‘Yes’? Is there a spark of love and friendship in your heart that says, ‘Lord, I will lay aside all that I hold sacred at Your feet. I’ll do it Your way so that Your catch will be huge.’

God has a plan! God’s plan is that you and I will flourish in the House of the Lord. He never promised that it would be perfect or that it would be easy – just that it would work.

Which Church is for Me?

One of the biggest questions for any Christian to answer for themselves is: which church should I in fact, belong to? There are so many choices these days and on the surface some appear incredibly contemporary and attractive. But choosing a church is more than evaluating the options and picking the best one. There’s something else – Psalm 92, verses 12 and 13:

The righteous flourish like the palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon. They are planted in the house of the Lord; they flourish in the courts of our God.

Beautiful Psalm, Psalm 92! It’s worth reading the whole thing. But those two verses in particularly really touch me. They speak of God taking His people; the righteous and seeing them flourish. Flourish is a word of abundance, isn’t it? You don’t see a plant only just flourishing. A plant that is only just hanging in there isn’t one that’s said to be flourishing. No, it’s the strong, healthy, green, growing plant; the one that’s thriving; the one that’s being all it can be, bearing stunning rich fruit in season – that’s the one that’s said to be flourishing.

And that’s the picture that God’s giving us of what He wants for us when we are planted in His House; the House of the Lord; the thing we call these days ‘church’. And whilst I think that all of the things we have talked about over these past few weeks; things that we should be looking for in a church; whilst all of those are incredibly important, the danger is that if we focus on just those things, the danger is that we approach church like a bunch of consumers. All that matters is ‘What’s in it for me; what can I get out of this church, as compared to that one.’ Do you understand what I’m saying?

You and I, we can’t approach God’s community with a selfish ‘What’s in it for me,’ attitude alone because if we do, we’ll never be satisfied. This church here; it would have to be dead – there isn’t much of a sense of community; there aren’t many loving relationships. Man, that guy who gets up and preaches each Sunday, he just bores your socks off. Nah, couldn’t possibly flourish in that place.

But what if God wants to bring you into that church or me into that church because He’s up to something new? What if He wants to bring us into that church to be part of the solution to the problems that He see and that we see going on in that place? What if God has a plan in that place that no man or no woman yet knows about, to do a new work, to reach some different people, to heal some hurts, to confront some evil? To do whatever it is that He plans to do there and He’s calling us to walk onto that battlefield with Him and for Him. Then what?

Just after I became a Christian I became part of a wonderful little church and I joined a home fellowship group. Now that group of people were starting the Book of Hosea at the time I joined them – one of the Minor Prophets in the Old Testament. And here’s the thing about Hosea: God calls him to marry a prostitute who has children by other men and then when she’s unfaithful to him, God calls him to take her back.

I can’t imagine the pain that God’s call placed into Hosea’s life – I can’t begin to imagine! And do you know something? I have to wonder: what was God thinking? I’m sure that’s what went through Hosea’s mind, more than once or twice. But this relationship; this marriage, was a symbol of Israel’s unfaithfulness to God and God used it in the prophet’s life, to help him to speak with conviction to Israel about their unfaithfulness to God.

God had a plan and purpose for His glory and for His people that went way beyond Hosea’s comfort and needs. He called this man Hosea to suffer real and terrible pain; the excruciating pain of an unfaithful wife – ultimately for God’s glory. In other words, it’s not always about you and me. It’s not always about our comfort and our needs being met. Sometimes God calls us into a place that just doesn’t make sense.

Now, I’ve persevered in churches, somewhere perhaps, I should have left earlier. There was one that I was part of where attitudes towards sexual immorality amongst the church leadership were wrong. There were people in key ministry positions who were living with members of the opposite sex without being married. Now, you might call me old fashioned but as one of the things … one of the very few things that God actually says we shouldn’t do.

And you know something – whilst that was going on in the ministry team; while that was being tolerated by the leadership, there’s no way that God was going to bless that church. There’s no way that it’s going to honour and glorify God and go forward in a powerful way. Eventually, even though my heart was to stay in that church and make a difference, I left. And there have been times in my life where I have been in ‘church’ wilderness, not knowing precisely where God wants me to be.

But I truly believe that God does want our needs to be met – that’s one part of flourishing in the House of the Lord. But the flip side of that coin; the side that’s about taking up our cross and following Jesus, well, that involves sacrifice. And the one thing I have discovered in my Christian walk is that in order for me to flourish, I need pruning. We can’t flourish without sacrifice. So whilst all those things we’ve talked about are incredibly important in evaluating what’s going on in a church, to me, the number one reason for me to belong to this particular church, rather than all the others, is this: I want to be there because that’s where God wants me to be, no matter what the cost.

A tree doesn’t get up and plant itself – it is planted and the One who plants us in the House of the Lord is the Lord our God. And if He plants you over in that corner of His House and me over in another corner, let that be His sovereign choice that we honour because we love Him. It won’t always make sense – it may never make sense but once He tells us where; once we know deep in our hearts where He wants us to be, you know something, that’s where we belong.