Smoky Mountain Reflections
August 2012
"You
are the Christ, the Son of the living God." .......on this rock I will
build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
This excerpt from the 16th chapter of Matthew's Gospel makes clear
who will prevail in the end—God and his church. We however must live in the
interim—the time between God’s promise to redeem mankind, His fulfillment of
that promise in Christ, and His second coming.
So what are we as His church to do in this interim? What does God call
us to do in this in-between time? We can
rest assured that the victory is ours, the battle won.....but what about today?
That is a big question to be addressed in one little reflection, but let’s give
it a go.
We
should clearly live our lives to glorify God in all that we say and do. Seek to
love God and our neighbor by living out His law as best we can and regularly
seeking His love and forgivness when we fall short. But what does that look
like for us as individuals and for the body of Christ, his church? Well for us
as individuals, it is clearer than we may think. It is not easy to do, but God’s will in our
lives is clear—make God #1 in all that we say and do. Make weekly use of His
gifts in Word, Sacrament, and rest. Honor the authority He places in our lives.
Love, respect, and protect the life, marriage, reputation, family and property
of everyone in our lives. As
long as we keep His design for a peaceful God-pleasing life together as the
standard, then the vocation (in the broadest sense of the word) that we choose
can and will be in accord with His will.
But
how that looks for the church, while also quite clear in scripture, has become
quite clouded and confusing in past decades.
Not just within the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, but in wealthy
western Christianity. God's word clearly
tells us that His church will prevail as noted above, but what that looks like
in how we function as His church in the meantime has become a point of great
discord and schism within the body of Christ.
Much of this discord can be summed up with the words "Church
Growth". I once heard a pastor say
if you are not for church growth, what are you for?
If
by church growth you mean an increase in the body of Christ, everyone is on
board with that definition. We can all
celebrate together in the growth of the church while being careful to avoid
defining success as numerical increase.
If that is a measure of doing the right thing, then Muslims and Mormons
are doing the right thing. However we as
Christians must define success as God defines success. Being steadfast and uncompromising in
speaking the truth in love about who He is and what He did for mankind—that is successful.
It is being the church by boldly and confidently doing what He calls us
to do—proclaiming His word, administering His sacraments, loving Him and loving
and serving all by caring for their physical and spiritual needs (not felt
needs, biblically defined needs, food shelter, eternal salvation).
If
however by "church growth" you mean a body of formulaic practices
that have developed in the past few decades focusing on individuals and using
marketing strategies to bait them into your church, down playing or dismissing the
importance of all the church’s history
and tradition. Then many are not onboard
with that. While the church in many ways
can be run as a business, it most certainly is not a business. While Pastors or shepherds can and should
have, and make use of, some leadership skills, we are most certainly not and
cannot function as CEO's of the church. There are things that a good CEO must
do for the good of a company that a good pastor could not and should not ever
do as a servant leader for the good of the church. And when these "Church Growth"
practices call into question the efficacy of the Gospel by saying how we
deliver the message is more important than the Gospel itself, it leads to
statements that I have made myself. "I just do not want to get in the way
of the Gospel. Who am I to think I can
hinder the Holy Spirit? Who am I to
think that my method is so important that God cannot and will not work unless
my method is used?” Oh little worm that
I am, please never think such thoughts again. Those who like to focus on
numbers as a sign of success often go to Acts 6 verse 7. They often miss that right after that verse, Stephen
was seized for his good work. They often
ignore centuries of church history where the true church was persecuted. We should always be suspicious if the world
is very approving of what we say and do as His church on earth. Being in
but not of the world is no easy task,
but it is ours all the same.
God
continues to use broken redeemed people to proclaim His Gospel, administer His
Sacraments, and live out and speak the Gospel in the presence of the lost. God
be praised that His truth prevails as matter of biblical truth. His power is made perfect in our weaknesses.
(2 Cor 12:9) We should all be
thankful that we are blessed with the privilege to take part in the spreading
of His good news.
In Christ,
Pastor Portier
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