Josh Moody asks why
Good question! Why indeed?
Of course, I could immediately get a little defensive and say: ‘Well, there is politics in every area of life, and that is not necessarily bad. Political organisation of some kind is an inevitable expression of human organisation and social interaction.’ I could also say that many churches of which I have been a part have had blissfully little in the way of political shenanigans.
I could say all that, but you and I both still know what the question means. Why is it that even in church (which is supposed to be so holy and wonderful), there seems to be personal and social interactions which can at times be painful and even sometimes give rise to suspicions of political shady goings-on worthy of a minor sub-committee in some back room or other? The answer to this question is that it shouldn’t surprise us and it shouldn’t satisfy us.
New Testament experience
It shouldn’t surprise us because this is exactly what the church has always been like in some way or other. If you read the New Testament, you will find that most of the letters in it are written in response to some problem in the church to which it is sent. You might say that if there weren’t any politics in church life our New Testament would be about half the size, or even smaller, to be honest.
Some Christians look at Jesus’s teaching about the parable of the wheat and the weeds (Matthew 13.24-30) and say that this means that even in church life there are those who are not really Christians growing up alongside those who really are Christians and that we shouldn’t try to discern which is which, but just let them grow up together until God decides at the end. Other Christians think that Jesus is talking about the world, not the church, and that we can’t decide exactly who are Christians and who are not, but God will judge in the end and we should let him do it, for that is his job. Either way, we have a situation whereby we cannot expect perfection here.
In many ways, this whole question is an eschatological issue. That is, it is an issue about the last days and how we understand where we are in God’s plan for the whole universe. What we have to grasp is that while Christ has come, and the church is built upon that confession of Christ as Lord, we still live in a ‘now-and-not-yet’ time. There are still problems and difficulties and politics – and people who really annoy us by singing loudly and often and flat (such annoyance is an expression of our tendency to feel annoyed by people).
So we shouldn’t be surprised to find churches to be less than perfect and to have issues in them. It’s what churches were like in the New Testament; it’s what Jesus knew they were going to be like (look in the Gospels at all those disciples squabbling about who would be the greatest among them); and it’s an expression of the reality that while we are in Christ, we are not in heaven … yet.
We should not be satisfied
However, though this should not surprise us, at the same time it should not satisfy us. We should be aiming for our churches to grow in godliness, in Christlikeness, in love for each other, in simple humble appreciation of each other, in the ability to submit to one another out of reverence for Christ, for that is love. Love for God. Love for his Word. Love for each other. Love for the people around us.
In the same way that we should not be satisfied that we are not (yet) who we are meant to be as Christians individually, so we should not be satisfied that churches are not (yet) who they are meant to be as Christian communities. We should aim to be presented without spot or blemish, holy and pure, without stain or wrinkle: that is, full of Christ and full of his love.
If it should not satisfy us, how should we go about improving? Here is my list of suggestions, in no particular order, some of which may seem a little idiosyncratic or even counter-intuitive, but I have found these to be helpful in churches, as well as being solidly biblical.
Chill a little
First, I think we all need to chill a little. A lot of stress and strain in church life results from people being too intense. God is a pretty intense topic of conversation. Sometimes that spills into our human interactions, so we relate intensely to each other all the time. If everything is of eternal significance, pretty soon everyone gets a bit jumpy. Sometimes it’s okay to sit back, read a good book, watch a movie, grab a coffee and talk about football, or ice cream, or the scientific consensus around the unified theory of everything … you know, whatever gets you going.
Word functionally central
Second, I think it is important that the Word is not only theoretically central to church life but functionally central. A lot of issues emerge when something else becomes central, perhaps a human personality, or a particular theory about how to do church, or a particular approach to how to rear children, or whatever is the latest hot button issue in Christian subculture. All that is bound to cause friction because no one ever completely agrees on it. That’s okay. We need to talk about stuff that not everyone agrees on, otherwise our lists of things we can talk about would be pretty small. But that stuff, that secondary stuff, cannot be either theoretically or functionally central. That means we have to leave time for the explanation of the Bible, and to have that at the heart of what happens when we meet in big gatherings, as well as in small ones. That’s why I always get nervous when the latest Christian book (fad) is the thing that people are studying. Maybe it’s a good book, but no, let’s study the Bible, not the latest Christian book – which some people will love and others will hate.
All you need is love
Third, love. Love. Love. Love. The Bible says that love covers a multitude of sins. It’s amazing what churches can get away with if they just love each other. That doesn’t mean we have to like each other. I can love someone without liking them. I can find someone frustrating, or dislike his taste in clothes, but still genuinely and truly want what is best for that person. That’s what it means to love someone: to seek what is his or her best. Love does not mean avoiding tough conversations, or not doing any life-on-life accountability, but it does mean that all those sorts of things are not from an arrogant position, but from a loving, humble, gracious, self-giving position. That changes everything; it changes how we speak, and it changes how we listen. Jesus said you could tell his disciples by how they love one another (John 13.35) and so we who are loved by him love each other in turn.
True Christians
Fourth, true Christians join the membership of the church. In the judgment of charity, as much as we can discern, we want to make sure that the members of the church are actually regenerate, true followers of Jesus. If that is in place, then most other things go much easier, for fairly obvious reasons.
Good leaders
Fifth, leadership. It really matters who churches have in leadership, as elders and pastors, and we need to be careful to pick good ones, encourage them and support them.
With these five elements – not intense; with the Word functionally central; with love; with regenerate membership; and with biblical, excellent leadership – we will gradually grow in our Christlikeness as his church.
We will not avoid all problems. We will not avoid all difficulties. But we will become more like Christ – and less like the world of politics.
