5 Danger Words for the Church

We spent quite a bit of time on Sunday thinking about unity in the church- it was a great place to frame our thinking at the start of the year. You can listen to it here. We are just reaching the part of the book where the specifics of serving Jesus in the church that He is building come into sharper focus, yet several things have struck me. In reality it is very easy for us to sit back when it comes to the church whereby it fits into our lives somewhere above our hobbies but somewhere below our job. It is a huge challenge to see that the church in Ephesians is fairly clearly portrayed as the primary place where the gifts that God has given us should be worked out. It has also caused me to reflect upon a few words that are detrimental to our puruit of God's glory in the church. So here are five words we need to be careful of when it comes to pursuing unity with one another:

1. Critique: We live in a culture of opinion. Very few of us share a meal out without at least dabbling in a form of masterchef type analysis of what we have just consumed. We leave movies discussing the merits of the film, comparing it to other films and to listen to us you would think that we should be on the committee that decides who gets the Oscars when that time of year comes around. It has significant potential to become a problem when we carry that approach into church. It can lead to a kind of paralysis by analysis whereby little things become big things wheich keep us from the main thing which is to lift Jesus name high and see our life in light of His Word. For sure we are to be Berean (Acts 17: 10-15), but there is a big difference between discerning the truth of something and marking the worth of something out of ten. One gets y0u closer to God the other is a massive distraction from that goal.

2. Preference It is somewhat remarkable that there can be a element of disquiet about personal preference in churches today. The reality is that there is an increasing range of churches which cater for a wide range of preferences. There is a massive integrity question when if we are joining a church with some kind of intention to change a church. Most churches, their pastors/elders/leaders (whichever is appropriate), have picked their priorities, their polity (how they are organised) and the message they are preaching. Pretty quickly you will be able to determine if this is a church that is going to cause you to grow in your walk with Jesus and assist you to fulfil the goal of God being glorified by your life. I said on Sunday that most division is caused by selfish preference than spiritual principle than people would care to admit. An approach which imposes preference make unity and almost impossible pursuit. I wonder how lame our insistence on our preferences and our fight to have them recognised would be if we were self aware enough to see the damage we might do in our self-satisfied pursuit of whatever they are.

3. Opinion Ephesians 4:2 talks about how humility is central to unity in the church. Humility is defined as a deep sense of one’s moral littleness, self-abasement, lowliness. That last word lowliness is a lowliness of mind. In other words, what you think does not matter. Your opinion does not count, only God's Word does. There is something about living in a democracy that makes us deeply uncomfortable about that, particularly a culture where critique is something of the norm. Less about what you think, more about what God's Word says. Gathering people to your opinion is the prime opportunity that the enemy has to create an atmosphere of opposition. There are to be no back benches in the church only front line trenches. We are to be in this together.

4. Privacy Someone recently and helpfully shared with me the difference between personal and private. Their are some things that should not be broadcast apart from to some close confidants (private) and some things that it is most helpful to share (personal). The fundamental premise of relationships in the Bible is of lives shared with one another. It is vital that we find a forum in which we can share as appropriate, and often in different places/with different people, things private and personal. The challenge with this word is that their is a massive tendency to name everything private and hold our church family at arms length. Scripture does not design your relationships in the church this way. Transparency is not tipping the entire contents of your life for absolutely all to see, but it is allowing people in so that they can pray, guide, encourage, nurture, and challenge where necessary.

5. Entitlement Entitlement is the expectation that our value will be expressed in the giving of opportunity. It necessitates comparison- 'why are they getting to do that job and not me?' It is rooted in pride- 'I could do a better job than them if they would just ask.' You are not entitled to any role in the church, the fact that God has given you a church family in the first place is more than you deserve, a work of grace in your life. the fact that you feel entitled means that you are not entitled, in fact you are disqualified until you get a better attitude. Do your part, move the chairs, cheer on the person in the role that you would be excited to participate in... pray, pray ,pray... and don't make some role into some ruler of your heart that ruins relationships or causes your removal from the place that God has placed you. You are called to a life of service not stardust.