a truth bearer

 In eighteen years as a pastor and a church planter, one of the most important things I have learned is that Churches compromise in the same way that Christians compromise. And the effect is the same. The Church has lost its prophetic voice and its ability to speak to power.  We are  imperfect, self-involved, distracted and afraid. But once we get off the starting block, the reason for our compromise is too often because we think we have to produce the outcomes. Outcomes are God’s job. The work of the Lord in obedience to Him is our job. God’s outcomes happen when we prayerfully, selflessly, submissively, and obediently take up His cross and “abound” in His work. We get tripped up trying to do His work instead of doing the work He needs and leads us to do.  Only after we die to self and have the  humility to let God be in charge will we be able to  know God, hear God, and effectively work together in the body of Christ so we can be blessed with the outcomes God desires.

Many Christians have decided that they are omniscient (smart) enough to know how to engineer lives, churches, and ultimately, our societies. So, churches have traded their calling as truth bearers for personal achievement and pride.  Churches compromise when they trade truth-bearing and disciple-making for church growth and outward success. God wants to see the lost saved - not Christians in competition with other churches, not worship time as performance time, not measuring attendance numbers as if they verify “success,” and not going to church (common noun) in place of Church (proper noun). It’s easy to get into a mindset of “church” instead of “Church” -- i.e., building, music, money (church) versus a body of believers in Christ (Church). It’s easy to work for outcomes, instead of dying to self and working for Christ according to His ways and His will for us.

“You should never ask God to do what He has said He’s already done, and you should never ask God to do what He has told you to do.” – T.L. Osborn, Pentecostal evangelist

If we understand Church biblically, then we can answer most other questions about why churches are losing their prophetic voice and becoming unable to speak to power. 

After some recent upheaval at the church I serve, we asked everyone with a Bible to come and help us search the Scriptures and Church history for the most irreducible definition of a local church. We know that the Church (capital “C”), is the body of believers, the people of God, the bride of Christ, the body of Christ. If you are saved by Jesus Christ’s redemptive death on the cross, then you are “In Christ” and in His Church family. The local church is just a subset - a group of Christians who gather to worship the true God of the Bible, do the work of the Lord together, hold one another accountable, encourage and exhort one another, learn from one another, and grow together. 

“And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (2Cor3:18).

There is nothing else to do in order to “get a church off the ground” than gather two or more together with a heart and mind inclined toward our Saviour Jesus Christ. 

As our hearts and minds incline toward Him, we strive in unity to grow in faith and turn from the ways of the world toward the Ways of God. As we are transformed through the Spirit and mature in faith, we increase in wisdom and discernment, grow in our knowledge of God and his workings in our life and world, and increase in our usefulness and work for the Kingdom. 

The Bible refers to the relationships within the Church familially as brothers and sisters in the family of Christ. 1 Corinthians 12:12 goes further, describing the Church functionally, “Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ.”

Success is assured wherever there is faithfulness because, like all fruits of the Spirit, faithfulness leads to “success”. But faithfulness, and therefore outcomes, suffer where there are distractions, idols, fear, apathy, indifference, lack of discernment, and empty work.

I have sometimes struggled to understand my calling as a pastor: a CEO, a manager, a public speaker, a Bible teacher, a counselor, a life-coach, a leadership developer, a program director, a wedding coordinator, a marketing specialist, a public relations expert, and I’m sure I could think of some more things. I can get confused. But when I’ve made myself open the Bible and pray about it, I always come up with this:   A Truth Bearer

I am called to be a Truth bearer. But you must know, it’s not just pastors. It’s you too. You have children to teach and shepherd. You encounter people to give wise counsel.  You have pastors to pray for and protect. You have jobs and social engagement in the community....conversations every day that pivot on Truth. You witness injustices and wrongs to right in your everyday context. You have a walk just like I have a walk toward maturity in faith, always making judgments of Truth. 

It’s not easy, but it’s simple.  The Church and the local expressions of it are called to no less.  The Church is a city on a hill, a beacon of light, showing the way of God and to God, and speaking to power.  

The Church must be able to confront the people of the world with the reality of sin and judgement, the perfection of God and truth of His Word, the example and promise of Jesus Christ, and a call to repentance. 

Yet, rather than speaking to Truth, many will compromise it. In a heartbeat we do it to “fit in” to the world. For example, “the world” advises us to never discuss religion, money and politics... it might make waves. So we dance around those parts of the Bible that the current culture finds distasteful. If we are ever self-aware enough, we might find that the world has won us. In the same way as the individual, Churches stop preaching the gritty contemporary challenges of Truth in order to keep safe and fill seats. If Churches apply Scripture lessons and challenge on issues of today - money, politics, entertainment, education, sports, material idols - it might make people uncomfortable; as it should. 

The Church must be able to see the culture and speak to it. The Church - and individual Christians - must also be willing to speak to the culture and society about where the culture has strayed from natural laws, moral laws, and other of God’s ways. The difficult thing in this rapidly changing world is to really understand where things have gone awry - where evil and deception are happening.  Remember that evil and deception go hand-in-hand. As a pastor who is not a scientist or "technical" person, I know that I fail to grasp some of the implications of where, for example, technology is taking us. In a prophetic voice, the WalkWiser ministry is challenging all of us to wisdom, discernment and unity in the Body. It is being an example for what the Lord has called on ALL (yes, all) of us to do:  expose evil, protect one another from deception and idol-worship, disciple, discern Truth amid confusion, and speak to the Power of Truth.  The following verse from  1Corinthians speaks to Unity and Diversity in the Body - our roles and giftedness as individuals, but also the critical importance of a group (body) of believers functioning as one.

There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work. Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues.  All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.  Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by[c] one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.  (1 Cor 12:4-14).

You can read further about today's crisis of  “Disembodied Religion” in my other blog post.

Go!   ... and may God bless you in your walk with and for Christ and in all your ways.

- JM, Pastor, USA