When Jesus Rocks the House

Contemporary churches need to hear again what the spirit says to the churches in the Book of Revelation.”

Edmund P. Clowney

I think a lot about the Church of Jesus Christ — this gathering of sinful and broken believers He established, who recognise their need of a saviour, and who are charged with doing His work in the world, risking their comfort and even their lives to follow him (Mark 8:34).

What would Jesus do?

I like to speculate about how, upon His return, our Lord might react to the current state of His Church, especially here in North America.  

Would He be over the moon, commending us for meeting or exceeding His expectations?

or …

Would He shake His head and laugh at how we busy ourselves with silly preoccupations, sometimes missing the heart of what He envisioned?  We probably couldn’t help laughing along with Him!

or …

Would he rock the house, turning over tables again (Mt 21 / Mk 11 / Jn 2), at how the body has disobeyed His guidance, taken few risks in His name, twisted His Word, while compromising our morality, our courage and ultimately our faithfulness?

I wonder what He would do — if He just popped in where you and I worship on any given Saturday or Sunday.

Gosh — would we even notice?

A marginal note …

When I refer to His “Church” I’m not including those tax-exempt cultural organisations that hold a woke worldview, display rainbow flags and bless puppies and kittens.  While they still appropriate “church” on their signage, these orgs long ago turned their backs on the Word of God.  (For examples, see your country’s roster of World Council of Churches)

Change your name, or change your conduct.”

Alexander the Great

No, I’m thinking rather of that remnant of organisations that still hold to a high view of Scripture and a high Christology, yet whose leadership sometimes does silly, prideful, or worldly things that distract from what our Lord modelled or commanded.

I’ve listed ten of these things that I find troublesome.  Two or three certainly aren’t reason to leave a church, but if your gathering checks most of the boxes, then something prescriptive needs to be done.

It might be time to leave your church when …

1. Your church measures its success by the number of consumers who show up to be entertained once a week, rather than by the depth of their individual conviction.  What measuring stick does your church use?

“We don’t need any more Christians to win our nation back to God. All we need is for the Christians we already have to be Christian, wherever they are.”

Patrick Morley

2. Your church service seems more like a well-orchestrated performance, than one patterned after Acts 2:42ff.

3. Your pastor mounts the pulpit or stage allowing himself to soak up staff-prompted applause, effectively getting in the way of Jesus — the only One we are called to worship.  I’d always been taught that healthy pastors fight for impact and obscurity with courage and humility.  Not every pastor is secure enough in his skin to do that.  How does your teaching pastor handle himself?

In America, pastors think they have to become famous to have a big impact.  In China, the most influential Christian leaders had to be the most hidden.”

Francis Chan

4. Your pastor largely manages his own accountability, (rather than submitting to a biblically-qualified board of elders) and his family’s influence subtly prevails over the major decisions of the church.  This is a recipe for organisational abuse.  A worthwhile question might be, who in his immediate circle is willing to be a positive disrupter or a prophetic voice that pushes back on his ideas, if he’s mostly the one calling the shots?  What level of real accountability does your pastor have?

5. Your pastor’s messages are self-help, pop psychology topical outlines sprinkled with proof-texts, rather than thorough expositions of the Word of God from solid and rigorous exegesis.  Speaking in a church building doesn’t make it preaching.  People go to church to hear from God, and deserve to hear what He says through the biblical authors.  Not every pastor is qualified or equipped to deliver on this.  How competent is your pastor on crafting and delivering expository sermons that open up God’s word?  If he insists upon excellence on Sunday morning, is he holding himself to the same standard?

Postmodern Christianity must engage the intellect, must have edge, must be conversant with the sciences, and must not be afraid of intellectual fire. Nothing pushes postmoderns’ nausea button quicker than sermons that are pure didactic cardboard or psychological mush.”

Leonard Sweet

6. Your church grows as a result of t-shirts, bumper stickers, promo videos, people waving silly signs at traffic and rebranding itself, rather than a central emphasis on skilfully and fearlessly professing the timeless, counter-cultural and often offensive Word of God.  How does your church grow, and by what growth models does its leadership adhere?

7. Your church doesn’t miss an opportunity to allocate precious worship or teaching time to push people into growth assimilation channels with cool names, or to promote additional worship services where more promotion and more assimilation is done.  Is this the type of organisation for which early century martyrs were willingly burned at the stake or ripped apart by wild beasts?

8. Your church leadership assumes adding more services and more campuses are two ways of obeying the great commission.  What if God wants it to be smaller and deeper, rather than wider and shallower?

The post-modern American church is more interested in lighting, entertaining and making people feel good about themselves … than in reaching people who are on their way to an eternity of everlasting suffering.”

One News Now; June 19th, 2020

9. Your church’s concern for visitors’ feelings and comfort overrides its foundational responsibility to unapologetically proclaim God’s amazing redemptive story, culminating in the Gospel of Christ.  What if you just scrapped the silly greeting committee?  Do you have faith that dynamic preaching of the Word would cause folks to break the doors down to get in?  How faithful is your church? 

10. Your church seems to be gradually looking more and more like the world, missing perhaps its responsibility to be radically different from it.  This could mean a slow adoption of woke ideologies that fly in the face of biblical precepts, or just taking short cuts to get the job done. How worldly is your church?  How courageous is its leadership?

When the church acts like the world, we’re all done.” 

Bill Finley

I think it’s important to underline that full-time ministry is really hard work, and takes its toll on pastors, priests, elders and their families. Even after establishing healthy boundaries, these families give a lot and give up a lot in the name of ministry.

But, the flip side of that is that things can go wrong.  It’s possible for well-intentioned leaders to get off-track, to get burned out, to be under-equipped, or to fall into well-worn ruts or weekly preparation habits. That’s where high support and accountability is supposed to kick in.

Faithful followers of Messiah with the right gifts need to help well-grounded churches find their way back to a biblical centre.  This might mean exerting your influence with church leadership.  If you’ve tried that, or if you lack adequate support, then you need to ask yourself why you worship where you worship.  Your first allegiance is to God and the precious scriptures He has left us.  Certainly not to a building nor to a bumper sticker.

Our Lord turned over tables before. I speculate he’ll do it again when he returns. Being intolerant of sin and disobedience, he won’t think twice about rocking the house, especially those houses of worship that figure they’ve found the key every Sunday in that tightly-orchestrated show, in those comfortable pews, listening to that Rock Star pastor, while drinking that really bad coffee.

Can we at least start by getting better coffee?

Contemporary churches need to hear again what the spirit says to the churches in the Book of Revelation.”

Edmund P. Clowney

I welcome your comments (below).

Blessings on your home,
robert

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