I have come to believe that the lie we spread in the American church (and, by the way, I know that there are many churches that do not fall into this trap) is revealed in our concept of pain, its roots and its expression. There is a pervasive belief that if one is experiencing pain, that there is something wrong in their life. They are deficient in their walk of faith, either in lacking that quality or have broken somehow with God in their life. The Biblical story of Job is reenacted over and over in the American church.
The hurt and suffering of one of our brothers or sisters in Christ is “ministered” to frequently by well-meaning, but often spiritually deficient “friends.” They gather around the downtrodden, armed with what they have heard from the pulpit and with what they know from their secular life, and begin to care for their fellow. The process regularly ends with frustration on the part of the “ministered to” and the “ministered by.” The former is frustrated because they are not heard as they share the trials they are experiencing. Even if they are in the middle of some sinful circumstance, the art of sensitively and spiritually listening to them is almost never applied. Galatians 6:1 should be pounding in the ears of the ministers of grace to the unfortunate. “Brethren, even if a man is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, lest you too be tempted.” But, unfortunately, this rarely occurs.
For this to happen in our churches, all of us must recognize our propensity for waywardness in the fragile frame we have been given. The realization that sin can actually happen in the church by church members or even by the leaders of the church (including the pastors), is a facet of ministry that the American church cannot stand. What we do instead is to take out the biggest stick we can find and begin to flog the decrepit “sinner” into submission, church conformity or flight. We cannot adhere to the principle that we have frailty of any kind in our churches, no matter if the core of all of our churches reeks of pain and suffering and loss, and hopelessness and embarrassment and disenfranchisement.
Christmas 2008 was a significant time in the life of my church. I have had the privilege of ministering with a wonderful group of Christian people there for the last 10 years. I also believe my church is a normal American church with many of the challenges American churches have. We tend to want to look good for our church experience and often do not reveal our underlying life trials. During this Christmas, we used the theme of “The Christmas We Always Longed For.”
I was commissioned to present the first sermon in this series. My topic was the virgin birth. My direction for the sermon was the surprises that God brings into our lives, like the virgin birth, and how they are the very foundation for wonderful life change. In the context of the message, I invited the church family to fill out a prayer slip and present it during a time of invitation at the end of the service. I encouraged the church to write down on the slips things they would really like to see happen during the Christmas season and asked for a real list of longed for surprises for this most magical time. I didn’t ask them to make their list for Santa or to give me a list of things they wished someone would buy them. I asked them, if they could have anything from the Lord that Christmas, to write those things down. I asked them to be honest, straightforward and clear in their requests. As a church, we were going to pray 24 hours a day for the 7 days of Christmas week for the longed for surprises on those lists. Many came forward to place their requests in boxes at the front of the church. It was an inspiring sight.
On the following Monday the staff and I reviewed the requests on those slips. What we encountered was revealing. Our church family that on the outside looked so secure, so settled, so sure, so together, revealed the great set of needs at every level of life. We saw families that longed for their family members to be united in love during the Christmas time without the arguments and disappointment that make these special times so onerous. There were petitions for the breaking down of walls of separation, anger and disassociation. Others revealed a longing for victory over addictions to drugs, alcohol, pornography and other inhibiting behaviors. Others asked for sensitivity to God so that the individual could face in power the challenges in which each of them were living. Some asked for their spouses to return to a place of love and affection. Others asked for love to reign in their homes where love had somehow been misplaced over time. Many asked for sons and daughters to come to know the truth about God, return to the truth about God or continue to make a stand for the Lord to whom they had committed. It was an honest list of really longed for desires in the life of my church.
I am sure that my church is not alone in this. The American church has succumbed to a fallacy that states we must never be vulnerable and reveal our personal, private, and regularly hidden pain. Part of this is our pride. Again this is a parameter of waywardness from God over any other consideration. We may fool those around us, but God already knows. We may cheerfully drag our bodies to church, high five each other as we pass in the halls, but cower in our hearts that someone might somehow see inside our suffering, pain and hurt.
The other facet of that pride is the fear that someone may see us for who we really are. It is a fear that we won’t measure up somehow to the standard of the church (a standard that may or may not be Biblical). It is a fear that somehow we might fall short of what is required in the day to day living out of our faith. It is the fear that in recognizing our failures of faith that we have somehow not passed the test of heaven. We are commended to be perfect as our Lord is perfect and we fear the truth that in our daily walk we fail regularly, thus failing the test of perfection (I am quite aware that the admonition to be perfect can be understood to mean “lacking in nothing” that God has provided).
In the corporate setting of the American church this whole scenario is debilitating. Without the opportunity and willingness to express our weaknesses and strengths, we miss the power that is in the church. This power is not in our buildings with all their incredible features. It is not in our programs with their entire well thought out and multi-faceted approaches. It is not found in our ability to communicate the messages of our churches across many different platforms through our use of audio, visual, internet or portable computer driven receptors.
No, the power of the church, even the American church, is the power that has always belonged to the church. The power of the church is its redeemed population submitted to the Holy Spirit’s leading in openness, given to each other without fear, or shame, or remorse, or hesitance. The first church that there ever was knew this power. Acts 2:43-47 proffers this truth in the unity and openness of the Jerusalem church. It says, “And everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. And all those who had believed were together, and had all things in common; and they began selling their property and possessions, and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need. And day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God, and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.”
I am not offering a new communism for the church; rather I am reminded that the people of the church, with all of their weaknesses and strengths, are the real asset of the church. Fractured, fragile and fallible people are the real agents of God’s hand upon the earth. The person sitting next to us on the pew is the one that God wants to use for His purposes as much as He wants to use each of us, no matter how good or bad we may look to an outside perusal. But in our spectator expression of Christianity here in the United States, we will continue to struggle with our place in God’s work if we don’t get this straight.
From “Righter’s Block” by John T. Prim
Leave a Reply