Is True Love Lacking In The Church?

In 2007, LifeWay Research partnered with the North American Mission Board’s Center for Missional Research to conduct a survey of the attitudes and beliefs of Americans who had not attended a church in the last six months or longer. These people tend to fall into two categories: (1) the “unchurched”, or those who have never had any significant interaction with or membership in a church and (2) the “dechurched”, or those who have attended churches in the past but who no longer do so. The researchers asked these people a series of questions aimed at trying to understand what they believe about God and how they perceive the Church and Christians. There are two of their findings that I find particularly disturbing because they will present us with enormous challenges in the way that we share our faith and expand our community. Those surveyed were asked to respond to this statement: “The church is full of hypocrites, people who criticize others for doing the same things they do themselves.” 72% of respondents agreed (Many strongly agreed.) that this accurately describes the Church. They were also asked to respond to this statement: “I think Christianity today is more about organized religion than about loving God and loving people.” 79% of those surveyed agreed with this characterization of our faith.*

Let me try to put these numbers in a practical light and show you why we must take them seriously in our own fellowship. Imagine that I take ten random people who do not go to church from places all over Hardin County and bring them into your life over the next month and have them get to know you. As they come to realize that you are a believer and a member of Gilead Baptist Church, seven of them will initially and naturally suspect that you probably do not live up to the beliefs you hold and that your church is full of people just like you. They will expect you to criticize others for things that you routinely do yourself. Additionally, of those same ten people, eight will naturally assume that your involvement in our congregation is principally because you find some significance in the rituals and routines of your religion. They will not assume that you know God any better than they do, nor will they expect that you know how to love people any better than they do. In other words, most of those outside the Church think that we Christians talk a great deal about a God that we do not really know and preach to people that we do not really care about.

This paints a daunting picture of the environment in which we are sharing our faith and seeking to build relationships with people outside of our church. Many of the people we come into contact with simply do not see how God uses the gathered body of Christ to manifest His glory or to change lives. Gathered worship and Bible study are being increasingly viewed as unnecessary to develop meaningful relationships with God or men. One of the directors of the LifeWay study described the difficulty this way, “The belief that church attendance isn’t necessary for spiritual well-being is just as common among adults who grew up in church as it is among those who attended church less often as children. Unchurched people do not understand the connection between having a relationship with God and being with other believers in church.”** As a pastor, this troubles me greatly. I want people to see the love that we have for one another and for our God. If someone rejects the God that we love, then that is a tragedy for them; however, if they reject the assertion that we love our God, then that is a tragedy for us. Furthermore, if someone rejects the brotherhood of our gathered body, then that is a loss for them. If this same someone rejects the idea that we have any brotherhood worthy of the name, then that is a loss for us.

God has not been silent about the fact that He intends for His children to be more than a bunch of individuals that have similar beliefs. He wants us to be a growing family of transformed and transforming disciples who really belong to one another. Consider the following description of this family of God, “Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts … bearing with one another … forgiving each other … put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body … teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” (Colossians 3.12-16 [ESV]) Our unchurched community needs to see this kind of family in our church. I am convinced that God’s agenda for us at Gilead is that we live up to the calling that He has given us and that one of the most important ways to do that is through small group interactions with one another. Our LIFE group ministry is intended to give our family a chance to grow in the areas of forgiving, encouraging and teaching one another. Not only is this the kind of community that God has called us to be but, as the survey data have indicated, it is also the best way to demonstrate that we are not hypocrites who care more about buildings and programs than people. Please pray with me that God would continue to bless our work to become a church that is known primarily because of the way we love God and the way we love one another.

* For analysis and summary of the data for this survey refer to http://www.lifeway.com/lwc/mainpage/0,1701,M%253D200900,00.html or http://www.lifeway.com/lwc/article_main_page/0%2C1703%2CA%25253D166950%252526M%25253D200906%2C00.html
** Scott McConnell, associate director of LifeWay Research, quoted from above article.

Observations On An Ice Storm - A Parable

On Wednesday morning, January 28, most of us in Hardin County woke up to the sad reality that we were without power. Dark hallways, frigid indoor temperatures, and dead appliances served as somber testaments to the fact that our homes had no electricity. All of us have endured a temporary loss of electricity before, but few were prepared for the extent of “roughing it” that we would have to endure. Kentucky’s meteorological misfortunes have earned it the dubious distinction of being featured in a TIME magazine article*. Journalist S. James Snyder reports that the aftermath of the recent ice storms is impressive from both a statistical and personal standpoint. He reports that “Gov. Steve Beshear described the fallout from last week's ice storm as the state's largest-ever natural disaster,”** as 700,000 homes and businesses were deprived of power as a result of the ice storm. As of this writing, seven days after the storm, Kentucky power companies report that there are still in excess of 200,000 customers who have yet to see power restored.*** On a recent trip to Wal-Mart, I saw first-hand evidence of the extent to which this event has affected people: batteries and flashlights of any appreciable size, camping stoves, lanterns, propane tanks, candles and corded phones were scarcely to be found. The proportions of the storm’s impact have been both numerically and geographically impressive as people from Arkansas to Illinois have had to cope with the aftermath.

This last week has also seen profound personal drama associated with the advent of ice. The Associated Press today reported that the Kentucky death toll attributed to the storm had risen to 24. On a more pedestrian note, Snyder reports that some local officials have been enormously frustrated in their attempts to address the week’s difficulties:

“Perhaps no one in the state was more frustrated than Randell Smith, the emergency management director of Grayson County in western Kentucky, who told the Associated Press Friday that they had yet to receive any aid from either the Federal Emergency Management Agency or the Red Cross. As for the 25 National Guardsman who had arrived in his county, Smith said they did not have any of the equipment needed to clear away fallen trees. 'Disgusted' was the word that the mayor of Leitchfield, Ky., William Thomason, used to describe his frustration with state and federal officials.” **

These are merely a small example of abnormal stresses bringing out the worst in people, as they try to cope with a situation where questions far outnumber answers, and where, what few answers there are, seem to satisfy no one. Complaining, confusion, and frustration are standard ingredients in a situation of this kind, but there has been a positive side as well. Neighbors have opened their homes to one another and have reached out to help each other. Many discovered new found space for conversation and reflection in a world temporarily cleansed from the din of electronic media.

As profound as the statistical and personal impact of this storm have been, I believe that there is an even greater impression that God wants us to receive from this episode. First, He wants us to see how powerless we really are to control the world around us. Most of us had plans for the last seven days that scarcely involved kerosene and chainsaws. There were things to be bought, meetings to be made, events to be attended, and programs to be watched. For the most part, we did not question our ability to accomplish what we set out to do a week ago, and we believed that our plans had the air of certainty about them. In this, however, we were wrong. The ice on my power lines may as well have had this statement written across it, “People can make all kinds of plans, but only the Lord's plan will happen.” (Proverbs 19.21 [NCV]) Our lack of electrical power served as a poignant parable of our lack of power in a far more important area: the circumstances of our future. The splintered remains of the trees in my front yard may as well bear James’ words “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go … and make a profit’— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring … Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.’” (James 4.13-15 [ESV]) It is helpful for us to be reminded that, as children of God, we can never have too much humility. Though it might be disconcerting to an unbeliever to be confronted with the realization that he does not hold the future, we are to reckon our security upon a different scale. Because we understand that the One who is ordering this world toward its appointed end is both the most powerful and the most benevolent being in the universe, we realize that our future is secure in the hands of God. This is a realization that produces humility.

The second truth that I believe God wants us to be cognizant of is that He has blessed us tremendously through civilized society. A disaster like this one demonstrates how much energy is necessary to keep the world civilized. It takes enormous amounts of money, cooperation, and coordination to engineer an electrical grid. We are benefitting from the functioning and funding of government and business institutions at various levels. The prevalence of these institutions in our experience can tempt us to take them for granted, but just reflect for a moment on how much more difficult this past week would have been without the ability to receive assistance from utility companies from other states or without road crews who are trained and designated to assist us during times of distress. The fact that our social institutions function as well as they do is a blessing for which we ought to be legitimately thankful, and our thanks should principally be directed heavenward. "Lord, God of our ancestors, you are the God in heaven. You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. You have power and strength, so no one can stand against you.” (2 Chronicles 20.6 [NCV]) God uses institutions like businesses, families, societies, and governments to mercifully benefit us and to keep our lives from being as hard as they might be otherwise. This is a realization that engenders thankfulness.

There are certainly other truths that can be gleaned from times of unusual deprivation, but for the moment I am content to pray that God will use this ice storm to make us more humble and more thankful people. According to God those are precisely the kind of people that He uses to bless others.

* article can be viewed at: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1876304,00.html
** see article above.
*** Further details at: http://www.wave3.com/Global/story.asp?S=9786584