My
church recently has gone through some turmoil that could ultimately destroy the
fabric of this gathering of believers.
There is really a potential for a church split that would end up being
the end of our little community of faith.
The church is not very large, but it is a comfortable community of
believers that made fellowship fun and the worship was always energetic and
lively.
Some
people might think that a church split is no big deal. They especially think this way if the church
is ‘large enough’. After all, if you
split a church with a thousand members, you get two churches with five hundred
members each, right? Wrong. Even if the church splits evenly, there are
probably one third of the people in the congregation that will see all the
in-fighting and decide that they no longer want any part of ‘church’, or any
organized religion, and stop attending any religious services at all out of disappointment
and discouragement. And this doesn’t
include the live of the children involved.
The spiritual fallout has the potential to be devastating, to say the
least.
Like
most divorces, the individuals in the church family are forced to decide which
side they’re on. And therein lays a big
part of the problem. Just as divorce was
never a part of God’s plan (see Malachi 2:16 or Matthew 19:18), neither is a
church split part of God’s overall plan.
When we as a church are forced to ‘take sides’ in a church squabble, we
always lose when we think this group is right and that group is wrong. However, when this happens, I really think
God weeps over us and considers us lost sheep without a real shepherd.
Jesus
did not stretch out His arms on the cross at Calvary to die in order to make a
social club for us to gather together every week and have a good time. He died to provide a haven from the storms of
life that invariably affect us all. The
church is several things at once.
The
church is a hospital for weary and wounded people to find healing for the
wounds that this world has inflicted on them.
I remember when I came back to the church after being away for so long;
I found a group of people that didn’t care where I’d been or what I’d done. They were just happy to see me there and they
gave me the love and acceptance I was dying to receive. I found strength for the journey that God had
intended for me and spiritual nourishment to make me strong.
The
church is also a boot camp of sorts for God’s army, training us up in the ways
of spiritual warfare that will inevitable come into all of our lives. God gives us the required skill set necessary
to survive in a hostile world and to bring as many people as we can into the
fold where they too can find the “peace of God, which transcends all
understanding” (Philippians 4:7) as they come into a living relationship with
their Creator.
The
question about whose side God is on always comes into play. It’s like the political cartoon about God in
politics where one candidate is screaming, “The Lord is MY shepherd, I shall
not be in want” and the other candidate is yelling back at him, “Thy word is a
lamp unto MY feet and a light unto MY path!”
If the consequences of such thinking weren’t so disastrous and long
lasting, it would be laughable.
Someone
once said “If you ask the wrong question, you’ll get the wrong answer.” The correct question is not “whose side is
God on?” but “who is on God’s side?” After
all, the church does belong to God. It
is His church, is it not? And if it’s
His church, doesn’t He has some say in how it’s run?
The
second person of the trinity, Jesus Christ, prayed in John 17 was for the church, that
it might find unity. And not just any
sort of unity, but complete unity. Do you get that? When we are in complete unity, the enemy has
no recourse against us. Why do you think
that Proverbs 6:16-19 says, “There are six things the LORD hates, seven that
are detestable to him:… and (the seventh) a man who stirs up dissension among
brothers.” God knows that when the
church is united, they are essentially unbeatable by any enemy. “A cord of three strands is not quickly
broken.” (Ecclesiastes 4:12)
Think
about that. “I have given them the glory
that you gave me, that they may be one as
we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity
to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have
loved me.” (John 17:22-23) Again, “I in
them and you in me…” There’s your three
strand cord.
Do
you realize how powerful this statement is?
“…that they may be one as we are one…”
If you could only remotely comprehend how much Jesus and God the Father
are one, then you might have an idea how much Jesus wanted, no, longed for, the
church to be united from the ground up.
If anything, this is the testimony that we as the church give to a world
that is not only antagonistic, but actually acrimonious towards us in the
body. You will notice that this unity
has nothing to do with church polity, doctrine or statements of faith.
Jesus
said that this was the defining issue for the body, that we might have unity
and be one. “By this all men will know
that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:35) To reach a lost and dying world, we must be
the real thing to real people because people can smell a fake a mile away. They know what insincerity feels like because
they deal with it all day long in the world we live in.
The
entire world is dying to see someone who is sincere in their faith and willing
to live that out in day-to-day life. The
writer of the Book of James said, “You have faith; I have deeds. Show me your
faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.” (James 2:18)
Someone wiser than myself once said, “Evangelize at all times; and if
necessary, use words.”
