Nr 5 Indicator that you MIght be in a Dysfunctional Church

You might be in a dysfunctional church if everyone thinks it’s all about them. Let me explain. Rick Warren in “The Purpose Driven Life” makes the point that worship is about God, not people. He tells of people who complain that they don’t get anything out of the worship service. He tells them that he has news for them, the worship service wasn’t for them, it was for God. The Corinthian church seemed to think that everything revolved around them. Let’s look at 1 Corinthians 1:26-31:

Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.” (NIV)

The Apostle Paul starts off this passage by essentially say, “Look at yourselves.” Not many of you are college professors or rocket scientists. Not many are Olympic Champions or Medal of Honor winners. And certainly most of you aren’t seen on the lives of the rich and famous. You are ordinary people. And of course, most of us are ordinary people whether we are in the church or not in the church. But, traditionally most Christians, through all the centuries, have been ordinary folk. What makes us different is that God has chosen us! Why? To paraphrase Paul, he chose ordinary people to discredit society’s values. God chose those who are seen as non-intellectuals to discredit human wisdom, he chose the weak to discredit humanities ideas about heroism, and he chose the down and out to discredit society’s idea of the best and brightest. At this point, I must say that God gave us brains, strength and prosperity – none of these things is bad. Paul is just saying that God has turned everything upside down. This is similar to places where Jesus said things like, “The first shall be last.” The Sermon on the Mount says similar things in the beatitudes.

The next thought that Paul expresses is that now that we have been chosen and transformed, “Look at yourselves!” We are wise; we understand the power of the cross and have accepted the fact that Jesus died for our sins. We are forgiven. We are righteous; right with God and with other people; not because we are perfect, but because God has forgiven us and cleansed the slate. We have been sanctified, or made holy. We are saints! Again, we aren’t perfect, but God sees us as we can and will be, not just as we are. And all of this is because of Jesus! It isn’t anything special about us. It is that there is something special about Jesus. He came to us, lived for us, died for us and now lives for us. He saved and transformed us. Of course, you are right. All of these changes may not be obvious to your eyes, but God is working to bring this about.

Many books have been written about our ultimate purpose, but for the Christian, one thing that we can agree on is the God is at the center of our purpose. We were created by him and live for him. We have nothing that we haven’t received from God. There is nothing for us to brag about. Therefore if we must brag, brag about God and what he has done. Glory belongs to the Lord. You see, it is never all about us. It really is all about God.

The Election

I really don't want to talk about this subject. I'm really not qualified to give any "expert" opinions. In fact, on much of the election I either don't have a real opinion, or I'm not sure that I want to go with my opinion. The real reason that I am writing about the election is that it is so pervasive. All that one sees in the news is either the election or the economic crisis -- and usually they intersect with one another. I realize that we are in an economic crisis -- I am one of those having a hard time, but I really don't understand economics very well. No that I have presented my credentials, let me give a few thoughts and observations about the elections.

I am a McCain supporter. Why? I would like to present a lot of reasonable arguments, but that is not why I will vote for him. I do have some reasonable arguments; his economic and foreign policy statements resonate with me. But, the reason I like McCain is my background in the Navy. I respect him for who he is and what he endured. I am a Viet Nam vet. He is one of the heroes of "my" war. I had the opportunity to meet his dad. I worked for him -- although I'm sure his dad didn't know me; I was way down on the chain of command. The fact that John McCain refused to take the "deal" offered by the North Vietnamese, means a lot to me. There's a lot that I like about Obama, but he doesn't speak my language.

I don't know whether Sarah Palin is qualified to be president or not, but I don't know whether Obama is qualified to be president. Joe Biden's inability to stay away from his gaffes makes me wonder whether his is qualified to be president. I am not even convinced that John McCain is qualified, but McCain shows the character to be president. He has a track record that I respect. Sarah Palin may not have the long track record of McCain, but she shows a lot of character also. I really respect her beliefs, but I suspect that she is every NOW members worst nightmare. The real issue is that we can't be absolutely sure that anyone is qualified to be president before they become president. The character and background of the person will help them meet the challenges of the presidency as these challenges come to them. This also is why I will vote for McCain -- he has a track record of meeting lifes challenges; he has met the worst that life could throw at him, and he came through with his character intact.

As to the rest of the slate, I am tempted to vote against any incumbent in any office regardless of party. Now I may not really do that, but that is the way I am feeling at this time. Throw them all out! They created this mess. Of course the problem is that we don't know whether the new person will do any better.

Don't hold me to this, but I may tackle some of the propositions, especially Prop. 8 tomorrow. If anyone is reading this, let me know what you think.

Sorryabout that!

My last post is formatted all wrong! I'm sure it is my fault, but I have been unsuccessful so far. The info is alright. I'll try to correct the format later.

The Nr 4 Indicator that you might be in a Dysfunctional Church

You might be in a dysfunctional church if everyone is "full of themselves." What do I mean by "full of themselves?" Let's look at the scripture, and then I will explain.

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written:

“I will destroy the wisdom of
the wise;
the intelligence of the intelligent I
will frustrate.”


 Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its
wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than
man’s strength. (1 Corinthians 1:18-25)
New International Version. 1996, c1984 . Zondervan: Grand Rapids

Paul is writing this letter to a church where the people were believers. He even declares that they have been given all spiritual gifts. These people knew the gospel of the cross that Paul was emphasizing. Why did he need to say it again? The people were "full of themselves." They thought
that Paul was right, but this was just basic information. They were already initiated; there must be something more. They were sophisticated and they desired words of "wisdom". Gnosticism (there is no real indication that Gnosticism was present in the Corinthian church) was the belief that salvation comes through knowing and believing the secret, esoteric knowledge. Corinth may not have had gnosticism but they had that kind of attitude. That is also the reason that there was so much division there. By the way, some of the more bizarre, Gnostic beliefs are found in "The DaVinci Codes.

"Paul goes to the heart of the matter. The message of the cross was not just basic, it is central. It may sound foolish to those who are unbelievers, but it is the power that delivers believers from death to life. The message of the cross is about the death of Jesus for us. It is the story that God sent His Son to be a part of us, to die for us and, after the resurrection, to live for us. This is probably not the way that most of us would have redeemed the world. I am quite certain that I would have come up with a different idea. But the cross defies and destroys human concepts on
how to save humanity.

Human wisdom has limitations. God is not found by human wisdom, it is found by God's revelation of Himself. One really can't understand God by human wisdom. The problem is that although God gave us brains and the ability to reason, God doesn't always act in ways that seem reasonable to
us. The message of the cross to many is an embarrassment. The two major groups in the early church were Jews and Greeks (since the Greek culture was dominant, most ethnic groups were labeled as Greeks). Jews couldn't accept Jesus, because they wanted some kind of miraculous sign
that would prove that He was who He said He was. Greeks love wisdom, andthey thought that this was the way to God. The cross was a scandal to Jews. God wouldn't die on a cross. Their scriptures even said that anyone hung on a tree was accursed. To the Greek, the idea of a god
dying on a cross was just nonsense. Of course, God's paradox is that His foolishness is wiser than
human wisdom and His weakness is stronger than human strength.

Well, what is the message in all of this. What is dysfunctional about wanting more. It isn't wrong to seek wisdom, see next weeks sermon, but we must never lose the centrality of the cross. We must preach the cross of Christ without shame. We must not make things too complicated. As the
bumper sticker says, KISS -- keep it simple stupid! When we get so "full of ourselves" the we
think we are too good for the simple gospel, we are well on our way to dysfunction.

The Nr. 3 Indicator that You Might be in a Dysfunctional Church

You might be in a dysfunctional church if everyone follows a different leader. The Apostle Paul puts it this way in 1 Corinthians 1:11-17 (NIV):

My brothers, some from Chloe's household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. What I mean is this: One of you says, "I follow Paul"; another, "I follow Apollos"; another, "I follow Cephas"; still another, "I follow Christ."

Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized into the name of Paul? I am thankful that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, so no one can say that you were baptized into my name. (Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I don't remember if I baptized anyone else.) For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

Everyone was claiming a different leader. They actually seemed to have slogans that they would use in their discussions (arguments?) with one another. We do need to understand that the church had not split. It was just filled with different factions depending on who the "followed." Actually they weren't really following anyone because the leaders weren't divided, the followers were. They weren't going anywhere.

Since Paul wasn't in Corinth at this time, how did he know that this was going on? He received a report from "Chloe's" people. Who was Chloe? We don't really know, but we can infer some things about her:

• She was a woman of independent needs in a "man's" world,
• She evidently traveled,
• She had servants, slaves or extended family.

It is interesting that none of the leaders were present (except Christ -- but we will discuss this below). Paul was the founder of the church. He had impressive credentials, but he wasn't a great speaker. The Corinthians liked speakers who were great expositors of "wisdom". Some felt that they should be loyal to Paul, the founder, but others liked Apollos better; he was an orator. Actually Apollos wasn't there any longer because he didn't like being pitted against Paul. Cephas (Aramaic for Peter) probably had never been to Corinth. People had come in the name of Peter claiming that the only way to become a Christian was to first become a Jew. This appealed to those who wanted to be right according to the letter of the Law. The last group mentioned sounds like they have it right. Jesus Christ may not be there in the flesh, but He is the Lord of the Church. The problem was that this group said that they were followers of Christ as a "put down" of the others. They were all at odds with one another.

Paul goes on to talk of Baptism. Was Paul against it. Of course not! But, he wants to make a point. First, Jesus can't be divided -- so neither can His body, the church. According to Matthew 28:18-20, we are baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, so who does the baptizing is irrelevant. Paul didn't come to baptize of gain a following. He came to preach the gospel. Oratory isn't the issue. The issue is the power of the cross. This should bring unity, not division.

What is the role of church leadership? First and foremost, it is not to create a personal following! I am the pastor of Bayview Baptist Church, but it is not "my" church. It is the church of Jesus Christ. I am there fulfilling my function which is to pastor the church. All are called to minister in the church using their gifts to do so. My gifting and anointing and call is to pastor the church. We should all be following Jesus. The purpose of Pastors is to help people see the vision for that church as he is able to discern Christ's purposes for that church. Woe, to the pastor that thinks it is all about his great skill. We are to present Christ. To that extent, we must follow church leadership. Division within the church is not an option.

No News is Good News

This is a great time for lovers of news. Some of us just can't get enough. I check the cable news early in the morning. I want to find out what has happened while I slept. I confess that I usually watch Fox News -- but I do watch others. At noon and in the evening, I watch CBS News, both local and National. I think my compulsion to watch the news dates to my youth. Twice I was caught completely unaware when "big" things were happening. The first was the start of the Korean War. I was only 13 years old, but it still bothered me that the first I saw of this war was in a movie News Reel. Why didn't I know that this was happening? When I was an older teenager -- in college, I was shocked to hear about the Marines landing in Lebanon. I had no idea what led up to this. Where was my head? I resolved inside never to be caught unaware again.

As much as I try, as much as I tune into news, I still seem to be surprised. There is always something that I don't know. I wonder if I really am upset because things are happening that I can't control! (I am really not going to explore that at this time.) The current financial crisis has caught me off guard. I have been following the news and know that things are bad. My finances are bad. My home was foreclosed. I do know that gasoline is expensive. I also know that so is everything else. But, it seemed like out of the blue, the Secretary of the Treasury and the President were asking for a bail-out to keep the whole economy from failing, banks started to declare bankruptcy, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had to be rescued etc. On and on it went. Why didn't someone tell me? How can you watch so much news and still be caught surprised?

I would be just as informed if I just took it easy, read the paper, checked the Internet and watched one news show in the evening. Being a news junky really just leaves me frustrated. When I grew up I learned the saying that No News is Good News. That isn't true in this day. Not having news doesn't mean anything good is happening. But I'm going to take it easy and not be so compulsive about the news. Take it easy Dick . . .

Oops, got to sign off, Bill O'Reilly is about to start! By all!

The Number 2 Indicator that You Might Be in a Dysfunctional Church

You might be in a dysfunctional church if everyone has a different vision. Paul tells the Corinthian church:

I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought. (1 Corinthians 1:10, NIV)

As discussed in yesterday's post, Paul has a concern. That concern is koinonia, fellowship. The community which was to be in fellowship with one another was to be in unity with God and with one another. This unity is not uniformity. It is not based upon some forced sense of saying and doing the same thing. Unity within the church allows all of us to be truly unique, yet to be one in heart and mind. Paul shows that this is the area of his concern in the next few verses where he says that they have different slogans to support the different factions within the church. When this is the case, there is no unity. Paul also mentions the word "thought" which in some translations is called "judgment". This word can also be translated as what we in this era call "vision". The church had no sense of common vision.

What should be done? Paul presents the remedy. Later in the letter he discusses the fact that the church is the body of Christ. We are not on our own. Jesus Christ who is no longer with us in the flesh, is present in the world through the presence of his body; the Church. Just as a body is held together through the joints and ligaments, Paul essentially says that we should let Christ join us together in mind and thought. We should have a common vision and that vision is not ours but it is Christ's.

How does vision in the church come about. First, since Jesus is the head of the body, he is the source of the vision. Vision comes through Him. Pastors and other leaders really are those who seek to discern that vision and help the rest of the congregation to understand how to carry out that vision. It must be mentioned here, that the rest of the congregation can also be given discernment of Christ's vision. It doesn't matter how we arrive at it; it matters that we do see the vision of Jesus Christ for our church.

Vision is also related to purpose. All churches have a purpose. They were started and placed in order to carry out God's purpose. Yet, many churches never grapple with why they are where they are; they just keep doing what they have been doing. One of the most challenging places I have been is Rick Warren's Saddleback Church. The are "the Purpose Driven Church". The amazing thing is that all 20,000 or so really understand their purpose. We don't have to be Saddleback to understand our purpose, but we must understand why God brought us into being and placed us where we are.

To the extent that we have no sense of purpose and no common vision, we are dysfunctional. We must pray for discernment. We must study the scriptures and our communities. We must discuss among ourselves. We must ask the community around us. We must discern and understand our purpose. Then we must be faithful to that heavenly vision. Then we will indeed function as God's church in this place.

The Number One Indicator that You Might Be in a Dysfunctional Church

You might be in a dysfunctional church if everyone is complacent. Actually, the Apostle Paul starts off his letter to the church at Corinth on a high note:

Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes,

To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours:

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I always thank God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. For in him you have been enriched in every way—in all your speaking and in all your knowledge— because our testimony about Christ was confirmed in you. Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. He will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful. (I Corinthians 1:1-9, NIV)

He starts off by expressing how thankful he is of them. He praises them because God has given them gifts of utterance and of knowledge; in fact they have all of the gifts. They not only have the gifts, they are strong in these gifts. Paul sees this as a confirmation that the message has taken. In other words, this relatively new church, started by Paul has continued to live the gospel. This confirms the message that Paul preached!

Paul also states that God will keep them strong up until the end. In fact, they will be found blameless when the Great Day arrives. This is because of the faithfulness of God who has called them into fellowship. The Greek word for fellowship is interesting; koinonia. It is a deeper word than our word fellowship is understood to be. Fellowship is a deep relationship. It denotes unity and communion. When we become Christians, we enter into this koinonia with God and with one another. We experience this relationship with one another in the church.

Well, why do I say that the church at Corinth was complacent? It sounds like Paul was just telling it like it is. They ought to feel good about themselves. The problem is that I read the rest of the letter. Paul's praise actually borders on sarcasm. Of course, Paul wasn't lying about the church receiving all the blessings. But, the problem was that the church wasn't in fellowship with one another. They were divided. They didn't show love to one another. They tolerated, even gloried in their immorality. The gifts were used to show one-up-manship to one another. They were smug. I can picture them reading this paragraph and saying, "Yes!" They were clearly dysfunctional, yet they were complacent.

We ought to have good self images -- as individuals, and as churches. There is a fine line between self satisfaction and complacency. Paul says elsewhere that he has learned to always be content. Contentment is great, but with Godly complacency there is always an "itch" for something more. Like Paul who although he was content, he was always pressing for more. Complacency is a contentment that doesn't "itch" for more. We have it all. Let's eat drink and be merry. There is no room for complacency in the church. May God always give us this "itch" for something more.

The 8 Indicators that you might be in a Dysfunctional Church

Last Sunday I started a new series with the title, "The 8 Indicators that You Might Be in a Dysfunctional Church. Of course, the title is a play on David Letterman. It is actually a set of sermons on the early chapters of First Corinthians. I have been wanting to preach on that letter for some time now. It is a wonderful exposition of everything that the church shouldn't be as well as a lot that the church should be.

The early chapters that I am teaching currently show a church that actually is pretty smug about who they are. The problem is that Paul has to tell them that, not only shouldn't they be smug, they ought to be ashamed of themselves. They are divided, celebrating immorality, taking one another to court, flaunting spiritual gifts and generally in a state of disarray. Later in the letter, you find the "magna carta" of Charismatic Worship. The gifts and how they are used are set forth in an orderly manner. And, of course, in the middle of all of this is the wonderful chapter on love.

I was asked if I am preaching this series because I think that my current church is dysfunctional. First, I really believe that the Church of Jesus Christ can never be dysfunctional. Jesus is the head of the church and where he is actually in charge, things are in order. The problem is that the church (little c) in its local settings is made up of people. People are known for getting things wrong. They follow the wrong priorities. They actually begin to think that they are in charge. This leads to dysfunction. This all begs the question, "Is Bayview dysfunctional?" I answer that it is no more dysfunctional than most. We all have the seeds of dysfunction and Christ likeness in our midst. I am teaching this series as a check-list on how we are doing. We can see how we measure up to the Corinthians and take Paul's teaching and set ourselves right. I'll be going through the list of eight, sermon by sermon.