Scripture Introduction
Driving home Thursday a provocative announcement on National Public Radio caught my attention. The Templeton Foundation was promoting a discussion of: “Does science make belief in God obsolete?” Such a question would not have been asked 50 or 100 years ago; we all expect it today. And if our society considers God obsolete, what must they think of the church?
I have titled this sermon: “Is The Church Archaic and Obsolete?” — also intending to be provocative. My answer is, “Yes, the church is,” but before you string me up, let’s look at Acts 2 and see if God would challenge our comfort and ease. [Read Acts 2.37-47. Pray.]
Introduction
In 1924, Robert and Helen Lynd, studied a place they called Middletown (later revealed as Muncie, Indiana). Praise for their work was extravagant. The New York World said: “No one who wishes a full understanding of American life today can afford to neglect this impartial, sincerely scientific effort to place it under the microscope slide.” The Nation agreed: “Nothing like it has ever before been attempted; no such knowledge of how the average American community works and plays has ever been packed between the covers of one book…. This book touches the heart of America.”
These sociologists asked mothers, (housewives as they were called back then): “What are the traits — the character qualities — you want to instill in your children? What kind of kids do you hope to raise?” The top three traits listed were:
1) A commitment to God and the Church;
2) Strict obedience to authority; and
3) Good manners.
Here are the last three on the list:
1) Independence;
2) Tolerance; and
3) Social mindedness.
Those answers indicate a desire to conform to standards and to fit into larger social groups. They did not want kids to be autonomous and self-fulfilled; they wanted to raise children who loved authority and thought much of pleasing others.
Sixty years later, sociologist returned to “Middletown” to follow up with the granddaughters of those same women, asking similar questions. The top three answers in the 80’s for what you hope will be the character of your children were:
1) Independence from any and all authority;
2) Tolerance for all other belief systems; and
3) Social mindedness (how you are keeping up with others).
Dead last, least important to mothers in Muncie: commitment to God and his church. In two generations the tables have completely turned, the attitudes and motivations of the populace are flipped over, the world in which the church lives and witnesses is different.
If you look on Amazon.com, you can find a coffee mug that says, “42.7 percent of all statistics are made up on the spot.” Samuel Clemons (Mark Twain) said, “There are three types of lies: Lies, **** Lies, and Statistics!” Those are clever reminders that we do not base our lives on polls, or the analysis of sociologists. Yet, this intriguing statement appears in the Bible: ESV 1Chronicles 12.32: “Of Issachar, men who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do….”
That text (and others in the Bible) tells us that if we are to be faithful to God and his Word, we must know our times — the heart and soul of the people we live among — before we can rightly say what ought to be done.
Martin Luther once said something to preachers that reminds me of how prayerfully and carefully I must understand people in order to apply the Bible. He said that if he preached ten thousand truths, but failed to preach on the sin which the people struggled with, he had failed to preach the gospel.
The church frequently does something similar. We have answers, but it feels as though no one is listening. Often we respond by increasing the volume, being more shrill in our criticisms, denouncing with more vehemence. True to Solomon’s counsel, however, we find that our harsh words stir up anger, and we are tuned out. So what shall we do? how shall we live?
Dr. Ed Stetzer directs church planting for the Southern Baptist Convention, one of the largest denominations in the country. In an article called, “Finding New Life for Struggling Churches,” (SBC LIFE, the Journal of the Southern Baptist Convention), Stetzer writes: “Harold stood up, paused for a moment, and began to speak softly, ‘We don’t want our church to die. We’ll do what it takes.’ That was when I first knew the church could make it. The well-respected deacon and pillar of the church spoke from his heart. He really meant it — and he spoke for the church…. Like many Southern Baptist [congregations], they had their heyday in the 50s and 60s…. But a church that once served hundreds (and had the building to prove it) now averaged thirty-five on a Sunday morning…. Over time, most churches plateau and most eventually decline. Typically they start strong or experience periods of growth, but then stagnate. Patterns and traditions that once seemed special eventually lose their meaning. Churches that were once outwardly-focused eventually become worried about the wrong things.”
Last February the London Times ran this headline: “Thousands of churches face closure in ten years.” Referring to Britain, the article noted: “Just one tenth of the nation’s Christians attends church, and churches are now closing [so] fast [that] practising Muslims will, in a few decades, outnumber practising Christians if current trends continue.” It went on to say that in Britain in 1961 there were 55,000 Christian churches; in 2005 there were 47,600, and four thousand more are expected to be gone by the end of the next decade.
We seem to be traveling the same path in the United States, where 3500 – 4000 churches fold every year.
So what shall we do? How shall we live?
Back in 1994, Helen and I were in Mississippi. Pastor Michael had been at the church for about two years, and it was a critical time. The congregation had long lived off past successes, but now was neither growing nor impacting the city. They kept doing the same old things, but not remembering why. But they could not keep up with the pressures and changes of modern society, because their real grip was on the past. Pastor began preaching on, “The Dynamic Church.” The idea was simple: let’s return to the book of Acts and allow God’s working in the beginning days of the church to renew our vision and passion. Rather than try to recapture the glory of past experiences, what if we refocus on God and his pattern and plans for the church? From that humble start, God changed the people and (maybe more importantly) the culture at Trinity, and once again we were salt and light for a city looking for answers. I believe the time is right for a similar work in our midst.
Because my hope is to offer both a cultural and a church critique, I will say some things you do not agree with. I am asking up front for that to be OK. I know how to preach “safe sermons” — but do you really want that? In my 18 months here, you have told me repeatedly asked to be challenged with God’s word to depend upon God’s grace. To allow God to unsettle us, I am asking you to allow me to take some risks, even to risk overstatement, and trust you to examine your own heart, and the Bible, and the world we live in — and then you come to conclusions that are right. We do not have to agree on everything — we only must grow together.
In the time we have left, please observe three characteristics of the church as it began in Jerusalem after the ascension of Christ and the filling of the Holy Spirit. This will give us a renewed hope in the power of God to work in us.
1. We Must Be Devoted to God to Be a Dynamic Church (Acts 2.41-42)
The church in Acts 2 was growing — people were being converted (or saved), baptized, and added to the church roles — it was growing in numbers. Additionally, people were devoted — to Scripture, to one another, to worship, and to prayer — they were growing in spiritual maturity. Those two, together, make a dynamic church: growth outward (evangelism) and growth inward (edification).
We planted blueberry and raspberry bushes this year. They have some nice, green leaves on them; but the berries do not come until year two. This year the bushes develop roots and branches to support the fruit we hope to have. So we will not know whether the plants are really healthy until next year, when the fruit comes in. There must be both root and fruit, both what makes a strong plant and the berries to eat.
The situation is similar in the church. Both inward, spiritual depth (the roots), and outward, effectual ministry (the fruit) are necessary for health. The word, “dynamic,” well summarizes both. It is not a “Biblical word,” per se; it does not appear in my English Bible. But the idea is there. Dynamic means both alive and active, both vigorous and purposeful, both living and powerful. Our English word comes from the Greek, du,namij (dunamis), which means, “power, might, strength, or force” and occurs 120 times in the New Testament. This New Testament church was dynamic — living and active, like the very word of God upon which it was based.
It was also devoted: “they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” The word “devoted” means that they held fast to these things, they clung to them, they persevered against pressures to do otherwise. And that kept them from becoming obsolete. (Each aspect of God-ordained ministry they were devoted to is so important that we will have a whole sermon on it. For now, let’s note what they were not devoted to. It seems to me that there are multiple ways for the church to fail, to be irrelevant. The church of Acts 2 resisted these to remain devoted to God.)
1.1. Not Devoted to the World (Acclimatize)
The world is changing (like the statistics show), and many Christian feel only hope is to accommodate. Let’s make the church look like the world: entertaining, exciting, amusing. Such plans often do produce crowds, but not committed disciples. Plus, the pressures bring burnout and failure — the church cannot long produce programs as pleasing as the entertainment industry. The power of the church is in an alternative culture, not a copied one.
1.2. Not Devoted to the Past (Romanticize)
Many Christians want to return to “the good old days.” If people went to church in Muncie in 1920, then let’s recapture the glory of 1920. Or, as the latest issue of Touchstone critiqued, some churches see the glory days as the 1950s. I have been told that this church should return to the successes of five years ago. Others say, “No, we must get back to the puritans and the reformation days.” Whether your dream is 5 years ago, 50, or 500, I don’t think romanticizing about a golden age is the answer. The power of the church is that God is here, and he is doing something now, which is new and glorious with us and through us.
1.3. Not Devoted to Ourselves (Demonize)
In an effort to justify our failure to influence the world, it is easy to demonize those outside our group and to dedicate ourselves to self-protection and self-propagation.
Dr. Robert Lewis (pastor of the Fellowship Bible Church of Little Rock, AR) says: “The first ‘big idea’ driving many churches is to create a church that meets the needs of its members. And since so many people have deep spiritual needs, there is much good in this approach. But often it also leads to unhealthy consequences. Needs soon turn to wants. A toxic self-absorption can easily develop. ‘Us’ becomes all that matters. Spiritual impact is rarely contemplated beyond the borders of the church property. Like a star that has collapsed into a black hole, refusing to release its light, a ‘need-meeting church’ can unknowingly come to exist for nothing bigger than itself.” (The Church of Irresistible Influence, 57).
The church in Acts was devoted to God and that gave them a spiritual power, a dynamic only explained by the presence of the Holy Spirit.
2. We Must Be Devoted to God to Awe the World (Acts 2.43)
Some commentators think that it was the Christians who were filled with awe; in other words, they were amazed and moved by the power and presence of God. Surely that is true; but it seems to me that the text is telling us about the effect on others which was created by the presence of God’s Spirit among God’s people.
Matthew Henry: “The common people stood in awe of them, as Herod feared John. Though they had nothing of external pomp to command external respect,…yet they had abundance of spiritual gifts that were truly honourable, which possessed men with an inward reverence for them.”
John Calvin: “The church made such an impact that those who did not believe its teaching became afraid…. God’s power in the church was so evident that most people were left speechless.”
Jesus promised his people that we could be salt and light; that as his gospel infiltrates our lives, we will spread blessing and flavor everywhere we go; that as his Word and presence transform us, we will shine hope and holiness into a broken and needy society. Brothers and sisters, I do not want to give up without having obtained the promise, but we are not there. Someone complained: “The average evangelical church in North America exists for itself.” (Bill Hull, Can We Save the Evangelical Church?)
Let’s not be afraid to hear that critique and see if God would change us. I think that as we grow deeper in true devotion to God, people will be awed by God’s grace and work.
3. We Must Be Devoted to God to Find Favor with God and Man (Acts 2.47)
We do not find favor by catering to the culture around us, but by creating a God-centered alternative which will therefore be immensely attractive. Some of the best thinking on this subject has been done by Dr. Marva Dawn. In her book on Being Church for the World, she says, “It is extremely difficult to live in a Christian way in a consumer culture. Furthermore, we have to ask if it is really possible to have genuinely Christian worship in such a culture — characterized as our society is by individualism (rather than Biblical community), consumption (as opposed to generosity and sharing), manipulative advertising (instead of truth), and intentional fomenting of desires (in contrast to the scriptural recognition that human desires often derive from our sinful nature and must, therefore, be frequently held in check).”
Dawn’s answer is for us to be a community that is genuinely devoted to God: “I am convinced that very often the youth reject, not the worship style, but the phoniness of their parents who go through the motions of worship, but whose daily lives are not transformed by it. Similarly, it is not usually the liturgy that alienates worshippers; it is the lack of Joy with which it is conducted. In all this I am not rejecting new styles and forms for worship. I am only rejecting the false questions. Style is not the issue. The genuine worship of GOD is” (154).
It is a common idea in the church that if we are out of favor, we must be doing the right things in the right ways. I reject that. Surely the gospel is a stumbling stone, but only laziness excuses every failure in evangelism and ministry by the world’s hatred of Jesus and his gospel. Note well: the church in Acts had both favor and faithfulness.
G. Campbell Morgan (a great Biblical and popular preacher of last century) wrote: “Today it is being admitted on every hand that the church, as such, has ceased to have favour with the masses of people. If so, why is it? Fundamentally she has failed to realize her own corporate life and to reveal the life of the Christ of God. She has turned to other lords and other masters, and has adopted other methods than those of Christ.”
4. Conclusion
Awe and favor — we want the world to have both for the church. Devotion to God and to his means of grace — they are the divinely given means of our transformation, of God’s glorification, and of the church’s multiplication. Let us trust God and seek faithfulness in being the people he enables us to be.
The story is told that Frederick the Great, King of Prussia, won a strategic battle with comparative ease and little loss of men. When asked for the explanation of his victory over the enemy, he said, “The enemy had seven cooks and one spy, but I had seven spies and one cook.” They had the men, but they were doing the wrong work.
We have the right people, the same as the church in Acts. Perhaps we should get busy spying out the land. You think about that.
