The Baptist Standard of last year made this sad prediction:
“The Southern Baptist Convention is dying rapidly, and resistance to change could kill more than half the denomination’s churches by 2030, SBC President Frank Page said. Unless something is done to reverse the downward trend, Southern Baptist churches could number only 20,000—down from the current total of more than 44,000—in fewer than 22 years, Page said. His comments came in a conference call with pastors, hosted by the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina.
“Page said the problem ‘resided in the churches’ that refuse to change to stop their inevitable demise. ‘Many Southern Baptist churches are small groups of white people who are holding on (until) the end,’ he said. ‘Not only have we not reached out to younger generations, but we have failed to reach out to other ethnic minorities who are all around us.’ Rather than embracing a ‘whatever it takes’ mentality to change and restore a local church to health, Page said, many pastors and churches have ‘chosen to die rather than change, and they are doing it.’”
From Baptist Standard, May 16, 2008, Douglas Baker; Contributed by Matt Neace at sermonnews.com
That report hits uncomfortably close to home. A majority of Southern Baptist churches are resistant to change. We’re losing our stickiness. Rather than unchurched folks and unbelievers coming, seeing, and sticking like Velcro, they slide in and slide out. Most churches are more akin to Teflon than Velcro.
Believe it or not, this became a problem for the church at Ephesus. Paul planted churches in this region for the purpose of stickiness. He knew that those believers had the potential to reach and retain people for Jesus Christ. The church at Ephesus grew quickly in the early years, but they also began experiencing some problems. Words of wisdom someone shared with me before planting a church, I’m sure were true of the Ephesians: “Anytime you start something new, the nuts will find you first.” Early on, whacked out false teachers began to infiltrate the church at Ephesus. They became such a problem that Paul had to send some of his best and brightest pastors in to silence whatever bizarre teaching was going on:
Timothy my true son in the faith … As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain men not to teach false doctrines any longer nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies. These promote controversies rather than God’s work—which is by faith. 1 Timothy 1:2a, 3-4
They eventually solved the false teacher problem, but in their zeal to drive out the heretics the Ephesians began to lose their stickiness. Rather than attract and keep new converts to the Christian faith, the Ephesian church became somewhat repellant. They were more like Teflon than Velcro. Less than 10 years after Paul’s letter to them, Jesus had to send this rebuke:
“To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: …I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.” Ephesians 2:1a, 2-5
There’s disagreement over what it means to lose your first love. Some commentators think it’s love for God. Others think it’s love for people. I think it’s both. The Ephesians morphed into heresy hunters. They became so proud of their doctrinal purity that they left love for God and people created in His image in the dust. The threatened removal of their lampstand is their testimony or witness to an unbelieving world. They were going to lose their influence if things didn’t change.
What I find amazing is that Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, saw it coming. That’s the only way I can make sense of chapter 2:11-22. Here we have a rather lengthy discussion of Jewish and Gentile relationships. This is odd because, as far as we know, there were no problems in the relationships between Gentile and Jewish believers at Ephesus. I see these verses as preventative medicine. Paul wanted to prevent them from losing their stickiness.
We shrinking Southern Baptist churches can learn a lesson or two from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. Our historical context may be different, but the threat is the same. Will we be Velcro or Teflon?
The Sayings of Sticky Christians
“Walk a mile in their shoes.”
Churches and individual Christians harden into nonstick Teflon when they lose their empathy for lost people. Empathy means getting in someone else’s skin and walking a mile in their shoes. Having empathy makes us sticky like Velcro because we develop a genuine compassion for lost people. When we have a deep and abiding compassion that influences our actions, the way we structure our time, and how we spend our money. This is where Paul starts with the Ephesians:
Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called "uncircumcised” by those who call themselves "the circumcision” (that done in the body by the hands of men)—remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. Ephesians 2:11-12
He wants them to remember their dire situation before Christ. They were outsiders in relation to God and His people. They were even bad-mouthed by so-called religious people. Paul wants them to remember what that felt like. He wants to revive their hopeless perspective before coming to faith in Jesus and the belittling they received from Jewish neighbors as unclean. He wants the Ephesians to remember what they felt and how they were treated, so that they would have empathy toward lost people.
Paul’s command reminded me of what God said to the Israelites after their release from slavery in Egypt. He called His people to empathize with foreigners in their land:
“Do not oppress an alien; you yourselves know how it feels to be aliens, because you were aliens in Egypt.” Exodus 23:9
Remember what it was like when you were an alien. Let that stir compassion in you. Treat them the way you’d want to be treated in similar circumstances. This is the line of thinking Paul was using with the Ephesians so that they’d keep their stickiness.
We must have that same compassion for lost people. I’m convinced that you won’t share your faith unless you can empathize with the person who is not in Christ. If we have lost our empathy for unbelievers I think there are only two ways to get it back: pray for them and spend time with them. We’ve already begun to pray for lost people as a church. That’s part of that the prayer cross is for. As you’re naming names before the Lord, be sure to add your own. Pray that you’d have the heavenly Father’s compassion and concern for the lost.
What I find to be true about most of us here at Antioch is that we have no nonChristian friends. We’re so fearful, some of us, of being in and world AND of the world that we restrict access to Christians only. Some of us enjoy fellowship with one another so much that we’ve simply lost touch with unbelievers. This just means we have to be intentional. Reach out to friends and acquaintances you used to know. Include lost people in your conversations and activities. Build relationships and prayerfully wait for God to give you an opportunity to demonstrate and share your faith. The very least that could happen is that you gain more friends, so it’s win/win. Don’t make people into your project. Make them into your friends.
As a church walking a mile in their shoes means that we become students of the culture. We must know the felt needs of lost people in our community and seek to meet those needs in Jesus’ name. What programs are relevant to their lives in our age? What approaches are most effective at reaching them? I generally avoid clichés, but this one is true: “People don’t care what you know until they know that you care.” The same is true with lost people.
“Refuse to major in the minors.”
Verses 13 through 18 add yet another nuance to Christ’s work on the cross. He brought peace. That peace destroyed the hostility between God and sinful man and between sinful Jew and sinful Gentile.
But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. Ephesians 2:13-18
These verses tell us that Christ actually abolished the law. Paul didn’t mean that Jesus set aside the moral implications of the 10 commandments. We know from His own words in the gospels that Jesus fulfilled the law. Furthermore, in chapter 6 of Ephesians Paul advises children to honor their parents, an idea he pulled directly from the 10 commandments. It’s seems best to conclude that the law which Christ abolished was the ceremonial laws and the rules and regulates that kept Jews and Gentiles apart. Those commands were important for Israel to keep its distinctiveness in preparation for the Messiah, but after the Messiah came they served no purpose. It was time for the Jewish Christians to major in the majors, not the minors any longer. The things that kept them apart could be set aside.
The sacrifice of Jesus opened the kingdom of God to every tribe, tongue, and nation. The Jewish Christians were to provide access to the Gentiles through preaching the Good News of Jesus Christ. This was the initial work of Jesus’ first apostles and Paul. As Gentiles came to faith, they too were to provide access to the rest of the world. The main thing was to make disciples of all nations. This is why the church eventually let go of dietary laws, adherence to Jewish holy days, and other cultural distinctives of the Jews. They were good regulations, but they were minors. Anything that tended to separate Jew and Gentile needed to be let go.
Again, we can easily apply this lesson. Refuse to major in the minors. How do you do that? First, you have to know what the majors are. What should we be concentrating our efforts on as individuals and as a church? For some of its faults, I think that Purpose-Driven movement has identified the main things we’re supposed to do: worship, evangelism, membership, spiritual growth, and service. I’d sum it up in one sentence: “Be disciples and make disciples.” Everything that we do as a church should be connected to this. Anything that’s not is a waste of time energy and funds and should be scrapped.
Let’ evaluate how we’re doing. Is our church a sticky, disciple-making church? Is your personal focus to be a better follower of Jesus Christ? Do we truly worship as a church? Do we even know that that means? Is our worship heart felt and of God-honoring quality? Are the people of Antioch being trained to share their faith in winsome effective ways? Can you share your testimony, defend your beliefs, and tell someone how to have a saving relationship with Christ? Have you ever done any of those three? Do we understand what commitment to membership means and are we living up to it? Is our commitment to the church and the members greater than last year? Are members growing in their faith, becoming more like Jesus? Do they know how to gain spiritual maturity? Do you have a plan that you’re implementing right now? Do you know your shape for ministry and are you serving in the way God created you?
We must seriously consider whether or not our lists of committees and regularly scheduled events are the majors or the minors. If we’re majoring in the minors we’ll be as nonstick as Teflon. If we major in the majors we’ll be sticky like Velcro.
“You’ll attract more flies with honey than vinegar.”
“It’s amazing how many people try to share the good news with a sense of rage and hatred. Example: ranting and raving about a particular social ill, polarizing people, and focusing more on judgment and God’s wrath than on the hope that Christ offers. People rant about rock music, dancing, gambling, long hair and tattoos, drinking and smoking, and whatever. They basically tell people that God’s gonna get’em for that, because good Christians like us uptight people are God’s chosen. So repent and be like us, you heathen scum! Are there things in our society that displease God? Yes. Is there rampant sin? Yes. Will there be a judgment at which God will punish sin? Absolutely. But let me tell you something – judgment is not the theme of the gospel, nor of the Bible. The theme of the good news is rescue. The theme of the good news is that Jesus has rescued us from the judgment and wrath of God, and that rescue is available to anybody who looks to Christ, regardless of who they are, what they’ve done, what their race, what their gender, whatever!”
By Brian La Croix at sermoncentral.com
It’s like one of my former church members used to say observing at the faces on Sunday morning, “Some of you look like you were raised on a sour pickle.” The Gospel means “Good News.” Yes, we need to tell folks about sin, but even more we need to give them vision. We need to tell them the good things Jesus has done and the good things He will add to their lives.
This was Paul’s approach to the Ephesians. He demonstrated how Jesus meets our deepest desires. He uses honey instead of vinegar.
Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. Ephesians 2:19-22
Paul tapped into the three great needs of every person: to be included, loved by a community and by God, to have a purpose bigger than yourself. Fellow citizens, members of God’s household, built together -- these are words of belonging. You’re no longer an outsider. The theme song from the old “Cheers” TV series said it best, “Sometimes you’ve got to go where everybody knows your name and they’re always glad you came.” That’s part of the package when one comes to faith in Christ. They belong. As a part of God’s community they are deeply loved by the Lord and His people. Do you realize that our love for one another is supposed to make us sticky?
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:34-35
Paul described the community of God as a temple, a dwelling place for the very presence of God. Each stone was handcrafted by God and put into place according to His will. Together they are being built into something glorious. A brick by itself is of little use, but together they can rise into a magnificent temple. That’s purpose … bigger than oneself. Only life with God as a part of His family makes it possible.
I don’t know about you, but when people leave my presence or my church, I want them to say, “I came, I saw, and I stuck.” Let’s walk a mile in their shoes and develop some real compassion for lost people. As individuals and as church let’s refuse to major in the minors. Let’s build it all around being and making disciples. Let’s use more honey than vinegar. Bad news is easy, just turn on the TV. Let’s tell them the good news. Let’s get sticky!
