The Church in a Changing World!
Perhaps the most abused word in our lexicon is church. And whereas the church has suffered gross abuses over the centuries, its abuse in this day and age has assumed a new height of bastardization. Many out-of-work individuals desperate for survival in the struggling economies of our world now find solace under the canopy of a church. Occultism takes center stage while cultists and scammers are having a field day among groups masquerading as a church. The adversary of the church, the devil, is unrelenting in coming up with new strategies for distracting humankind from doing God’s will on earth. He is the master of counterfeits.
Believers in Jesus Christ should be appalled by what is happening in some so-called churches today. The practices are too gory to mention here. One gets scared of people addressed as pastors and prophets in some parts of our world.
Without dwelling on the ugly, if dastardly acts in the so-called churches, we ask you, friend, to come with us to the drawing board and refresh our minds on the meaning of the Church and its mission on earth.
The Church birthed on the Day of Pentecost had its mission for all time, spelled out for her: “to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” The Lord promised, “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28: 19–20).
No more, no less.
The Church has the responsibility to preach and teach the Word. Jesus did preach and taught the Word. He lived out the Word. He did not do it alone. He called the twelve — made them disciples, and sent them out. Through them, the gospel was preached and lives were transformed, and are still being transformed for good around the world.
They were equipped and endowed with spiritual gifts. Some are gifted to preach and teach; others to prophesy and evangelize; yet others to pioneer and plant churches — all working towards the same goal. Those called to teach establish schools — Bible Schools and Seminaries — where they teach and equip their students to go out and make disciples of all nations in obedience to the Lord’s command. Graduates from Bible schools go out into the world with a mission — make disciples. Communities around the world are their mission field.
Discipleship is coming out of the world and separated under the rule of the King of heaven and earth. Christ is the King in His domain, the Church is a faith community — the Body indwelt by the Holy Spirit. It is an organism with Jesus as head, and born-again Christians as body parts. The Church is not an organization instituted by humans.
Jesus, the head, equips members of his body with diverse gifts to complement one another as apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. Together they’re to evangelize their world, preaching, and teaching — to grow and build the body. The work of teaching and preaching is not complete until it results in disciple-making. They cannot be separated.
Down the line, the pastor has emerged as the most prominent of Christ’s gifts to the church. He is on display — seen by all and sundry — in a delicate position that is prone to abuse. The work of a pastor is not complete until disciples are made — calling sinners out of the world and integrating them into the Faith community. The Church as ecclesia — the called out of the world — can neither reflect the world nor be patterned after the world.
Believers in Christ are physically present in the world but not part of its values (John 17: 14–15).
Pastors and Ministers of God’s word are on a pedestal. They’re leaders at the forefront of the pack while the congregation follows. They are being watched not only to talk the talk but also to walk the walk.
The Church does not exist for itself; it’s not a business enterprise in the worldly sense. It is not for profit. So it is not a family business venture to be passed from parents to their offspring.
The Church has a mission. It is not an island and not a lake either, but a flowing river. A lake is stagnant and easily dries up in seasons of drought. Rivers flow across the landscape nourishing and giving life to humans and nature. There’s a Dead Sea. The Sea is dead because there’s no life in it. It cannot support living organisms. It is suffocating. You will not find a living fish in the Dead Sea.
A Church that’s not reaching out and making disciples is like a lake at best, and a “dead Sea” at the worst. Though visibly active with programming, it is spiritually dead.
Lakes can be smelly because they harbor rotten leaves, dead animals, and dead wood.
We used to have a beautiful tall tree adorning the front of our home at Clifton Heights. It was one of our attractions to the house. We had no idea of its health status. Two years after taking ownership of the house, we noticed that our beautiful tree was getting dry from the top, and some of the branches were not producing leaves. The dry branches were falling and messing up the pavements.
Jesus says “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be more fruitful.” (John 15:1–2).
So we called a Tree manager to come over and prune the branches for us; but looking at it, he said he would instead take it out entirely because it was dying, and it’s of no use pruning the branches. Not to take chances given the change in climate and predictions of stormy weather, we agreed to have it taken out. When it was cut down we found the tree was getting rotten from inside with a hole running through from top to bottom. It looks beautiful on the outside but dead on the inside.
What a Sham!
A Church may be filled with “deadwood” — making up the numbers but incapable of bearing fruits. It is a dangerous position to be in.
Decadence sets in gradually and surreptitiously. Jesus equates the process to the work of the enemy who sowed weeds among the wheat while everyone was sleeping (Matthew 13: 24–25).
The World in a State of Flux.
The world and society are in a state of flux-dynamic. And although evolving technology has drastically changed our world, human nature and basic needs are constant and unchanging. Food, shelter, and clothing are essential to human survival and livelihood.
Jesus and the disciples modeled compassionate/relational ministry that touched and changed lives. Jesus fed the hungry, healed the sick, and raised the dead — five thousand were fed from five loaves of bread and two fishes made available by a young lad (Mattew 14: 13–25): It is a lesson in how our little gifts can be multiplied to bless our world. Jesus will always bless our gifts — and us as we work to advance His kingdom.
After feeding five thousand, the young lad (giver) went home with twelve baskets of leftover loaves of bread and fishes.
Jesus demonstrated how it is more blessed to give than to receive (Acts 20:35). Be a giver and not a taker, Jesus taught his disciples then and now. He warned that “the gospel is not for sale.” His command to them was:
“Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.” (Matthew 10: 5–8).
But today, the opposite is reality. Pastors, apostles, and prophets are taking from the poor and the sick and are living large, some in opulence. It is why many are receiving pseudo-calls into the ministry. Some Ministry leaders are in it for what they can get from tithes and offerings.
Becoming the Hands and Feet of Jesus — The Case of the Anchor Church.
This is what practical Evangelism means in today’s world:
In 2011, the Anchor Church was planted in Tupelo, Mississippi, USA at the southern end of Appalachia, an area notorious for its growing hard drug (opioid) problem. David Ball, pastor and founder was motivated by his passion for impacting his community with the gospel of Christ.
Through his “Grace and Mercy Ministries” Ball sought to bring “health, hope and healing to hurting people.” He embarked on an ambitious program of seeking and finding “the biggest need in the community and to start meeting it.”
The Church launched twin residential programs for people struggling with substance abuse: ‘The Transformation Ranch’ for men in 2014 and a year later, ‘Transformation Home’ for women. The women’s program is housed upstairs at the church building in the Tupelo suburb of Verona. The men’s ranch is on church property outside of town. They started pretty well with 80 people, reading the Book of Acts and talking about the New Testament model for ministry. “We wanted to be the hands and feet of Jesus and we kept discovering needs,” said David Ball in an interview.
As they kept meeting, praying, and studying the Bible, they started to see that a lot of people in northeastern Mississippi were hurting in a very specific way. They discovered people were having problems with “living life” — “the daily struggle of being alive — getting up and going to work, paying bills, feeding the family — where people face the temptation of returning to taking hard drugs (opioids). “We have to teach people how to cope and deal with life,” “We do that through a relationship with Christ,” Ball said.
The Church embarked on four stages of an intensive discipleship program comprising attending worship services, 12-step meetings, discipleship classes, and Bible studies. Residents of Transformation Ranch and Home were given chores and prayer partners and were cut off from contact with the outside world, allowing their counselors to identify and shield them from people in their lives who were most likely to disrupt their effort at sobriety. Classes organized for them include job training, money management lessons, and instruction in other life skills.
Through such programs, residents were integrated into the life of the church — while they joined a work program organized with local businesses for them to start earning and saving money. They graduated with $6,000-$8000 in the bank. After about nine months, they entered the final phase of the program moving into their own housing paid for with their savings.
So with people-oriented, other-friendly schemes, the Anchor church meets people’s pressing needs and successfully got former drug addicts back as thriving, independent adults. (Full story in Christianity Today, September, 2023).
This is real Church truly active as the Hand and Feet of Jesus and obeying the Lord’s command to make disciples. It is the model for those who are truly called and are committed to answering the call in our age.
