August 24, 2015

"Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they shall be stilled; where there is knowledge it will pass away." I Corinthians 13:8

As I come to the end of this Summer sermon series on I Corinthians 13:8, I was given an unexpected but very valuable and practical insight into church health.

Remember that this letter was written to a church! The Church in Corinth was a very gifted church but also quite a carnal body of believers. As a result, we see a struggling strife-filled church. So, all of the advice and counsel offered by the Apostle Paul was in the context of bringing spiritual health to an unhealthy church.

For our purposes at FredWes I want to offer a justification for our ministry vision of "loving people to life".

I want you to notice four points of emphasis active in this church: love, preaching, speaking in tongues, and knowledge. As I noticed it and thought about it I came to the realization that many modern churches pick these same emphases to build their churches upon. Let me give you an example.

There are preaching (prophecy) based churches. 

Preaching the Word of God is a central priority and sacred responsibility of any church. It is one way we justify our existence. No church can be healthy unless it has solid Bible-based preaching presented with practical life applications.

BUT there are churches who build their vision around the preaching ministry of a certain preacher. The talent, the personality, and giftedness of that preacher become the driving force of that congregation. People invite their friends primarily to see and hear that preacher. Much of the church budget is directed around the purpose of promoting his preaching skills on TV or radio or building bigger buildings to accommodate more "fans" of their celebrity preacher. In this environment it is easy for the preacher to begin believing his own celebrity status. While this model has worked to create some large and influential churches, they often don't endure past the end of that pastor's tenure.

Speaking in unknown or ecstatic languages (tongues) is a central emphasis for some churches. Some Christians believe that speaking in these mystical languages is the evidence of having been filled with the Holy Spirit.

Being filled with the Holy Spirit is the will of God for every believer but there is debate about whether the evidence of being Spirit-filled is manifested primarily through this gift of tongues or by the manifestation of spiritual fruit. (See Galatians 5:16-26).

Churches have been and are being built around the teaching of speaking in tongues. The manifestation of this gift becomes the central focus of their worship, their teaching, their preaching, their doctrines and their ministry emphasis. In many cases, these churches do not have happy endings just as, what happened in the Corinthians Church, this practice becomes a source of spiritual pride that becomes divisive. There are large churches that have been built around this emphasis but not many healthy ones.

Also, there are many churches built around "knowledge". What do I mean by that? What am I talking about? I am referring to churches that build around a big idea or a strategy borrowed from another successful church. They believe that imitating a successful model will guarantee such for their church. While some large and significant churches have been built  by essentially becoming "clones" of another church, it is very tempting to become so enamored or committed to implementing and sustaining the strategy they lose site of Biblical mandates for the Church.

While there can be no denying that growing and influential churches exist using each of these three visions, it is clear that the central truth of I Corinthians 13 is there's a better foundation upon which to build a church.

Do you  know what that is?

Is your church built on one of these three models?