Becoming A Blessed Church Mid Week Instruction Reid Temple AME Church Pastor Washington
What Is a Blessed Church? Acts 2:47 A glimpse of a healthy church is a church uniquely grounded in a relationship with God that allows blessings to flow through it. Unfortunately, it is a vision too few churches have today. There are so many factors that keep churches from becoming blessed communities that it is hard to grasp the full ramification of this vision. To understand what is a blessed church means looking at the factors that need to be overcome to allow a blessed church to take root and grow. The blessed church has a function to be with Jesus Christ, learn from Jesus word, understand what it means to be commissioned and sent out. Lk 9:1-6
Anyone who is to find Christ must first find the blessed church. How could anyone know where Christ is and what faith is in him unless he knew where his believers are. Church attendance is as vital to a disciple as a transfusion of healthy blood to a sick person.
The Blessed Church In order to have a blessed church, the Pastor and church leaders must have the vision, faith and skills to lead the church to blessedness. Acts 2:43 To often the church has become so dry, dysfunctional, and dead that they no longer have the ability to follow pastors and church leaders into blessedness. Leaders are responsible for instructing others in matters of faith. Teaching was a major aspect of the ministry of Jesus. Seminary training will prepare you to become a pastor with a focus on all things theological but doesn t prepare you to become a pastor where not everything is theological. Christology, eschatology, ecclesiology, and a bunch of other ologies along with biblical languages, pastoral care are great but say very little about how to lead a church through the calling of the Spirit of God.
The Early Church Mission The problem with many mainline denominational seminaries is that their mission is often at odds with the mission of the early church which was to bring people into a deep spiritual loving saving, and healing relationship with God the creator, Son and Holy Spirit. Too often mainline denominational seminaries see themselves as academic institutions, like universities and colleges where the focus is a rational investigation and study of theology, history and the bible. As a result of this, often churches have become little academic institutions where the pastors and educators act like resident theologians. The mission has to do with specific actions that bear witness to the good news of what God has done for his people that nations will be drawn to God s glory.
The mission of the blessed church is not to survive because God wants the church to thrive. To thrive requires passion and devotion for what you are doing.
Cultural Church Models It is the corporate-culture model that assumes the church is an organization in which the pastor acts as CEO and the lay leaders act as members of the board of directors. It is the pastoral care and counseling model that assumes the church is a counseling agency in which the pastor serves as the resident therapist. So there is a lot of confusion about how to form a healthy congregation, and that confusion was imparted to us who graduated from seminary. It is interesting to note few seminary professors have served as pastors, and even fewer have served as pastors of dynamic growing churches. The majority were trained in academia, focusing on theological study and not that which is practical.
The church is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints. It is not enough to attend church and pray, you have to act. Instead of being just a church that welcomes and receives members, the church should seek new roads that is able to step outside itself and go to those who need the power of God in their lives.
Church Growth Education expectation. There is an inverse correlation between denominational growth and educational expectation. The more education a denomination expects of its pastors and educators the more it shrinks. Traditional mainline denominations all expect a fairly high level of education, and pastors with Ph.D or D.Min are often the most respected denominations. In contrast, the fasted-growing movements of all are among the Pentecostals and nondenominational which require little advanced education at all. What inhibits the formation of blessed mainline churches may be partly that pastors, educators, and lay leaders have been inadequately trained in how to tap into the power of God to guide and help them.
The Sense of God s Calling We can become so academic and intellectual that we lose the lifegiving sense of God s call that initially led us to ministry and that can sustain ministry. We can become so purely programmatic in our operation that we miss out on creating a congregational approach that is spiritually open to a deeper experience with God. In so churches they are so accustomed to dysfunction that they don t realize that they are dysfunctional. After participating in our church budgeting process someone said, I didn t know it could be like this. With the squabbles and turf battles how can we discern what God is calling us to do?
The spiritual growth and development of God s people is the highest calling of the church. Spiritual growth and development is never by chance; it is the result of prayer and people working together for the cause of Christ. You can t call yourself part of the body of Christ and be hateful. Hate never heals or helps, hate only organizes an army to defeat somebody.
Broken or Wounded Leaders Many people come in ministry with broken lives that may leave us psychologically and spiritually wounded. On the one hand the wounds can become detrimental when they interfere with ministry because people deny and repress opportunities refusing to do what is necessary for healing and being obedient to the Spirit s call. On the other hand our wounds can become a source of strength, if through our self-examination, therapy, or spiritual direction, we are able to use our wounds to deepen our compassion, understanding and care of others. 2 Cor. 13:5 Whether the wounds become a detriment or a strength depends our willingness to face our wounds, be healed from it and make it a source of strength.
Broken People In Ministry God seems to call broken, wounded people to ministry. Joseph was a cocky little guy hated by his brothers. Moses was a murderer on the run. Ruth was a widowed foreigner. King Saul was afflicted by an oversized ego and paranoia. David was the runt of the litter and became an adulterer. Solomon instituted a terrible death squad campaign upon becoming the ruler of Israel. Jeremiah was mentally ill. Many of the disciples were ignorant and selfish. Mary Magdalene had been demon possessed. Paul was a persecutor of Christians and aided in the killing of them. Yet God called them all. God called so the wouldn t remain broken but be healed.
Rational Functionalism vs Faith Rational functionalism is the tendency of leaders in the church to subscribe to a view of faith and church rooted in restrictive logicbound theology that ignores the possibility of spiritual experiences and miraculous events while overemphasizing a functional practice disconnected from an emphasis on leading people to a transforming experience of God. Rational functionalism is rooted in the idea that we can uncover the mysteries of life and the universe mainly through rational thought and disciplined investigation. From this perspective, God is a problem to be solved through a method that mirrors the scientific method as closely as possible, and if that isn t feasible, then by restricting the inquiry to the laws of human logic and analysis.
Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe Faith consists in believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe. Faith is a knowledge within the heart, beyond the reach of proof. To one who has faith no explanation is necessary. To one who lacks faith no explanation is possible. Faith activates God and Fear activates the Enemy.
Dangers of Rational Functionalism It can cause pastors and leaders to become over intellectual in their approach to faith. God becomes an abstract notion, not a presence whom we can experience or form a relationship with and love. The problem is that pastors and leaders can get to the place they don t know what to do with God and especially they don t know what to do with Jesus and the Holy Ghost. They can appreciate Jesus from a historical perspective but what do they do with the resurrected Christ, who according to scripture is incarnated in the world, in relationships, and in the human heart. What do they do with the Holy ghost who inspires, heals, and miraculously touches life?
Spiritual Ignorance 1 Peter 2:15 I m not advocating that pastors and leaders remain theologically and historically ignorant, or that we should blindly accept everything that comes along. My point is that when academic inquiry and scientific skepticism become stronger than an emphasis on forming faith and leading people to an encounter with God, the church declines because people are no longer led to form a living faith in God that can transform their lives. The church becomes little more than a social agency filled with wellmeaning but spiritually dead people.
The Idea of God The primary problem at the core of rational functionalism is that it fails to treat God as a tangible presence. God is treated mostly as an idea or thought, or as an entity we encounter when we die, rather than as a tangible presence in the here and now. There is no sense that God s kingdom is all around us, and that this kingdom is a spiritual reality in which we can experience God directly. A second problem is that rational functionalism functionalizes the life of the church, turning everything from worship to committee meetings into routine events with little connection to a larger purpose. The focus is on maintaining the institution not creating experiences through which God can be encountered and experienced in our midst.
Church as Spiritual Community The focus can easily become maintaining the institution, and preaching falls into a prescribed manner, adhering to the particular rituals in the traditional way. Guiding people to a tangible encounter, experience and relationship with Christ isn t much of a concern. Teaching people how to discover the power of the Holy ghost in their midst is never emphasized because the object of the church has been reduced to doing what we ve always done, to function the way the church has always functioned simply for the sake of functioning. The church is more of an institution rather than a spiritual community.
Expecting to Experience God Institutional churches function like corporations with policy manuals that replace authentic ministry. Job descriptions replace the Spirit s calling, and degrees are more important than proven competency, leadership is based on credentials and faith is something to be learned. Ultimately becoming a blessed church means overcoming rational functionalism. In a blessed church, people not only expect to experience God; they do experience God. Their expectations open the door to God who stands knocking. Rev. 3:20
Numeric Growth Many of the large fast-growing mega-churches around the country are blessed churches but many are not because numerical growth is not a defining characteristic of a blessed church, even though many think it is. Growing churches tend to target and attract people who are seeking a church that does things differently; they draw members who are adaptable to change and are willing to risk and who don t want to be in a traditional church no matter how alive it is. The challenge for most mainline churches is how to get church leaders, especially lay leaders to lead a scared, resistant, risk averse church to grow when they are scared and resistant themselves.
Focus of a Blessed Church The focus of a blessed church is on doing what God is calling us to do, having the confidence to know that God is in our midst, and relying upon God s power to get results. Focusing on leading people to spiritual encounters and experiences of God, the church and its members end up forming healthier and more vibrant relationships with each other, relationships that emerge out of the deep spiritual connection with the Holy ghost and with each other. The more the church focuses on grounding its ministry in a dynamic relationship with the holy ghost the more the members and participants engage confidently in ministry and mission that makes a difference in the local community and the world, if only in a small way.
Marks of a Blessed Church The blessed church sees itself as the body of Christ. This is the first mark of a blessed church. Members quit considering themselves to be something akin to a business, an organization, The church has attributes that are similar to business, an organization and family but it is unique. Nothing else in the world is like a blessed church. The church is a body, not a business. It is an organism, not an organization. It is alive and should be on fire for Jesus. The task of the church leadership is to discover and remove growth restricting disease and barriers so that natural normal growth can occur.
Blessed Church Leadership The leaders of the body know that Christ is the head, so they continually and prayerfully seek Christ s guidance. They move the body to act and react in certain ways, but they remain very much aware that their source has to be Christ-God s presence in their midst. Seeking Christ s wisdom and way becomes an overwhelming passion for the blessed church and its leaders regularly seek in prayer the Lord s wisdom. Prayer is central to the life of the blessed church. It is the nervous system of a body. It is through prayer the body hears what the head desires, and the body communicates with the head. A church always mirrors its leaders. If the leaders are self-focused and selfish, the church will be too. If the leaders are tentative and fearful the church will follow suit.
Principality, Power of Spirit The blessed church is aware of the spirit of control that intends to supplant true biblical authority, sow discord, presumption, rebellion through the manifestation of manipulation. The spirit of control has but one motive and that is nothing more than to control and manipulate for the sake of power and authority. One of the greatest deceptions in the body of Christ is Spirit-filled churchgoers that are motivated by a power-hungry, self-promoting spirit of control that wants to gain authority over other believers in the church. The spirit of control seeks to distract the Church from its broader purpose by disguising what it really is. The blessed church knows how to separate the principality from the personality.
Prayer in the Blessed Church On a practical level the meetings and matters of the blessed church are grounded in prayer as its leaders seek what God wants over what they want. Dying churches are ego driven, blessed churches are Christ guided. Blessed churches root their ministries and mission in prayer, act confidently on what they hear the Spirit of God say, and let God take care of the results. Faith is always seen as risk, and even in the most faithful leaders they still do their best to act in faith rather than in fear. The blessed church has a vibrant sense of faith, hope and love. When a church lacks the faith to trust God to work in its midst, the hope to believe that miracles are possible and a basic love of God it begins a slow descent towards death.
Purpose, Presence and power The blessed church is a church filled with God s purpose, presence, and power. One of the ways to encounter God as Creator happens as we become aware of what our purpose is as a church and as individuals. We encounter God in Christ when we sense Christ s presence in the life of the church in worship, word, music, drama, activities, meetings, and each other. When encounter God the Holy Spirit when we witness the power of God making miracles and amazing events happen. Blessed churches expect the Spirit s power to work everywhere in the church, blessing the ministries mission and members of the Church.
Embrace the Sacred The blessed church embraces the sacredness of God. God is in every dimension, spiritual, mental, emotional, subconscious, physical, and relational. The power of the Spirit can reveal and connect a person with divine gifts that can t be fully explained or duplicated in any other way. The blessed church has respect and creates space for the creative presence of the power of God. The blessed church is not afraid to serve God in its own way. It is not concerned about fitting into a mold of what church should be, nor of what its denomination expects it to be.