{"id":11042,"date":"2016-08-03T06:07:15","date_gmt":"2016-08-03T11:07:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/?p=11042"},"modified":"2016-08-03T06:07:37","modified_gmt":"2016-08-03T11:07:37","slug":"wanting-gods-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wanting-gods-church\/","title":{"rendered":"What I wish for the Lord’s Church"},"content":{"rendered":"

“That He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish” (Ephesians 5:27).<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The Lord wants the best for His Bride. And so does every right-thinking child of His.<\/p>\n

Here is my wish list for the church of the 21st century….<\/p>\n

One. I wish the church were less of a business and more like a family.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Our Lord looked around at His disciples and followers and said, “Behold, my mother and my brothers! Whoever does God’s will is my brothers and sisters and my mother” (Mark 3:33-35).\u00a0 The obedient are His family.<\/p>\n

I’m so glad I’m a part of the family of God.\u00a0 The local church should be a smaller expression of that larger, forever family.\u00a0 I wish more of them were.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A\u00a0real family nurtures\u00a0its members,\u00a0is always\u00a0there,\u00a0makes a big deal of each one’s special moments,\u00a0and puts\u00a0each other\u00a0ahead of anyone else or anything else.\u00a0\u00a0To paraphrase\u00a0Robert Frost, “A family is where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.”<\/p>\n

Families are not\u00a0about numbers,\u00a0divisions, classes,\u00a0and groups.\u00a0\u00a0Family members are\u00a0related by blood and joined at the heart.\u00a0 The weep when one of their numbers weeps, rejoice when they rejoice.\u00a0 They don’t compete, except in a fun way, and are proud when one gets an award or honor.<\/p>\n

People\u00a0looking for a new church\u00a0often will\u00a0hesitate before joining one for the simple reason that they are in effect\u00a0joining a family.\u00a0 Their unasked question is “Do I want to be family with these people?”<\/p>\n

A business, on the other hand, functions by the bottom line.\u00a0 It\u00a0turns out a product.\u00a0It hires and fires people. \u00a0But what business do you know that is run by faith and directed by prayer and motivated by love?\u00a0 The church is not a\u00a0business but a family.\u00a0 And\u00a0when we who are the church\u00a0fail to love and to\u00a0care, we have reneged on our assignment, violated our mandate, and betrayed the Savior.<\/p>\n

I wish my church were more like a family.<\/p>\n

Two: I wish the church were less like the world and\u00a0more like heaven. \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Heaven’s values are on lasting things.\u00a0 You like gold? Why, there\u00a0they pave the streets with it.<\/p>\n

Heaven\u00a0loves diversity.\u00a0 Heaven’s citizenship is composed of “every nation and kindred and people and tongues…” (Revelation 7:9).<\/p>\n

Heaven is in the business of joy.\u00a0 As C. S. Lewis put it, “Joy is the business of heaven.” The very atmosphere of heaven is joy (Psalm 16:11).\u00a0 The kind of joy the world gives turns out to be artificial, superficial, and temporary (see Psalm 4:7).<\/p>\n

Heaven is about serving God, about singing and praising and loving and rejoicing.\u00a0 The world is about using people to get our pleasure and griping when we don’t.<\/p>\n

Heaven doesn’t sweat the little things, and knows what really matters.<\/p>\n

Alas,\u00a0many of our churches\u00a0are\u00a0 more a mirror of the world’s values than a statement of Heaven’s verities.<\/p>\n

Three: I wish the church were less like a club and more like a ministry.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Clubs are mostly about camaraderie and cliques and excluding\u00a0certain others they find\u00a0not acceptable.\u00a0 Ministry includes everyone.<\/p>\n

Club members greet each other and welcome one another and take friends out to lunch.\u00a0\u00a0But ministry reaches\u00a0out to everyone. God told Israel to welcome the stranger within your gates. “For you were strangers in Egypt” (Leviticus 19).<\/p>\n

History tells of a time that St. Bernard\u00a0returned the monastery one\u00a0evening with a long, drooping face.\u00a0 He was sad for he had not found anyone to rescue that day.<\/p>\n

The weather forecast for January 26 1967 for the Midwest said “scattered snow flurries.”\u00a0 Meteorologists said conditions were not right for heavy snow.\u00a0 But that night the Great Lakes region was inundated by the all-time record snowfall.\u00a0 When God gets ready to do something he doesn’t pay much attention to leading indicators.<\/p>\n

“Jesus went about doing good” (Acts 10:38).<\/p>\n

In the cemetery, Chuck Swindoll’s mother saw a young woman weeping near a marble tombstone.\u00a0 She went over and told the woman about Jesus.\u00a0 Her heart was tender and open and she came to Christ. As a result, that young widow began a graveyard ministry, looking for grieving hearts.\u00a0 Swindoll said she has led hundreds to Christ this way.<\/p>\n

Four: I wish the church were less like a police force and more like a hospital.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A police force focuses on catching lawbreakers.\u00a0 Hospitals are into healing.<\/p>\n

Dear Abby, a columnist of yesteryear, famously said, “Churches should not be museums for saints but hospitals for sinners.”<\/p>\n

“Lord,” the Pharisees said, “your disciples are doing that which is not lawful.”\u00a0 They are plucking grain on the Sabbath.\u00a0 Healing on the Sabbath.\u00a0 Walking too far on the Sabbath. They are laughing and you know that’s not allowed around here. As for dancing, well, don’t even ask.<\/p>\n

“That one cigarette will send your soul to hell.”\u00a0 A woman told me that statement came from her sister-in-law, a member of a stern legalistic denomination.\u00a0 She said her reply to her brother’s wife was, “Then, explain something to me.\u00a0 I know for a fact that you hate your mother.\u00a0 And yet you have no problem with that.\u00a0 It’s my\u00a0 one cigarette that will doom my soul.\u00a0 Explain that.”\u00a0 She couldn’t.<\/p>\n

Disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ were sent to share His Good News with everyone, not on a mission to catch people doing wrong.\u00a0 Why have so many of our people missed this?<\/p>\n

Pastors will need to keep stressing the proper (i.e., Scriptural) role of the church, its identity and purpose.<\/p>\n

After all, churches tend to drift downward….<\/strong><\/p>\n

–away from family love-and-fellowship\u00a0toward becoming a business.<\/p>\n

–away from ministry reaching-out toward becoming a club.<\/p>\n

–away from Heaven’s values\u00a0toward aping the world.<\/p>\n

–away from hospital care-giving toward law enforcement.<\/p>\n

We must always work at staying alive and fresh and responsive to the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 “New Wine.”\u00a0 Trying new things.\u00a0 Walking away from outdated methods no longer working.\u00a0 Aggressive in reaching out.\u00a0 Discipling self.\u00a0 Staying in fighting shape.<\/p>\n

And since churches tend to drift downward into businesses, clubs, police agencies, and such, pastors and teachers must always keep the vision before the members.\u00a0 “We are the family of God, sent to share the good news of Jesus.”\u00a0 Anything less is to violate our assignment.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“That He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish” (Ephesians 5:27). The Lord wants the best for His Bride. And so … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-healthy-church"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11042"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11042\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11071,"href":"https:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11042\/revisions\/11071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}