Thursday, July 24, 2014

A Living Body's Caution About Death

It’s the week of Vacation Bible School. It is one of the greatest weeks in the life of our congregation. I always delight to see young and old working together with one purpose: serving the youngest generation (our first and closest mission field!). This morning during opening assembly it was exciting to hear the children singing the great truths packed densely in the exciting, up-beat music. As they danced in the auditorium of a Baptist Church. Yes, I was smiling as I typed that.

The Executive Director of our wonderful State Convention recommended a book recently: Autopsy of a Deceased Church: 12 Ways to KeepYours Alive, by Thom S. Rainer. It’s a small, short book. I was able to get through it in an hour.

It was an interesting juxtaposition to our experience going through V.B.S. this week. For all the wonderful things that are going on at I.H.B.C. right now, I confess that I’m always trying to peer around the corner to what’s ahead. Reading Rainer’s book reinforced that practice. Dead churches don’t die overnight, but very slowly and subtly fall into complacency over a long period of time. Sometimes, like people with health problems, they don’t realize something’s wrong until it’s too late. I don't ever want that to be us. God has brought us too far!

I’m going to put the book on the table in the foyer. You’re all welcome to take it home, read it, and bring it back if you’d like. Until then, let me give you a few good quotes from the book...as I’m typing this the speakers are really thumping with music in the auditorium! It’s a happy sound, much preferred to a still, quiet building (like a museum or mausoleum) because I know the great Gospel truth that’s being sung along with that pounding bass.

Here are the highlights I took away from the book:

“According to the writer of Hebrews [in chapter 11], all of these men and women were heroes of faith because they obeyed God even though they did not know they consequences of that obedience. They saw themselves as foreigners of this land and life, temporary residents of the earth (v. 13). They sacrificed their comfort, their homes, their ways of life, and their possessions because they knew that this life was only temporary, that a better and eternal life awaited them. The ‘good old days’ did not exist in their minds. The future held the best days. They understood that this life is not a time to get comfortable. I got an e-mail today from someone who was really mad...he described American churches as they were in the 1970s and 1980s, perhaps earlier. He was mad about music styles. He was mad about church architecture. He was mad about audio speakers and big screens. He was mad about ‘appropriate’ church attire...for him, the past was his hero. He was clinging, hanging on to the things of this world. And because it was slipping away, he was angry, hurt, and probably fearful” (pgs. 19-20).

“...these dying churches focused on their own needs instead of others. They look inwardly instead of outwardly. Their highest priorities were the way they’ve always done it, and that which made them the most comfortable” (pg. 22).

“People in the community did not feel welcome in the church. Those in the church were more concerned about protecting the way they did church than reaching residents of the community” (pg. 27).

“...no church can sustain such an inward focus indefinitely. It will eventually die of heart failure” (pg. 36).

“A church cannot survive long-term where members are focused on their own preferences:
  • My music style.
  • My desired length and order of worship services.
  • My desired color and design of buildings and rooms.
  • My activities and programs.
  • My need of ministers and staff.
  • My, my, my” (pg. 48).

“We are members of the body of Christ. We do not exist to serve ourselves; instead, we exist for the greater good of the body...when church members increasingly demand their own preferences, the church is steadily not becoming the church” (pgs. 51-52).

“A church without a gospel-centered purpose is no longer a church at all” (pg. 75).

“Being a good steward of those material things that God has given our churches is good. Becoming obsessed with any one item to the neglect of His mission is idolatry” (pg. 80).

I could quote all of chapter 9 about the importance of our prayer life together as the church. I’ve been personally burdened to seek growth in this area all year long.

Like I said, I.H.B.C.’s in such a great place. But I think it’s good thing to hear voices like Thom Rainer’s. This little book has great prayers at the end of every chapter, and good self-diagnostic questions.

Let’s keep moving forward together toward glory, beloved, and let’s see how many (currently) lost people we can bring with us. Let’s see how much more outward-focused (mission/evangelism) and upward-focused (prayer) we can become. One of my favorite quotes is from a Baptist history textbook: “Perhaps the origin of Baptists is best explained as a search for a pure church” (The Baptist Heritage, H. Leon McBeth, pg. 75). This is balanced by a phrase in the 1689 Baptist Confession: “The purest churches under Heaven are subject to mixture and error” (26.3). We’re not Home yet, but that doesn’t mean we don’t seek to reflect Home more and more while on this pilgrim journey together.


Gonna go walk the halls now dressed in my black suit and sunglasses (I get to be a master spy this week), rejoicing at the little screaming voices and loving hearts of the workers. God is good. May He keep this body healthy, alive, dynamic, adapting, and growing for generations to come.