Interlude

Dancing in the Kingdom- Table of Contents

Dancing In the Kingdom – Part 2 – The Kingdom Revealed – Chapter 13 – Distinctives within the body of Christ

Interlude

Many years ago, I was in a committee meeting with a group of people in a congregation, when the pastor started to walk by. He turned when he saw us, walked in with a warm effusive smile, and said, “Don’t you just love the church?” Then he turned around and went on his way.

I had been involved in the church for several years at that point, had served on the Elder board of a previous congregation, but had moved and now was involved in a different congregation. I had been in church leadership for long enough to be aware of the many difficulties to be found within congregations. Leading church congregations is difficult, particularly for the pastor.

And so it was, that at that moment in time, that question pierced my heart. I was certainly devoted to the church, but love the church in the way that the question was asked? And I knew that the long-serving pastor had been facing even more difficulties than I had – but I didn’t love the church – not like that. And at that moment, I did not know how to get to that kind of love.

Many years passed after that, and that moment became long forgotten.

The church had grown in size and staff. Then one day I was one of many people who experienced a betrayal of trust that hurt very deeply, causing many people to leave the congregation. Though I didn’t leave, I was still in a deep pain that lasted for years. But in those following years, I found myself in a position where I had the opportunity to help guide the congregation through a renewal process that made it healthier – and also made me healthier.

It was after all that process, that I remembered the incident of the question, “Don’t you just love the church?” But this time, by a path I had not chosen, I could say, “Yes.” I have learned to love the church. It was within the suffering and within the acceptance that although the church had problems, I too had problems.

Whether we are inside the church or outside the church looking in, we need to be careful where we point our fingers at the problems we identify. Like many in Israel in the time of the Judges, or many Jews in the time of Jesus, we like to point to somewhere else besides ourselves, like at the government, and say we need a new government, we need a new king. But the problem is actually within each of us. We all need a new heart.

We need the courage and humility of the prophet Isaiah, who when confronted with the presence of the Almighty God, said, “Woe to me! … I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips.” Isaiah stood with his people in humility.

Maybe all the pain I suffered was due to the hardness of my heart which needed softening. But it took suffering for me to learn to truly love myself which then allowed me to truly love the church. That love gives me the freedom to look at all the issues of the church in all its brokenness and accept that I stand among the brokenness. And we are all fully loved and the One who made us, loves us, and guides us (though we don’t always follow).

Sometimes I cry when reading about the cruelty committed by the church I love, because we, the church, were so swayed by idols that we forgot our first love and our desire to bear the fruits of the Spirit. I also sometimes wonder if, in the same way that people like Simeon and Anna carried the hope of the Messiah amidst an unbelieving nation, that other mostly unnamed people walk among us, carrying the hope of the gospel amidst an unbelieving church.

Yet, we have the assurance that the One who has guided us, guides us still. So, as we begin to consider the myriad ways that different congregations within the church address the questions and practices of the church and have disagreements with each other about the way to address those questions and practices, we can be confident that the one who loves us all has not abandoned us and patiently, faithfully, persistently still calls us to follow Him. We have the assurance that all of us are created in His image and are bound together with common needs, that different languages are His idea despite the apparent confusions we have in understanding one another, that He is the provider of our intellect and is able to meet us in the midst our limited understandings, and that He provides His Spirit to guide us even in the midst of our confusions.

All the obstacles we have and the messes we see are continual reminders that the hope we have is not in the seemingly desperately confused church but rather in Him who provides for and guides us.