On August 21 I started unpacking Hebrews 12:8-18 through a series of blog posts. In my most recent post, WHEN BITTERNESS BLOCKS BLESSING (September 3), I addressed the two devastating things which happen bitterness is not dealt with. If you didn’t read that post yet, I encourage you to do so before you continue reading this post. As I was thinking about bitterness and its deep impact on our individual lives, I couldn’t help but consider how bitterness can impact a church family. Most of my life I have been serving in the church, including 29 years as a full-time pastor. I have a profound love and concern for the Church, local and global, and desire to see her healthy and whole. As a pastor’s kid (PK) and a pastor, I’ve seen a lot. I could tell stories all day long, and I would only be getting started, of the things I’ve witnessed in the church.
One of the main themes of Hebrews 12, as we’ve been discussing in previous posts, is the DISCIPLINE of God. Make sure you catch this next statement because it forms the context for this post: The discipline of God is not limited to individuals. God, also, disciplines the church body. Now, before anyone gets too carried away with that statement, “Yeah, I knew the church was messed up and now God is punishing her,” we need to process it more. On August 22, I shared the two purposes of the discipline of God are PUNISHMENT and PREPARATION. I have no doubt there are times when God has to bring correction (punishment with a purpose) to his Bride, the Church. I saw a statement on the wall of a Facebook friend which asked a question: (my paraphrase) “If your church is not focused on the mission of God, what is it focusing on?” It’s a great question. When a church gets off the mission of developing more and better disciples it should expect the Father to take some corrective steps.
When God is disciplining a church, why does it seem like so many people assume it’s PUNISHMENT and evidence some type of sin has become embedded in the body? What makes it so hard to refute this assumption is no church is perfect. Most churches have people at all stages of their spiritual journey and none of us, even those who think of themselves as the most mature (they’re actually full of a sickening spiritual pride, but I digress), haven’t arrived. The point is if you want to find sin in the church you don’t have to look very far. The mirror is always a good place to start. Let continue on, now that I’ve had a chance to vent for a moment…
I lean towards the perspective that when God is disciplining a local body of believers it’s both PUNISHMENT (correction with a purpose) and PREPARATION. God has good plans for his church, and she needs more strength and depth for the mission. When the heat of the discipline of God gets turned up in the church, it often brings out the best and worst in people. This is where BITTERNESS rears its ugly head in the body.
When people misunderstand the discipline of God, within a church body, it causes some not so pretty things to emerge; which, if you think about it, actually confirms the need for the discipline [correction]. At this point, what I’ve observed happening many, many times in many, many different churches is a “bitter root of unbelief” (Heb. 12:15) begins to infect the church body. As church members struggle to understand the discipline of God, and in some cases misinterpret God’s purpose in allowing the church to go through a time of pain, the bitterness grows. Just like verse 15 states “many are corrupted by its poison.” See, bitterness always looks for someone to blame. So, the “blame game” becomes a favorite activity over coffee, when several couples get together with their church friends, or when a small group meets. Instead of the church body getting better, through correctly responding to the discipline of God, they become increasingly bitter.
Stay tuned for Part Three of WHEN BITTERNESS BLOCKS BLESSING.
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