HOW DO WE LISTEN?
You have been examining God’s call for individuals. Now consider God’s call to the church. How would you know if God has genuinely called your church? Make a list of five things that are true of any church genuinely called by God.
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HERE IS MY HOPE FOR A CHURCH
In trying to reflect on what makes the call to ministry satisfying despite the long hours and low salary, I begin with the church’s concept of itself. Each church has a unique set of challenges and both strengths and weaknesses. That is not what is disheartening to a pastor.
What would lift my spirits as a pastor is a church that had a sense that they were more than just another organization. While there are practical decisions that must be made to enable a church to function, I want a church that sees itself as something more than an organization. Not in a superior tone, but with a sense of both humility and awe, I want a church that senses that God is calling them to something greater than themselves.
BODY OF CHRIST
As a pastor, I want a church that believes that they are part of the Body of Christ. Because I believe that the Word of God was incarnated in the body of the person of Jesus, I also look for how God is being expressed in the Body of Christ. I don’t believe that God made some colossal error in forming the church as an expression of the continuing ministry of his Son.
In the same way that God and God’s word were not defeated by the sins of humanity that led to Jesus’ crucifixion, so I believe that God’s word is not blotted out by the sinfulness of humans in the church. The task of a pastor is to enable the members of a church to exegete the Body. In all our humanness, God’s Word is still being embodied. Not everyone will see it–as many did not see it in the person of Jesus, but it continues to be fleshed out. Our task is to seek to hear it and give witness to it.
Consider how this changes our response to the various successes and failures of a church community. In our achievements, we are to celebrate what God is doing among us. In our failures, our first response is not to identify who is at fault but to listen to what God is saying to us in this situation. To be a pastor of such a church is a worthy calling.
GOD’S CALL AND THE FUTURE OF THE CHURCH
The perspective from which you view the future of the church can make a significant difference. If you are focused on how to attract more people to the church, then the issue is marketability. What are the activities that appeal to those who are not yet a part of the church? If you are focused on the purity of the church, then the issue is how we cleanse the church of those behaviors or people who pollute the church. If your perspective is the ethical behavior of the church, then we seek to get the church to both behave and advocate for that which is righteous.
Are your thoughts about the future of the church based on marketability, doctrinal purity, or ethical behavior? All of these approaches are based on decisions that we as humans make and actions we can take. Such thoughts are also the foundation for much of the debate that takes place in the church and the factors that lead to divisions within the church. None of them should be dismissed lightly because they all raise significant concerns.
A FOURTH PERSPECTIVE
A fourth perspective, which alters significantly the way we respond, is the vocational concern. What is God’s calling for the church and the people within it? The vast majority of the Scripture tells the story of a people that God calls and God’s covenant with this people. Sometimes the Scriptures celebrate the influx of new believers, which would appeal to the marketing factor. For example, Acts 2:41 states, “So those who welcomed his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand persons were added.” There is nothing wrong with adding new members to the church. Other passages of Scripture focus on theological lapses such as the debate between Elijah and the priest of Baal (see 1 Kings 18:20ff). At still other times, the issue is ethical. Recall some of Paul’s struggles with ethical lapses within the church, such as in 1 Corinthians 5 and 6. The people of God have never been sustained by their perfection but rather because it was God who formed them.
