IN SEARCH OF THE
How many times have you heard someone say they’re looking for
"the perfect church"? How many times have you wanted to pack it all
in and find a church that is above all the petty in-fighting, a church that is
scrupulously on guard against the pollutions of the secular world, a church
that is thriving and dynamic in its relationship with God? How many times have
you heard the cry - or cried out yourself - "Oh, if only the Church today
could be the way it was in the first century, when the apostles were still
alive!"?
Once upon a time there was a young church. It started with the best
of intentions - it wanted to know God through Jesus, and to make Jesus known to
the rest of the world. And it seemed to have everything going for it - dynamic
leaders in tune with the Holy Spirit, a thriving missions program, an eagerness
to minister to the poor, and a fast-growing membership in whom the gifts of the
Spirit were active on a regular basis.
Yet within the first year of that church’s existence serious problems
erupted. The leaders caught members in false financial claims. Those who were
charged with ministering to the poor were accused of racial and social bias.
Doctrinal questions threatened to divide and destroy the church from the inside.
The membership placed the brunt of the burdens on their leaders, and then
judged them harshly for not adhering to the Scriptures, as they understood
them. Top leaders argued bitterly over the qualifications of missionary
candidates and wound up not speaking to each other, and one of the original
founders of the church had to be publicly chastised for hypocrisy when he tried
to play both sides of a major doctrinal schism.
This original "parent" church founded other churches, which
in turn exhibited problems. Some were divided on political grounds, while some
discriminated between their members on economic and social grounds. Some were
accused of permitting their congregations to indulge in selfishness and
licentious behaviour right in the middle of their
services. Some congregations were in such turmoil that the members were suing
each other. And at least one church was discovered to be condoning an
incestuous sexual relationship.
By the standards that we often use to judge our own churches, this
church and its offspring were a hopeless mess. It would seem that God couldn’t
possibly use these churches. Many of us, if we found ourselves in one of these
churches, would likely depart in horror, declaring that the Holy Spirit
couldn’t possibly be at work there. Or else we would calmly launch our own
reform programs, with or without the sanction of the leadership (and most
likely without, declaring the leaders to be the ones most at fault), thereby
becoming just one more faction ourselves.
This was not, however, what happened in our example. Remember what I
said - the parent church wanted only to know God through Jesus and to make
Jesus known to the rest of the world. The leaders recognized their humanity and
permitted God to change their hearts. The congregation understood that people
make mistakes and that their ultimate Head was not some man, but Jesus, and
they forgave their leaders, and supported them. And the original congregation
and the congregations of the offshoot churches acknowledge the authority of
their leaders and looked beyond their flaws and saw God and His Spirit and
willingly accepted correction.
Of course, they had little choice - where most Christians today have
hundreds of alternatives within easy driving distance, the Christians of those
churches were stuck with what they had. After all, they were the only game in
town - they were the first century Church, based in
I think there’s a lesson in there somewhere.
…………………………………
"It is
a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to
remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day
be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to
worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all,
only in a nightmare…. There are no ordinary people. You have never
talked to a mere mortal…. But it is immortals whom we
joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit - immortal horrors or
everlasting splendours…. Next to the Blessed
Sacrament itself, your neighbour is the holiest
object presented to your senses."
C.S. Lewis
The
Weight of Glory (1941)
…………………………………
Here are the
references I used for my description of the early church:
The
Offshoot
churches: