Legalism Divides Churches

Legalists love to act like God by making the rules for everyone else. Legalists love rules about rules. Legalists love rules about who gets to make the rules about the rules. Legalists love rules about who gets to enforce the rules made by the people who the rules were appointed to make the rules about the rules.

Legalists love rules about who gets to interpret the rules that rule. Legalists get perfectly euphoric when they get to enact the rules punishing people who break the rules as interpreted by those appointed by the rules. In the end, legalists want to rule through rules and wield their rules like weapons to divide the church body into bloodied parts.

Pride Divides Churches

Another threat to church unity is pride, the same sin found in Lucifer that led to his rebellion against God. Pride is the sin that turned an angel into a devil.

The Bible mentions a man named Diotrephes only once, tragically, as the man who always wanted to be first (3 John v.9). Proud people think they are very important and delight in airing their opinions, expected to be consulted regarding their opinions, and get very angry when they are not obeyed.

Proud people love church because in it they are prone to find nice polite people who are easy to take advantage of and push around. Proud people act like leaders when they are not. Proud people like to say such things as “God told me,” as if they are a mediator between God and others. Proud people only think of themselves and their family and conveniently overlook the fact that planet earth has other people in it, some of whom even have different last names than theirs. Lastly, proud people love to tell others what to do, but when confronted for their own sin of pride, will reject correction.

Pride is an ugly sin that we are guilty of to varying degrees. Pride always leads to division. The only way a church can get on Jesus’ mission and stay there is by practicing Jesus’ humility. Proud people who want to be first and are unwilling to do whatever is best for the whole church – because they are interested in their own glory more than God’s – are sinners who need to be called out to repentance, not coddled to ruinous division in the church.

Heretics Divide Churches

Sadly, the word heretic gets thrown around too little or too much, and the result is that most people are not sure what or who a heretic is. Heresy is false doctrine, and heretics do exist. The church is to fight against heresy and heretics, and not give them any voice in church matters in the name of being polite.

The Bible refers to itself as a sword for good reason: we need this offensive weapon to fight against false-teaching heretics. Since the garden Eden, the serpent, who Jesus called the father of all lies, has been continually at work propagating his falsehoods. Joining him is a legion of false apostles, and false teachers inspired by demons and taken captive by Satan to serve his cause, who promote false teaching that includes a false gospel about a false Jesus.

Paul warned that false teachers would RISE UP from AMONG THE FLOCK OF GOD, right out of your own congregation - people you know - and when they do they must be stopped:

28 Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. 29 I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; 30 and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them. 31 Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish everyone with tears. (Acts 20:28-31).

False teachers are like savage wolves, and church leaders being like shepherds entrusted to care for the flock of God for which Jesus died, must stand against heretics.

Paul instructed Timothy to stand against false teachers in his church, some of whom had probably even become teaching elders. He told Timothy to not only quell this uprising, but to replace it with “sound doctrine” (I Timothy 1:10).

Elsewhere, Paul tells Timothy he must preach and teach the Bible with the strength of an ox, fight like a tough soldier, train and compete like a skilled athlete, and sweat at his labor like a farmer (I Timothy 5:17-18; 2 Timothy 2:3-4; 2:5; 2:6). When done right, ministry is hard work. It includes not only teaching what is true but also refuting what is false. Many Christians today respond in horror when church leaders rebuke people who teach false doctrine and drive them from the church, declaring, “That is not very Christ-like, and not very nice.” Maybe they should take another look at the ministry of Jesus to find out what He was really like. Paul was adamant in his declaration, “We DEMOLISH arguments and every pretense that sets itself up against the knowledge of God…” (2 Corinthians 10:5).

The New Testament calls heretics dogs and evildoers, empty and deceitful, puffed up without reason, given to mystical speculation and vanity without understanding, products of shipwrecked faith, demonic liars with a seared conscience, peddlers of silly myths, arrogant fools with depraved minds, the spiritual equivalent of gangrene, foolish, chatty deceivers, destructive blasphemers, ignorantly unstable, and antichrists (Phil 3:2; Col 2:8; I Tim 1:3-7; 19; 4:1-2; 6:3-5; 2 Tim 2:14-18; 23; Titus 1:10-14; 2 Peter 2:1-3; 3:16; I John 2:18). So much for being polite. The stakes are too high to be nice when it comes to heresy.

The problem with some churches and their leaders is that they won’t fight, and the problem with others is that they won’t stop fighting. They key is to fight for what is most essential to the gospel of Jesus Christ and His work in the earth, and to do it with the humble courage that God requires.

Church Unity

Have you ever given a great deal of thought to last supper? Sitting with Jesus among the disciples is Judas Iscariot. Judas spent three years being trained personally by Jesus. Furthermore, Judas got to sit and eat regularly with Jesus as a friend. While the disciples were a unified team, Judas was never unified with them because his heart was far from them; he was a thief and had been plotting against them for a long time. Yet, at the last supper Judas is among them appearing to be a friend. Along with the other eleven disciples, Judas had worked on various ministry projects, ate, and traveled together for three years. To everyone who saw them, the perception had to be one of unity. Nevertheless, Judas was on his own mission with his own agenda. In spite of appearances, disunity was bubbling beneath the surface.

Having thought about it for a long time, I now realize that Judas not only betrayed Jesus but the REST OF THE TEAM as well. Imagine how much it must have grieved and angered each of the disciples to discover that Judas was never really one of them, even thought he pretended to be. For all the time they had spent together, Judas had a secret agenda in his heart. Did they feel betrayed? Did they feel lied to? Did they feel used? Did they feel foolish for trusting a friend who turned out to be an enemy? Did the subtle signs of divisiveness start to make sense in retrospect as they looked back over the previous three years? Did people bombard them with questions about Judas until they were simply tired of talking about it? Did gossiping people who liked Judas spread vicious rumors and lies about the other disciples, trying to make them responsible for Judas’ ruin?

From a Biblical standpoint, unity is to be pursued by churches for several reasons. (1) Jesus prayed for it often. (2) Without unity spiritual health and growth cannot be maintained. (3) Unity is fragile because it is gained slowly and lost quickly. (4) Paul repeatedly commands unity in churches (I Cor. 1:10; 2 Cor. 13:11; Eph. 4:3; Phil. 1:27).

Practically, unity is something that requires much skill to achieve and maintain. Since unity is so important to New Testament churches, it must be carefully defined and pursued in these critical areas:

There must be THEOLOGICAL UNITY in the church. This means that leaders and members agree on what they will and will not fight over. At PCC there are certain non-negotiables that we will go to the mat over. These include our doctrinal beliefs that are closely connected to the gospel of Jesus Christ, and are outlined in Seminar 101. On the other hand, there are less essential issues that we don’t feel the need to fight over, and therefore live with an open hand, and agree to disagree in an agreeable way.

Two of the biggest threats to theological unity are legalism (adding rules and doctrines to the Bible) and libertinism (removing moral limits from the Bible). These two issues are great threats to the truth of Jesus Christ and the church needs to defend against both. Jesus Himself faced legalism and libertinism against the Pharisees and Sadducees in His own day.

An example of legalism is found in the church of Galatia (i.e., the book of Galatians), and an example of libertinism is found in the church at Corinth (i.e, the book of I Corinthians).

There must also be RELATIONAL UNITY in a church. This does not mean that everyone has to wear matching T-shirts and go out together every Friday night. Neither does it mean that everyone has to like everyone else. But it does mean that people love one another and demonstrate it by being respectful, friendly, and kind in their interactions with each other, especially in areas where they differ.

There must be PHILOSOPHICAL UNITY. This means agreement on methods and style. Two people may love Jesus the same, but if one person wants a church to use liturgy complete with a robe-wearing pastor accompanied by a hand bell choir, and the other wants to worship with an acoustic guitar and a three-chord song to sing to Jesus for one hour, then somebody is going to get a knuckle sandwich.

In addition to Bible rules, the church family, like any family, also has house rules about how they do things. So a church must define itself and say, “This is how we do things” and seek to attract those who find it comfortable to be in that environment. Without common agreement on style, a church can quickly divide in factions that criticize one another and unify themselves only in the common cause of killing the church or each other.

Sunday Mind Dump - March 14, 2010

• Good services today. Attendance was down about 30-35 people due to time-change, a couple of families were traveling out of town, and still a few others were out because of sickness.
  
  
• The people who were in service today seemed to really enjoy themselves. I really love seeing people hang back after the services are over talking to each other, visiting and catching up. It’s like a family reunion.
  
  
• It means something that church people enjoy each others company and fellowship. A lot of churches cannot say that.
  
  
• I’m enjoying the message series through Jonah. Every one of us can see something of ourselves in the story.
  
  
• They beauty of God’s Word is that it never sugar-coats the sins of His people. It always tells the truth because it is the truth.
  
  
• A quote from today: God has an antidote to bad behavior. PAIN. Seeing the light is wonderful, but feeling the pain is motivational.
  
  
• Enjoyed telling the story about the liberal preacher who tried to discredit the book of Jonah. I’ve told it a couple of times before, and it always works because you don’t see the punch line coming.
  
  
• I’m getting a lot of positive feedback from this series. It is really prompting some in-depth conversations among the members in our church family too.
  
  
• There were some nice comments on Facebook today:
  
  
• Christa said: I thought church was awesome today!!! I sooooo relate to the story of Jonah!!! I have run from God and felt like I was in the belly of a beast, only to be spit out and RESTORED, by the power of the Holy Spirit!!!!! Woo Hoo!!!
  
  
• Carole said: Great music and worship today. I was sitting out in the atrium today after finishing in the kitchen waiting on Shelby. I finally got it about Jonah, God put Jonah in the whale to get his attention so he could talk to him. Then when God was through talking to him, God let Jonah out of the whale. Hope God doesn't need to put me in a whale to talk to me. Thanks Ronnie you preach so we can understand God’s Word.
  
  
• Rose said: I agree with you Carole - I'm hoping I don't need something that major for God to get my attention! And also thanks Ronnie...I've learned sooooo much since coming to PCC - you are an awesome leader and teacher!
  
  
• I think the main reason people learn is because THEY WANT TO and their heart is OPEN to the Word.
  
  
• I heard a good tithing testimony today. One man told Gene (our admin pastor) that after hearing the Malachi series he decided to take God up on the “test Me” challenge. He is self-employed and ran out of work, becoming unemployed. So he started tithing off anything that came into his hands and within a couple of weeks his business rebounded, work started coming in, and he’s making full-time wages again.
  
  
• God is true to His Word.
  
  
• Yesterday (Saturday) was a good day for me. Got up at 5:30 am after nine hours sleep. Drank some coffee and did a little reading. Then took a morning run – I ran for one hour straight – which is monumental for me. When I started running back in October I couldn’t run 2-3 minutes. Did a lot of yard work too; planted some tomato plants, and enlarged the front patio for some outdoor living spaces.
  
  
• When you're being crucified, do what Jesus did on the Cross: Talk to the Father and quote scripture
  
  
• I heard that the new Matt Damon movie, Green Zone, is good. Might go watch it.
  
  
• My oldest son and daughter in-law are buying their first home. They are supposed to close March 31. It’s a brand new home and very nice.
  
  
• I read about 12-15 blogs each day. Some are real good. Other are real quacks. There are some mean people out there.
  
  
• Unite Family Picnic & Easter Egg Hunt on the last Wednesday of the month.
  
  
• I think PCC is a good church and enjoy belonging to it.
  
  
• It didn’t get dark today until almost 7:00 PM. I love long days.
  
  
• Going to get up tomorrow morning very early and take a long run.
  
  
• Our church is going to be building a storage shed out back pretty soon and purchasing a large commercial mower to maintain the campus ground with.
  
  
• I think that 2010 is going to be a bust-out year for us. A lot of good things are happening at PCC.
  
  

Friday Five

1. Saturday is TIME CHANGE. Set your clocks FORWARD one hour before you go to bed. That way you won’t be late for church.

2. This Sunday’s message is from Jonah chapter 2 – “When You Hit Bottom, Look Up” and is bound to be very encouraging. Bring a friend. I’m really enjoying this series! BTW, do you think the fish in this picutre could swallow a man?

3. On a personal note, as you know I have been on a sugar fast for about 7 weeks now. This has resulted in an unexpected, but positive, side-effect – my craving for all other food has diminished as well. Apparently my blood-sugar levels are in balance which means I am not craving food all the time. My appetite is under control. I am eating less (but plenty enough) and feel satisfied after eating good foods. I’m not craving sugars, fats, or junk. My waistline is getting smaller too. What's not to like about that?

4. THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: In heaven, it will not be those who knew the most, but those who loved the most that will receive reward (I Corinthians 13:2).

5. ANOTHER THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: Any church that has become content with not growing is saying to a lost community, “You can die lost.” Let’s never become that kind of church. Church growth requires unselfish members who are willing to sacrifice convenience for the sake of others.

Identifying Pastor-Elders

I must confess my frustration when looking to identify potential pastor-elders from within our church body. No matter how much I may like certain people, or how gifted they may be in certain areas, some things are deal breakers for these individuals:

• One man is known to be a good Bible teacher, but he is not willing to financially support this church. I guess he doesn't teach that part of the Bible because he's not living it.

• A couple of others have expressed a desire to preach on Sunday mornings. Yet they are not willing to teach anywhere else in the church first, and don't. They don't teach any classes at any level, lead Bible studies, nor lead a small group. If God's Word was really burning in their heart they would teach anywhere they got a chance. Plus it would be an opportunity to prove themselves before others and hone their skills.. But they want to preach on Sunday? It doesn't work like that.

• Still yet another man has demonstrated his skill at being a good Bible teacher, but he won’t make a commitment to the PCC family or our vision.

• And how many other men do I look at – who have such potential – yet they lack a real hunger for the Word of God. They never bring a Bible. They don’t read their Bibles. They don’t talk Bible stuff... and they give little evidence of Bible content stored up in their heart.

You can’t be a pastor-elder at this church under those conditions… even if we are friends. This is Jesus’ church, not mine, and our friendship does not trump God's requirments for you. He’s already prescribed the criteria for leadership in the church and it's His standards, not mine, that have to be met. Exceptions cannot be made. Authority in the church is given only to those who demonstrate that they are ‘under’ the authority of God. And the Sunday morning pulpit is not a place for thrill seekers or spare-time hobbyists. The pulpit is a place where heaven and earth come together so that God’s Word may be communicated, sound doctrine is taught, the church is guided, and God’s people are fed. This position is reserved for those who understand the nature of the calling.

Elders must "FIRST be proved; THEN let them use the office" (I Timothy 3:10).

As Jesus did when selecting His disciples, I think the best place to start when looking for leaders to serve in our church is by prayerfully asking God the Father which men and women He wants chosen. Prayer should always be first. Next we should search out those who are already functioning as pastors in the church, and meet the Biblical criteria. Then we need to look up their financial giving to the church because Jesus teaches us that our money follows our heart, and it’s important to know if people are on board with our mission to take the gospel to our city. Plus they must have a hunger for, and be skilled in, the Word of God.

The people who meet these requirements are easy to identify. Fortunately for PCC, there are plenty to choose from.

Questionnaires Don’t Qualify Pastor-Elders

In an effort to quickly fill a leadership gap, some churches will sometimes require candidates to complete a rigorous written questionnaire as well as an interviews process. I have learned that this method may help us to discover a candidates’ level of basic doctrine but lacks the precision to test his motives and ambitions. These inner qualities are learned only be observing the candidate in the crucible of church life.

A candidate for church leadership may be articulate, bright, possess a reasonable grasp of Bible doctrine, and easily pass an interview process. Yet, many of these very same people do not have the commitment level to the local church that is necessary to walk through adversities and threatening times without bailing out. How many times have I seen (so called) leaders at PCC jump ship simply because they lacked heart-felt commitment to this local body?

What have I learned? First of all, to be a God-called pastor-elder requires more than the ability to fill out an questionnaire or successfully complete a seminary class. Second, I am suspicious of people who crave high visibility. Third, future elders should be cultivated through interaction in a variety of settings; such as discipleship groups, prayer, meals together, reading/discussion forums, and in the natural flow of church life. Listen to the way they interact with others. Determine what kind of fruit they bear. That way I have time to observe their passions and ambitions before they are set apart as elders. Fourth, as I pray for discernment, I am conscious of the Holy Spirit setting off ‘alarms’ concerning their character and conduct.

Quarrelsome People Not Qualifed as Pastor-Elders

There is a real danger in selecting people for church leadership who have a history of repeated and/or unresolved conflict. On more than one occasion I have overlooked conflict in a person’s life, reasoning that it was either justified or forced upon him as the innocent party.

The fact is, even when circumstances or theology justify their side of the conflict, a man or woman can still be a quarrelsome person. This usually demonstrates itself in a lack of gentleness, a tendency to take rigid positions when none are required, an inability to lose graciously, or simply an over-love of debate. Whatever form it takes, quarrelsomeness is a disqualifier for one to serve as an elder (I Timothy 3:3).

Yet, if we are to care for the flock after the pattern of Jesus, then pastor-elders must be men of toughness as well as meekness. This means conflict might be called for at times to protect the flock, but always in a measured response. A wishy-washy elder who is a compromiser and easily swayed is a danger to the health of a church congregation as much as a quarrlemsone person is. So weakness is not the answer either. Meekness does not mean weakness. Moses and Jesus were both described as meek (Numbers 12:3; Matt. 11:28), yet we also see them involved in conflict when called for.

There is a difference between a quarrelsome person and one who contends for the faith.

How to Choose the Right People as Pastor-Elders

There is a good reason why Paul said, “Lay hands suddenly on no man” (1 Timothy 5:22). Selecting a pastor-elder is serious business and putting someone into a leadership position too quickly is risky. The Biblical qualifications for church leaders – in regards to godliness and giftedness - must be proven over time. A man may instinctively know how to make a good first impression. He may superficially appear to be knowledgeable and skilled at teaching. But he could actually have serious character flaws that would disqualify him from leadership, and these flaws sometimes become plainly evident only through long-term observation. It is vital therefore that candidates for leadership “FIRST be proved; THEN let them use the office” (I Timothy 3:10).

If I have learned anything “the hard way” over the years, it is that the best way to identify potential pastor-elders (or any other leaders for that matter) is in the normal flow of church life. They are evident by their response to what is being taught; by their willingness to serve; by the abundance of spiritual fruit in their lives; and by the many ways their giftedness is manifested in the church BEFORE they are ever singled out for leadership.

In other words, a man is proven in the context of church life – not a classroom - because when they are in the crucible they will demonstrate what they are made of.