storiesofvalue

A happy church is a place where believers bask in redemption.  Grace flows in, through and out of every member, producing the collective image of Christ on earth.  The first church in Jerusalem lived out this grace with “glad and sincere hearts” and everyone in their community admired them (Acts 2:47).

Please don’t misunderstand.  The church should not be a place where people wear plastic smiles and refuse to confront challenges for fear of making people unhappy.  During my ministry I have made a lot of people unhappy because I didn’t give them what they wanted.  Sometimes people tell me I need to agree with them because God has revealed something to them.  I respect God’s movement in other people’s lives, but when I feel God is showing me something else I have to be honest, and my honesty isn’t always popular.  I have also had caring brothers and sisters in the church confront me with honesty and when they did I wasn’t happy.

If happiness means we will always get our way, never suffer hardships, or never face the reality of our own sin, then it should be stricken from the vocabulary of every Christian.  But if it refers to the abiding presence of our Savior who fills us with His grace, then we are very happy indeed.

When my wife and I were in Bible College we had a professor who started every class with a song and prayer.  His favorite song was a chorus he told us he learned in Jamaica.  We sang, “Happy, Happy, Happy!  Happy in the Lord.  Keeping His commandments, trusting in His Word.  I want you to know God’s promise is true.  Happy, Happy, Happy!  Happy in the Lord.”  I believe this chorus captures the nature of a happy church.  It is a place where joy is found in the Lord.  It involves conviction, confrontation and restoration, since there is no other way to walk in Christ’s commandments.  We follow His Word because we trust Him, and we believe He will reward us in due time if we are willing to suffer with Him.

I apologize once again for imposing my human imagery on God, but perhaps when we get to heaven the Father will rise from a throne with a cup in his hand, raise it in the air and shout, “Welcome My Bride!  You have known My joy.  Now enter My home where you will know nothing but joy!”

I am not a perfect believer.  I lose my cool, get depressed, sin, suffer and struggle.  But I am a happy believer because my joy doesn’t come from this world, and what the world doesn’t give me the world can’t take away.  A toast to the happy Bride!

That His Bride Be Happy 

Is happiness a realistic goal in the church?  After all, Jesus warned His disciples their decision to follow Him would lead to trouble, sometimes at the hands of religious leaders. “They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God.  They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me” (John 16:1-3).  With the cross in view Jesus’ disciples must have been painfully perplexed when He said, “you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices” (John 16:20).

Years later, the Apostle Paul recounted his frequent floggings and imprisonments, and his close encounters with death “again and again” (1 Corinthians 11:23).  Tradition tells us Paul was eventually beheaded in Rome, joining with at least ten of Jesus’ original disciples in paying the ultimate price for his faith.  In light of these sufferings, and so many saints who have been persecuted and killed throughout the centuries, can we really say God wants His church to be happy?

Yes.  Circumstances change, but the joy experienced by Christ’s Bride is difficult to extinguish.  It is true Jesus told His disciples they would “weep and mourn”, but He also said, “your grief will turn to joy” (John 16:20).  Paul endured years of hard ministry, but was still able to write, “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.  For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all” (2 Corinthians 4:16-17).  Amazing!

It is important to realize, the joy we find in Christ is more than a consolation prize we cling to in difficult times.  The church is truly a happy place.  I am aware church families sometimes go through seasons of great upheaval that can hardly be characterized as “happy.”  But remember, we are talking about the Father’s toast, not ours.  God’s wants His church to be happy, even in times of persecution, and His vision is realistic if we keep our eyes focused on the source of our joy.

The Father’s Toast

It is time for you to put on your anthropomorphic blanket of grace.  We love to impress human images on God in an effort to bring definition to His character.  Sometimes our depictions skirt the line between good theology and wishful thinking.  I hope this final section of our time together will reflect the former.

Traditionally, the first toast at a wedding reception is given by the father of the bride.  In it he typically thanks his guests for attending the reception, shares something personal about his daughter and offers a blessing to the newly married couple.

I like to think of God in this role.  His position is unique in that He is both the Father and the Groom.  We are also unique since we are a corporate Bride, yet many.  If you have a hard time seeing God with a toast glass in His hand, then you might remember another scene where the Groom held a cup and said, “Drink from it, all of you. ²⁸ This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. ²⁹ I tell you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it anew with you in my Father’s kingdom” (Matthew 26:27-29).  I always assumed Jesus was talking here about the practice of taking communion in the church, but recently I have wondered if He was thinking of the wedding feast at the end of the long walk of love.  Was He reassuring His disciples with the promise they would one day toast their victory together when the new heaven and new earth were revealed?

I would also like to backtrack a bit with this toast metaphor.  I know I am asking a lot since I am probably already on thin ice with the whole idea.  But it is important to remember our victory has already been won at Calvary, and if we are in Christ we are tasting eternity as we journey.  This means we don’t have to wait until the wedding feast to receive our blessing.  God is already brooding over his Bride, proclaiming His love for her to the world and offering her His best.  Grant me the opportunity to share my best representation of His heart as I place what He has already told us in this context.

I should add that loving the church from within the church doesn’t mean we have to walk around on pins and needles.  It isn’t healthy or realistic to pretend Christ’s Bride is perfect. We have already noted her imperfections and the role grace plays in her ongoing process of sanctification.  The reason Christian comedians stay in business is because church people pay money to laugh at their own idiosyncrasies. Everyone loves a good “church bulletin blooper” or a story about brothers and sisters in conflict who find humorous ways to solve their problems.  Humor is one way we unmask self-righteousness and keep ourselves honest.

But in the same way we know when a comedian has lost his audience, we sense when our comments about the Lord’s church have become disrespectful and destructive.  If we are in Christ we are His church, and we should speak well of ourselves for the sake of those longing for a family of grace.

We hold the church in high esteem at home, at work, in our community and in Christian fellowship.  Our walk through life is a long one as we look forward to the day we stand in the presence of our Savior.  Yet, it is a walk of love.  We are redeemed in love, held by love, adorned and surrounded with love.  When we see Jesus face to face our love will truly be complete, unbridled by the limited perspectives of this life.  Until then, we do our best to walk worthy of our calling, and we invite others to share with us as Christ’s beloved.

A final way we praise the church without being boastful is to celebrate our compassion for one another.  Perhaps you have heard believers say, “I don’t know what people do when they don’t have a church family to help them in a time of need.”  The truth is people do survive without the Lord’s church as long as they have family members and friends who care about them.  Sometimes those who reach out to them know Christ, and are able to pour His grace into their circumstances.

Yet, there is a difference.  When we are in Christ, and walk with His people, grace flows both ways.  As we show the Lord’s grace, those who are suffering reflect it as the Holy Spirit works in them and around them.

Not long ago I met with an elderly widow who had recently lost her husband of many years.  She was grieving, but had also found peace in the mercy of God as He continued to work through His Word, His people and His Holy Spirit.  When I finished my meeting I wept, but not for the reasons you might think.  Of course, I shared in the widow’s sorrow and it hurt me to hear her talk about how lonely she was after years of marriage.  But at the same time I rejoiced in her testimony when she told me how God had comforted her and supplied all of her needs.

When we are facing a trial, and hold to the Lord, He shows us aspects of His character we would never learn under normal circumstances.  In the church we are able to share our spiritual walk with one another, and as a result we gain a wider perspective of God’s grace.  We should never boast in our concern for each other, because even those who don’t know Christ help one another in times of need.  But we should celebrate what we learn about God in the process of caring.  The Holy Spirit inhabits the Bride of Christ, and as a result even the smallest test becomes an important part of the journey.

A second way to praise the church without being boastful is to celebrate the sanctifying power of our fellowship in Christ.  In the early church a relationship did not have to be perfect to be important.  If ever there was a challenging relationship it was that between the Apostle Paul and the Christians at Corinth.  In his first letter to the Corinthians Paul confronted several serious sins in the strongest possible terms, but in his introductory comments he still wrote, “Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  I always thank God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus” (1 Corinthians 1:3-4).     

Our devotion to each other, in spite of our weaknesses, is not intended to diminish the severity of sin.  Fellowship is more than tolerance.  It is a bond of grace that frees us to disagree and hold each other accountable.

It is difficult for some people to understand this kind of relational dynamic.  They believe having expectations of others is inconsistent with the unconditional love Jesus is thought to have shown the world.  However, it is important to realize we don’t have to put conditions on our love to have expectations of the ones we love.  Good parents love their children regardless of their behavior, but they wouldn’t dream of letting them grow up without an education or the kind of self-discipline necessary to become productive citizens.  In the same way Christian fellowship is not intended to be a fantasy that ignores our imperfections, but rather a commitment that drives us to address them.  With Paul we say, “We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ” (Col 1:28).

A church where flawed people grow because they aren’t allowed to stay the way they are is reason for celebration.  The testimonies of people who have found grace, and discovered the joy of the sanctification process are worth hearing and sharing.  This is one of the reasons I love the Bride of Christ and smile when I talk about her with my church family.  Where else can people be simultaneously convicted of sin and consumed by hope?

I realize there is a balance.  If our admiration for the church becomes prideful, we can misplace our mission.  On the other hand, if we have been delivered from darkness to reign with Christ, we have every reason to be “glad and sincere” (Acts 2:46).  When this attitude is present the “favor” of our community toward us doesn’t have to be solicited.  The beauty of Christ’s Bride is self-evident and her joy complete.

One way we can praise the church without being boastful is to celebrate the work of grace among its members.  Grace presumes need, and in the case of the redeemed, sin.  We grieve over the destruction Satan brings into our lives, but we celebrate the power of grace and the strength of community as the Lord works in and through His people to change lives.

Not long ago I was helping a team from our church organize a warehouse full of household goods donated for families in crisis.  About mid-morning I encountered a challenge that may seem trivial on the surface, but had the potential to derail my witness.  I found a dish that matched a set of old Christmas china my wife and I had been collecting to keep up with our growing family.  It was perfect, without chip or blemish!  I showed the plate to our team and one member suggested I take it and make a donation to the warehouse ministry.  To be honest, I had already considered the possibility, but something was gnawing at my heart.  I thought about how I would feel if I had donated a plate to a mission for the poor and later discovered a preacher had purchased it to add to his family’s china collection.  Yikes!  I could feel the Holy Spirit punching me in the gut.  Then I thought about my role as a leader and what my actions might say to those on the team, some of which were new in their walk with the Lord.  I also considered the fact that single plate might be a part of a bigger plan God was unfolding in the life of its recipient.  Would the picture of a little train running around the base of a Christmas tree on the plate be the one thing to bring joy to a child experiencing an otherwise dismal Christmas Day?  Ok, so maybe I was over-analyzing things a bit, but you get the idea.  The work of God’s grace in our congregation altered the way I processed my temptation.  I wasn’t just a member of a club, and I didn’t have the freedom to do as I pleased as long as no one cared.  I was a part of the Bride of Christ, and as such I was engaged in the ongoing process of sanctification with my spiritual brothers and sisters.  Instead of feeding my personal ambition, I needed to use the opportunity to remind my church family why we were serving, put the plate back on the shelf and go back to work.  I was definitely tempted, experienced a significant moment of weakness, but ultimately found the strength to do the right thing.  As a result I could hold my head high and celebrate the redemptive power of grace.

In this way we are able to celebrate the church while admitting our sinful nature and constant need for grace.  I love the Lord’s church and praise her because she is filled with people who aren’t afraid to acknowledge temptation and sin, but at the same time do not wish to live in them.

The Long Walk of Love in Our Church Family

I was fortunate to grow up in a church family, and it was years before I knew we weren’t practically perfect.  My Sunday School teachers loved me with all of their heart, and corrected my childish behavior with grace.  There were big-time events like Vacation Bible School, Christmas Pageants, and a community outreach with a Christian weight lifter known as the “strongest man in the world!”  Don’t get me wrong.  I knew there were people in our church who sometimes did and said the wrong things.  It’s just that at the time it would have been difficult for me to understand why anyone wouldn’t want to be a part of any church, and in particular our congregation.

Somewhere along the way I was enlightened.  I learned the church has some significant flaws and there are quite a few people in the world who don’t want anything to do with her.  I also discovered it wouldn’t really matter to some whether the church was perfect or not, because they had chosen to live without Christ.  In addition, a smaller but very vocal number made it their ambition to defame the Lord and despise His people.

We have already acknowledged there is just cause for people to think badly of the church.  As believers, we should be cognizant of this fact and work hard to challenge these perceptions with a better testimony.

Yet, at some point we need to reclaim our self-image and stop abasing ourselves at the expense of the cross.  While the Bride can look disheveled, she is still the one for whom Christ died, that she might appear before the throne of His Father holy and blameless.  She is filled with His Holy Spirit and represents the souls of millions who have found redemption through the blood of Jesus.

I come from a long line of bride lovers.  My grandmother had a few faults, and frequently tested my grandfather’s patience.  For example, she took forever to get ready in the morning, and since she was my grandfather’s personal secretary her tardiness made us all late for work.  I would sit quietly in the back seat while my grandfather fretted and fumed, started the car and blew the horn.  He and my grandmother would have words when she finally slid into the passenger seat, but in spite of this annoying habit it was clear no one else could speak badly of her: ever.  She was, after all, the bride.  The same thing was true of my mother (although, since she will be reading this I will say I can’t, for the life of me, remember any of her faults).  My father simply wouldn’t allow anyone to criticize her: ever.  I have the same attitude about my bride.  She is my life’s mate of over thirty-two years, the mother of our children, and a servant of the Lord.  She is the bride, and I want her to be praised: always.

Christ’s Bride deserves nothing less.  As well, when we hold her in high esteem, we show regard to our own person, and we see ourselves as Christ sees us.  We boast, not in our own beauty, but in the wondrous cross and the transformation we have experienced as Christ’s blood has sprinkled our hearts clean.

The Long Walk of Love in Our Community

Everything we say and do in our community represents Christ.  From the cashier at the grocery store to the parents at our child’s soccer game, we have an opportunity to spread God’s grace in the trenches of life.

My barber (Ok, she’s a hairdresser, but I don’t like to tell people I get my hair cut at a beauty solon), knows how to share Christ with our community in a way that puts me to shame.  She and her husband are members of our congregation but her ministry isn’t inside the walls of our building.  Several months ago this incredible sister in Christ reached out to an inmate at a local prison.  She visited her on a regular basis, cut her hair for free, and promised her when she was released she could come to her shop and learn to be a hairdresser.  One day the inmate was set free.  She hasn’t taken my friend up on her offer to learn a trade yet, but she does come to her shop for free haircuts.  While she is there, my friend talks with her about her struggles and prays with her.

As we walk toward eternity with Jesus, we meet people from every walk of life who need our Savior.  Some cross our paths naturally and others are found in places where they are reaping the hard consequences of their bad choices.  But they all need the Lord.

We are all going to share grace with our community in different ways, but through our kindness, Christ and His Bride are exalted.  God’s love is expressed uniquely through the circumstances and personality of each member.  This is why I am not afraid to let people see me “just as I am.”

Every morning I go to the same minute mart for my caffeine fix on the way to the office.  I go to another minute mart near the office for a refill in the afternoon.  Over a period of many years I have seen clerks at both stores come and go, but not before forming some great friendships.  Sometimes, when the store is empty we talk about spiritual things.  The clerks ask me to sign get-well cards when employees are in the hospital and tell me when someone has lost a loved one so I can offer my sympathy.  If my friends at the minute mart see me on the way to exercise in the morning, they overlook my unshaven face and wrinkled clothes.  Sometimes they tell me I have shaving cream in my ear or that my shirt is buttoned crooked.  These things don’t matter to them.  It’s just the way I am.

Through my conversations with store clerks, bank tellers, waitresses and repairmen I have an opportunity to gently share my faith, my ministry and my church family.  Maybe you form your community relationships in a softball dugout or in the stands with parents at your child’s baseball games.  You might be the neighborhood guru who knows how to repair anything, or the master chef who delivers delicious meals to the elderly couple across the street who have no one to look out for them.

In any relationship, if we talk long enough, sooner or later our faith and our church family are going to come up.  When they do, the person others have already come to know will be the filter through which they see Christ.

From last post…”You may still be wondering what our love for our church family has to do with our testimony at work?  I believe when we share our lives with others in the workplace, and pass along stories of faith, hope and love from our church family, we make the Lord attractive.  People we work with need to know our Christians friends are valuable to us, just as their friends are valuable to them.  They need to understand, while we strive to understand God’s will and obey it in the church, we also thrive in an atmosphere of grace where we cheer each other on and lift each other up.  This is likely our greatest commonality, and our best platform for sharing the love of Christ.”

There is a place where this dynamic becomes undeniably clear to me.  When I preach a funeral for a church member who was still in the workforce, I have an opportunity to meet some wonderful co-workers who share in my loss, and I in theirs.  For a short season our mutual friend brings our two worlds together where God’s grace provides a covering for us all.  In more than one instance I have seen co-workers so touched by our experience together they have ventured back to worship in search of greater spiritual fulfillment.

It would be much more difficult for the gospel to work through these kinds of situations if my believing friends hadn’t been positive in their portrayal of our church family.  I am not talking about an unrealistic depiction that denies our human weaknesses, but rather one that adores Christ’s Bride in spite of them.

Fortunately, we don’t have to wait for people’s funerals to make these kinds of connections between the church and the workplace.  The church I serve is located near several military bases where our members frequently retire from service to their country.  I am often offered the special blessing of being invited to pray at their retirement ceremonies.  There is always great joy as my friends are honored by their colleagues and embraced by their families.  In the same way my friends who are retiring are overwhelmed with emotion as they praise their families and the people who have helped make them successful.  I have met a lot of great people at these gatherings and have had some of them come to share with our church family in worship.  None of this would have been possible if my retiring friends had failed to live for Christ or speak well of His Bride.  In the same way, I could have also undermined their good work by failing to honor and praise them in front of their peers.

There are certainly many ways to live out our testimony in the workplace.  Employers are impressed with a good work ethic, our peers learn to trust us when they know we can keep confidences, and the things we say carry more weight if we are effective in our jobs.  Yet, I have never met an employer who wanted to know more about Christ because his Christian employees were good workers.  On the other hand I have met many who did because their employees reached out to them in a crisis.  A good work ethic builds trust.  A big heart creates opportunity.