Don't Talk About It, Be About It: The Church

How do you feel about group work?

You remember, in high school or college (or maybe some other setting), you were assigned to work with a group of people on some project, report, or presentation.

In my freshman year in college, my best friend at the time and I were assigned to work on a presentation with two other guys. The only problem was that one of the other guys never showed up for our meetings.

The presentation was divided into four equal parts, and admittedly my friend and I were concerned about this one guy who never showed up. The guy was smart and capable, but we felt we couldn't rely on him.

So we formulated a plan.

We wanted to protect the three of us while minimizing the damage of the fourth, and we succeeded.

My friend went first to get us off on the right foot with a great intro.

Our missing partner went third, and yes, it was a bit awkward when he got up and stumbled through his part. It was clear he was not prepared but he made it.

I went last.

With strong bookends to our presentation, our presentation was a success. And our professor totally forgot about the struggles of our third guy (in our group grade anyway).

Too often group work that starts this way doesn't end well, which sours people to it.

Teachers and bosses mean well when they encourage group work and group projects. But employees tend to dislike working this way or at least be reluctant because they are not sure everyone will follow through or uphold their end of the bargain.

It works the same way in the church.

John Maxwell has said that the church is the greatest venue for evaluating your leadership skills because it is driven by volunteers. A leader must have influence with people that he holds no real leverage over.

Think about, a pastor or other staff member has no real “power” over someone else. A boss can fire you, cut your pay, or reassign you and you can't do a whole lot about it.

But in the church, we work with what we have on both sides.

However, the problem in the church takes on a different dynamic because it is supposed to be a community, a family grounded on the truth that Jesus is the Messiah – the Savior of the world.

The church should look and feel different. And too many times, people have been hurt by the church because of arrogant leaders. Other times, people's pride has gotten in the way when they didn't get their own way on something (think hymns vs. praise band music...).

Some think that church speaks too much about the cultural hot topics of the day (considering the church judgmental and hypocritical) while some think the church doesn't speak enough about those topics (thus making the church irrelevant and antiquated).

Then there is a whole other group that thinks we should just love everybody and everything and ignore what the Bible says on a whole host of issues. The inverse is true as well. There are people who become so legalistic about the Bible that they forget to love people at all.

So with all this controversy and drama surrounding the church, what should the church look like and why does it matter?

The church should be a community where people devote themselves to the apostles teaching (think today – preaching under a Bible-believing church/pastor), fellowship (gathering together intentionally), to the breaking of bread (eating meals with one another – and partaking in the Lord's Supper), and to prayer.

Notice there was nothing about big buildings, extravagant children and youth ministries, music styles, technology, or anything like that.

When I went to Panama in 2019, I saw what the church should like firsthand.

It is possible. This church body did not have a million dollar facility, multiple campuses, thousands of people in attendance, or some fancy program.

They devoted themselves to Pastor Felix's teaching from the Word of God, they gathered together often outside of the church, they ate together and visited each other's homes, and openly prayed together.

People of all ages. It was amazing.

Many churches today have focused less on what I just described and more on programs. My father used to say, “What if we spent less time on church-work and more time on the work of the church?”

What if we spent less time on bulletins, social media, building and maintaining fancy buildings, coming up with next great idea to attract people to our church or make our congregation feel comfortable (i.e. hymns vs. praise band music)?

What if instead we focused on serving with a local ministry like RuraLove where those in need were served with affordable clothing and goods?

What if we focused on going through the trailer parks or “rough” neighborhoods (or shoot, any neighborhood) telling people about Jesus?

What if we knew there was a large Hispanic population in our community and we opened our fields up to them to be able to play soccer and build relationships with them?

What if we started a food pantry out of our church's basement to serve the food-deprived people in our community?

What if we partnered with our local school systems to offer tangible support as anything from substitute teachers to special event volunteers to athletic coaches to helping with lunch duty?

What if multiple churches intentionally worked together on a lasting community outreach ministry?

This is what being the church – a group of individuals gathered together around Christ – looks like.

We have been talking lately about “Don't Talk About It, Be About It” and I want to encourage every reader that while the local church is not perfect and will mess up from time-to-time, the church is a Jesus-thing. He established it for our sake and for the world's sake.

He wants us to be in community. To help one another. To encourage one another to be more like Christ. To support each other in difficult times. He even said that the world will know we are His people because of the way we love one another.

Jesus established the church as a great group project. Everyone has something to contribute. Are you?

Anyway, I was just thinking...