[This post is dedicated to Doug Paul as a birthday present, to complement his interest in how apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers plant Christian community in different ways.]
Why would you go to church? If the answer is, Because I like to sing along to Christian karaoke, look around: you might notice that most of your neighbours aren’t there with you...
Why would you get involved in the life of a church? Can I be so bold as to suggest a level of self-interest – and to mean that in a positive way, and not as a criticism?
Allow me to summarise Ephesians 4 in this way:
Jesus is the Great Apostle (‘sent-out’ one) of our faith; the Prophet greater than Moses; the Evangelist par excellence, who not only carries the Good News but literally embodies it; the Good Shepherd; and the Teacher who teaches with unmatched authority.
Jesus has created each and every one of us to reflect an aspect of his nature (the ‘grace’ given to all): as an apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor or teacher. In distributing these gifts, he ‘apportions’ the grace as he chooses – some get a greater share than others to invest; what matters is what you do with it.
When we come into a saving relationship with Jesus, we offer ourselves – whether apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor or teacher – to him in tribute; and he in turn gives us to the church, as spoils of war in the clash between the princedom of the fallen angel of light and the kingdom of heaven.
In this context – redeemed, and taking-up our function in the building-up of the body of Christ, the church – our identity as apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor or teacher finds a fulfilment that it cannot find until we have been redeemed and so deployed. To put it another way, the colony of the kingdom of heaven on earth needs us; but so too, we need the colony. And it is not limited to ‘what we do when we gather in a worship service’ but is, rather, concerned with equipping us to live out the kingdom in this world, in our families, our places of work, our places of leisure...
We are created to display a facet of Christ; created with the need to find our fulfilment in him; created to display, with others who have been made to reflect other facets of Christ, a fuller picture of Jesus to the world (that is why the church, rather than the individual believer, is described as the body of Christ).
And so an apostle, a prophet, an evangelist, a pastor and a teacher would each have a different answer, at the deepest internal level, to the question, Why church?
And where most of those reasons are not met, not allowed expression, when the church comes together, why would (m)any of them want to be there?
On the other hand, where those reasons found authentic expression, a pre-Christian – or a baby Christian, or a mature Christian, for that matter – might just be interested...
Why would an apostle come to church?
Because an apostle wants to make a massive impact on the world, and the church is intended to be the place above all other places where people can be led in teams that bring transformation to communities, business, society...
Why would a prophet come to church?
Because a prophet dreams of a better world, and the church is intended to be the place above all other places where dreams of a better world are conceived, carried to the point of birth, nurtured to the stage of maturity...
Why would an evangelist come to church?
Because an evangelist loves to tell good news stories, and the church is intended to be the place above all other places where good news stories are celebrated and passed-on by word-of-mouth throughout the wider community...
Why would a pastor come to church?
Because a pastor is looking for opportunity to care for others, and the church is intended to be the place above all other places where the broken and hurting, the discarded, are shown compassion and have their inherent dignity as the crown of creation recognised...
Why would a teacher come to church?
Because a teacher searches for both understanding and the wonder that lies beyond our understanding, and the church is intended to be the place above all other places where understanding and wonder are equally cherished...
Church is the place where we learn how to relate to one another, how to work together, complementing each other. So, why is that so hard? At the deepest level, God chooses to use us to bring one another to maturity. Some of the battles we need one another to help us win include:
Apostles have a tendency (note that tendencies can be resisted: they are not inevitabilities) to leave behind a trail of collateral-damage, a high friendly-fire count...
Prophets have a tendency to withdraw from others. They can be seen as extreme, causing others to withdraw from them; and they can withdraw themselves, as a defence-mechanism, emerging to deliver the word God has placed on their heart and then withdrawing again. They are tempted to feel isolated. I am a prophet: I withdraw to my prophet’s cave (or study): I pull away from others at the gathered point: bear with me: but don’t let me get away with it...
Evangelists have a tendency to struggle to connect with those who do not share their view that a particular message is good news – an irony, given that the Good News is in fact so many good news stories...
Pastors have a tendency to create dependency, or to allow dependency on them to be fostered...
Teachers have a tendency to see themselves as stockbrokers of truth, controlling its value and reaping the benefit; rather than as investors of truth, handing a deposit over to another in the hope that it will grow beyond their own investment...
If there was a community of people committed to love one another in the face of these tendencies, and to allowing themselves to shape and be shaped by one another, to maturity...that would be...
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