In case you missed them, here are the first two blog posts in this series:
Why are Churches of Christ Shrinking - Part 1: A Left-Brained Fello...
Why are Churches of Christ Shrinking - Part 2: Failure to Understan...
And, in a positive series, here is the first post:
Why Do Churches of Christ Have a Hope and a Future - Part 1: - A Re...
If you have followed this series, then you can dive right into this post. If you have not, I suggest that you go back and read the other posts. However, if you grew up in Churches of Christ, the following discussion will be totally familiar to you.
In this post, I would propose that a further reason that Churches of Christ are shrinking is due to a misplaced identity, which I will address first, and a failure to truly believe in grace (which I will address secondly). Jesus said that his followers would be known by their "love for one another." Here is the quote:
34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another" (John 13:34-35).
And yet, despite this clear command and the way that his followers will be known as his--their love for one another--Churches of Christ have tended to place their identity in something else. Churches of Christ have placed their identity--that which they hold most dear and which makes them "distinctive," the way that you know a church is a church of Jesus Christ--by something else entirely. That identity is not placed in Christ and our love for one another, but in having the right, well, you know what it is. The right name, worship, and leadership structure, and a host of other things.
Consider this sermon series that is on the web that is based upon Leroy Brownlow's book, Why I Am a Member of the Church of Christ:
Now, I am not here to debate the above issues. I will simply point out a few things. First, in no instance is "love for one another" listed as an identifying mark in this list--and this is what Jesus said that the primary identifying mark of his disciples would be. If you were looking for the church of Jesus Christ, would you not be looking for the group that was just overflowing in its love for one another, since that is what Jesus said would mark his disciples?
Second, I would say that no distinction is made between matters of first importance and other issues. And yes, Scripture itself--and Jesus himself--made distinctions between matters of importance. Paul spoke of the gospel as being of first importance (1 Cor. 15:1f). Jesus spoke of the greatest and second greatest command (Mt. 22:37-39). And many of the things that we have emphasized most and made fundamental to our identity are simply not at the core of the gospel.
Third, historically, we have tended to be more zealous about many of the less fundamental items in Leroy Brownlow's list (and others like it) than we have about the gospel itself. It is hard to imagine finding someone in the first century who is facing death for his or her faith in Jesus Christ thinking that their primary task, that the center of the gospel, was to spread the good news about having the right leadership structure and the right organization and the right church name. This was not why the women ran out of the tomb on Resurrection Day! This is not what the disciples took their stand upon and gave up their lives for.
In this discussion of passion, am reminded of Paul's words about his Jewish brothers. He said this in Romans 12:1-4:
"Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. 2 For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. 3 Since they did not know the righteousness of God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. 4 Christ is the culmination of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes."
The Jews' problem was not that they followed the Old Testament. It was that they misapplied their zeal. They were zealous for God, but they thought that the way to be right before God was to be right. Rather than accept Christ and his sacrifice as the way to be right before God, they sought to establish their own righteousness--a righteousness of being zealous for the Law. Now, before we are too hard on the Jews, let us remember that the Law was their Bible. Have you ever read Psalm 119? It is an acrostic written in Hebrew, with 8 verses for each letter of the Hebrew alphabet talking about how much the Psalmist loves the Law (or teaching or doctrine--these all mean the same thing) -- of the Lord. It is very easy to get misplaced zeal, including people who love God. And Paul does not deny that the Jews very zealous for God. He loved them and wanted them to find true salvation--which did not come through law/teaching/doctrine, but through Christ.
You see, Christ was the culmination of the law/teaching/doctrine. He was the one that all of Scripture pointed towards. Jesus said, "You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me" (John 5:39). Jesus was speaking to people who knew their Bibles backwards and forwards. After the captivity, and the Jewish people's failure to follow God, they thought that the pathway to salvation was knowledge of and obedience to the Scriptures. And Jesus said that they thought that that was the pathway to eternal life. But of course, it is not the Scriptures that bring eternal life. It is Christ. He is "the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14:6). Truth is centered in a person, Jesus Christ. All of Scripture pointed towards him, towards the absolute, fundamental need for a Savior, for the utter helplessness of humanity to save itself. And they absolutely missed him, though he was standing right in front of him.
I would not say that our people think that they can be saved without Christ. But we do seem to have huge swaths of people and churches that think that salvation is Christ---plus all of that other stuff above. And if you don't get that other stuff right, well, you are lost. Go through and read our periodicals, the transcripts of our lectureships, what is on website and bulletin articles, what is on the lips and hearts of our people. The incredible zeal behind all of these other issues is driven by a fundamental belief that we--or our children or grandchildren--are lost if they get these other things wrong--even if they are a believing, confessing, baptized follower of Christ.
This is a synergistic salvation--the blending of two different types of salvation together: salvation by Christ and salvation by being in the right church with the right name, leadership structure, worship, etc. This synergistic blend is very seductive, and we are hardly alone in this. In fact, this was the natural, intuitive view of much of the early church. Yes, salvation was by Christ. But people also had to obey the Law of Moses.
This was what triggered the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15. Paul had started converting the Gentiles, which was surprising in and of itself, that God would save them at all. But some well-intentioned, zealous, but misguided believers came all the way from Judea down to Antioch, telling people, “Unless you are circumcised,according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved" (Acts 15:1). And Peter rescued the church and the gospel from being hijacked by saying,
"8 God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. 9 He did not discriminate between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith.10 Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear? 11 No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are" (Acts 15:8-11).
Now here is something that I just noticed. Not only does Peter emphasize that salvation is given to us by God and the Holy Spirit, that it comes through simple faith/trust, and that it is by the grace of God. He says, that is not only how they (the Gentiles) are saved--that is how we are saved. We are saved by grace, not by the Law/teaching/doctrine/the Bible. That is a yoke which no one ever has been able to or ever will be able to bear. And yet, many seem to think that we can indeed perfectly follow God's commands, and that that is how we are saved. Yes, we are saved by Christ. But also by having the right structure, organization, worship, etc. And that concept of salvation being by Christ plus something else, as seductive as it is, is absolutely antithetical to the gospel. Paul says about those who promoted this synergistic gospel of works that he wishes that they would emasculate themselves (Gal. 5:12). The "other gospel" that Paul gets really worked up against in Galatians is not Mormonism (though that is a false gospel as well), but the gospel of salvation being Christ + something else.
I think there are two events in my life that really taught me the gospel of grace, and that our identity is found through Christ and our love for one another. The first was the death of a sweet, innocent 13 year old girl named Chelsea. She was a girl in our youth group when I was a youth minister. She was very young for her age, and had a beautiful heart. The pages of her Sunday Bible school notebook were so God saturated. We found out that she had leukemia on a Wednesday--and by that Friday she had passed away. That was the very first funeral that I ever did.
The second event was when I studied with the grandfather of one of our members. He was 82 years old, and he could not speak. But he wanted me to study with him and share the gospel. And as I did, tears streamed down his face. I asked him if he wanted to accept Christ and be baptized. He said yes. And so we baptized him that day in his bathtub. He died two days later.
I feel confident that both of these precious people will be in heaven. Chelsea as she was pure and innocent and had not yet reached that awareness of sin in her life. And the older man, who accepted Christ and was baptized at the end of his life.
Now, how much from Leroy Brownlow's list did this man know? Almost nothing. And yet, was he saved? Absolutely. Why? Because, as Peter said, salvation is a gift from the Holy Spirit that comes through faith and by the grace of Jesus Christ. That is it. And yet, in the thinking of so many of our people, if that older man had studied after his baptism and come up with a different view of say, Revelation and held a premillennial view, or went to a church that had the wrong structure or some element of worship, or any number of things, he would be lost. In such a view, it would be better for him to die or never leave his room rather than risk making a wrong decision or having a wrong belief and being lost!
So, why is our identity placed in the wrong things, and why do we find the gospel of grace so hard to accept? And how might this cause us to be shrinking? Well, first, our identity became placed in these things because these were many of the issues that were being discussed at the time our movement began. People then were asking, what is the right church? How do I know that I am saved? Etc. Now, there were a lot of other issues, like unity, not the only Christians, liberty, and such, but many of these other things were forgotten or re-directed.
Second, the gospel of works is very seductive. Grace seems to be too good to be true. I have fallen into this seduction before too. And so have other Christian fellowships--we are not the only ones who struggle with this. It is human nature to trust in ourselves and what we can see more than in God. The parable of the workers that Jesus tells, where the guy who works an hour at the end of the day (like the older man who was baptized) is paid the same as the guy who works all day, assaults our sensibilities. We like hanging our hat on something that we can see and touch. But this breeds either despair (at not being able to follow God completely) or pride, arrogance, and condemnation (because we think we have it altogether--that we have "fully" restored New Testament Christianity and others have not).
Third, the reason that this issue is causing us to shrink is multi-faceted. Our world today is no longer asking, which is the right church? They are asking, Do I believe in God? Which God is the right God? And, if they are thinking about church, which church is the most loving and the most like Christ? Which one is making the most impact upon the community? And the more that we push non-essentials and do not address these questions that people are asking, the more that people tune us out and push us away. And younger people in particular are being driven away by this. They truly are looking for a church (if they are looking) that is known for its love, grace, and centeredness in Jesus Christ. If they find this in our fellowship, they may just accept some of these other issues. But if we lead with the right name, structure, organization, worship, and this is why you should come here and be a part, they simply will not, by and large, care. And they likely will tune us out entirely.
I analyze culture, and so this is a cultural analysis. However, we must remember that God is at work in culture too. God used the civil rights movement to break down cultural barriers in churches. And he may be at work in our culture too, using this culture to tell us not to be judgmental and so certain in ourselves. That we ought to be more loving. That we ought to be concerned about the people that Jesus was concerned about. That we ought to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, heal the hurting, and free the captive. Remember, our identity is not found in our being right. Our identity is found in Jesus Christ--and we will be known as his disciples by our love for one another. Those are Jesus' words. And the Scriptures all point towards him.
Where do you think Churches of Christ have placed our identity? Where should our identity be found? What should be our primary "identifying" markers?
Comment
Darin, no we should not look down on people for the conscience. That freedom goes both ways, however, and usually it is a one way street. Sadly, too many do believe that they are saved by Christ AND by doing all of these things and being right on all of these issues. Proof? They believe that they or others are lost if they don't do these things correctly. Yes, that is sad. Hopefully a truer understanding of God's grace will emerge.
A Baptist church just down the street from our own building here in Hendersonville recently posted a memo on their sign for the beginning of a series on "Baptist Distinctives." It seems that they, and us in Churches of Christ as well, see the threat of an increasingly secular world--and decreases in church attendance--and attempt to counteract this by emphasizing our "distinctives." As your blog clearly spells out, this is the wrong approach. I agree. We all need a dose of humility and a prayerful desire to allow the Lord to begin changing us from within. God bless.
If what you describe is what you mean by “Church of Christ” then we should all hope and pray that it dies for the reasons you explain. I know a lot of people who don’t believe they are saving themselves and yet can’t do certain things because their conscious won’t allow. I believe Paul’s teaching in Romans 14 tells me not to look down on my brother.
my best guess, James, is that even with grace and the indwelling Holy Spirit we are still human and struggle with sin; our pride, our flesh, And so I thank and praise God for His grace. It is the source of our hope, as well as the impetus for any good works, and for our fellowship with each other. Reading what you and others are saying gives me even greater hope.
Rocky, no we do not have it all together. We have not fully restored New Testament Christianity. And neither has any other fellowship. We all fall short--continuously and in the present--and are in need of God's grace. That is why it is called grace. It is something that we cannot do ourselves, but that God must do for us. We must depend upon him to save us--not ourselves. Why is that so very hard for us to do and accept?
as I read this thread I understand one underlying issue is that the Church of Christ does not own the corner on the truth, and, with that, all bible-believing churches have the challenge to be making disciples. But what has gotten in the way of disciple-making is any church's predilection to defending their peculiar dogma. The antithetical posture Brother Nored has presented is why I enjoy his blog.
Jared, yes, of course, the failure to make disciples is a huge cause of decline. I would say that these topics that I have raised are topics which also contribute to our failure to make disciples. When there is such a huge disconnect on some of these cultural issues and theological emphases, it makes it difficult to have a pool of people who are then interested in disciple-making. But your point is well taken. Most all of my other posts outside of this series deal with the issues of disciple-making and mission.
Overall, I thought the article had some great thoughts. However, it did leave out an important point. Churches of Christ are shrinking because we are not making disciples. It's really that simple. We are not doing what Jesus said to do. We go to a building and do religious stuff, but we do not GO and make disciples. That's not what Jesus told us to do, to meet and stay at a building.
I mean, just think about it. How much time did Jesus devote in his ministry to making disciples? Exactly. That was practically the whole point of his ministry. How can we expect the church not to shrink if we don't make disciples?
One thing is for sure: if we keep doing the same things the way we've been doing it, the church will not grow. We need to start going back to the roots that we once had--which was to focus upon God's word, and allow it to change what the Church means for us. We need to go back and say, what were they doing that allowed them to make so many disciples to attract so many people? If that's our identity, to do what God asks of us, then we will be working where God is working. And that's precisely what Jesus did.
Thanks, Sam! So glad to hear that you and Russell and others are preparing the way for me at Grapevine. This is a great message that you preached. Love and grace as seen in Christ and his people is what reaches people. We we share that and be passionate about the right thing.
Great post James...I preached a couple weeks ago around the same topic. My sermon was built on the MLK quote that "darkness can not drive out darkness, only light (and love) can do that". It was the same basic idea that we have to start being defined by love and grace, not by what we "do not do", and I think we've failed at that. It we are truly about changing the world around us (which I think we should be), we have to start to think differently. You change the world with love, not legalism. Too often (like the unmerciful servant in Matthew 18) we don't extend the same love and grace to others that Jesus extended to us, and that, in my mind, is what is killing the church.
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