This Week’s Quote - No Transformation Necessary?

Leadership Journal’s online blog Out of Ur recently ran this quote from Dallas Willard, which I found intriguing:

“We fail to be disciples only because we do not decide to be. We do not intend to be disciples.”

The writer of the blog post then goes on to ask:

But which is the greater problem, the person who does not intend to be a disciple or the church that never expects him to be one?

It seems to me that the greater problem lies with the church. At least that has been my experience.  I have only attended and participated in one church in my life that really expected people to be disciples of Jesus.  The Church of God in Bloomfield, KY, that I belonged to from the first grade until I went away to college, was the only church that expected some form of transformation in its members’ lives.  It was the only one that understood and taught the doctrine of sanctification.  No other church I have been a part of, including the ones I have pastored (much to my shame) have focused on truly making disciples, and most church members don’t even have a clue that disciple-making is the primary purpose of any congregation.  Transformation? Sanctification?  At best, these are words the preacher uses occasionally to show he/she has some seminary training (and in some seminaries words like sanctification are all but verboten).

Most churches focus on things that will ultimately matter little in the eternal scheme of things:  raising and maintaining money in their bank accounts (for the proverbial rainy day), keeping their buildings beautiful or at least operational, providing members with a few activities for their social calendars, and giving these same members access to certain essential ministries (such as baptism, confirmation, wedding ceremonies and funeral services) over their lifetimes.  Spiritual growth is low on the priority list, if it even is a priority at all.  Let me give you an example.

Two years ago Jim and I proposed that our church spend a season in prayer and fasting.  We felt that though we had accomplished some good things (instituting a contemporary service, implementing a spiritual gifts discernment process, and simplifying our church structure, to name a few), there was a malaise in our congregation.  Further, this malaise had dampened any progress these and other changes might have made in our church life together.  We therefore suggested a suspension of all church activities (other than worship) for three months.  During this time we would hold prayer meetings in a variety of settings and at various days and times.  In this way members would be freed from their normal church work and be able to commit some real time in prayer and fellowship with each other, as we tried to discern God’s will for our life and ministry together.

Of course, you know how this went over.  It didn’t.  “We can’t have our committees not meet for three months!”  “We don’t dare give up our Sunday School!”  “I can’t or won’t attend prayer meetings!” ”Pray?”  We should have known this would happen.  Imagine the gall of our asking church members to spend time in prayer and to sacrifice by fasting.  You would have thought we were asking for the sacrifice of their first-born children.  And though we did end up holding three prayer gatherings each week during this time (and for a little longer), out of 130 people attending worship, only 15 or so ever came to our prayer times.

Discipleship?  Not likely in such a setting.  But as I have said, I share in this shame and I carry much of the blame.  When I honestly answer the question, “Do I expect my church members to be disciples?” I have to answer “No.”  I would like for them to be.  I hope that they might be or become so.  But if I really had such an expectation, wouldn’t I or couldn’t I do more to cultivate a disciple-making congregation?

Currently I feel that I and my church are at an impasse.  The gains that we made two years ago have all disappeared.  In fact, our attendance is lower than it was before I arrived (a first in my pastoral “career”).  And while there is money in the bank for a “rainy day,”  a veritable storm has been raging for some time in our community and congregational life, and no one seems very concerned about all the lightening, thunder, and rising water.

Today I went through the little pictorial directory we put together shortly after my arrival at First Church.  Over 60 people who were active in our church 6 years ago have either died, moved away, or left the church (only a few of the later, thank God).  The average age at our 8:15 am Sunday service is at least 70, probably closer to 75.  We have only a 20 people (give or take one or two) active in any kind of Bible study or spiritual growth process.  Deaths in the church average between 10 and 15 each year.  We no longer have Logos, a mid-week fellowship time, a cherub choir, a youth choir, or a beginner’s handbell choir.  We have had to go to volunteer secretarial and janitorial help, and in the process, we had to let go the woman who had served as secretary for over 25 years.  Finally, Jim, who we hired to be a full-time associate pastor, now serves only as our Modern Worship Director with no monetary compensation.

As a song by the group Keane states:

Is it any wonder I’m tired
Is it any wonder that I feel uptight
Is it any wonder I don’t know what’s right

But then . . . I do know what is right, even if I don’t really know what to do about it at this moment.  I am pretty sure, however, that it has something to do with with transformation, with sanctification, and with expecting people to become disciples of Jesus Christ.  Knowing that, the burden is back upon me to start putting into practice what I know or to continue wallowing in the malaise in which I find my church and myself.

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Postscript 1:  My childhood church was far from perfect.  One fault was their legalism and lack of grace.  Perhaps this was a natural consequence of their emphasis on living a holy life, but surely there is a way to be holy without being a jerk.

Postscript 2:  Lest you think it is all gloom and doom at my church, let me add that we have had a new women’s Bible study begin and continue to meet these past two years.  We also have a new Prayer Shawl ministry, which just started recently.

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To read what Dave Johnson, senior pastor of Church of the Open Door in Maple Grove, Minnesota, has to say about the above quote in a story about a man from his childhood church, just click here. 

I found some of the comments on this post thought provoking, especially the first three.

Source: No Transformation Necessary
Originally published on Tue, 27 Mar 2007 02:46:01 GMT by UrL (ljeditor@leadershipjournal.net)

Technorati tags: church life, malaise, transformation, Dalls Willard, quote, This Week’s Quote