One
of the questions I was asked to address with a group of pastors and church
leaders in Virginia several years ago was “How have you avoided legalism in
your church?” I responded that I think
the key to avoiding legalism is keeping the main things the main things.
Legalism happens many times in a church simply because the pastor or the elders
inflate the importance of externals and underplay the importance of heart
issues. The Pharisees had the externals down; they were nearly perfect in every
way…on the outside. But inside, Jesus said, the Pharisees were filled with dead
men’s bones. They were hypocrites, and therefore could not afford to ever let
their guard down and be real with each other. The heart issues remained hidden
to all but Christ.
I went on to relate this to how we raise our children. What we praise in
our children will be emphasized in their lives: their looks rather than their
character, their talents rather than their servanthood, their intellect rather
than their heart for God. If our emphasis is on the externals, then we are
raising little Pharisees who will make their lives (and those around them)
miserable. What we praise in our children will be those things we value the
most, and which they will develop with the most zeal.
It is the same with a church. What we celebrate as a church defines what
is important to us and ultimately what we will become. I heard a great teaching
on this a while back at a luncheon for pastors. The speaker, Rick Sessoms, said
that the “products and practices” of a church do not happen in a vacuum but are
the direct result of what the church really values. The question for a church
then is simple: How do we know what we value?
Sessoms offered the following questions as guidelines.
1. What do we measure? If the
definition of success for a church has to do with nickels and noses, bottoms in
the pews and bucks in the plate, that may be an indication of what matters most
there. Jesus said it plainly: “Where
your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” 2. How do the leaders respond
to crisis? Do we ‘shoot our wounded’ or offer them grace and help to overcome? 3.
What do the leaders model and teach? A church whose convictions are rooted in
fear will not produce healthy fruit. Fear that everyone will not behave exactly
the same way, for example, can lead to external controls resulting in fake
smiles and play-acting pew-warmers. Also, do the leaders possess on Monday what
they ‘profess’ on Sunday? 4. How do we
allocate scarce resources? This is a crucial test for a church. During tough
economic times, does the church cut funding to missionaries who are depending
on them for support? 5. What behavior do
we (really) reward? Do we applaud those who are successful in business because
they help fund the operation of the church while overlooking the fact that
their families are falling apart?
What can we do with this information? I think we can and should evaluate
our own lives and the life and health of our churches, to see if what we value
are the same things Jesus taught and modeled for His disciples. Those things
will be matters of the heart, matters of character, development of leaders who
know how to lay down their lives, compassion for the lost, and wisdom that is
anchored in the Word.
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