What are People Looking for in a Church?

Have you ever asked a question that is merely an opinion?  I feel like the title of today's blog post is exactly that!  Everyone has an opinion about what they are looking for in a church.

Maybe a better question would be, "What are the marks of growing churches?"

Why the change?

If a church is growing, it means that others are also looking for and discovering something special/different in that church.  While a church can grow initially through good marketing, strong music, or outstanding programs, it can only sustain growth by one simple distinction.

A growing church is marked by a passionate spirituality 

that is balanced with thoughtful presentation of the truth.  

Such a place will grow deeper in the gospel 

and as we grow deeper, we will grow outward.

Why? A church that is in love with Jesus will be touched by His presence.   There will be wonderful conversions.  There will be a hunger for growing in holiness.  There will be a desire to encourage others to know the grace of God.

Boy, I wish most churches (even the ones I have served as pastor!) would be marked by these tendencies.  Why do we not see this more?

There are many reasons for our lack.  Too many for one post!  Today I will share two errors that occur when folks either over-emphasize Truth without heart-changing grace or they over-emphasize emotionalism without embracing God's revealed Truth.

It is ironic that both of these seemingly contradictory errors are two sides of the same coin.  How so?

To explain I will begin with a thoughtful passage written by John Piper in a  book he co-wrote with D.A. Carson called, The Pastor as Scholar and the Scholar as Pastor.  Piper writes,

Now, how does this relate to the pastor as scholar?  On the one hand, its first effect is to protect the church from the dangers of a scholarly bent.  Many pastors, especially those who love the glorious vision of God's being and beauty and plan of salvation, have a scholarly bent that threatens to over-intellectualize the Christian faith, which means they turn it mainly into a system to be thought about rather than a way of life to be felt and lived.  Of course, it is a system as well as a life.  But the danger is that the whole thing can be made to feel academic rather than heart-wrenchingly real.  That's what Christian hedonism helps us to avoid.

Where the faith is over-intellectualized, many ordinary, authentic saints can smell the error.  Rightly, they start drifting away, but sadly, often into the worst extremes of emotionalism.  But if Christian hedonism is alive- I have found that many starving saints make their way home to a place where head and heart are more in balance, and the reality and power of the Holy Spirit are craved and cherished.

Piper, The Pastor as Scholar, 49.

Why would we ever wish to divorce emotional engagement from Truth?  To be a believer, one does not need to check either their emotions or their brains at the door!  Bring both because as Piper has written about for years, God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.

All of us have met people who have drifted to an extreme of being either too intellectual or too emotional.  Maybe it is us?  Thankfully, authentic spirituality balances heart with head.  It maintains Truth and it encourages emotional engagement.

What are people looking for in a church?

How about a place marked by a faith that is 

both intellectually deep and emotionally transformative? 

How are we Transformed as Believers?

Q. If the spiritual disciplines are a means of transformation, what is the role of the HS?

Transformation is always grace.  We sometimes think that although we're "saved by grace," we're supposed to change by effort.  Either that, or people become passive.

One of the analogies that's kind of been helpful to me is the difference between a motorboat, a raft, and a sailboat.

In a motorboat I'm in charge.  I determine how fast we're going to go, and in what direction.  Some people approach spiritual life in that way.  If I'm just aggressive enough, if I have enough quiet times, I can make transformation happen on my own.  Usually that results in people becoming legalistic, then pride starts to creep in, and things get all messed up.

Some people have been burned by that kind of approach.  So they go to the opposite extreme and will say, "I'm into grace."  It's like they're floating on a raft.  If you ask them to do anything to further their growth, they'll say, "Hey, no.  I'm not into works.  I'm into grace.  You're getting legalistic with me."  So they drift.  There are way too many commands in Scripture for anybody to think that we're called to be passive.

On a sailboat, however, I don't move if it's not for the wind.  My only hope of movement is the wind.  I can't control the wind.  I don't manufacture the wind.  Jesus talks about the Spirit blowing like the wind.  But there is a role for me to play, and part of it has to do with what I need to discern.

A good sailor will discern, Where's the wind at work?  How should I set the sails?  Spiritual formation is like sailing.

Interview with John Ortberg, "Holy Tension," Leadership (Winter 2004), 24.

In my 25 years of being a believer in Christ, I have heard many appeals that demand I grow in maturity.  I have been told by folks directly, and I have felt their unspoken attitude that demands I grow.  I have also been loved well by individuals who encouraged me to grow deeper and in my personal holiness.

The problem is that all to often I have not been told how to do it.

In fact, I think most of what passes for Christian literature 

asks, demands, begs, and encourages folks to grow, 

but it does not provide the means to grow in holiness.

I find this frustrating.  I know many of you do also.  Let me share what I have learned about growing in holiness.  So much of it has been a failure, but God has used it all to help me grow.  Using Ortberg's categories, the following is my story.

The Way of Religious Self-Effort

For years, I followed the motorboat approach.  I think this is what most Christians and what most Christian living books encourage.  "Do not be like the world.  Do not be lukewarm.  Do these seven steps and you will grow."

I did the seven steps about 77 times.  I learned how to read the bible.  I made myself pray.  I engaged in various activities.  Yet, I awoke about 15 years into my Christian journey to find that I did not have the ability to love anyone well.  I had the outer appearance of faith, but I knew my heart was off.  I was a self-righteous pharisee of the worst type.

The Way of Grace

Then I heard about Grace and the Gospel.  It was like being set free from prison.  My soul rejoiced.  I needed healing.  I needed grace and the love of God poured out on my hard heart.  He gave me that grace.

It was amazing how quickly I grew in holiness and maturity.  The grace of God changed my heart.  I was so looking forward to it just continuing forever.  The problem was that God's transforming of  heart did not continue in the same way.

Instead, after a couple of years of healing, I found myself floating in a still current on my raft.  I prayed, Lord give me grace and change me.  Nothing happened.  I waited.  Still nothing- no further growth and no further movement of my soul toward God.

Then I changed my prayers.  "Lord give me wisdom to grow deeper." I cried.  He answered by bringing me back to the gospel of repentance and faith.  

"Actively rest in my grace." the Lord whispered as He invited me aboard the sailboat.

How?

The spiritual disciplines teach us how to listen to the Spirit.  At least when they are correctly used they serve this important function.  The Spirit leads us to humility by promoting repentance of our outward sins and our inward self-effort.  The Spirit calls us to rest in Christ alone for our goodness, power, and life.

The Spirit calls to to actively rest in the work of Christ.  Active in repentance.  Resting in faith.  The Way of Grace is worth all the struggle.