Not My Church

Not My Church

Almost 40 years ago I preached a sermon, “This is not your church.” It was based on the declaration of Jesus in Matthew 16:18 at Caesarea Philippi, “On this rock I will build my church.” I declared to a congregation which had just celebrated their 175th anniversary, “This is not your church.” I proceeded to attempt to proclaim the Church is of Christ and is not ours to manage, run, control, manipulate, use or even enjoy.  The mission of Christ for the church is clear: “Make Disciples.” The power to do so is also clear, “When the Holy Spirit has come…” 

So if we are going to claim to be a Christian church, our question must always be, “Lord, what do you want from YOUR church?” Not, “what do I want from MY church?” 

This is a totally different perspective than most of us have for the church. Too often it really is about us. 

Recently I was preaching in a medium sized UM Church. As the service was about to begin, i started to sit in my Papa Lathem’s seat - front pew, far right. That was where he sat most of his 90+ years in our little country church. However, in this medium sided church, there was an older woman already sitting on “Papa’s” pew. I knew to ask if it was ok for me to sit there. She graciously informed me her seat was on the left end of the pew, not the right. I was relieved. But what if I had gone to the left? I do not know that lovely woman and suppose her to be a gracious Christian who would have forgiven this ignorant visiting preacher who did not know that was her seat. 

But when I was 8 or 10, I observed my Papa tell the new District Superintendent, “You've got me seat,” and wait until he moved before he introduced himself and welcomed him to our church. Some welcome!

However, Papa was clear, this was his church and that was his seat. His father gave the land and the money to build it and it had been his home for most of his life. His church. 

Now my Papa was a devout follower of Jesus. He lived a holy life, a life of absolute integrity. But somewhere along the way he missed that this was not his church. The church, according to Jesus, did not exist for him. Since he was a part of the church of Jesus Christ, he and the church existed for the sake of others. At least, that is what, I believe, Jesus intended. 

One of the great challenges facing pastors and leaders in our mainline churches is to lead our existing churches to comprehend the mission of making disciples demands we become a church for others, an outwardly focused church. 

However, this is no easy task. I want my church to meet my needs. Jesus calls me to “deny myself, take up the cross and follow me.” Here is the conflict. 

This conflict has been created by two very clearly observable realities: 

1. I do not want to deny myself. 
2. We preachers have not consistently called our people to self-denial, to a cross, to radical discipleship. Because they/we do not want to deny our selves, we have abdicated our prophetic role in both leading them and calling them to the cross of submission to the person and mission of Jesus. 

So today, the task before us is to lead our people to understand what it means to be an outwardly focused church, a church for others. After all, this is not my church.