This past Sunday should have been an encouraging day, as I gathered with Christians for worship and fellowship. But then I came home and saw on television the news coming out of Sutherland Springs, Texas. Another mass-shooting, this time at a First Baptist Church where at least 26 people were killed and many others wounded.

Something Is Wrong!

Like most people, I am sad and shocked as well as a bit angry. I neither know what motivates a person to indiscriminately commit mass-murder, killing innocent people without any regard for their lives, nor do I understand why a person would do such a wicked thing. I also find it very alarming that such violence has become a regular occurrence in this American society we live among. Surely our society is sick, suffering from a soul-disease, of which the symptoms include our addiction to violence in everything from entertainment to all sides of politics as well as these mass-killings. But as a pastor and minister, I am concerned for churches.

Concerned for churches… I’m sure you are too. However, we may not share the same concerns. Yesterday, I saw many posts and comments on Facebook about what church leaders are planning to make church gatherings more safe and secure. Some commenters, presumably Christians, talked about carrying their firearms or hiring trained security officers. How American! And sadly perhaps, how unChristian!

Don’t misunderstand me. I’m all for taking reasonable measures for ensuring safety and security. But if that is our first response, our gut response, or our only response to the threat of potential danger, then we have lost the faith that Jesus calls us to have.

An Unfamiliar Church

In the early part of Acts, the apostles Peter and John are arrested and told to quit preaching Jesus. As followers of Jesus, who was crucified right there in Jerusalem, booth the apostles and the church understood where this could lead. So the church responded by forming a safety committee to consider ideas about how they might avoid such dangers.

Wrong!

According to Acts 4:23-31, we are told that the church began praying. And what they prayed for just might astonish us because they didn’t pray that God would protect them or keep them safe in any manner. Instead, praying to the “Sovereign Lord,” they petitioned him saying, “Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”

Could we pray such a prayer? Would we pray such a prayer?

I’m sure churches are praying but is prayer the first response or is it just an appendix added on to the committee meetings about safety and so on.

I often hear Christians lament the growing trend of secularism in America that has also resulted in the marginalization of Christianity. But whose fault is that if we are more worried about safety than praying for God to enable the church to speak his word more boldly? Whose fault is it if we are more worried about how to stop a potential threat than we are about asking God to stretch out his healing hand and perform signs and wonders through the name of Jesus.

Faith and The Threat of Danger

As suggested earlier, I am not opposed to taking reasonable measures of safety and security. However, our response to the threat of danger must be one of faith and therefore an expression that is both coherent and in continuity with our ancestors in the faith — some of whom expressed their faith in Jesus through martyrdom.

We know that throughout history, followers of Jesus have suffered persecution as Jesus promised. So we should not be surprised that evil people will target Christians with violence and other kinds of wickedness. The question that matters is how we respond and part of that response is the prayer for boldness that the Christians in Jerusalem prayed. For should we be called by Jesus to suffer for his sake, we will never have the faithful courage to suffer as a martyr unless we have the faithful conviction of a martyr.

May the Lord give us eyes to see and ears to hear his word! And may the Lord strengthen his church, filling us all with the Holy Spirit, that we may live according to our faith with great boldness!

Regardless of what might pass a leadership among society, the church is different or should be different. Leadership within the kingdom of God is not about positional authority or ruling over others but about serving. As Jesus said to his disciples in Luke 22:25-26, “The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those in authority over them are called benefactors. But not so with you; rather the greatest among you must become like the youngest, and the leader like one who serves” (NRSV).

Notice the contrast Jesus makes between ruling over people and serving people. When church leaders, such as ministers/pastors and elders/shepherds, act as though their role is a position that entitles them to make decisions, they are ruling over rather than serving the church. Regardless of the intentions, acting with positional authority will create problems that usually brings about decline. At the same time, for there to be leadership then those called to lead must do so with vision and courage just as Jesus himself did. Timid leadership can just as easily result in problems that brings about decline.

At the surface, it sometimes seems like there is a paradox between serving and leading. Perhaps so and if there is indeed a paradox, then we should let it stand and wrestle with it rather than trying to eliminate whatever tension it creates.

With that being said, here are three simple suggestions for church leaders:

1. Lead by example. In the economy of God’s kingdom, leaders are followers of Jesus first. Leadership is thus characterized by having a humble and self-sacrificial posture that is willing to care for others. Setting an example also means going first where one desires to lead others. Leaders must themselves cultivate a life of discipleship if they seek to be a church making and maturing disciples.
2. Lead by listening. Spend time with people and get to know them, learn who they are and what they’re passionate about or what sort of struggles they have as well as questions and concerns they have. Doing so validates their existence and feelings as well as opening space to ask questions that will allow everyone to further discern where God is leading and then begin to go there together.
3. Lead by Conviction. At the end of the day, leaders must be decisive. However, good leadership makes decisions based upon beliefs, principles and values rather than popularity. This doesn’t negate listening to others but no matter what decisions are made, someone will always disagree. So at the end of the day it is better to lead from convictions rather than the approval of others as right is always right regardless of it’s popularity.

So now, what says you?

One of my favorite books, perhaps the best, I’ve ever read is Vincent J. Donavan, Christianity Rediscovered, 25th Anv. Ed., 2003. The book is an account of Donavan’s ministry in Tanzania as a Catholic missionary and his reassessment of what it means to follow Jesus which led to rediscovering his Christian faith. I like the book because not only is it a great story to read but whether you’re reading the book as a lesson on multi-cultural mission work or just a devotional text on faith, Donavan’s story is encouraging.

Donavan’s story reminds us that when we follow Jesus, the church Jesus desires will always follow but that church will not necessarily be what we expected. This was the lesson the apostle Peter learned too. If you recall when Jesus told his disciples that he was going to be crucified, it was Peter who rebuked Jesus (Mk 8:32) for speaking about dying on a Roman cross. While Peter was able to discern that Jesus was indeed the Messiah, his imagination for what it meant to be part of this Jesus movement couldn’t fathom how crucifixion fit into that scheme. But Peter would learn and learn again.

In Acts chapter 10 we read about the conversion of Cornelius, a Gentile who served as a Roman soldier. In the story Peter is given a vision during his sleep of heaven opening up with animals that Jews considered unclean appearing in the vision as Peter is told to eat. However, Peter rejected such an idea and why… because his imagination for what it meant to be a part of this Jesus movement did not have any capacity for inclusion of the Gentiles. But the Lord spoke saying in v. 15, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.” Thus Peter, who was still loyally committed to following Jesus, learned.

What lesson did Peter exactly learn? Well, we can obviously say that Peter learned the kingdom of God is inaugurated the the crucifixion of Jesus the Messiah. We also can say that Peter learned the kingdom of God is a realm without an ethnic and national boundaries. But I believe Peter learned even more and that there is more that we can learn too.

Peter learned that in following Jesus, the church Jesus desires will always follow too but that church will not necessarily be what he expected. But can we learn that lesson too? You see, everyone has an imagination for how we understand the church to be…

• What the church should look like.
• How the church should act.
• Who belongs to the church.
• What the markers of the true church are.
• How the church should participate in the mission of God.

These ideas all constitute what we hold convictions and there’s nothing wrong with having convictions per se. The question is hold tightly or loosely do we hold our convictions about the church. Can Jesus challenge our imaginations about what it means to be the church?

I hope so.

One thing I am certain of is that if we follow Jesus then the church Jesus wants us to be will always follow, though it may be different from what we imagine the church to be. However, if our imaginations for what the church should look like, how it should act, who belongs in the church, what it’s true markers are, and how it participates in the mission of God never changes, then perhaps we might start asking if it’s Jesus whom we’re really following.

A lot has transpired for my family over the last month. We have finally made the move from Columbia, Maryland to Chillicothe, Missouri so that I can serve full-time as a minister with the Chillicothe Church of Christ. Since moving 1,000 miles across country is time consuming and stressful, I haven’t had time to write much on this blog. However, now that I’m done with the move, I plan on returning to more regular writing.

Though I have been swith the congregation since last October, traveling back and forth between Maryland and Missouri, last Sunday was my first sermon as a Chillicothe resident. I have begun a summer preaching series based on the book of Philippians called Living Christ. Now that I’m here full-time, I wanted to begin by talking about what I believe matters the most and that is Jesus Christ. Paul makes this clear in his letter to the Philippians as he seeks to guide this community of believers, who are facing opposition and struggling with some conflict, to continue in way of Jesus Christ. In this way, Paul is confident that the work God has begun in the Philippians will continue until the day of Jesus Christ (1:6).

This is how I feel about the Chillicothe Church of Christ. God has already been at work with this church, something he began long before I was even born. My work as a minister of the gospel is to help this church continue in the way of Jesus so that the work which God has already begun will continue until the day of Jesus Christ. In many ways, this is an invitation from God to continue seeing what he is doing in Christ and join in that work.

But with that invitation comes a challenge too. When Paul wrote to the Philippians, he was in prison and possibly facing execution for preaching Jesus. Yet he rejoiced because his suffering had encouraged confidence in other believers to preach the gospel (1:14). Even in acknowledging that some were preaching for false motives, he is fine with this since they are preaching Christ (1:19). That might seem strange but for Paul, the one thing that matters is the proclamation of Jesus Christ. So in what is kind of a mantra for Paul, he says in Philippians 1:21, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”

What matters most for any church, including the Philippians and the Chillicothe Church of Christ, is Jesus Christ. In particular, what matters is the proclamation of Jesus in word and deed. Everything we do, every decision we make and ever endeavor we pursue, must be shaped and guided by the proclamation of Jesus Christ. This also is a challenge to embody the gospel of Jesus Christ as our way of life because without such embodiment, our proclamation in word just becomes meaningless chatter to the surrounding society.

Pray for the Chillicothe Church of Christ and pray for every other church in the community as well as your own church and the other churches in your community. Pray that we may all prioritize Jesus Christ. Whatever problems, struggles, and questions there are facing churches in America, the way forward is by refocusing on what matters most: Jesus Christ.

“I want to know Christ — yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.”

– The Apostle Paul, Philippians 3:10-11