As I write
this, eight inches of snow has covered the ground and round three has begun. A
couple of degrees warmer and it would all be rain. A couple of degrees cooler
and the accumulation would already be ten inches plus.
Tree limbs
are gracefully outlined with a white blanket. The snow has placed a muffler on
noises softening the sounds of trucks on nearby roads. The rough edges and ugly
scars of nature are hidden, and a vision of smooth perfection is produced.
Norman Rockwell would be proud of the finished piece.
That is one
of the great beauties of snow. It hides the grays and browns of winter under an
expanse of white. We enjoy the serenity of the picture and for the moment
ignore what lies hidden beneath. Too often we allow our words and façades to
create the same type of deception for the people around us. We do it as
individuals. We do it as churches.
For some
churches it is a matter of focusing upon the physical facilities. The thought
is we honor God best when we keep the buildings in pristine condition. The
church building is equated with the spiritual condition of the Church, God’s
people. When we look good with our facilities, we please God to the extent
required. People and relationships are given little priority. Faithfulness to
the church is measured by faithfulness in maintaining the facilities.
The beauty
of buildings and facilities becomes a bandage to hide the deeper wound of a
lack of concern for the spiritual health of people both inside and outside the
congregation. “If we build it, they will come” is a statement that reflects
this attitude. “They can see our steeple. They know where we are if they want to
come” is another comment that shows a lack of concern for the spiritual
condition of others and our own responsibility to seek to address that issue.
Another
façade churches use to feel better about themselves involves their programs.
They have programs for families. They have programs for senior adults. They
have programs for youth. They have programs for children. They have programs
for preschoolers, and on and on and on. Unfortunately their system of
measurement consists of counting heads, especially church members. Honoring God
consists of supporting all the programs of the church.
Busyness becomes
equated with spiritual strength and maturity. Little emphasis is placed upon growing
in Christlikeness or relating to the unchurched of the community. As in some
conversations, if a person talks fast enough and long enough, the other parties
in the dialogue won’t have the opportunity to ask difficult or embarrassing
questions. So it is with busyness in the church. It becomes a bandage to hide
our fear or outright lack of desire to engage the unchurched population around
us. Our clean busyness with what is safe and nonthreatening prevents us from
being held responsible for the messy.
When we
substitute anything for striving to grow in spiritual maturity or reaching the
unchurched of our community, we have blinded ourselves to what God has called
his people to have as their focus. We put a bandage over our weaknesses and
distractions and try to push into the limelight what we think looks good and
ought to impress others including God. We’ve allowed those same metrics to impress
us. In the process the Church loses all influence in the world and it is simply
ignored. At best the world may notice the Church but respond with an attitude
of “so what” and leave it to its self-congratulating pastimes.
Scripture
has told us what is to be our priority. (Micah 6:8; Matthew 6:33; 28:18-20) Christ
calls us as individuals and as churches to be honest with the world we are
trying to reach. We show our weaknesses and our faults. (II Corinthians 12:9-10)
We show our efforts to overcome them all. (I Corinthians 9:26-27; Philippians
3:13-14) We show where we have to go for help and invite the world to join us
in our journey. (Philippians 4:12-13)
