A Taste of Things to Come: The Church in Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians

Recently, I wrote a paper for my New Testament Theology class. The assignment was to trace a theme in one of Paul’s letters. I chose to write about Paul’s teaching about the church in the book of Ephesians. It is titled, “A Taste of Things to Come: The Church in Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians.” I posted it in parts, so as to make it easier to read in this format. It is an academic paper, not a sermon, so it might have some technical terms in it, although I think it should be fairly readable. If you have any questions, let me know.

• Introduction and Background to Ephesians
• The Context of the Church: Cosmic Unity
• The Composition of the Church: Racial Unity
• The Calling of the Church: Dynamic Unity
• The Conduct of the Church: Practical Unity
• Implications for the Church Today

A Taste of Things to Come (Part 6): Implications for the Church Today

What would it mean for Christians today to take seriously what Ephesians teaches about the church?

At the most basic level, it would mean giving the church a central place in our thinking and life. For many American Protestants especially, there is a tendency to think of the church as a secondary feature of Christianity. We think the main thing in Christianity is personal salvation and growth. The church is at best sort of a helpful addition to assist this, providing means to personal salvation and growth. Ephesians shatters this small vision, placing the church in an essential place in the plan of cosmic redemption. A solid “theology of redemption should inevitably lead to a vibrant ecclesiology in so far as the essence of this redemption consists in the move away from the alienation…towards personal reunification in Christ with God and neighbour.”[1] The church is not an optional, secondary, or merely helpful institution. It is absolutely fundamental to God’s plan for bringing reconciliation to the world, both in heaven and on earth.

Furthermore, if we take Ephesians seriously, our view of the church will take on a much larger scope. If the church is “God’s pilot scheme for the reconciled universe of the future,”[2] then it is inappropriate to reduce it to an arena of personal devotion or even merely a spiritual support network. It is the place where God’s redemptive plan for all of creation is first enacted. This means the church must concern itself with all of life, from economics to politics to social issues. Our worship, community, and growth are all contributing to God’s display of his multi-faceted wisdom before the world and the spiritual forces. We dare not reduce this to mere private piety. The church does impact the world by making nice, “spiritual” people, but by radically re-orienting all the structures of life. Christ’s eschatological reconciliation will impact all of society, every realm of creation and human culture, transforming every institution. The church is the vanguard community for experiencing this transformation. If we fail to focus on the whole scope of human life, opting for an internal or merely ethical spirituality, we will fail to live out our identity in Christ.

Taking Ephesians’ teaching on the church seriously also means the direct confrontation of racism and the pursuit of practical unity. North American churches have grown content with congregational hegemony. The well-known quote is unfortunately accurate: the most racially divided hour of the week is on Sunday morning. According to Paul in Ephesians, this is an affront to the gospel because it denies the cosmic reconciling power of Christ. Bruce Fong says, “What Jesus initiated in the Church demands that there be visible unity regardless of race, language or culture.”[3] While it is not clear what this will look like in today’s context, it does mean we need to start having difficult and honest conversations with churches that are different from us, both down the street and around the world.

Even where race is not a factor, practical unity among Christians is a non-negotiable. From individual Christians to local churches to ministry organizations to denominations, Christians must promote tangible oneness. This includes the pursuit of forgiveness between divided Christians, tangible forms of cooperation in ministry, and participating in shared corporate worship across dividing lines. We must remember that in the end, all churches and Christians will be completely united in Christ. That is the inevitable result of Christ’s reconciling work. That means that right now, being one with our brothers and sisters should be a paramount concern. It is our responsibility as Christ’s people to pursue real, visible unity. To not do so “would be completely inconsistent with being God’s masterpiece of reconciliation and ultimately with his purposes of summing up everything as a totality in Christ.”[4]

The church is God’s new creation, foreshadowing the coming re-creation of the whole world. Let us live out the cosmic reconciling power of Christ so that angels, demons, and people all races will marvel at God’s magnificent wisdom and praise his glorious grace.

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[1] Turner, “Unity,” 162.

[2] F. F. Bruce, quoted in O’Brien, Ephesians, 63.

[3] Fong, “Racial,” 572.

[4] O’Brien, Ephesians, 64.

A Taste of Things to Come (Part 5): Conduct of the Church in Ephesians

Conduct of the Church: Practical Unity (4:17-6:9)

Starting in 4:17, Paul launches into specific instructions on how the church should conduct itself, emphasizing the concrete, practical practice of unity. Throughout this section, Paul’s underlying logic remains firmly fixed to God’s unifying and reconciling purposes in Christ. He is calling “readers to live in a way that corporately expresses the cosmic unity God has inaugurated”[1] by renouncing “the old-creation patterns of alienated and alienating behavior”[2] His exhortations are aimed at things “which cause dissension and alienation within the body, that is, they are sins which work against the body’s unity.”[3] By targeting anger, brawling, unwholesome talk, sexual immorality, and drunkenness, he attacks sins that damage healthy community life. Likewise, he encourages behaviors that build up unity in Christ, such as forgiveness, corporate singing, compassion, and mutual submission. The communal logic of Paul’s instructions can be seen clearly when he condemns lying. He says “each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor.” This is not just a detached moral command. Rather, it is the natural outcome of believing that “we are all members of one body.”[4] If we belong to each other, then there is no reason to deceive each other.[5] This is an ethic rooted in our fundamental identity as people in community because of Christ.

All relationships are transformed in the context of the church, the arena of God’s redemption in Christ. This carries over into every relationship with a fellow believer, including the relationship between slaves and masters,[6] children and parents,[7] and husbands and wives.[8] These relationships all become tangible expressions of the eschatological cosmic reconciliation in Christ that the church experiences. Paul unpacks the marriage relationship most completely, connecting it directly to the redeeming work of Christ for his church by comparing the husband to Christ and the wife to the church. Marriage no longer exists in a vacuum, but instead becomes “a pledge of God’s purposes for the unity of the cosmos.”[9] Furthermore, by connecting Christ’s love for the church with God’s original picture of marriage in Eden,[10] we see that marriage is a specific arena where God’s new creation is exemplified.[11] The unity of the church which foreshadows the unity of all creation in Christ works its way into the unity of specific husbands and wives. Andreas Kostenberger explains:

“Marriage is not an end in itself; it is part of a life under God in the church and in the world. Marriage is a relationship in the process of restoration. To the extent that a married couple sees itself as part of the global eschatological movement toward ‘summing up all things in Christ’ (Eph 1:9), it will experience fulfillment and share the perspective on marriage Paul presents in the passage at hand.”[12]

Marriage is the most vivid example of this, but the same is true of all our interactions with fellow Christians. All our specific relationships are to be transformed in light of our participation in the church, the community that experiences now the eschatological cosmic reconciliation in Christ. One day God will sum up all things in Christ, and for the church that reality should begin filtering down into our specific, everyday relationships.

For all his emphasis on the cosmic, universal nature of church in Ephesians, Paul does not dodge the issue of concrete life in a local community of Christians. Paul does not want us to simply love other Christians with a vague or general sense of “oneness.” Merely having a pleasant feeling of “unity” is not enough. Paul will not let us neglect the more difficult and less inspiring work of specific relationships with a brother or sister who has a name, a history, real sin, and actual problems. How does the church display the cosmic reconciliation wrought by Christ? Through the nitty-gritty of seeking unity with our fellow Christians.

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[1] Ibid., 148.

[2] Ibid., 190.

[3] O’Brien, Ephesians, 64-65.

[4] Eph 5:25

[5] Interestingly, not lying is part of the eschatological promises of the OT. cf. Zech 8:16.

[6] Eph 6:5-9

[7] Eph 6:1-4

[8] Eph 5:22-33

[9] O’Brien, Ephesians, 55.

[10] Eph 5:31

[11] Turner, “Unity,” 156.

[12] Andreas J. Kostenberger, “The Mystery of Christ and the Church: Head and Body, ‘One Flesh’,” Trinity Journal 12NS (1991): 93.

A Taste of Things to Come (Part 4): Calling of the Church in Ephesians

Calling of the Church: Dynamic Unity (4:1-16)

Because, in the divine economy, the church bears the special privilege of experiencing Christ’s cosmic reconciliation ahead of time, it also has a high calling which it must live up to, the call to unity. The foundation of this unity is the oneness of the blessings given to the church:

“There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called—one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”^[1]

Because of the unity of God and his gifts, the church must be one. Division is foreign to its nature and a contradiction of what God has called it to be. This unity is not a human accomplishment, but founded on the work of the triune God.

Paul is clear that this unity is not the result of uniformity, but harmonious diversity. God has given the whole church one Spirit, one hope, one faith, and so on, but he has given a plurality of gifts to the individuals that make up the church. “To each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.”[2] Primary among these diverse gifts are apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastor-teachers.[3] In the body of Christ, they “function as ligaments, providing connections between the various parts.”[4] These specific roles have been given to the church to “to prepare God’s people for works of service.”^[5] Everyone in the church has been given gifts by God that must be coordinated and used for the benefit of the whole church. Each part must do its work.[6]

It is likewise clear that the church’s unity is not a static reality, but a dynamic one. The church is constantly growing, being “built up, until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”^[7] The church is pictured as a developing organism, “not a dead, unapproachable, mighty or rich body, but is Christ’s living and growing body.”[8] The church is a developing reality whose unity will one day be fully experienced. This is part of the tension between the church’s present experience of reconciliation in Christ, and the coming fullness of the still future cosmic redemption. At that time the body will reflect truly the image of its Head, Christ.

This dynamic, diverse unity of the church is not merely a side effect of Christ’s work. It is, as Max Turner explains, “not simply a matter of pragmatism…unity in love is the distinguishing mark of the new humanity over against the alienated world doomed to pass away.”[9] The unity of the church is at the heart of the gospel and a sign of the efficacy of Christ’s reconciling work.

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[1] Eph 4:4-6

[2] Eph 4:7

[3] Eph 4:11

[4] Lincoln and Wedderburn, Theology, 98-99.

[5] Eph 4:12

[6] Eph 4:16

[7] Eph 4:12-13

[8] Barth, “Wall,” 110.

[9] Turner ,“Unity,” 151.

A Taste of Things to Come (Part 3): Composition of the Church in Ephesians

Composition of the Church: Racial Unity (2:11-3:13)

In Ephesians, the foremost result of the church’s experience of the cosmic reconciliation in Christ is the radical transformation of the relationship between Jews and Gentiles. In 2:11-12, Paul discusses the status of the Gentiles before encountering Christ. Prior to Christ’s reconciling work, Gentiles were alienated from Israel. Using the law, circumcision, and other cultural markers, the Jews engaged in what Tet-Lim N. Yee calls, “covenantal ethnocentrism,” keeping themselves racially and religious separate from Gentiles.[1] Because of this isolation from Israel, the Gentiles were “separate from Christ” and “without hope and without God in the world.”[2] However, because of Jesus’ reconciling work, the Gentiles can now be “brought near through the blood of Christ.”[3] Not only does Christ’s work unite people with God, it also unites people with each other, breaking down racial and cultural boundaries. Christ’s “purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.”[4] This corporate “new man” is a part of Christ’s new creation, a restoration of the original unity of all people before sin. It is not merely a mixture of Jews and Gentiles, but a new “third entity” in which “the previous ethnic and religious categories have been transcended.”[5] This is not to say that people loose their ethnic identity in Christ. Instead they are united “without destroying what they possessed culturally, racially or linguistically.”[6] Gentiles are still Gentiles. Jews are still Jews. However, as the church models “the beginning of cosmic re-unification,”[7] Gentiles can “shed the stigma of being foreigners and aliens.”[8] The church is a community more fundamental than ethnic and cultural distinctions.

In 2:19-22, Paul makes the remarkable statement that this united group of Jews and Gentiles together make up God’s eschatological temple. They are being:

“Built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.”

Here is a startling way that the church is a foretaste of the ultimate reconciliation of the cosmos in Christ. God’s dwelling is no longer exclusively among the Jews, isolated to the temple in Israel where access is denied to people lacking the ethnic markers of circumcision and Torah. Instead, God lives among the racially mixed community he has created. Paul is acutely aware of the radical nature of this claim because he has been arrested for bringing Greek Christians into the Jerusalem temple.^[9] It was truly bold to claim that a group that included Gentiles could be “filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”[10] But, for Paul this was fundamental to the gospel. Christ’s reconciling work necessarily resulted in the creation of the church, a united, yet ethnically diverse people. That the “the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel”^[11] was a concrete display of God’s grace and “the fulfillment of the eschatological hope in its widest and most generous expression.”^[12]

In 3:10-11, Paul makes it clear that the reconciliation of Jews and Gentiles in the church also plays a crucial role in God’s plan to deal with the spiritual forces in the heavenly realm. The fact that earthly divisions are being transcended by Christ’s work is a sign to heavenly forces that Christ’s work will also bring them into subjugation. God brings about racial reconciliation so that “through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms.”^[13] The church is a witness to the heavenly realm of the richly varied, beautiful wisdom of the God who is reconciling all things. Or, in other words, racial reconciliation is spiritual warfare.

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[1] Tet-Lim N. Yee, Jews, Gentiles and Ethnic Reconciliation: Paul’s Jewish Identity and Ephesians.

(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005.)

[2] Eph 2:12

[3] Eph 2:13

[4] Eph 2:15-16

[5] Andrew T. Lincoln and A. J. M. Wedderburn, The Theology of the Later Pauline Letters. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 93

[6] Bruce Fong, “Addressing the Issue of Racial Reconciliation According to the Principles of Eph 2:11-22,” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 38/4 (Dec 1995): 572.

[7] Turner, “Unity,” 144.

[8] Fong, “Racial,” 575.

[9] cf. Acts 21:28-29; Eph 3:1; See Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament. (Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press, 1993.), Eph. 2:14-16.

[10] Eph 3:19

[11] Eph 3:6

[12] R. J. McKelvey, The New Temple: The Church in the New Testament, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1969), 118.

[13] Eph 3:10

A Taste of Things to Come (Part 2): Context of the Church in Ephesians

Context of the Church: Cosmic Unity (Ephesians 1:3-23)

The opening of Ephesians presents a sweeping picture of cosmic salvation that sets the backdrop for Paul’s view of the church in the book. After greeting the readers, Paul opens his letter with an exuberant praise of God for the glorious salvation given in Christ. He paints an expansive picture of God’s grace over the course of his eleven-verse berakah, reaching the “high point of the eulogy” in verses 9-10:[1]

“And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.”

From the very beginning, God’s plan has been for all things to be summed up under the rule of Jesus Christ. Because of sin, the world is currently in a state of alienation, brokenness, and hostility, rather than the original harmony of Eden. Just has he promised in the Old Testament, God is reversing this state of affairs, bringing creation “back from warring alienation into peaceful unity.”[2] More than simply saving individuals, Christ’s work accomplishes large-scale healing for the entire created order, both in heaven and on earth. It ultimately brings about “the reintegration of the whole cosmos rent asunder by sin” in which all things find their proper place under the rule of Jesus.[3]

The benefits of Christ’s cosmic rule are focused on the church. Paul asserts that “God placed all things under [Christ’s] feet and appointed him to be head over everything,” a huge claim of the supremacy of Christ. He continues, however, saying that the benefits of this accomplishment are “for the church.” Why? Because the church is “his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.”[4] The wide-ranging effects of Christ’s cosmic redemption bless the church because it is the community that has been joined with Christ and is filled with his powerful, reconciling presence.

Although this cosmic reconciliation is primarily eschatological, occurring “when the times will have reached their fulfillment,” because it has already been achieved and inaugurated in Jesus, it can be experienced, in part, right now. Because of the presence of the Holy Spirit, God’s people can have both an assurance and a foretaste of the coming cosmic redemption.[5] Thus, the church is the arena in which the eschatological reconciliation can be seen and experienced ahead of time. It is “the first installment of cosmic reconciliation.”[6] The entire book of Ephesians can be read as an exposition of this reality, as it depicts what the life of the church looks like in light of the church’s present experience of future redemption in Christ.

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[1] P. T. O’Brien, The Letter to the Ephesians. (Leicester: Apollos, 1999), 92.

[2] Max Turner, “Mission and Meaning in Terms of ‘Unity’ in Ephesians,” in Mission and Meaning, ed. Antony Billington, Tony Lane, and Max Turner. (Carlisle: Paternoster Press, 1995), 140, 141-142.

^[3] Giles, 134.

[4] Eph. 1:22-23

^[5] Eph. 1:13-14

[6] Turner, “Unity,” 157.

A Taste of Things to Come (Part 1): Introduction and Background to Ephesians

The church is a foundational reality in the thinking and ministry of the apostle Paul. Unlike most modern readers, whose instincts are often individualistic, Paul has communal and corporate realities at the forefront of his thought. In each of his letters, Paul consciously spoke into the lives of Christian communities, not merely individual Christians. In his letter to the Ephesians, it is clear why the church is so important to Paul. Max Turner says that “in no Pauline letter is the church so remarkably prominent.”[1] Markus Barth says that “Ephesians is in its very essence a church letter.”[2] Ephesians shows us what a high view of the church Paul actually had. As Kevin Giles puts it, “Nowhere else in the New Testament do we find such a lofty ecclesiology.”[3] For Paul, the church was not a mere side-effect of the gospel, but an integral component of God’s unfolding salvation-history. This paper will explore the theme of the church in Ephesians, showing how it fits into the book’s cosmic vision of salvation in Christ and how that context impacts the concrete life of the church.

Background to Ephesians

Among Paul’s letters, Ephesians yields the least amount of information about the specific situation it addresses. In fact, it is not even certain that the letter was written to the church in Ephesus, as the label “in Ephesus” is missing from 1:1 in some of the best manuscripts.[4] Because of this and the general lack of specific names, places, or problems in the letter, scholars cannot come to a firm sense of what circumstances, if any, Paul aimed to address.[5] It is likely that the letter was at least partially intended to be circular, going to multiple churches in a region. As a result it lacks the specificity of other Pauline letters, like Galatians, Corinthians, or even the very similar letter to the Colossians. At best, some have suspected that Paul was addressing a church where some tensions existed between Jews and Gentiles, as this is a prominent theme in the book. Even so, it is difficult to read Ephesians against any particular background, and the letter functions as more of a general overview of Pauline teaching. This is probably why, when discussing the church, Ephesians tends to focus on the universal church, rather than a specific congregation.[6]

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^[1] Max Turner, Max “Ephesians, Book of,” in Dictionary for the Theological Interpretation of the Bible, ed. by Kevin Vanhoozer (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2005), 189.

[2] Markus Barth, The Broken Wall. (London: Collins, 1960), 17.

^[3] Kevin Giles, What on Earth is the Church? (Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press, 1995), 132.

^[4] D. A. Carson, Douglas J. Moo, and Leon Morris, Introduction to the New Testament. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1992), 309-311.

^[5] Ibid., 312

[6] Harold W. Hoehner, Ephesians: An Exegetical Commentary. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2002), 112. Paul’s presentation of the church in a more universal sense, rather than local, is somewhat unique to Colossians and Ephesians. Specifically, the church is portrayed as an eschatological and heavenly assembly. See P. T. O’Brien, “The Church as a Heavenly and Eschatological Entity,” in The Church in the Bible and the World, ed. D. A. Carson (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1987), 88-119. Against this view, see Giles 125-51, I. Howard Marshal, New Testament Theology. (Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press, 2004), 392

A Visit from My Pastor

This year, our pastor, Ted, is trying something new with the leaders in Ecclesia. He had us all review the past year from the perspective of our church’s mission statement. He asked us to evaluate how we were doing in multiple areas of Christian practice, from prayer to finances to serving people in need to church attendance to befriending people we didn’t like. Then, Ted met with each leader to talk over their evaluation and to make resolutions for the next year. It was the first time he had done anything like that, and I thought it was a strong step in the right direction.

It reminded me of the practice of older ministers, especially the Puritans (ala Richard Baxter’s Reformed Pastor) whose main responsibilities were preaching and oversight of worship, along with regular visitation of families to assist parents in leading their homes in discipleship. The pastor would visit every one a couple times per year to see how they were doing in pursuing Christ in obedience.

For many of us who have attended large churches (like mine), the idea of a pastor who actually asks you to tell him how you are doing is a foreign one. The pastors just can’t oversee that many people in such a personal way. So, when Ted this is, it was new experience, both challenging and welcome.

A few of the things that he said and asked about really struck me and hit home. I share them with you here.

He challenged us to fight boredom with mission.

I expressed to him how over the past year, I had felt a strong feeling of boredom, both in my small group experience as well as my participation in public worship. Other than my growing love for the Lord’s Supper, my experience with on Sundays had been somewhat flat. He responded very wisely. He said that he had heard that complaint from a number of people, and all of them were the same kind of person. They were the people who had grown up in the church, who knew a lot about the faith, and were capable of contributing to the ministry of the church. But when he asked them how often they interacted with non-Christians or people in need, they usually hadn’t been doing much of that. He then said, “Clayton, if you are constantly being challenged and pushed by non-Christians that you are trying to minister to, you won’t be bored. There is nothing boring about it!” Those wise words cut to the heart. I spend a lot of time around Christians. I know far too few non-Christians, and those that I do know, I do not interact with frequently. People who come to Ecclesia who do not believe or are on the fence, I hardly know. I have not made enough effort to connect with them. I am off mission, so it makes sense if I am bored.

He challenged to us to move from fellowship to hospitality.

Related to this, Ted also pushed Michelle and I in the area hospitality. Our natural inclination is to have people over for dinner and to invite people into our home. We have tried to make this a priority from the start of our marriage. Michelle is an excellent hostess, and because of my family background in foster care, it is natural for us to do this. But, we easily slip into the pattern of inviting over people that we already know fairly well. We like to have friends over. Who doesn’t? But, Ted challenged us in this. Just like Jesus teaches in Luke 14:12-14, we need to not invite just our friends, but people we don’t know well and people in need. As Ted said it, when you have over people you know, it is fellowship. When you have over people you don’t know, it is hospitality. When we move into our next apartment in a month or so, this is will be one of our priorities.

He challenged us on our finances.

I also liked that he asked me about my finances. He asked how generous we were being and how consistently we were giving, not just to the church, but in general. It is something most pastors avoid. People often consider it rude or off-limits, and as a result we have a lot of church-goers who are never challenged by what Christ says about this area of their lives. But, in I Timothy 6:17-19 Paul instructs pastors to talk to their people about this. He tells Timothy:

Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.

Paul was telling pastors that it is their responsibility to talk to their people about their financial life, especially people who have money to spare. For pastors this is difficult to do, because people resist being challenged in this area, because, as Jesus says, money is tied to our deepest heart-issues. (Matthew 6:21) But, for the sake of those of us with money “taking hold of the life that is truly life,” I am thankful that our pastor will ask about this.

He challenged us to cherish the Scriptures.

Ted also issued a challenge to all the leaders to be people who cherish the Scriptures. In the Bible, God speaks. We should savor this. We should celebrate this. We should enjoy this. He asked to to commit to daily reading of the Bible in some form, so that as leaders, we would be deeply rooted in Scripture as we lead. It was a simple challenge, but I’m glad he pushed it.

He challenged us to minister to our ministers.

The last thing that came out of our conversation was sort of a side-note, but I thought it was really important. In the course of the conversation, Michelle and I assured Ted of our commitment to supporting him. Michelle and I are not, what you might call, uncritical people. We have a slight cynical streak, and we wanted to make sure that Ted knew that he had our personal support no matter what we might think needed improvement. Ted thanked us for this and went on to explain that as a pastor he needs people to support him, and specifically to minister to him. He needs other leaders around him who can, in a sense, be his pastors, people to ask him how he is doing, to challenge him, to encourage him when things are hard. Not a lot of pastors have that. Many pastors feel very alone. This leads to all sorts of trouble, from exhaustion to depression to strained relationships to sin. I experienced this in my short time as a pastor. Pastors need pastors, just like the rest of us. So, for those of you reading this, if you are leaders in your church, please remember your pastor. Take up the calling to minister to him. Don’t just let him care for your soul, care for his.

All in all, it was a very good visit, and I am glad that Ted is taking active steps to really push those of us who are leaders. Hopefully, we can follow through on his challenges.

(By the way, if you were wondering, I will be posting more on baptism soon.)

Baptism: The Book of Acts

I am going to slowly post some of my thoughts on baptism over the course of the next week or so. Since Ecclesia has been studying the book of Acts, I’ll start there. Here are some of the things I observed about baptism in Acts.

The Book of Acts presents baptism as the normal, immediate response to the Gospel. For example, when Philip witnesses to the Ethiopian eunuch:

Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus. As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. Why shouldn’t I be baptized?” And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him. (Acts 8:35-38)

Interestingly, in Acts, baptism is coupled with repentance and belief so closely, that in some ways baptism is seen as the act of conversion. This is just what someone does when they are converted. Curiously, it is even closely connected with the forgiveness of sins. Note Peter’s words after his sermon on Pentecost:

When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.” (Acts 2:37-42)

The same idea is expressed by Ananias. After Paul encounters Jesus on the road to Damascus, he is blined. Ananias goes to Paul to heal him, after which hes says:

“And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name.” (Acts 22:16)

The best analogy for understanding this is a wedding ceremony. People fall in love with each other well before their wedding day. They have the personal and emotional commitment to the other person in their hearts long before the actual ceremony. They intend to be faithful to that person for their whole lives, even without the rings or the vows. But, the truth is, no matter when the relationship starts, the marriage starts with the wedding eremony. The same is true with Christian faith. Someone falls in love with Jesus before being baptized. They are committed to him prior to being dunked. But, in the Bible, the starting point of someone’s Christian life is their baptism. Likewise, a wedding by itself cannot make a marriage, neither can baptism make genuine faith in Christ. Also, technically, you don’t have to have a wedding to be married. Two people are technically, legally married, not in the ceremony, but when the marriage certificate is signed. You don’t have to have the ceremony, but there is something shallow and weak about just signing the paper. In the same way, I suppose, technically, someone could be a Christian without being baptized. It just is sort of unnatural. It is a false start. It is abnormal. It should be the rare exception (like the thief on the cross).

Also, in Acts, baptism is seen as the definitive sign that someone is included in the Church. When someone believes the Gospel and receives the Holy Spirit, the way the Church shows that that person is welcomed into the community is by permitting them to be baptized. When the Gentiles first believe, the first key sign that the Jews accept them is when Peter orders that they be allowed to be baptized:

While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles. For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God. Then Peter said, “Can anyone keep these people from being baptized with water? They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have.” So he ordered that they be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked Peter to stay with them for a few days. (Acts 10:44-48)

I wonder if this could be a good theological starting point for discussions of racial reconciliation even today. Could the fact that Christians of all races have been baptized into Christ and his Church could be a place to begin thinking about how we should relate to each other?

Unfortunately, unlike the community of Acts, today, at least in my corner of the Christian world, baptism is an under-valued, poorly understood practice. It is neglected severely, to the point that some of our churches have leaders who have not been baptized. We don’t understand how central this act is to the beginning of Christian life and our incorporation into the Church.

Discovering Our Spiritual Gifts

Our church has a series of introductory classes for people who are new to the church and want to find out what we are about and how to get more involved. It goes through five key relationships that we want people to grow in (God, Family, Church, Non-Christians, People in Need). It helps get them plugged in to a small group right away. And, it also attempts to find each person a place where they could serve within the church, based on their gifts and passions.

The main mechanism that is used to help people find a place to serve is something called a “spiritual gifts inventory.” It is a series of questions about skills and interests that gives you a score that corresponds to a couple of spiritual gifts, which should help you be matched up to one of the areas of service in our church. Basically, it is a personality test. Now, there are number of things that are seriously flawed about this method of determine your spiritual gifts.

First of all, certain gifts are a little bit hard to use a series of questions to determine if you have them. Tongues, for instance, should be obvious if you have it. (One version of this gifts test that I took had a decidedly cessationist slant to it. It asked questions like, “Do you find that you have an aptitude for foreign languages?” and “Do you like to study languages?” If answered high on those questions, you had the gift of tongues.) Healing, likewise, should be sort of clear.

Second, it attempts to quantify grace. God has equipped each of us uniquely for different roles and tasks that he has for us in his Kingdom. Because they are from God, for tasks that are beyond our natural powers to achieve, spiritual gifts are a miraculous, acts of God. By nature, they are mysterious and beyond mere calculation. By adding up numbers to try and see which gift you have the most of, we often get a mechanical, almost economic view of our gifts. It makes it sound like hit points in some fantasy role playing game. “I’m a level 8 teacher, but only a level 4 prophet. Lucky! You are a level 9 healer.”

Third, it assumes a limited number of spiritual gifts (usually based on some list in Paul’s letters) and that there are fairly firm lines between these gifts. I think it is telling that Paul’s lists of gifts are all different and not all gifts appear on all lists. It is well known that these lists are not exhaustive. But the tests make it seem like everyone will fall into some category. It sometimes boxes people in and cuts off creative thinking about what they were made to do.

Fourth, it puts the assessment squarely on the shoulders of the individual Christian. You are answering questions about yourself. You are saying what you like, what you think you are good at, what you are excited about. You basically are making the assessment about yourself. But let’s face it, most of us are not very good at self-assessment. We get mixed up with things we enjoy but are not good at. We slant answers towards what we wish we were good at, or what we want people to think we are gifted in. Sometimes we favor the more admired gifts. We answer the questions based on our mood or what the last sermon that convicted us was about. Many times our answers reflect what we believe to be important, but we are not really effective at. Our hearts are deceitful, says Jeremiah, which makes me a little less confident in my own ability to asses my gifts. We really ought to have other, wise Christians who really know us well giving their input into this whole process.

Fifth, it truncates the necessary process that goes into discovering how God has gifted you.Look, a five minute test is not going to be the whole process of figuring out your gifts. For most of us it takes years to discover the unique person God is making us into. We’re going to have experience lots of situations, have honest conversations with others, do a bit of praying, and, frankly, go through some trial and error. I have been a worship leader, a small group leader, a tech guy, a curriculum writer, a preacher, an event coordinator, a prayer team leader. I ran a nursing home ministry. I have done one-on-one mentoring. I have worked with junior high students, high school students, college students, children, and young adults. I have had cross-cultural experiences, lead short term trips, and who knows what else…and I’m still honing in on what my gifts are. I’m pretty sure I have the gift of teaching, but I wrestle all the time with what God has made me to do. It is a process. The questionnaire makes it feel like a home pregnancy test. Ten minutes and you’ll know with 95% accuracy

Sixth, it finds the outlet for the spiritual gifts within structured church programs. I don’t know how many times I have heard (or given) a sermon on spiritual gifts that basically sound like this: “God has given everyone a spiritual gift. You should figure out what yours is. Once you know your gift, you can use it to volunteer in the church. We have all sorts of different kinds of jobs for people to do here. We have areas to serve for all sorts of gifts…music, teaching, tech, ushering, set up crew, greeters. You need to find your gift and get serving here at church.” Here is the problem: the gifts aren’t always used inside the church for Christians (most obviously, evangelism), and most of the time, they don’t correspond to an official program in the church. Most gifts are simply an organic part of the community that do not require people to find a volunteer position to do. If you are an encourager, you may never volunteer in a church role, but you could be one of the most crucial part of the life of a Christian community. If you have faith, you may catalyze your community to do bold things in Christ’s name, but you may never have an official job. If you have the gift of prayer, I don’t care if you ever sign up to do anything in church, just keep praying. If you have the gift of hospitality, and you open your home to people in need, you are crucial to the community, even if you never sign up for anything. Spiritual gifts are about community, not programs. When we turn spiritual gifts into a recruiting mechanism, we miss the point. We are responsible to use our spiritual gifts, yes, but so often churches slip into the error of using this truth to guilt people in to volunteering. (Side note: Most of our churches are so bloated with programs that we need a huge supply of volunteers to maintain what we are doing, and so most churches find themselves always looking for more and more ways to recruit people. Maybe we could allow spiritual gifts to be more organic if we didn’t do so much stuff.) The truth is, most people are going to find that their spiritual gift equips them more for their relationships with family and friends than anything they do in a church program, and frankly, that is the way it should be.

Okay, now I know that most people are going to find these things obvious. People who are astute are not going to take the test to believe that the test is the end all be all of their spiritual gifting. However, I’m not sure why we continue to use this questionnaire method when it has so much of what educators call “hidden curriculum.” It presents spiritual gifts in a very unbiblical way, and I’m not sure it sets us up for a healthy understanding of them. The problem is, we still need to help people discover how God has equipped them to serve the community and engage in mission. We still need to find ways to get the right people in the crucial roles in the church that are really needed. So what is the alternative to a spiritual gifts assessment test?

Here is the start of an idea. What if we had a longer process of introduction to the church? What if as a part of our membership process or our assimilation process we had a small group/mentor system where the group tried out different kinds of ministry in short spurts. What if instead of a test, they had two-four weeks to serve in each major ministry of the church as a group? They could try out children and student ministries. They could visit shut-ins. They could host a missionary. They could deliver food to a needy family. They could be greeters or ushers for a week or two. They could help set up some times. I don’t know what it would include, but maybe a sampling of ministry experience would help them discover what they were gifted in. They could also give each other feedback and get input from their mentor/group leader. The group could also discuss together their experiences in their personal life where it seems like God had used them to help them determine if their gifts do not correspond directly with a church program. That way it would include crucial factors missing from the test system: time, experience, and community. At the very least, every member would have a good overview of the ministries and activities of the church, even if they weren’t involved in most of them.

This idea may go nowhere, but maybe it is a start for finding a better way to discover our gifts than a test.

Palm Sunday is the Church’s April Fools Day.

I realized for the first time today that Palm Sunday is a celebration of the foolishness of the church.

I realized it when we sang a song in church today that was “inviting Jesus in” to “have his way in us.” It is a great prayer, but a little misleading. We often want Jesus to come into our lives and have his way, and rightly so. Our lives belong to Jesus. But what if we misunderstand what it means for Jesus to come in and have his way in us?

The crowds in Jerusalem invited Jesus to come and be King. It is a glorious vision, isn’t it? it is incredible to imagine people cheering and welcoming Jesus, praising and honoring him, waving branches in celebration. But what why were they celebrating? What were they expecting Jesus to do? (My friend and pastor, Ted, did a great job highlighting this tonight at Ecclesia…unfortunately, I couldn’t stay for the whole sermon, so I don’t know where he took it.)

They were expecting revolution. They were expecting overthrow. The crowds were inviting Jesus to come in and have his way with their nation and city…but they thought his way was the way of revolution. They thought his way was the way of victory, the way of glory, the way of powerful overthrow. They danced for a Messiah who promoted their nationalistic dreams.

What they didn’t realize is that Jesus way was the exact opposite of what they expected. Jesus’ way was the way of pain, the way of death, the way of humiliation. His victory was hidden in death. His glory was buried in shame. His overthrow was found in defeat.

We celebrate Palm Sunday with joy and dancing and celebration…just like the crowds. But the crowds danced for the wrong Jesus. They danced for a Jesus of their own making, whose plan, they assumed was the same as theirs. How often is our celebration exactly the same? How often do we celebrate a Jesus we have imagined, a Jesus who endorses our idolatry of choice?

Republican Jesus?
Democrat Jesus?
Health and wealth Jesus?
Middle-class comfort Jesus?
Hippy Jesus?
Peace of mind Jesus?
Positive, Encouraging Jesus?
Punk-Rock Jesus?
Male-dominance Jesus?
Feminist Jesus?
Artsy-fartsy Jesus?
I’m-okay-you’re-okay Jesus?
Sunday-only Jesus?
Guilt-trip Jesus?
Warm-Fuzzy Jesus?

In churches, Palm Sunday celebrations are usually joyous, victorious occasions. But we have to remember, Jesus’ victory was not on Palm Sunday. It was on Easter. But in order to get to Easter, Jesus had to go through Good Friday. Jesus’ victory comes by way of death. You don’t get a lot of crowds for that one. Palm Sunday should not be a day of victory, but a day where we acknowledge our own folly and idolatry. It is where we repent of our false vision of Jesus. It is where we acknowledge that Jesus does not endorse our agenda, and we ask for forgiveness for co-opting him as a mascot for our plan. Palm Sunday is the Church’s April Fools Day.

Church as Bootcamp for the Heart

Churches should be training grounds to teach people how to love rightly.

Augustine talked about rightly ordered loves. We are to love God, other people, and the things around us in proportion to their worth. The problem with people is that our loves are out of whack, warped and twisted. We love things more than people. We love people more than God. We love God without the fervency that is proportional to his worth. Most of the things we love, ought to be valued, but we value them more or less than we should. Some things we love too much, and as C. S. Lewis says, “When a love becomes a god, it becomes a demon.” Other things we love too little, and it leaves us shriveled an hollowed out, looking to fill a need with something that doesn’t fit, all the while neglecting the proper object of our love.

That is our problem. We love wrongly.

We think our problem is obedience. We think our problem is falling into line with God’s law. And by God’s law, we mean a list of behavior. (Of course, according to Jesus and to Paul, the Law of God is summed up in love. Rightly ordered love fulfills the law.) So, we establish a standard. We develop rules. In order to solve our problem, we try and help people keep their behavior in check. Conforming our behavior to standards becomes the end goal. Churches teach people what to do an not do. We provide strategies and pressure to keep the standards.

But, what if we thought about the church as the place where instead of training in behavior, we trained people to love rightly. Now, don’t get me wrong, I want love worked out in action, but let’s not jump the gun. What if, instead of prescribing rules, we taught who and how to love. What if we established programs and activities that helped people’s hearts become more in line with what they ought enjoy. What if we trained people in delighting in God.

I’m not talking about simply telling people to love God and others. I am talking about thinking about what activities help our hearts experience and practice loving God and others rightly. In other words, what spiritual disciplines do we need to engage in to form our loves? What if the church was a boot camp for the heart?

Surely, this would involve teaching and preaching, meditation on the Scriptures, and prayer. It would probably also involve fasting (abstaining from good things that we love too much in order to practice going without so that we do not love them more than we ought). Who knows what other actions might help train the heart, not just the habits, to love rightly.

Rules aren’t enough. In fact, they reinforce false and misaligned loves more than they encourage proper loves.

This is what the church must learn and focus on, training hearts to love rightly in response to the Gospel. This is how people will become like Jesus. This is how people will become free. The law is fulfilled by love.

Churches in Our Own Image

Many have accused Christians of believing in a God of their own design. It is a human habit to fashion our ideas of God around what we want and desire. Instead of expecting God to be radically different from us, we expect him to just be a big version of our own ideals. We impose on God our ideal of what love should be (which usually leaves no room for judgement), rather than conforming to his idea of love. We imagine God’s justice in terms of our justice (which is usually more like revenge), instead of conforming our lives to his justice. For us, we must constantly have our vision of God reformed, because if we do not, we will believe in a self-made god, an idol. Rather than being made in God’s image, we make God in our own.

This is a problem with our image of God. Could it also be a problem for our churches?

It is often said that the Church ought to be the image of Christ in the world, his hands and feet. The way people encounter Jesus is through his Church. Some theologians have said that the Church is an icon of the Trinity. We ought to see God’s life lived out in our churches.

So what do we see lived out in our churches?

Our churches are busy, fragmented, distracted by the pragmatic, obsessed with novelty, looking for a quick fix, and never satisfied…just like the people that make them up. Churches are full of programs and events and activities, most of them well-intentioned with very little lasting impact. We see people who live just like the world. Only worse. They can have their self-serving lifestyles wrapped in a coating of legalism via activity. How many programs you are involved in is an indication of your spirituality. Busyness hides spiritual bankruptcy, and narcissism is fertilized by structures that serve the community within the church, not the world outside the church. The church is often, without intending it, so full of activity, that it can distract from the need for real transformation. For most, it facilitates a version of the modern life that is not fundamentally different from life outside the church, but makes it harder to see the need for change because the church keeps us full of good activity. The sad truth is, that in the end, we have come to expect that even after 20 years in the church, people will not be significantly different than the day they walked in.

Why is this?

I contend that it is because we have made the church in our own image. Instead of reflecting the image of Christ, it reflects our own image. Instead of being an icon of God, it is an icon of us.

We are busy. The church is busy.

We want quick fixes. The church looks for quick fixes.

We want things that work for me now. The church tends toward the pragmatic.

We are hardhearted and want to avoid obeying God’s Word. The church is set structured in a way that I can look godly for a long time without ever having to really be confronted with the unsettling truths of the Bible.

We want others to teach our kids, take care of our kids health, teach our kids values. The church takes our children out of our hands and puts them into the care of youth pastors and children’s workers.

We want to be impressed and entertained. The church gets lights and cool audio and video loops and rock music and a coffee shop and the band makes a CD and…

The church is made in our own image, not Jesus’ image.

People become like the churches that they are a part of.

For me, the really challenging question is, “What do you expect someone to look like after spending years in your church?” How are people being formed by their activity in the church? The sad answer for most “successful” churches today, is probably a busy person with few friends outside the church who still have the same stubborn sinful habits that they did when they started coming to church. We have a system that leaves people the same was when they came in.

The life of Jesus was simple. It was focused. It didn’t require a big budget. It didn’t require a lot of staff. All Jesus needed was God’s Word, the Spirit, and people. The life of the Trinity is simple. It is one of perfect love and adoration, perfect openness and sharing. It is one of truth and faithfulness. The most unfathomable of mysteries is the most simple of structures.

Churches should be simple. You know what you need for a church? The Bible, bread and wine, and people. Not much. A place to meet helps, too, but even that can be arranged without much cost or trouble most of the time.

I wonder if we might have more people looking like Jesus after time in the church if our churches were simpler.