“A Five-part series of Building Up Every Church”
Five terrific men of the pulpit have written a column for a look at the many shades of today’s church. Each shares his perspective and experience of the church where they currently serve.
Part 2 “Back to the Future” Restoring the Church
by Dr. Richard Brown
It wasn’t much to look at sunken to its axles in the mud at the edge of a cornfield north of Tilden, NE. To other people, it was an old junk car waiting to be sent to the crusher. But when you love Pontiacs, especially the mid-60’s Bonneville and Grand Prix, the sight of that dark blue 1965 Grand Prix with white bucket seats, real wood on the dash and console, 8-lug custom wheels and a 4-barrel 389 V8 was a treasure. Even though it had been there for more than two years and hadn’t run for “a long time” before that, my son and I saw its potential. We agreed on a price with the owner, he agreed to haul it to our driveway and before long it was sitting on its four flat tires beside our driveway and my wife thought we’d lost our minds.
I’ve been a gearhead since my teen years and have loved having grease under my fingernails. But I’ve loved the Lord’s church even more than old Pontiacs and spent 55 years of my life working to build effective churches for the future but do so by restoring the church to the New Testament model. The challenge is how to be relevant to modern culture and still utilize ancient principles.
When Jesus said, “on this rock, I will build my church” (Mt. 16:18), he wasn’t building a church for his generation only. He was building a church that would fit every generation until He comes again to take his church to Heaven to be with him forever.
So how do we restore the church in a way that will make it effective for the future? Our emphasis must be upon principles more than methods. For example, we must preach and practice that the church of Jesus Christ is essentially and constitutionally one. How do we do that in a Christian world that is hopelessly divided into several hundred different denominations? We do that by preaching and practicing that we are not the only Christians, but we are Christians only. That means I do not separate myself from others who wear the name “Christian,” rather I find fellowship whenever and wherever I encounter people who believe that Jesus Christ is Lord. Years ago I concluded that Jesus had not authorized me to judge who was going to Heaven, nor had he given me the wisdom to discern the motives of the human heart. I remember that Jesus said, “by their fruit, you will recognize them” (Mt. 7:20). Therefore, if they claim to be a Christian, talk like a Christian and behave like a Christian, I’m going to enjoy them when I can and let Jesus separate the real ones from the fake ones when he comes.
Here’s another principle, Jesus is the head of the church, I’m not. I must be meticulous to always give him the credit for all I do and all I am. I didn’t die for the church, he did. I’m not coming back from the grave for the saints, He is. I’m not preparing a home for anyone in Heaven, He is. Jesus must always be the focus of my preaching, he must always be the one for whose glory we labor and he must always be the one people see in me and in us, the church.
Now you might become a bit uncomfortable with the next principle: I’m going to call Bible things by Bible names. Some examples: Immersion is the method but it’s called “baptism.” I know that the word “baptism” means different things to different folk, but calling what we do “baptism” gives me a wonderful opportunity to explain in a kindly way what the Bible meant when it said “baptism.” Here’s another: church leaders are called by a variety of names in the New Testament, e.g., elder, deacon, pastor (shepherd), evangelist, teacher, bishop, minister. But I’ve searched the Scriptures and never found anyone called “Lead Pastor” which is becoming more common in our churches. It comes from the megachurch movement and not the Bible, and, to my way of thinking, is actually anti-biblical in its meaning.
Here’s another principle on which to build an effective church for the future: “Where the scriptures speak, we speak; where the scriptures are silent, we are silent.” I found when I was preaching that people were often ignorant of scripture and really did want to know what the Bible said. Therefore, immerse yourself in Scripture each week and then slosh over what you learned on the congregation on Sunday. They will love it. There is a real danger with the prevalence of the internet that we preach what we find there and lose contact with the Bible. Your people really do want to know what you know about the Bible rather than what someone else’s preacher knows.
Finally, restoration is achieved by returning to those principles that energized the New Testament Church. I’m simple enough to believe that it will energize the contemporary church we are building for the future. Oh, about that Grand Prix, we got it running and it became a school car for my son until we sold it to a Pontiac collector who drooled over it and did a full restoration on it. Pontiac built excitement. . .and we drove it!
