About twenty years ago, when I was a pastor in the South Alabama Presbytery, we had an Executive Presbyter named Samford Turner. If any of you seeing this are not Presbyterian, the Presbytery is a collection of local churches in a defined geographic area- in this case the southern third or so of Alabama starting just below the city limits of Montgomery; the Executive Presbyter is the Chief Operating officer of the Presbytery and the person charged with “pastoring the pastors”.
At the time I was a young pastor and Samford was sort of a mentor to me. He used to say, “Tom, the job of a pastor is three-fold: preaching, teaching and pastoral care.” Over the years I have repeated that advice to myself and passed it on to others. Generally speaking, it was good advice. However, after years of reflection, and with all due respect to Samford, I think I would change that mantra. I believe the task of a pastor is four-fold: preaching, teaching, pastoral care, and spiritual growth and development.
Over the last seventy-five years or so the church has been in decline. Every year it seems more and more churches close. Every year we see fewer and fewer faces in the pews. The faces we do see have grown older just as my face has. In my opinion this isn’t really the fault of one person or one group. Pastors have been out there preaching the word, teaching the gospel and providing pastoral care. Members have been maintaining their buildings, faithfully coming to worship, and contributing money to the plate. Many of them are attending Sunday School and Bible Study. They may even have a daily prayer life and are reading scripture and devotionals daily. But something is missing. I believe I know what that something is- it’s a focus on spiritual growth and development.
This is an idea that has a long history in our faith. The Apostle Paul spent three years in Arabia before going out on his missionary journeys. Martin Luther spent years as a monk, before he had his great breakthrough and initiated the Protestant Reformation. As a more recent example, Mother Teresa became a novitiate in the convent in 1928 and took her formal vows as a nun in 1937, but she didn’t found the Missionaries of Charity (the monastic order for which she is best known) until 1950. Each of the examples I have just given spent years in preparation and spiritual growth before they became the people we know from history.
Now, I’m not suggesting that we all need to become monks- far from it! I simply want to point out that the last command that we were given by our Lord Jesus was to make disciples. It seems to me that the church is no longer doing that. I want to spend a few minutes talking about what we’re doing instead and why.
Christianity and our Culture
There’s a song that was written by the band Genesis entitled Land of Confusion. In one part of the song the lyrics say, “I won’t be coming home tonight. My generation will put it right. We’re not just making promises, that we know we’ll never keep.” 1. The song was written during the 1980’s to address the growing divide in society. Thirty-Five years later it looks to me as if we failed to keep that promise after all. Our society is more divided than ever. We live in fear of ostracism. Our society is so divided that even family members are afraid to talk to one another.
If the church is being true to its values, it can offer an answer to that problem. In Luke 6:32-35, Jesus says to us, “If you love only those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, in order to receive back the same amount. But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great.”
The church at its best provides what the culture around denies to others. In a world that turns its back on others, the church should offer acceptance; in a world that holds grudges, the church should forgive; in a world of bullies, the church should offer kindness; in a world that loves only conditionally, the church should love unconditionally.
Sadly, so many times in my life I have attended churches where I felt that the culture of the congregation reflected the culture around it. I think this is one of the problems that we have to address. In survey after survey of people who go to church people say that they go to church for two reasons: they want to forge a closer relationship with God and they want to forge a closer relationship with a community of people. If they come to church to find those things, and instead they find a reflection of the culture around them, why would they stay? If they don’t feel loved and accepted, why would they stay? If they can’t find forgiveness, why would they stay?
The Missing Ingredients
If you’ve been following this line of reasoning, the obvious question is, “What does this have to do with spiritual growth? How specifically is our culture impeding our spiritual growth, and what can we do about it? What are we not giving people what they need?”
Well, part of the answer is in what we said above: love, acceptance, forgiveness, and so forth are in short supply in our culture. The church should offer them instead. A good place to begin might be the fruits of the spirit listed in Galatians 5. However, it’s not enough just to say that these are our values. We have to practice them- even when we’re not inclined to do so. Living that way is hard! It’s hard, but it is the Christian way.
In addition, I think there are some other things that our culture teaches that are not healthy. One thing is our hurried pace. We are constantly on the go- constantly on the move. We seldom have time for anything other than work. This lifestyle is extremely unhealthy. As a nation we don’t sleep enough. Our stress level is sky high, leading to all sorts of physical and mental health problems.
Sadly enough, this sort of thinking has worked its way into the church thinking. We are constantly looking at what we’re doing for Jesus. How many people have we brought in? How many have we saved? How much money did we make? How many ministries did we start? How many people attended our last worship service? How many people did we feed? Our numbers show that we’re busy, that we’re doing good work for Jesus.
But the numbers don’t tell the whole story. Jesus didn’t work all the time, and he doesn’t ask us to do that either. The bible shows that he often retreated to pray. By the standards of our culture, that would be a complete waste of time- yet for him, it seemed to be important.
If what people want is a deeper relationship with God and people, then we must face a truth. Relationships take time. It takes time to build trust. That trust isn’t built just by what we do, but also by the mere fact of being present with others. We don’t grow closer to God by what we do. We grow closer to God by being with God!
Unlike what our culture tells us, which is, “You need to do more,” the gospel tells us to rest in the presence of Jesus. That time spent alone with God is important. Without it we grow exhausted and irritable, and we don’t grow to become the people we’re called to be. We aren’t called to save the world. We’re just called to minister to the least of these. It’s our job to minister; it’s Christ’s job to save.
In Conclusion
I could go on about the things that I think we could do differently, but I want instead to focus on what I can do. Once I was leading a discussion at our church and talking about ways, we could act to help our church to grow spiritually. I was saying things like, “Speak to people and not about them,” and “Don’t keep things bottled up.” She listened respectfully and then asked me a question. “Those are great ideas, Tom, “ she said. “How do I get them to do that?”
If there is one lesson that I have learned in my life it is that I can’t make someone else change. What I can do is change me. I can change. I’ve been looking for a way that I can help people to gain the skills to grow both spiritually and emotionally, in the belief that Christ will build the people who have gained those skills into Disciples. I found just such a way.
I wish I could say that these ideas were original to me. The truth is I didn’t come up with any of them. Truthfully, I can be- and have been- just as immature as anyone. If there is anything that sets me apart, it’s that I’m aware of it and sincerely want to change. I want to grow closer to Jesus Christ. I want to be a better Christian. I want to be a Disciple. If you want that too, then let me give you a ray of hope.
In the Spring of 2022 Copeland Presbyterian Church is going to begin a new pilot program. It’s called Emotionally Healthy Discipleship. It’s a 16-week course designed to do just what I’ve been talking about. It will help participants grow both spiritually and emotionally. It will help participants to develop closer relationships to Jesus Christ. It will help participants to develop closer relationships with one another. If that interests you, you can get more information by clicking the link below. I hope you will.
https://cpc-athens.com/emotionally-healthy-discipleship/
Notes:
1. Land of Confusion by Genesis from the album Invisible Touch 6 June 1986, Atlantic Records. Written by Michael Rutherford, Phil Collins, and Anthony Banks.