Being a new church

One Man's Web > Studies > Being a new church

St Christopher's is a small congregation— perhaps 35 adults. Like many other congregations it has been part of a cash strapped parish which can no longer afford a full time clergy. There has been talk of amalgamation of congregations, and even of parishes. St. Christopher's has decided instead to go it's own way with a new style of congregation which will not seek at present to employ a clergy person.

What follows is a study to be used at church one Sunday morning, followed by a sermon. They seek to encourage a new way. Where discussion will go, I am not sure. But as with the St. Christopher's people, you may take these notes and answer the questions in your situation.

(St. Christopher's is a congregation of the Uniting Church in Australia.) Jan

Study notes

The collapse of the present style of institution.
The structure of the church of 'our time' [the life-time of us and our parents] is falling apart. We have inherited the societally, legally sanctioned and supported parish. In England the Church of England called this a 'living.' In Australian Methodism, a circuit was theoretically determined by the area a clergyman could cover, but more by the number of churches it would take to support him.

Parishes, or circuits, were founded on single income families where the wife could give lots of time to the structure, and upon 9 to 5 middle class (or farmers) who could give up regular evenings.

For better or worse, the institutional structure, and the building, provided one of two foci around which the life of a congregation pivoted. The other was Christ, and it was sometimes unimportant that he was often the lesser focus, as the structure was one of the pillars of our culture, and could survive without him.

This is no longer so. We are running out of spare volunteers. Both parents work. The middle class is disappearing. Society is pluralist and no longer wants, or will financially and legally, support and defer to the church in the way it once did.

Increasingly only the Christ, and our experience of him, remains as a cohesive focus for a church— Many parish structures are financially unsustainable. Full time clergy are not affordable. We don not even have the people to do the things we once did, even if we had the money. We find our sustaining centre in Christ, and develop another way of being church, or we shut up shop and join another parish.

Question
How do I interpret the massive changes happening in the church at present?
 
If you are interested in this subject of the changes in the Australian Church see an excerpt from a paper by Rev Andrew Prior

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The New Testament Churches

• Despite Acts 2:41 the New Testament churches were small, even tiny. e.g.; Phile 1:2 to Apphia our sister, to Archippus our fellow soldier, and to the church in your house….. Col 4:15 Give my greetings to the brothers and sisters in Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church in her house.
  
• The church was poor 1 Corinthians 16:1
  
• There were few if any full time clergy— e.g.; Paul was a tent maker
  
• They were unsure of their direction, and wracked with division, and argument. Corinthians and Galatians indicate Paul's struggle to maintain his leadership and the twin evils of loose living vs. rigidity
  
• There was a loose alliance with other churches, not a denominational structure. In terms of structures there was not a capital C church as we often speak of it. Paul speaks of 'the churches'. It may be misleading to speak of the New Testament church. (singular)
  
• They were a minority in a highly pluralist society with much religious competition.
  
• They were sporadically persecuted, and probably laughed at.
  
• 
  Questions
  What picture do I have of the New Testament churches? Where did it come from? Have I idealised the New Testament churches?
  Would we call the New Testament churches successful? By what standards?
  

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Christianity of the Eighth Day

John 20:19 When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." NRSV

John 20:26 A week later [ the Greek says Eight days later] his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." NRSV

The house is the church meeting place! The disciples are the church meeting behind locked doors. It meets on the first day. Eight days later is the first day of the next week, by Jewish counting. Why eight. Because Christians were often slaves and poor, and there were no days off. They met early on the Sunday morning, 2 or 3 am, before the fires had to be lit for the master. It was called the eighth day of the week.

Questions:
Are we like a church of the eighth day?
How much are we held together by our commitment to Christ, and the love and regard for each other which we find through him? —or are just friends anyway?

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Galatians

Gal 1:3,4 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to set us free from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father….

The letter is written to local churches where the word was often brought by travelling prophets and preachers. There were no denominationally approved 'lay preacher's tickets' or ordinations. The church was not based around a stable parish structure with an incumbent professional theologian under the oversight of a denomination. There was not yet a bible as we know it, and not a body of doctrine as we know it. They were held together by a common regard for each other, which crossed many social divides, because of their commitment to and experience of Christ. The news and first experience of Christ had been mediated to them by the unpopular 'minister' (Ro 15:16) Paul, [witness how Paul is having to defend himself in Galatians, as in other letters. Galatians 1:9-2:21] who was now far distant, (and not on the phone).

What happened then to cause Paul to write the letter we now have in our Bible? People appear to have come from another church and made divisions among them. These other Christians were saying to the Galatians, "You've got it wrong. You're not real Christians at all. This fellow Paul has misled you. To be a real Christian you have to keep the law. You have to be circumcised (5:6) You have to keep all the festivals (4:10) and the special seasons of the law of Moses. That's how you keep yourself right with God."
In our age, there are things other than circumcision which become a "Law" for us. Maybe the regulations of the Uniting Church— or a local tradition— a particular way of interpreting scripture— or what the 'heavies' in our congregation say we have to do.
When Paul heard all this, he said "NO! Who has bewitched you!? (3:1) You were set free not by keeping the law, but because you believed and had faith in Jesus (2:15-16) Why do you want to go back to slavery now that you have come to know God. (4:9) He was absolutely dismayed.

Questions
Was there a slavery from which I was set free?

How much is this part of St Christopher's congregation's pilgrimage making it like the churches in Galatia?

What will be our stable point— common buildings, common interests, common Christ?

What could be the 'bewitching' rules dangled in front of us which invite us to a new slavery? Note the word bewitching. The rules were not obviously bad. They may have appeared very good. Indeed, they may have had good purpose at some levels. Observing 'special days, and months, and seasons, and years' (4:10) was the way of being religious! Yet they themselves are not the point of following Christ.

St Christopher's

Further Questions

As 'eighth day Christians' how can we worship and live to support our ministry "at work" away from the church.

As eighth day Christians, how can we help others find the Lord of the eighth day?

What is the in the 'present evil age' (1:3) that drives us?

Comment and question. Where we began in John 20, Jesus eventually says to Thomas "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe" In Galatians an alternative translation of 2:16 (yet we know that a person is justified not by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ.) is "yet we know that a person is justified not by the works of the law but through the faith of Jesus Christ." Christ has believed. The body of Christ here in St Christopher's believes… what must I do to be saved? How much is believing/feeling the right thing/experience a "work of law?"

What ritual/rule/attitude among us is 'weak and beggarly' 4:9 and undercuts the 'one rule' of Galatians in 3:26-29?
(As many of you as were baptised into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise.)

The Collapse of the Present Church

A Sermon on Galatians

Not written specifically for St Christopher's, but giving some background on Galatians.

Gal 6:7-8 Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for you reap whatever you sow. If you sow to your own flesh, you will reap corruption from the flesh; but if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life from the Spirit.

This is a most dread-full verse. It is full of dire threat… and great hope. I want to put this verse into the context of the whole of Galatians.

To do that we need some background.

Paul speaks of "flesh" and "spirit." Our culture gets confused with this. In Paul, "flesh" can mean flesh and blood type flesh. Or it can mean a kind of life— a life which is not directed along God's path, but is driven by a human centred desire to go its own way and prove its own self.

The Contemporary English Version calls this "people's desires," and the Good News Bible calls it "the desires of human nature." With his two meanings, Paul uses the word "flesh' as a kind of sustained pun, right through Galatians. (I'll point this out later.)

So it's easy to get confused. But we can make a guideline.
WRONG:         Flesh = body = bad or shameful desire.
Spirit = not of the body, or "spiritual" i.e. "unearthly"

This is a great heresy. It makes us ashamed of our bodies and our humanity and unable to properly appreciate the beauty of the world in which God has placed us.

A BETTER APPROACH: Ask this question.
When Paul says "flesh" does he mean "flesh and blood" or
does he mean "selfish, not-going-God's-way activity."

AN EXAMPLE: Two people deeply in love with God and with each other, who delight in each other, are involved in a spiritual act in their lovemaking. A minister, with beautiful words, can make communion an act of the flesh by trying to use it to manipulate his congregation for his own purposes, rather than letting the sacrament serve God's purpose.

When we come to Christ, "we are set free from the present evil age." (Galatians 1:4) "For freedom we are set free." (5:1) I remember this— this marvellous sense of being free of the constraints of the world and being my own person. It was just like falling in love— you know how the rest of the world loses some of its power over us and we have eyes for only one person, when we fall in love!

Think about life. We are driven by fears for our own security. Advertising constantly drives us to buy things. (I was once in King William Street and found myself humming a little ditty. "Where did that come from," I thought? Then I saw it— an ad for Solomon's Carpets, 200 metres away on the back of a bus. I had not even noticed it, and yet it was acting upon me!)

Life is loaded with things pushing at us. The influence of past generations, good or bad teachers, whether we grew up in the depression, or fought in a war. Australians are obsessed with the need to possess things— more and more things.

Some philosophers say we have no free choice; we are driven by circumstance. That's not true, but we all know how much we are driven and obsessed. It is from this that Christ has come to set us free so that we might truly begin to enjoy life as God means it to be for us.

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Paul came to Galatia and preached the gospel. People found a glorious freedom in Christ. They were like that first church in the early chapters of Acts: Jews, gentiles, Greeks, slaves, free, women men— there were no divisions. (3:28) What happened then to cause Paul to write the letter we now have in our Bible?

People appear to have come from another church and made divisions among them. Division is about power. Why would I want to make divisions among us here? Because I am afraid and want to gain power over you to keep myself "safe." The "world" cannot stand freedom. A fleshly life, a life moving away from God, wants to rule others, to build itself up. Paul said of the people who were "unsettling" (5:12) the Galatians, 'they make much of you, but for no good purpose; they want to exclude you, so that you will make much of them."

Do you get what he's saying?

It's like me being a bit frightened of someone.
So I say, "You're such a wonderful person Mary! I admire your faith." I butter her up and make much of her as Paul says.

Then I say, "It's just a pity you don't know God more fully, and have the baptism of power. Then you could be part of the real church." I'm excluding her.

What I'm inviting her to say is "O, Jan, I thought I was part of the church. What do I need to do to be a real Christian like you?" I'm excluding her so she will make me an authority figure, or make much of me, as Paul says it. And then I will tell her some things she has to do to be a real Christian. I will enslave her and pull her away from the freedom of Christ.

Paul says, "For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery. I am telling you, if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no benefit to you."

These other Christians were saying to the Galatians, "You've got it wrong. You're not real Christians at all. This fellow Paul has misled you. To be a real Christian you have to keep the law. You have to be circumcised (5:6) You have to keep all the festivals (4:10) and the special seasons of the law of Moses. That's how you keep yourself right with God."

In our age, there are things other than circumcision which become a "Law" for us. Maybe the regulations of the Uniting Church— or a local tradition— a particular way of interpreting scripture— or what the 'heavies' in our congregation say we have to do.

When Paul heard all this, he said "NO! Who has bewitched you!? (3:1) You were set free not by keeping the law, but because you believed and had faith in Jesus (2:15-16) Why do you want to go back to slavery now that you have come to know God. (4:9) He was absolutely dismayed.

This is where the extended pun about flesh and spirit comes into play. (It's worth also reading Galatians in one of the translations that uses the word "flesh" to see this.) Circumcision is about cutting flesh. As the Galatians wonder about the need to be circumcised Paul says, "Are you so foolish? Having started with the Spirit, are you now ending with the flesh? (3:3) Circumcision is a fleshly act in more ways than one! "If you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be on no benefit to you… [those who do this] have cut themselves off from Christ." (5:1,4)

At the end of the letter, Paul says, "let no one make trouble for me; for I carry the marks of Jesus branded on my body." (6:17) He's talking about the scars that come from being persecuted. In other words, if you want proof of faith "in the flesh," circumcision scars prove nothing. If you have to see scars, (not that they really prove anything, but if you must see scars), then the scars of violence and persecution are the proof marks in bodily flesh! But what really counts is the new creation (6:15), the person who has been set free and lives life the way God meant for us to be.

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Now lets jump right to our time. "For freedom we were set free." (5:1) Jesus came so that we might live life like a lover! Like that person who doesn't care what the world thinks, and is not enslaved to the world, because they are focused on the person they love.

Look at a person in love: We see it in stories: even the meek little daughter bullied by her father suddenly gains a freedom and stands against his tyranny. Life is set free and empowered by love! If it is so in the love between two people, how much more can it be when God's love is firing the equation!

This does not mean we live foolishly (i.e. selfishly or unethically)— we live by the Spirit. There's no room for self indulgence— greed and envy and so forth, bring us into slavery again (5:13-21)

If we live God's way then there will be marks (6:17) on our flesh. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. I knew a couple who lived in the Spirit. They carried the marks of Jesus branded on their bodies (6:17). You could see the pain marks on their faces. He died young, and I reckon the hatred and the persecution they suffered helped. But there were the marks of freedom too. The fruits of the Spirit. In Janet there was an awesome strength. There was a power— a strong peace, patience and self control; a determination to follow God despite persecution. In John there was a gentleness and love that inspired, and encouraged, and built up others.

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We come to today's text: "Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for you reap what ever you sow. If you sow to your own flesh, you will reap corruption from the flesh; but if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life from the Spirit."

This is serious. This is today, here! If we give up our freedom and live by other people's rules then we will reap the harvest of those rules.

For example: if we run our church along rules like You must have 4 hymns, sit, stand, pray in this order, to be a real church, then we'll sit, stand, pray… and die. To keep someone else's rules is to live in the flesh.

Worship in the Spirit is worship that responds to God and is organised to work to glorify God and work for us to build us up in our situation here. We are not to be self indulgent, but there are no rules. Life in the Spirit treasures our traditions, and learns from them, but then follows God. It is no slave to tradition..

Another example: if we run our lives to the rules of Mum and Dad, (instead of asking how God wants us to live,) then we'll end up being just like the things we hated about Mum and Dad. One of the major stresses on relationships is that we bring our Mum and Dad's of doing things into our relationship. It's often not us fighting with each other, but our parents!


Crucifying the flesh doesn't mean making life miserable, and being a killjoy. It's the opposite. It means refusing to follow other people's rules, or ways of living, just because they are there. It means instead, asking what God wants for us. Finding out how we are to live. It's hard work: the word crucify is not there by accident. I am still "putting to death" my parents' way of living (good for them), and learning what God wants for me, after 21 years of marriage.

The Good News is that God is not a disciplinarian (3:23) like Law and Flesh. God is not there driving us to do things we don't like, which we don't want to do and yet still do, and making us feel guilty. God loves us. God has set us free as a gift. We don't have to please God; God already loves us and is pleased to call us friends. (John 15:15)

"If you sow to the Spirit, you will reap in the Spirit. So where we have an opportunity let us work for the good of all, and especially those in the family of faith." (6:8-10) "For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters, only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self indulgence but through love become slaves to one another." (5:13)

I watched Jane and her children carry Ian's body from the church. In all the pain and grief there was a kind of glory, because we knew Ian had been free, and was free. I see old people who are free— gentle, graceful, peaceful and generous. And I think if they, who have lived and struggled through war and grief and bereavement, can live like this— then like is worth living. There is a freedom to be had.

And I see young people who are already old, and soured. Already they have reaped a harvest of the flesh. God is not mocked— that is; we cannot escape how life is. We will reap what we sow.

God has given us new ground. God has given us fresh seed. God gives us freedom for a rich crop of fruit. Let us remember our first love, and grow a love garden. In the grace of God, we will reap what we sow, and be free.

Questions
Who are the self serving gurus who visit us? Gal 4:17
Where do we risk self indulgence in our Christian life? Gal 5:13

  Direct Biblical quotations in this page are taken from
The New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.  

  © Jan Thomas            

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