Who removes lampstands?
My most-read blog post has been, Do You Know of a Sound Congregation…?, published August 1, 2017: https://www.newshepherdsorientation.com/do-you-know-of-a-sound-congregation/
After that, I received this question:
Why the sound church article? Brother, I liked your article. Do You Know of a Sound Congregation? I understand why I would write an article like this, but I am curious why you did? Just curious…thank you and love you
I don’t serve the cause of unity by making breaks in fellowship before God makes them. By getting angry and accusatory at people who have different views and encouraging others to stay away from them, either by my command, example, or necessary inference, I’m promoting divisiveness.
If, as a preacher, I cannot work with churches and people less than perfect, I’m not following the example of Jesus, who ate with sinners, selected imperfect men as the cabinet in His kingdom, and attracted misfits to Him.
My experience over the past 18 years of interim ministry is that the churches in the most trouble are the easiest to work with. When they see their mess and don’t know where to turn, they’re teachable. When a church “has it all together” and has an image to protect and project, it isn’t in learning mode.
Imperfect people and churches need to be corrected — not condemned and abandoned — until they persistently show they have no intention of repenting of defined sin. I don’t think that needs to be done in the first two weeks after I hear they did something I don’t like. When and if the divide comes, the door needs to be left open, shoes prepared, calf fattened, clothes clean, and the party prepared when they can be seen in the distance coming home.
And they may not all come at the same time. And they may not come at all. You can have a few live Christians in a dead church. — Revelation 3:1-6
If I have condemned them to hell, withdrawn fellowship from them, and published warnings in brotherhood papers and on Facebook when they clapped at a baptism, I don’t think I’m following what I read in the Bible about Jerusalem, Corinth, and the seven churches of Asia. They were in a mess, but still had lampstands.
My observation is that I push people away and solidify the divide when I shoot first and ask questions later. — Joshua 22:10-34
This episode of Gleaning Mustard Seeds features our daughter, Christi Parsons, reading chapter 1 of Gail’s book, Fleecy Clouds: One Woman’s Story of Surviving and Thriving after Childhood Abuse.
Click on the picture or link below to hear this as an audiobook.
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