What Does A Good Church Look Like?
What Does a Good Church Look Like • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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16 April 23
What Does a Good Church Look Like - Introduction
Please turn to Isaiah 1 (middle). Today is an introduction or a roadmap of where we’re heading over the next several months. Our goal is to answer this question - What Does a Good Church Look Like? Take a moment and think to yourself – how would you answer that. How would you describe a good church? How would you know it’s a good church?
If we ask 20 people what a good church looks like, we’ll get what? 20 different answers. Of those 20 different answers, how many do think would be based on Scripture vs personal preference? Too often, I think we describe a good church according to personal preference rather than a good Biblical understanding. Honestly, probably 90% of complaints about the church are based on preference or faulty opinions. What happens when our personal preferences or definitions of Church override Scripture? Problems, disagreements, people leave and go to churches that accommodate their preference. When that happens, the real losers are the people out there.
So, we’re going to spend some time asking the question, What Does a Good Church Look Like. Let me be clear, that question is simply designed to get us all on the same page with each other, and more importantly on the same page with Scripture. I’m not implying that this is not a good church or that you’ve been doing church all wrong and I’m here to set you straight. Not what I’m suggesting. This is a fantastic church with fantastic people – got a few weirdos here and there but we need them …. Again,
We’re just asking the question, “What Does a Good Church Look Like” so as we begin our ministry together, we are on the same page.
Follow me on that one?
How are we going to answer this question? We’re going to use Paul’s letter to the Romans as our guide. We’ll peruse through each chapter using Scripture to answer our question, which means we will skip over some important theological issues. Please understand, the only reason why we will skip over some is because it doesn’t answer our question.
As we go through Romans and ask the question, “What Does a Good Church Look Like,” there are two underlying issues that need to be addressed. One is the issue of
1) Individualism vs Community.
In God’s eyes, we are not merely individuals.
We are to be a community - part of the Body of Christ. We are to be a family, brothers and sisters in Christ who care and are concerned for one another.
so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.
As individuals, we belong to one another, meaning we should have a sense of obligation and responsibility toward our brothers and sisters in Christ. We should be conscious of how we live, every day, because how we live, whether good or bad, right or wrong, obedient or disobedient affects the family of God.
We’ll see this more clearly later in Romans, but I mention this now because as we answer the question, What Does a Good Church Look Like, the second issue is understanding that Klamath Nazarene is nothing more and nothing less than a reflection of us. Klamath Nazarene is a reflection of the members who call this their home. If Klamath Nazarene is a good church, it’s because its members are good members (vice versa). So, not only must we answer the question, What Does a Good Church Look Like, but
2) We must also answer what does a good church member look like.
That’s a little more challenging to answer because it requires honest self-reflection and effort and asking hard questions and accountability. It’s one thing to say what a good church should look like. It’s another to ask what do I do to help a good church be a good church.
As we go along, I hope we can
Let’s move away from individual preference to communal perspective.
Asking questions like, if that’s what a good church looks like, then what’s my part in helping the church look like that. What do I need to do differently? Something I need to start doing, stop doing, shift …? How does my life and how do my choices affect my community, my brothers and sisters, my church? We must think “me” and “us” simultaneously.
Tracking? Again, an intro today.
Before we get to Romans, look at Isaiah 1:16-17. I think this will be our theme or umbrella Scripture under which everything else falls. A little background – Isaiah lived a little over 700 years before Christ (8th Century B.C.). He was primarily a prophet to Judah. By this time, the nation of Israel had split into the Northern kingdom ( Israel - 10 tribes) and the Southern kingdom (Judah – 2 tribes). The opening chapter of Isaiah is God’s charge or judgment against Judah because they were guilty of disingenuous, hypocritical, (more technical) bogus worship. They were sacrificing, going through the rituals, raising their hands in worship – but it was all empty and heartless, going through the motions. And God reaches this tipping point and says, “Stop. Making me nauseous. Do you think I’m really enjoying this? I love you but I hate what you’re doing. Even donkeys worship better than you!”
Then we get to verse 16. This is a call to repentance.
Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil,
What is God doing here? God is extending His mercy and calling His people back to the greatest commandment - which is what?
And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
This is the great and first commandment.
So,
The primary call and responsibility of a good church is authentic worship.
which means
Worship is loving God above all else and making Him the center of all we are and do.
And that goes way beyond Sunday morning. Authentic worship encompasses our whole being – and should influence every area of our lives.
But it doesn’t stop with authentic worship.
learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.
In other words,
Stand up and fight for those who cannot stand up and fight for themselves.
Those are all action words – verbs – things that God’s people should do. What’s the other great commandment?
And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
The other primary call and responsibility of a good church is righteous living.
- which means because God is holy, we are to be holy and live righteously with and toward others. Let me say it another way,
There is no such thing as authentic worship (a right and healthy relationship with God) without holy living (right and healthy relationships with others) and no holy living without authentic worship.
Or as John Wesley said,
“Solitary religion is not to be found there. ‘Holy Solitaries’ is a phrase no more consistent with the gospel than ‘Holy Adulterers.’ The gospel of Christ knows of no religion, but social; no holiness but social holiness.” ~ John Wesley
He also said,
“Indeed nothing can be more sure than that true Christianity cannot exist without both the inward experience and outward practice of justice, mercy, and truth.” ~ John Wesley
What God does in our hearts is meant to be expressed out there.
Let’s wrap this up.
What’s one thing you’re walking away with this morning?
(e.g. the Spirit revealed something to you, there’s a truth, a thought to ponder, a question …)?
We have time for one question or thought regarding the message.
This week, read Romans 1.
Let’s close by reading the Great Commandment together. Notice, I personalized it for the Community of Christ.
And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
This is the great and first commandment.
And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.