(This article was commissioned for a U. S. journal)

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‘The church is full of hypocrites.’

‘Well, yes, true, but there’s room for another one!’

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One Sunday night I visited a small ‘non-denominational’ church in rural Victoria, Australia. They had big black Bibles – and severe expressions! I decided to preach dialogically, so asked them to tell me all the good qualities they could think of about the Pharisees. Their list: Pharisees knew their Bible very well (most – off by heart), they were disciplined in their praying, they tithed, they were moral (many could say ‘All these commands have I kept from my youth’), they fasted, some were martyred for Yahweh and the Torah, they were regular ‘church-attenders’, their beliefs were ‘evangelical/orthodox’ and they were evangelistic (even crossing the ocean to win a convert – and Jews don’t make good mariners).

Then. a deep silence. I asked the extrovert Peter if anything was wrong. He said, ‘Yes, that’s us!’ I responded: ‘Really? But Jesus said these people were “children of the devil!”‘ The silence got deeper. ‘Obviously,’ I suggested, ‘There’s something wrong with that list. Everything Jesus said was ‘most important’ isn’t there. It’s a good list – but a healthy church will have other qualities…’ (Now, class, ‘go figure’: start with Matthew 6:33, 15:8,9, 22: 24-39; 23:23, Luke 4:18-19; 11:42).

Healthy churches are being cured of their ‘pharisaism’. (For Jesus, love/acceptance of persons preceded their repenting; with the pharisees ancient and modern it’s the other way around). Such churches are grace-filled, not legalistic or abusive.

Most of the world’s 34,000 Christian churches/denominations1 are having a hard time, from at least three causes:

1. Self-inflicted wounds (the sins of televangelists, pedophile priests, spiritual abuse, internecine fights over women’s ordination, biblical inerrancy, sexual orientation, abortion etc.)

2. Persecution, including torture and death. More Christians were killed for their faith in the 20th century than in all previous centuries combined.

3. Spiritual lethargy, nominalism, triumphalism (Western/older churches)

and syncretism (sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America). Researcher George Barna says 44 % of Americans are ‘notional Christians’ – considering themselves to be Christian, but they do not claim to know their eternal destiny and are less likely to embrace core Bible doctrines.2

Evangelical leader John Stott claims there are four main pressures facing the Western church today – pluralism (‘tolerance’ of other religions which asserts that they all have their own validity); materialism (preoccupation with ‘things’ which suffocate our spiritual life); relativism (which waters down the absolute standards of Christ), and narcissism (an infatuation with self). 3

Now, an important principle: The devil is active in a unique way in all of the 34,000 Christian churches/denominations (even those too sophisticated to believe in the devil!). And, I believe, the Holy Spirit is active in most of them. (I can’t see any evidence of God at work in some quasi-Christian cultish groups). How do we find out who’s doing what? The way we always have: God sends us prophets. Your church doesn’t have them? Well, it’s probably more convenient to regulate our beliefs with creeds, and our behavior with constitutions, and we won’t be challenged as much (smiley ? )!!!

What does the devil do? There are many demonic strategies (remember C. S., Lewis’ Screwtape Letters?). One of them is to separate what God has joined together.

Three examples: in the apostolic churches the question ‘Who, under God, governs the church?’ was answered several ways. There were apostles, prophets, teachers, bishops, elders. Today we might add another (unknown back then): grass-roots democratic ‘ownership’ of decision-making.

Another: how do people come to know God? In his magnum opus, Streams of Living Water, Richard Foster suggests there are six broad Hebrew-Christian answers: from the contemplative, holiness, charismatic, social justice, evangelical, and incarnational traditions. The devil’s job is make these ‘either-or!’

Back to narcissism, for another: have you noticed charismatic-flavored Generation X’ers tend to write Christian music that is predominantly ‘I-me-my-ish’? Half the contents of the biblical Psalms and Prophets, which express negative emotions or a passion for social justice, don’t often find their way into modern songs.

Why don’t we model our churches on ‘The Early Church’? Well, which one? Paul Minear offers 96 images for the church in the New Testament.4 Raymond Brown distinguishes at least nine major ecclesiologies in Christianity’s first century of existence.5

A church’s size, per se, is not an automatic indicator of health. Some healthy churches are large; others are small (some people prefer supermarkets, others boutiques). But large churches can be unhealthy – and fat; and small churches can be malnourished. Certainly, healthy churches generally grow – they are welcoming, so people come back again! But ‘one size fits all’ doesn’t work any more, for churches as for the commercial world. 6

Liberal and mainstream churches are declining, all over the world: there’s a general pattern of resilience as we move from ‘left’ to ‘right’ across the Protestant spectrum. But why are evangelical/conservative or charismatic/Pentecostal churches – particularly ‘megachurches’ – holding their own or growing? Simple: musical chairs – ‘church hopping growth’. One survey in the U.S.: ‘more than 80%’ is transfer growth; another in Canada: only 5.5% of church attenders come from an unchurched background.7

In the Roman Catholic church the situation is also complex. In the U.S., according to Time’s (April 1) lead article ‘Can the Catholic Church Save Itself?’ congregations are growing (due, among other factors, to an increasing influx of Latin-Americans), but there are now more priests over 90 than under 30! Twenty seven percent of Catholic parishes have no resident priest: so more are now led by deacons.

Another interesting question: why is there anecdotal evidence for more Christian priests/leaders becoming Buddhist, rather than in the reverse direction? Why, in some countries, is the number of pastors/priests joining Orthodox churches greater than the movement of Orthodox priests the other way?

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Here are the five essential tests of a healthy church – rural or urban, greying or ‘Generation X’, Western or in a pre-industrial setting.

1. WORSHIP

Biblical worship is

? Eremitical/reflective/solitary. All of God’s key leaders spent a disproportionate amount of their lives in deserts. Read the astonishing statement in Luke (5:15,16): Jesus left people unhealed and ignorant to go in the desert to pray! Does your church encourage spiritual retreats?

? Reverential/eucharistic/’Temple’ – Catholic and Orthodox churches

? Scripture-centred/’Synagogue’- the Puritan tradition, Baptists, Presbyterians

? Relational – small groups and house churches

? ‘Festival’ – charismatic/pentecostal churches

? Worship as whole of life (Romans 12:1,2).

Each helps us to relate to a different aspect of who God is for us. Authentic worship vitally connects ‘worship services in church’ with our ‘secular’ vocations. Whatever our liturgical preference, we are ‘lost in wonder, love and praise’ before our great and wonderful God. We worship with ‘all that is within us’ (Psalm 103): the child in us is joyful, or charismatic; our minds and wills respond to God’s truth through God’s Word (in Scripture, via prophets, in preaching); and we relate meaningfully to others in the context of worship.

2. COMMUNITY

‘They’ll know we are Christians by our love’… Will they? Our love is to be shown in deeds and in words. Suggestions: at Parish Council or Elders’ meetings, begin by sharing life-experiences. Then pray for one another. And sometimes in the ‘passing of the peace’ agree to pray for one other person every day the following week. Serious praying in twos and threes will happen after the benediction in churches that are healthy – where people share one another’s burdens and joys. I also like the practice in some churches of an invitation to be prayed for by the pastors/elders at communion, or at the end of the worship-service. (But allow people to be private too). Does your church have a food bank for the poor/sick? A prayer-chain, connecting people by phone or email to pray for those in need?

3. FORMATION

Spiritual formation is the process whereby the Word of God applied by the Spirit of God to the heart and mind of the child of God makes us more like the Son of God. Our aim is to become more like Jesus. And that does not automatically happen by ‘going to church’. Keith Miller wrote about a man who occupied every office in his church except the pastorate, and after hundreds of sermons and committee meetings confessed that he didn’t know God! We must desperately want to be changed. Eugene Peterson (The Contemplative Pastor etc.) has helped us understand that the pastor is not primarily CEO of the church-as-institution, but rather spiritual director, helping us get to know God. (‘Pastors are busy,’ he says, adapting some wisdom from C. S. Lewis, ‘because they’re lazy!’ Figure that one out!).

4. MISSION

Christian mission is doing in our world what Jesus did in his. It has three dimensions (Micah 6:8, Matthew 23:23): justice, mercy, and evangelism. Justice is the right use of power. So who in our community/world is the victim of others’ abuse of power? ‘Justice is figuring out what belongs to whom and returning it to them’ (Walter Brueggeman). Mercy asks: ‘How can I fulfil Francis of Assisi’s injunction, ‘Preach the gospel: use words if necessary’? What do others need – practically and emotionally – that I can supply?’ Then the ultimate faith/evangelism issue, addressing what Jesus and St. Paul calls our ‘lostness’: ‘How do we relate personally to God? Healthy churches witness a regular procession of people ‘coming to faith’.

How do we do mission? That depends on the sub-cultures your church identifies as its major constituency. (Jerry Springer’s people don’t go to Episcopalian churches!).

5. EMPOWERMENT

Roman Catholic theologian Hans Kung says the Western church has experienced six major paradigm shifts. One was the Protestant Reformation – where ‘the Bible was put into the hands of ordinary Christians.’8 We now need another paradigm shift, renouncing clericalism and giving ministry back to ordinary Christians. The key functional test of a healthy church is how well it trains its members so that the church ministers to itself! Does your church have at least 70% of Sunday attenders in ‘faith development’ groups? Does it have a bookstall/ tape library? Do you run Alpha courses, or workshops on faith development, biblical subjects, counseling (‘How to Help Your Friend ‘), marriage preparation, parenting, an overview of church history, introduction to Islam etc. etc.?9

In Sunday School we used to sing ‘Have I Done My Very Best for Jesus? America’s leading church consultant in the last century, Lyle Schaller, has emphasised that the best thing even a small church can do is figure out what its one or two primary strategies ought to be, and pursue them with excellence.

Was it George Gallup who said ‘American religion’ – read European, Australian, etc. – ‘is 3,000 miles wide and three inches deep’?

However, Jesus loves his Church, though it is not-yet-fully-redeemed. So should we!

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(Rev. Dr.) Rowland Croucher

(Rowland Croucher is Director of John Mark Ministries, an Australian-based ministry to pastors, ex-pastors, church leaders and their spouses. Website: http://jmm.aaa.net.au )

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ENDNOTES

1. David Barrett et al, World Christian Encyclopedia: A comparative survey of churches and religions – AD 30 to 2200, Oxford University Press, 2001

2. George Barna, ‘American Faith is Diverse’, January 29, 2002. http://www.barna.org/cgi-bin/PagePressRelease.asp?PressReleaseID=105&Referen ce=F

3. See http://www.episcopalian.org/cclec/paper-stott_nonconformity.htm

4. Paul Minear, Images of the Church in the New Testament, Westminster, 1960

5. Raymond Edward Brown, John P. Meier, Antioch and Rome: New Testament Cradles of Catholic Christianity, Paulist Press, January 1983. Raymond Brown, The Churches the Apostles Left Behind, Paulist, 1984.

6. For 100 Marks of a Healthy Church see http://jmm.org.au/articles/8149.htm For just 34 – from a case-study of the ‘model’ New Testament church, Antioch, visit http://jmm.org.au/catalog/section/ycca1.htm

7. http://jmm.org.au/articles/8481.htm http://jmm.org.au/articles/8483.htm

8. See, eg., Don Pittman, ‘The Seminary and Its Theological Discourse, http://www.ttcs.org.tw/church/25.2/05.htm

9. Rowland Croucher, In Search of Pastoral Excellence, http://jmm.org.au/articles/8113.htm

Rowland Croucher

April 2002