Pastor’s Point: Final Four


This Sunday in our worship community, we will conclude the series on our core values, called Sweet Sixteen. We have intentionally grouped the last four together. Call it “killing four birds with one boulder.” The final four are: stimulate creativity, remain culturally relevant, reproduce the next generation of artistic leaders, and always be loving. One common theme in the first three of these is the idea of thinking ahead. Living things are growing things, and nothing says a church is alive better than newness of life, whether it is new converts, a renewed spirit in worship, new ideas for communicating old truths, even just new faces. The first chapter of the book of Genesis says that God created the heavens and the earth. Later in the same chapter, it says that God made us in His image. Part of being image-bearers of the One who made us is to exhibit creativity ourselves. I once heard it said that people often choose to live in either one of two places: their memories or their imagination. The issue is not whether or not we retain our memory, but rather, do we camp out there, pitch our tent there, so to speak. Sadly, the local churches that exist mainly to perpetuate their own tradition have made that choice.

The problem with this approach can be illustrated by driving a car. As you sit in the driver’s seat and survey all the potential choices before you, there is always that little rear-view mirror which could occupy your time and attention. But it was actually designed to provide you a reference point and a reminder of what is behind you. Organizations which become preoccupied with maintaining their heritage, reputation, or even their buildings (call it the edifice complex), have little time to dream, imagine, or create. The result is oftentimes a loss of credibility and relevancy within the larger culture or community they attempt to engage.

Think about the world of recorded music in our culture. Forty years ago you had only a few AM stations, a handful of accepted musical styles, and products to reproduce music like LPs and 45s (as they were called). When I was growing up, I could not have imagined the number of options which might be available to me even within my own lifetime. What changed? The culture, technology, people’s free time, you name it. And with that evolution, the language of the arts moved to keep up.

So it is with the worship community of any local church if it is to remain sensitive to and reflective of the culture it endeavors to reach. The message needn’t change but the medium must. Bible translators know this. Church architects certainly know this. Those involved in the arts and technology definitely should realize this. Not staying current with these trends is like traveling to a foreign country and assuming all American customs and language are completely transferable. If the message is to be understood, its presentation must relate to its surroundings.

What can help us keep up with this “warp-speed” revolution? I believe it requires our raising up the next generation of leaders in this area. To do this, we must first be willing to listen to our youth and young adults. It will involve engaging them in open-minded dialogue about the way their culture learns and experiences things. And it must include providing them opportunities to actually teach and lead us in these areas. It can be yet another testimony to the work of the Holy Spirit in a church when there is a discernible, intentional passing of the baton to the next generation in full view. No one promises it won’t be messy at times, or never need tweaking or correction. But it is those very times when the love of God, like fine cream, rises to the top and displays itself. And that is exactly where we land…on our final, but perhaps highest, value—always be loving.

Church cultures whose unity sounds more like unison don’t require a lot of love. In fact, in those kinds of environments, when someone starts singing slightly out of tune, or even a different tune, members simply withdraw or, worse, begin the dismantling process of the fellowship. The agape love of the first church was tested early on. It had to intentionally set aside the need for ethnic (cultural) “purity.” They did, after all, start out “all Jewish—all the time,” remember? (Acts 10). Agape love also meant stepping out in faith, being willing to be lovingly corrected by their spiritual leaders, and, at times, even risking death. But their true mark on the world, the distinctive which ultimately turned that world upside down, was not their great faith, not their gifts, or creativity, not even their open-mindedness. Rather, it was how they loved each other.

Imagine, if you will, two piles of bricks standing side by side, one with mortar and the other without. Now think of the love of God as the mortar connecting the one stack of stones which He is using to build a beautiful temple of worship. When viewed side by side, the two stacks neatly piled on top of each other really don’t look all that different. But let the first quake of adversity or division hit, and one thing becomes clear. Without that love, without the connective adhesive of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we will not stand. Our mission is lost. And God moves on.

As we conclude this journey through our ministry’s core values, let me just take a moment to thank you personally for your sacrifice, your faith, your hard work, but mostly for the primary evidence of God’s work in you…His love. To quote an anthem we sang a few years back: “Love with His hands, see with His eyes. Bind it around you, let it never leave you, and they will know us by our love!”

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