Editorial: A healthy church has room for the world

A healthy church has room for the world. We are not a healthy church. But we can be.

One way to finish the syllogism is to say: “We don’t have room for the world. So, we are not a healthy church.”

Another way, one I think is more accurate, is to say: “We are not a healthy church. So, we don’t have room for the world.”

Whichever, both are a problem, because the church is commanded to have room for the world.

Jesus said: “You will be my witnesses here, there, and the farthest parts of the Earth” (Acts 1:8, paraphrase). “Go, making disciples of all nations, baptizing them, and teaching them to follow everything I’ve commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20, paraphrase).

We can’t do what Jesus told us to do if we don’t have room for the world. From what I see, we don’t have the room. But we can.

Making room for the world is a prescription for church health. It’s not the only thing the church needs to do to be healthy, but making room for the world involves so many things needed to be a healthy church that doing this one thing will accomplish much.

But it’s uncomfortable enough to make room for the world that it’s easier to be unhealthy.

Where I see our unhealth

An unhealthy church has many signs. Here are just a few.

An unhealthy church is preoccupied with its own survival. It is consumed with internal disputes. It is anxious about leadership. We are all three of these.

An unhealthy church is concerned about its size, its attractiveness, its status in the community. We are concerned about all of these and more.

An unhealthy church is more concerned about the law of the land than the spirit in the heart. It seeks political power, not Christlike humility. It confuses itself with Esther when it is called to be Daniel. We lust for legislating. We think we must be close to the seat of power.

Like an infirm body does not have the energy to think outside itself, we do not have the capacity to look beyond our infirmities. Our self-absorption is too full for us to have room for the world.

We know we are sick. We want to be healthy. But we opt for the pill, so we don’t have to change how we live.

How we seek ‘health’

Here are some of the pills we swallow.

We gladly identify with the church’s corporate successes and swiftly and strongly deny any responsibility for the church’s corporate failings. This is a shiny church that can’t carry the weight of the world it’s commanded to disciple.

God tells his people to care for the foreigner living among them as they would care for one of their own. We call ourselves “God’s people” and vote for leaders who promise to keep the foreigners out. This is a comforted church that can’t handle the complexity of the world it’s commanded to love.

Paul tells the Christians in Rome to rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. We fancy ourselves as Pauline Christians but have little regard for the weeping of our Christian brothers and sisters all over the world. This is a happy church that doesn’t have the strength to hold an unhappy world it’s commanded to serve.

But enough about what’s wrong with us. Let’s talk about how we get healthy, and I mean healthy enough to have room for the world.

How we get healthy

The church’s way to health, the way to having room for the world in obedience to Jesus, is simple yet hard. A passage from a novel paints a picture of the way.

“I do not know what the Master of the Universe has waiting for us. Certain things are given, and it is for man to use them to bring goodness into the world. The Master of the Universe gives us glimpses, only glimpses. It is for us to open our eyes wide” (the Rebbe to the young painter Asher Lev in My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok).

“To open our eyes wide” is a description of the church’s way to health, the kind of health that images Revelation 7:9, the uncountable “great multitude … from every nation, tribe, people, and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb.”

But it is only part of the way. First, we must accept that the Master of the Universe gives us only “certain things,” not everything; only “glimpses,” not the whole. We must accept we do not see everything nor do we know everything. Nor are we the sum total of the church.

In short, the church’s way to health is to give up the illusions of control and self-importance and to take up faith in Jesus, trusting ourselves to what he wants to do in and through us, even when it looks to all the world like failure and foolishness. It’s just that simple, and it’s just that hard.

This is the beginning of the church being healthy enough to have room for the world. There is more, but this is enough for today.

Except maybe to say where I see health in the church.

Where I see health

I see health when a group of Christians is filled with the Lord’s joy, celebrating one another’s physical and spiritual life, marveling at God’s provision.

I see health when a group of Christians hurts together, shoulder to shoulder, joining resources and strength to hold the hurting up and to carry the hurting through.

I see health when a group of Christians steps forward in faith to follow God’s lead when logic, the bank account, and conventional wisdom say stay put.

I see health when a group of Christians sets aside their individual preferences to make sure all are served well in Jesus’ name.

I see health when a global smorgasbord of people worships and follows the Lord together.

It isn’t easy. Not for me, anyway.

No one said it would be easy to make room for the world, but Jesus said to do it: “You will be my witnesses here, there, and the farthest parts of the Earth” (Acts 1:8, paraphrase). “Go, making disciples of all nations, baptizing them, and teaching them to follow everything I’ve commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20, paraphrase).

We can’t do what Jesus told us to do if we don’t have room for the world. From what I see, we don’t have the room. But we can.

Eric Black is the executive director, publisher, and editor of the Baptist Standard. He can be reached at eric.black@baptiststandard.com. The views expressed in this opinion article are those of the author.