What Jesus' Church Is All About #church 04

Let me begin this post by asking how you would fill in the blank in the following question:

Jesus’ Church is all about ________

What would you put in this blank? 

When you think about Jesus’ Church, what’s the most important thing?  What’s the key distinctive that sums up what Jesus’ Church should be focusing on?  That’s what I’m getting at with this question.  

This is a question that’s been answered numerous ways in just my lifetime.  In the 1970’s and ‘80s when I was growing up in the Church, the answer seem to be “reaching the lost.”  The Church existed to tell those who don’t know Jesus about him and to invite them to receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior.  This was an idea that Billy Graham made famous and it became the hallmark of a lot of church communities.  

Because my church community believed Jesus’ Church was all about reaching the lost, we focused on methods of evangelism, sharing our faith, world missions, and we talked A LOT about the End Times.  This is the study of the prophetic and apocalyptic books of the Bible that talk about how the story of the world ends, culminating in Jesus’ return and God setting up his physical kingdom here on earth.  

I remember watching A Thief In The Night, A Distant Thunder, and the Image Of The Beast movies during Sunday night services (yes, we had Sunday night services back then).  Since then, we’ve been subjected to the Left Behind series as well.  Back then, we spent A LOT of time trying to decode the book of Revelation in the Bible, talking about how Russia was Gog or Magog and how the U.S. was going to be right in the middle of Armageddon, and how the different beasts were Black Hawk attack helicopters and on and on and on.  

We believed with all of our hearts that Jesus was going to come back any minute now and take all of his followers up into heaven with him in an event called “the Rapture.” Then the world would be destroyed as satan took over and did all the horrible things we believed we saw in the book of Revelation.  Everyone who didn’t get raptured would finally get what they deserved and they’d end up burning in hell forever and ever.

This way of thinking put a SERIOUS sense of urgency on telling people ABOUT Jesus as quickly and efficiently as we could.  A lot people asked Jesus to come into their hearts during the ‘70s and ‘80s because of this emphasis.  I’m one of them: I said the sinner’s prayer at seven years old, because I didn’t want to go to hell. 

Unintended Consequences

But there was a cost to this approach.  With so much emphasis put on evangelism, the Church in the U.S., became pragmatic, believing that the ends justify the means.  “Win the lost at any cost” became the cry of a lot of local church communities.  This mentality sanctioned a lot of ungodly behavior.  

Slowly Jesus’ Church became associated with fear mongering, high-pressure sales tactics, bait-and-switch schemes, and a unique brand of mean-spirited and impersonal evangelism.  We believed we could do assembly-line spiritual transformation.  

If we could get the person to say the Sinner’s Prayer - that’s all that mattered.  It didn’t matter what they did after that - their ticket to heaven was purchased and would be available at will-call, and their fire insurance policy was safe and secure.  I was a part of this world, and my soul died a little bit every time we left someone’s house who wasn’t interested in what we were selling, and my pastor said, “Well, they’ve been told.  It’s THEIR problem if they don’t do the right thing.”  

There was one more unintended consequence of this emphasis on evangelism - it became the litmus test for your authentic Christianity.  

“How many people did you tell about Jesus this week?” 

This was the question I heard so often as a teenager.  If you were honest and said, “none,” then the follow-up question would be, “Why not?” The barely unspoken question was, “Don’t you care about Jesus? Don’t you care about people who are going to hell?”  There was tremendous pressure to always be talking about Jesus so you could measure up.  I know I lied sometimes at youth group just so I wouldn’t have to deal with being publicly shamed by the people who represented Jesus’ Church.  

If this wasn’t your experience in the Church, then you are blessed. 

I feel like this isn’t what Jesus had in mind when he commanded us to go into all the world and tell people about him.  

To be fair to the church community of my youth, a lot of people made choices to follow Jesus because of the emphasis on evangelism.  I have strong opinions about how we demonstrate the Gospel of Jesus to the people around us, and I’m opposed to fear tactics.  But God knows the complex tapestry of a person’s life, and he accommodates even the most imperfect efforts to invite people to follow him.  A deep and abiding relationship with Jesus can grow even from the poor soil of being scared of going to hell.  

That said, I don’t recommend that approach when there are so many other life-giving ways to share the Gospel.  

What Do You Think?

I asked the question, “What you think Jesus’ Church is all about?”  This is an important question for you to answer for yourself, because how you answer shapes so much of your practice of being a follower of Jesus.  There's a fairly predictable pattern here that helps us understand this impact.  

The patten goes like this:

1. You answer the question: “Jesus’ Church is all about ______.”

2. _________ then drives your choices and behaviors.  

3. __________ becomes your litmus test for authentic Christianity.  

This is a well-established pattern in Jesus’ Church, and over the years, Jesus’ Church here in the U.S. has answered this question in so many ways.  

Here are a few examples.

“Jesus’ Church is all about keeping America a Christian nation.”  

This answer drives certain observable choices and behaviors.  It leads to church communities spending more and more time on politics, telling their people how to vote, spending countless hours influencing politicians, and attempting to gain control of key governmental and societal offices in an effort to legislate morality.  The litmus test that determines if you are an authentic follower of Jesus or not is the political party you endorse.

“Jesus’ Church is all about caring for the poor.” 

This seems like a really good answer to the question.  This answer leads to church communities pouring all of their time and efforts into social reform programs.  How many homeless programs, soup kitchens, and disaster relief teams your church community has becomes the measure of the community’s authenticity.  How many of these programs you’re personally involved in becomes the litmus test of your authentic faith in Jesus.  

“Jesus’ Church is all about signs and wonders.”  

This leads to local church communities spending the bulk of their time on Holy Spirit nights, prophetic conferences, and power evangelism outreaches.  “When was the last time you received a prophetic word or prayed for someone and they were healed?” becomes the litmus test for authentic Christianity.  

“Jesus’ Church is all about world missions.”  

“Jesus’ Church is all about orthodox theology.” 

“Jesus’ Church is all about community care.”  

“Jesus’ Church is all about recovery ministry and setting the captives free.”   

“Jesus’ Church is all about discipleship.”  

“Jesus’ Church is all about worship.”  

“Jesus’ Church is all about spiritual formation.”  

I’m sure there are more that could be listed.  Maybe you’ve experienced an interesting answer to this question in your own local church community experiences. 

How do you answer this question?  

What do you believe Jesus’ Church is all about?  

How does this show up in your choices and your behaviors - in how you spend your time, what you talk about, and what you do, in what you emphasize and care deeply about?  

When you look at another person who claims to be a follower of Jesus, how do you measure the authenticity of their Christian faith?  

What’s your litmus test for authentic Christianity right now?  

THE Litmus Test

As I said in the original post, all of these answers are wrong.  Certainly many (but not all) of these things are important and can be a part of our church community’s values and specific calling.  But none of these things is the correct answer to the question, “What is Jesus’ Church all about?” 

Here’s the answer:

Jesus’ Church is all about God’s love.  

God’s love for us, our love for God, and our love for others.  This leads to choices and behaviors we make that are rooted and motivated by God’s love.  And the litmus test for authentic Christianity becomes how well we demonstrate God’s love to one another. 

Some of you may be thinking to yourselves, “Oh come on, David.  That’s too broad.  It’s not specific enough for me to know what to do tomorrow when I get out of bed.”  But I think that’s actually part of the problem.  We want to narrow down this life with God to something more specific that we can get our hands on and control, but as humans it’s easy for us to lose sight of the forest because we spend all our time staring at one particular tree that’s very beautiful to us.  

Think of Jesus’ Church as a house God is building.  The foundation is the most important part.  Everything you build on top of the foundation relies on the foundation to be solid.  If the foundation crumbles or if it can’t stand up to the test of time, everything else is jeopardized as well.  

God’s love is the foundation for Jesus’ Church.  Everything we do has meaning only if the things we do are infused with God’s love.  The Apostle Paul says as much in 1 Corinthians 13:1-4:

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

When we make Jesus’ Church all about something other than God’s love, the biggest challenge is that you might end up doing the thing you’re doing WITHOUT God’s love.  That’s a terrible and meaningless place to be.  Missions, discipleship, evangelism, coaching, counseling, outreach, and everything else we discussed here can be done without love.  And when it is, we call it abuse.  

Everything we say and do as Jesus’ Church must be INFUSED with God’s love. 

Our evangelism, our missions, our social reform, our discipleship, our signs and wonders, our politics, our spiritual formation - they’re meaningless when they’re devoid of God’s love, regardless of what the statistics say or how big the church community is.  We want what we say and do to be vibrant and infused with God’s love for us, our love for God, and God's love for others.  

When Jesus’ Church is all about God’s love, it drives healthy and life-giving choices and behaviors.

That brings us to the litmus test again.  How will we know authentic Christianity when we see it?  Fortunately, Jesus himself answers this question in John 13:34-35 as he talks to his disciples, the founding members of Jesus’ Church.

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

These verses are so powerful.  You want a litmus test?  You want a key indicator?  Here it is: 

“How do you treat your fellow brother and sister who love Jesus?”

The litmus test is our love for one another. 

How you treat your fellow followers of Jesus is the litmus test.  

How do we love one another?  With the same kind of love that Jesus showed his disciples.  This is God’s love manifest in us as we love one another.  I get it: we want the litmus test to be something more solid, something that’s easier to measure, something where we can put a thermometer out in the lobby at our church building that shows how good we’re doing at this whole “love each other” thing.  We want something that appeals more to our empirical sense of truth.

But it really becomes as simple as loving one another well.  And if you’re uncertain what to do in a situation you find yourself in, you can literally go to the Bible and look and see how Jesus handled it.  For the majority of things, you can just do what he did.  However, you can’t drive people out of the temple, claim to be Messiah, or die on the cross for everybody’s sins, so exercise some wisdom as you read.  

The point is that we do our best to love like Jesus loves.  The way that God the Father loves.  

What do you think of my answer, “Jesus’ Church is all about God’s love”?

What resistance are you experiencing as you think about this answer?

What would happen in your own life if you were to adopt this answer for yourself?  

We’ll continue to explore God’s love and the implications of our love for our fellow followers of Jesus being the litmus test in future posts.