I’ve been thinking lately about the church and ways that we destroy one another. It has to delight Satan when he sees us spreading the spiritual cancer of discouragement throughout the body of Christ. Some of Satan’s most subtle but deadly work is reserved for the body of Christ.
About 12 years ago, just before moving to Waco, I was in another state talking with a small Christian College about the possibility of joining their faculty. While there, I expressed to my host that if time permitted that I would like to drive by the building of a church that I had heard about some years earlier. During those years this church received national attention for its ministry to children in their community. This was a church that many people saw as a good model. People from all over the nation visited this church for ideas and inspiration. My host told me that the church was not what it used to be. Most had left from all of the internal fighting and quarreling. We drove by their building and I was stunned. Weeds had grown up through the cracks of the unused parking lot. This church which once had close to a thousand people (a very large church in that part of the country) then had about 45 people.
This kind of presence in the community must delight Satan. Satan is delighted when we destroy ourselves from the inside.
Satan is delighted when we judge and critique one another. Our words to each another (about each other) must bring him great delight. Instead of encouraging one another in our ministries, we communicate to one another that others in the body just don’t measure up.
Satan is delighted when we constantly complain and whine. Our griping (like our Israelite forefathers from Moses’ day) reveals our immaturity and our failure to trust in God.
Satan is delighted when we preoccupy our leaders with our grumbling. As a result, they have less time to spend encouraging the weak and going after those who are drifting away from Christ. Keep ‘um busy in endless conversations over what we don’t like this week.
Satan is delighted when we destroy the confidence and most importantly the joy of our leaders. We ask them to serve in these roles and then hammer them. As a result, too many of these leaders lose their boldness and become hesitant and tentative. Instead of asking, “Does God want this done?” they fall into the fatal trap of trying to please people.
Satan is delighted when we give up. When dreamers go away. When the Spirit of God is quenched. When we become a people who have lost our sense of mission. When we quietly resign ourselves to the way it is.
The good news is that for generations, many Christians have said “No!” to the above. Many churches through the years have refused to continue down this path. Today’s church needs to constantly be repenting of the sinful behaviors, which hurt and damage the body of Christ.
I really do have hope. But–my hope is not in people. My hope is not in being a part of the church that does it just right. At this point in my life, I am more convinced than ever that our hope is in Christ and him alone. He is my hope as a man living in the 21st century. He is the churches’ hope for the present and future.