In This Issue

¯     People: The Church’s Reason for Being

¯     Serving People—Milo Arnold

¯     Christlikeness: Marvelous Magnetism

¯     Transforming Obstacles

PEOPLE: THE CHURCH’S REASON FOR BEING

A church is superfluous without people. Churches need people as prospects, converts, and members. Without them, there would be no reason to preach, pray, study, or serve. Every Kingdom effort is intended to help people become more like their Lord.

Let’s celebrate the fact that people are every church’s most precious possession. Let’s focus ministry and programs and buildings and budgets on people. But how?

People need love. Even though some folks are hard to love, everyone needs unconditional love. Whatever the cause of their problems—injured, crippled, limping, abused—sheep need a shepherd to help them find healing and hope.

The injured need us most. Some folks have become spiritually deformed by years of gospel sterility and shriveled love. They feel abused, with good cause, by wrongs done to them in the name of righteousness, by unresolved conflicts, and by hurts from unfair gossip. They feel beat up from too many pastoral changes, and they feel anguish because their adult children may be abandoning the church.

People come before institutions. If human needs conflict with institutional priorities, human beings must come first—no question. While most of us really believe this concept, we may not always practice it. Our priority is to build great Christians and a church full of great Christians will soon make the church great.

People need an authentic church. A church will help believers and new people feel accepted when it is a place

            —to find strength for struggles

            —to connect with Christ-centered people

            —to receive and give love

            —to provide opportunities for service

            —to find vital faith for contemporary living

            —to be challenged to be more Christ-like

People bring satisfaction. What joy pastors feel when seekers come to Christ for forgiveness of sins. What satisfaction we experience when persons mature in Christ under our spiritual care. What delight we enjoy when they perform acts of courageous selflessness and show symptoms of deepening commitment.

People are hungry to know God. These days millions of spiritually empty secularists are searching for meaning. Listen to TV. Read national magazines. Check out the self-help and New Age sections of bookstores. Many of these hungry folks never consider church because they have heard it is rigid, out-dated, and irrelevant. They don’t realize what connectedness they could discover among the people of God.

When we evangelize or develop discipleship programs, our challenge is to focus on people. They are the reason Jesus died. Since He loved them that much, surely we must serve them gladly. They are the reason the Church exists. The Lord calls us to serve them—with their warts, idiosyncrasies, potential, and possibilities.

—Adapted from They Call Me Pastor, 67-70.

ADVICE FROM AN ESTEEMED MENTOR—MILO ARNOLD

The Glorious Satisfaction of Serving People

A pastor is not making discoveries in a test tube nor exploring the wonders of decaying dust. The minister is adventuring into the deep recesses of a human soul and probing the mysteries of persons who shall never cease to be. He is not building a cathedral which stands in dignity among other buildings but a person who stands in dignity before God himself. The minister does not give people things to live with but a meaning to live for. He does not place in their hands a tool for their convenience but in their hearts an aspiration toward God.

CHRISTLIKENESS: A MARVELOUS MAGNETISM FOR EVERY CHURCH

Christlikeness makes churches grow in two important ways. Christlikeness attracts new people—that means a larger attendance. Then, too, Christlikeness continually changes Christians into the image of our Lord—that’s quality growth at its best. Christlikeness attracts persons and Christlikeness keeps them coming. Let’s try to think together about how to make that happen.

¯     Christlikeness provides meaning. Searching people discover meaning when they see Christlike characteristics like love, forgiveness, grace, compassion, and caring lived out among the people of God.

¯     Christlikeness requires spiritual stretching. Like physical exercise conditions one’s body, this stretching strengthens one’s soul. As a result, the walk of God’s people becomes more appealing and inspiring to others.

¯     Christlikeness renews a congregation. To enjoy robust health, a church must frequently measure itself against Christlikeness. Like a healthy human body throws off infection, Christlikeness helps protect a church against germs of secularism and viruses of troubled relationships.

¯     Christlikeness makes a church uniquely different from any other institution or relationship. A supernatural passion fueled by miracles of grace makes a church different and special from any other agency, institution, or relationship. This attractiveness is more than a human induced emotional stir, an engaging musical beat, a slick preacher, or a charismatic-type service.

I mean a church where human trophies of God’s grace surround us. Addicts are set free. Sinners are forgiven. Believers seek God’s fullness. Marriages are healed. Persons are called into ministry. And society is led to the Redeemer by the redeemed.

¯     Christlikeness connects us to an incredible cause. Christlikeness does not cost a person or a congregation much—just everything. Every church can have His qualities of grace, His burden for the lost, and His enablement for ministry. What a combination!

Christ attracts. He draws people to Himself and challenges them with His demands and promises. He will make good on His promise, “I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself" (John 12:32, NIV).

—adapted from They Call Me Pastor.

TRANSFORMING OBSTACLES INTO OPPORTUNITIES

Take courage from Joshua. When he urged God’s people forward, he faced insurmountable odds. But listen to God’s extravagant promise to Joshua, “I will give you every place where you set your foot. . . . Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the great river, the Euphrates—all the Hittite country—to the Great Sea on the west. No one will be able to stand up against you all the days of your life. . . . I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Joshua 1:3-5). Who could ask for anything more? The hindrances seemed small compared to the promise.

All of this started my musing about how God can help us transform setbacks into comebacks. Here’s a short list:

¯     Transform apathy into achievement. Sometimes pastors expect people to invest more energy in Christian service than their spiritual life generates. Spiritual strengthening usually results in great achievement for the Kingdom.

¯     Transform hunger into spiritual development. A hollow emptiness exists in every human heart. Point them to Jesus who promises, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled” (Matthew 5:6).

¯     Transform division into reconciliation. God’s reconciling power is enough to heal old feuds, to eliminate competition between believers, and to quell struggles for control. And with reconciliation much of the spiritual short-circuiting in many churches disappears.

¯     Transform fuzziness into clarity. Fuzzy Bible teaching keeps sinners from salvation and hinders believers from spiritual growth. Current problems of doctrinal and moral confusion can only be solved with crystal-clear biblical preaching and teaching that can be easily understood by common folks.

Here’s a challenge: Take your most frustrating obstacles to God in straightforward prayer. Ask Him to turn them into your greatest blessings for the sake of His Kingdom—and He will.

—H. B. London/N. B. Wiseman, They Call Me Pastor

David McKenna has it right—

“We dare not fight intramural theological battles at a time of widespread search for spirituality among the general public and a specific desire for personal wholeness among believers.”

—Wesleyan Leadership in Troubled Times, 75

May Christ bring us peace and unity in this New Year. Shalom, sisters and brothers!

—Neil and Dan

Developed and edited by Dan Whitney and Neil Wiseman.

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