No one likes the Church the way it is. No one. Even its staunchest supporters know it’s not perfect. So let’s find out what’s wrong and fix it. Then everyone will feel good; the critics will shut up; we’ll finish the work; Jesus will come....
Good idea? Probably not. Unlikely, too, for every member of the Church is a sinner, living precariously on the threshold of sin. No, the prospects for a perfect church aren’t good. Indeed, depending on the definition, a “perfect” Church could be a hazard to God’s work.
Definition is the first problem. We must be in the world, not of the world. But trying to spell out what that means divides us. Some want more contact with the world; others less. An agreed definition of “perfect” eludes us.
The perfect Church is where imperfect people know a lot about forgiveness.
In one sense a “perfect” Church may be possible. But first, let’s ponder the hazards if we were to somehow agree on a definition of the “perfect” Church and see it become a reality:
1. Short-lived perfection. C. S. Lewis said, “As soon as good taste knows itself, it loses some of its goodness.” Waking up some bright morning with the suspicion that I am perfect would be the clearest evidence that I am not. Among sinners, true goodness is an innocent goodness which cannot imagine how good it is. To be aware of our own goodness taints the goodness with pride and snatches it from our grasp. How could a Church ever know itself to be perfect without being arrogant?
2. The wistful sinners without. If I were a basket case out in the world, caught in a miserable web of habits and addictions, how could I ever turn to a “perfect” Church for help? How could I darken its doors and threaten its reputation by my miserable presence? I would want to clean up my act first. Imagining a “perfect” Church tempts me to think that I must earn God’s favor, a deadly variant of that demonic impossibility, salvation by works.
3. The remorseful sinners within. If I were a member of a “perfect” Church, I would not know what to do with my sin. Even if I rein in my external behavior, how could I ever be honest with my crooked heart? Would I be brave enough to admit that because of me, the Church is no longer perfect? I fear that imagining the Church to be “perfect” simply invites Pharisees to thank God that they are not like other people. Remorseful believers could not confess their sin and their need to each other and before God.
In Luke 18:9-14, Jesus held up the tax collector and his prayer as a model for us: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” Jesus called him neither sinless nor perfect, but justified: “This man went down to his home justified.”
For daily Christian living, that status of being “justified” (rather than perfect or sinless) is crucial, for we never have to calculate when we are bad enough to confess again. We are always sinners, and the prayer of confession is always right; and God’s standing promise is that we may go home “justified.”
Jesus’ last word on the Pharisee and the publican was that “all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.” Our dilemma is that when we have humbled ourselves, we have to fight the urge to be proud of our humility—thus standing in the need of humbling again. The only safe conclusion is that humbling is the sinner’s work—always; exalting is God’s work—always. Any definition of a “perfect” Church which tempts us to exalt ourselves cannot be right.
For good reason, the Church needs to attract solid citizens. And it’s right to be concerned about reputation. Even Paul said elders should be “well thought of by outsiders” (1 Tim. 3:7). But the best of the good news is that the Church is a place for sinners—a place where we may revel in God’s grace and grow into His likeness.
A sinner is always a sinner, just as an alcoholic is always an alcoholic. And in at least one key respect, that organization which is such a help to alcoholics— Alcoholics Anonymous (AA—models what the Church should be. Those who attend AA sessions never do so to justify or reinforce their alcoholic impulses; they go because they want to be free. Whether they have been dry for years or have just fallen again, all those alcoholics come together to help each other. That’s what the Church should do and be.
And in that connection, we can speak of a “perfect” Church: if a “perfect” Bible contains “imperfect speech,” to borrow lines from Ellen White Selected Messages 1:22, then a “perfect” Church consists of “imperfect” people who know about sin, grace, and forgiveness. As Henri Nouwen said, “Forgiveness is the name of love among people who love poorly. The hard truth is that all of us love poorly. We do not even know what we are doing when we hurt others. We need to forgive and be forgiven every day, every hour—unceasingly. That is the great work of love among the fellowship of the weak that is the human family” (“Weavings” vii. 2).
The perfect Church is where imperfect people know a lot about forgiveness.
Alden Thompson serves as professor of biblical studies at Walla Walla University. This article comes from the Gleaner, the North Pacific Union magazine. Reprinted with permission.
WORLD CHURCH: ‘PROCLAIMING GOD’S GRACE’ IS NEXT GC SESSION THEME
By Elizabeth Lechleitner/ANN
We Have This Hope. Now is the Time. Almost Home. Transformed in Christ. When members of the Seventhday Adventist Church’s General Conference (GC) Session Theme Committee reviewed past GC Session themes, they noticed not one mentioned grace.
“We said to ourselves, ‘as a denomination, we believe in grace; why shouldn’t it be our theme?’” says Pastor Gerry Karst, general vice president of the Adventist world church and chair of the committee. So, when Adventist delegates from across the globe gather in Atlanta, Georgia for the church’s 59th GC Session in 2010, it will be under the theme Proclaiming God’s Grace.
But is a GC theme anything more than a formality? Karst admits that traditionally, the answer to that question would have been “no.” However, during the last GC Session in St. Louis, Missouri in 2005, he says the theme became “more of a force driving many of the devotions, worships and presentation topics.”
For 2010, Karst expects that trend to continue. He says each speaker, worship director and even music coordinator will aim to “amplify” various aspects of grace. Proclaiming God’s Grace will “give the delegates something around which to rally,” he explains. “[The theme] will give the session spiritual direction and help presenters focus on a very important element of [Adventist] belief.”
Source: Adventist News Network.” Established in 1994, Adventist News Network is the official news agency of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and is a function of the Communication department at the Seventh-day Adventist Church World Headquarters. Our news includes dispatches from the church’s international offices and the world headquarters. news.adventist.org
