The Unresponsive Church Pt.3

In our present series of posts, seasoned pastor (and long-time pastor of pastors) John Benton steers us through what unresponsiveness is, what causes it and how we can handle it if we are serving the Saviour in the local church. In this week’s instalment, he thinks through how idolatry can infiltrate small and large churches in specific ways, contributing to their unresponsiveness:

As we have seen, idolatry is the major cause of spiritual deadness – and of course, if you wanted to rephrase all we’ve said in terms of ‘the world, the flesh and the devil’, that would be legitimate – as idolatry very often equates with those things. But the point to make now is that although idolatry is the major cause of deadness/sleepiness in congregations, that deadness is likely to gain even more of a grip if idolatry dwells (even unconsciously) among the leadership.

We find this pattern highlighted in the OT. There is often a formula which introduces kings and spells this out. After the division, Jeroboam set up the two golden calves (north and south), and he is charged with ‘causing Israel to sin’, (1Kings 12.30; 1 Kings 16.26; 2 Kings 13.2 etc.) Or again, the priests of Ezekiel’s day (before the destruction of the temple) engaged in idolatry which drove the LORD from his temple, Ezekiel 8.12.

Leaders / elders are called to be examples to the flock (1 Peter 5.3). If they engage in various forms of ‘acceptable idolatry’ – perhaps love of power, reputation, comfort or love of money – then others in the congregation will see these as acceptable. They will follow suit, and a deadness will come to the church. Sadly, I have very often observed a correlation between those who are leaders in evangelical churches and those who earn the biggest salaries in those churches. I’m not saying this should never happen but maybe it is too common.

In the NT, the qualifications for eldership not only particularly highlight avoiding love of money (and what it can achieve) – but also emphasize appointing as leaders those who are outstanding for selfless service (1 Corinthians 16.15-17).

There can be idolatry in both small churches and large churches. All idolatry leads to spiritual deafness and blindness.

Small church mentality

Here the church is weak in numbers, and this is perceived as a threat to its very existence. What happens then is that a commendable loyalty to the church and a concern for its continuance become perverted into an idol. The continued existence of the church takes on proportions which almost mean more to the members than the gospel or even God himself.

Often it is not just the survival of the church which is the issue but the survival of the church in its current form. That’s the idol. The congregation become wedded to the past and makes more of ‘how things used to be’ than it ought. This being the case, they will not hear any word, even if it is from the Lord, about change. New ideas are rejected out of hand. Of course, the gospel must not be changed, but this church sees everything as a threat, has circled the wagons and taken on a siege mentality which will hear of no innovations. The idol of the past has blinded them to God’s power for the future. In Jesus’ parable, the man with one talent was dominated by fear and not only hid his gift rather than putting it to work, but also adopted a very perverse view of his master (Matthew 25.24, 25). A siege mentality will also mean that the church becomes resistant to new members with alternative thoughts from themselves – even if these people are good Christians.

Large church mentality

It can be that the desire to become a large church becomes an idol for the church and for its leadership. There is a concern for reputation which outstrips the love and true worship of the Lord in our hearts. Think of Revelation 3.1-2: ‘I know you have a reputation for being alive, but you are dead. Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of my God.’

Notice as Jesus addresses the church in Sardis that reputation had led to sleepiness – the Lord calls them to wake up. They are not remembering the gospel and therefore have slacked off on obedience. It is because they feel no need of obedience. They have the reputation they crave: ‘We are ‘Christ Church’ or ‘St Mary’s’ or whatever.’

Not only so, but as a church grows it can attract other Christians with a concern to be associated with a ‘successful’ church. This need not lead to lack of responsiveness but it does open up avenues for spiritual deadness. A large church can draw in Christians whose concern is simply to ‘enjoy’ the ministry but not particularly get involved in ministry. They prize the pastor’s preaching and teaching gifts, but they have little intention of using their own gifts in service. This sets something of an example to others and again can lead to a comfortable but unresponsive congregation.

Further, when a church becomes large, it often takes a decision to move away from the NT pattern of the church as the body of Christ with every member involved in service. Instead it appoints staff to lead the children’s work and the youth work and do counselling among women and to run the evangelism of the church and look after the finances and administration and so on. But we need to be careful here because if we go too far down this route then ordinary church members will begin to say, ‘I don’t need to get involved – we pay other people to run the children’s work or the seniors’ ministry etc! This means that challenges from the pulpit to be up and doing for Christ tend to fall on deaf ears. And when Christians are ‘set free’ from service, the idols of our times will begin to creep in and say ‘you can serve me instead – you’ve got plenty of time. Look after yourself. Stay comfortable’

Summary

So here is a little bit of an analysis of some of the causes of the unresponsive congregation. We have seen areas to check if the congregation is unresponsive. Perhaps we could summarise it like this:

idolatry + leadership issues + size issues = unresponsiveness

Aware of our own failings, it might look rather dire, but it gives us food for thought. And don’t give up. There is real hope. Let me just take you back to that pastor’s description of his unresponsive church we mentioned in the first of this series of articles. People were distracted, more concerned with who was there in church on a Sunday and their worldly business than Christ. Which church was it? It was actually the church of Jonathan Edwards in Northampton, New England, in the early 1730s. But then, as history gloriously tells us, in 1734 to 1735 everything changed. The Holy Spirit came in power. Unresponsive churches can be transformed!

Dr Benton has graciously allowed us to share materials on this theme which originally appeared in booklet form on his Pasta Pastor website.