The Unresponsive Church Pt.6

In our present series of posts, seasoned pastor (and long-time pastor of pastors) John Benton has been steering us through what unresponsiveness is, what causes it and how we can handle it if we are serving the Saviour in the local church. Having painstakingly diagnosed the problem and prescribed concerted prayer and considered preaching in previous articles, Dr Benton now concludes on a note of hope:

Preaching that seeks to address unresponsiveness needs follow-up and follow-through. As leaders of God’s flock, we have to become role models of the kind of enthusiasm and obedience we desire to see in our people. The apostle Peter calls us to be examples to the flock (1 Peter 5.3b), and the unresponsive congregation needs not simply to hear the truth presented powerfully, but to see the truth lived out enthusiastically.

We will never be sinless as leaders but…

Do you long to see your people zealous for evangelism? Then you must be zealous for evangelism. Do you long to see your people’s love for Christ expressed in sacrificial giving? Then you must give sacrificially. Do you long to see your people keen not simply to hear but to obey the word of God? Then you must be someone who takes heed of your own sermons. There must be consistency in practising what we preach.

It is a terrible thing when the reverse is true. The life of a pastor or the lives of other elders can become an excuse for God’s people to be less than out and out for Christ. It is a terrible thing when the very idols which have brought such deadness to the church, have actually been planted and maintained by the leadership – for example, the idols of money, security, family, love of power, love of ease etc.

The NT is keen for us to honour, not the comfortable in the church, but those who have risked all for Christ:

I think it is necessary to send back to you Epaphroditus, my brother, co-worker and fellow soldier, who is also your messenger, whom you sent to take care of my needs. For he longs for all of you and is distressed because you heard he was ill. Indeed he was ill, and almost died. But God had mercy on him, and not on him only but also on me, to spare me sorrow upon sorrow. Therefore I am all the more eager to send him, so that when you see him again you may be glad and I may have less anxiety. So then, welcome him in the Lord with great joy, and honour people like him, because he almost died for the work of Christ. He risked his life to make up for the help you yourselves could not give me. (Philippians 2.25-30)

Charity in perseverance

It may be that in God’s goodness things will change overnight – there will be a mini-revival, and suddenly everyone is in earnest for the Lord. This is what happened to the congregation of Jonathan Edwards. Revival broke out. But it is more likely that such a change in the church will take quite some time. So the pastor will need to persevere – to stick at it in prayer and preaching and setting an example. This could be a matter of months. It could take years of faithful wrestling with the situation.

Also it is unlikely that people will thank you for pointing out their sins and their idols and bringing conviction to their consciences. Rather there may well be – at least at first – a backlash against you. You might well face scowls and plots and perhaps worse, just as Jesus did from the Pharisees. But you will need to remain calm and keep on loving them – be charitable. It is not easy to have idols exposed and be called to repent:

And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. Opponents must be gently instructed, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will. (2 Timothy 2.24-26)

Expectancy in purpose

There needs to be encouragement, hopefulness – an anticipation of good things as we lay aside our idols and go God’s way. Being gloomy won’t help. For good parenting, the wisdom is that normally praise for a child should outweigh correction by about three to one. That is not a bad rule of thumb to transfer to the church. Whenever you see a move in the right direction, no matter how small, encourage that Christian with some form of ‘well done in your conversation with them.

And pray and expect the Lord to work. After all it is surely his will that his churches be the best that they can be to his glory. Your purpose is to wake the church up, to see new enthusiastic obedience, so be enthusiastic yourself. This will help motivate people. Yes – we will need to castigate sin and lukewarmness, but we must also preach up the promises of God – believe them ourselves – and be generally upbeat about what God will do among us as we trust and obey.

“Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it. I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe.” savs the LORD Almiahty. “Then all the nations will call vou blessed, for vours will be a deliahtful land,” says the LORD Almighty. (Malachi 3.10-12.)

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