Reformation in the Church 2002

I am as guilty as everyone else when I think why change ‘this is the way we like it’; ‘isn’t it our church’?

May 1, 2016, the Mt. Olive Baptist Church, located in Greenwood (S.C.) County will celebrate its 142nd church anniversary. Many years Mt. Olive have been a church that loved people, gave without limits and took great care of its members. The last five of those one hundred and forty-two years, I have been honored to serve as pastor of this great church. Although this is a great church, Mt. Olive and many churches like it are plagued with a disease that has slowly, but surely, causing the church to drift further away from God and fall deeper into the ways of the world. This epidemic is known as “tradition”. Churches that are bound by tradition and not led by the Holy Spirit will find themselves missing the mark of what God has called us to do. The bible is filled with instructions for the church, but as Christians and Disciples of Christ, Matthew 28 is the foundation upon which we should be operating on in the church as well as in our lives. The Great Commission challenges us to “go, teach and preach to all nations.” Traditional churches will allow church tradition to dictate biblical doctrine. It will allow the church to argue about who’s right instead of what’s right. Sadly, church success has been based on structure and finances rather than saving lost souls.

According to the authors, Rainer and Geiger, “simple churches” or dynamic churches, experience a steady increase in the number of members that join their church each year. Churches that experience this annual growth in membership are more likely to have established programs and events that effectively share the gospel with the unsaved and aid in the progression of the church’s congregants’ spiritual development. Paradoxically, churches who do not experience this growth are likely to be “complex churches,” which have ineffective ministries that fail to evangelize and aid in the progressive of congregants’ spiritual development. Rainer and Geiger offer the church leader a

“On this rock I will build My Church.” This is the timeless promise Jesus gave as he spoke to Peter in Matthew 16:18. Over the ages this bell of truth has rung resoundingly throughout church history, as the church has experienced periods of growth and decline. It provides assurance for churches as a whole. The Church must remember that Christ is it’s head and that only by his power will a congregation experience revival and revitalization.

Robert Morris writes a book about the essentials of Church growth and it's development. Having made that statement, the book achieves its own manner of possessing small nuggets of wisdom. Although, that pill was extremely hard to want to swallow as Robert Morris' book is comprised of the typical attitude of mega church pastors even down to the organizational community approach needed to guide a church, all of this is exceedingly evident in part three. The premise of this book is good that we would want our church's to be blessed and be a blessing. Though the premise was good and had good intention, he tends to have shortsighted view based upon the way he envisions church versus the holistic view of what church should be as a whole.

God is using the church to restore broken lives. We should greet each other warmly and compliment the good things in each other’s lives. The author makes a distinction between compliments an entertainer might receive as opposite a ministry-oriented church. An entertainer might hear things related to looks and performance whereas a church member would hear things related to how you were helped by the message and song. Churches that move ahead anticipate mistakes because they know that people are not perfect. They allow the members to grow and exercise their spiritual gifts and skills for the edification of the body. The church leadership is to encourage spiritual growth, but some in leadership may be uncomfortable letting people discover and use their gifts because it might not be in the style they are comfortable with. It might look like, “it is our way or the highway.” “And the church becomes paralyzed because it can’t tolerate the possibility of somebody messing things up.” (p. 109) David Mains sites two main church areas that are prone to perfectionism. They are the kitchens and sanctuaries. Heaven forbid, someone comes in and puts the spoons in a different drawer or the pots on a different shelf. The women in the church have strong feeling about how a kitchen should be organized. The church members can either work it out or eliminate the kitchen. The

Lack of community – Happens when leaders allow a church to become one that does not invite fellow believers to speak truth and love into our lives.

A sentiment common to almost any organization is that the one fact that remains constant is change. As society changes, and human understanding grows, any organization that maintains a static posture, assures its demise. Churches and Christian organizations are no exception. The gospel may remain the same, but the method for communicating it must speak to the audience to assure understanding. The Christian leader must be prepared to meet this challenge by incorporating an effective model for change into his theology of leadership in order to keep the ministry relevant and effective. Searching for such a change agent can prove to be challenging as well. To aid in this search, four

The Reformation was one of the biggest times of change in the Church’s history. Before I share my opinion of what I believe should have been done, I would like to explain what was happening in the Church during this time. There were many problems that led to church reform. Two of these were the Babylonian Captivity and the Great Schism. These events moved the Church to France and then elected a second Pope. This made the people unsure of if they would be able to trust the Church. There was also a conflict with Emperor Frederick II in the 1300’s. But the main reason the people lost faith was because of corruption; for example, the clerical immorality, ignorance, and pluralism. The members of the Church no longer acted as clergymen should. They

Simply forming the action team can serve as the spark. Change in one area of a congregation has a ripple effect, touching other areas of the church.

Many of the things discussed above are effective and lead to a more well-balanced Sunday service. Let us observe the idea of delegating tasks to others. If only one person tried to tackle all the responsibilities that were required to operate the church, one could quickly become overloaded. This may possibly lead to the individual suffering spiritually. Therefore, regular meetings are a great way to allow everyone’s voice to be heard. Someone else’s ideas can trigger another way for something to be established. We are only human and we can make mistakes and have to rethink what we originally thought was an accurate and efficient idea. Churches operate much more efficiently with a team rather than an

Our churches have too many activities; they are too busy to do the things that really matter.

if you were to mess with my house or my wife, I would definitely not stand back and watch it happen. Just imagine how God feels when IMPERFECT HUMANS, who think they have it all figured out, take shots at His eternal institution. Many of the criticisms I have read on Facebook and seen in various articles and blogs are far from being helpful and encouraging. You see, God's Church is here to stay. Even an imperfect pastor, such as myself, can't mess up God's Church.

A return to diversity clearly benefits the ex-churched mostly; however, even they tend to view the Church sentimentally as a old haunt. The ex-churched resist attending church on a weekly basis, yet do not desire meaningful liturgical reform for they consider the Church as the custodian of their earliest childhood memories of church life. Ultimately, the ex-churched share the same faulty religious conditioning as their well-churched cousins. Both constituencies thereby define modern renditions of Biblical Tradition as vulgar and crass, which in turn, inspires status quos inside dying parishes to claim further support from outside the Church.

Take a look around the modern church, and a major demographic is missing. Leadership positions in the church are extremely male dominated. Women have long been a discussion point for the world wide church. As cultural opinions have become more liberal, the Christian community begins to follow suit. However, there are still many churches that hold to their original beliefs. A shift in rules for the church is something to stir questions. If Christians preach only biblical truth, then how can their ideals change? The Bible has not changed at all over time, but has the church changed? There are many ways to answer this question. Perhaps the most significant area of change is in leadership roles.