Christ’s church is glorious!

Church life can be messy and progress slow. Yet, as James Hammond reminds us from his experience in Bordeaux, it is a great privilege to be part of Christ’s glorious church.

Imagine you buy a new home and move into it. As the years go on, cracks appear on the walls, and the floor seems to slope to one side. You realize that your house is sinking. It will require a lot of work to repair the foundation. And here is the thing: once it’s fixed, no one will see it. No one will notice. You would rather spend time, energy and money renovating the inside with new paint and furniture, or brighten up the façade because that’s what people see. That’s what looks impressive. Foundation work is largely unseen because it’s underground! However, we all know that if the foundation isn’t solid, it’s foolish to renovate a house that will eventually collapse under its own weight.

Strengthening the foundation

The church that I pastor requires foundation work. The church wasn’t sinking, thankfully. She had taken some hard hits in the past and needed to go back to the fundamentals. We’ve had to ask ourselves: what is the gospel? Why does our confession of faith matter? What is a local church? Who are the members? Why have a membership covenant? What is the goal of corporate worship on Sunday? How should the church be governed? What is church discipline? What should characterize the life and activities of our church? What is the mission of the church?

As you read the questions above, I’m sure they didn’t move you to the edge of your seat. Why bother? Shouldn’t I focus more on missional endeavours like evangelism and outreach… you know, the attractive stuff that we like to see and read about. After all, you are reading a missionary magazine! Well, I certainly don’t believe it’s an ‘either-or’ question. The church needs to do both. But I would argue that having strong foundations enables the church to make disciples more effectively and will have major benefits in the long run for handling church growth and conflicts.

Foundations for growth

Growth in numbers adds pressure and weight to the church family in the same way that adding another level to a house increases pressure on the foundation. We all want to see more baptisms and an increase in church numbers. I can’t imagine anything more wonderful! But I think we need a dose of realism. Making disciples of Christ doesn’t end at conversion. It’s only the beginning. It continues as we gather to listen to the Word, pray, take communion, serve and love one another (see Matthew 28:18-20 and Acts 2:41-47). And this is not easy work. People come to Christ with their sin and hurts—all the good, the bad and the ugly within them. Church life is messy. Our Lord Jesus warned us about wolves in sheep’s clothing coming into the fold (Matthew 7:15). Paul warned Timothy about ‘itching ears’ that gather false teachers (2 Timothy 4:3). Peter warned us that we have an enemy on the prowl (1 Peter 5:8). The strength of our foundation will be tested by church growth and conflicts.

That’s why I’m revisiting the foundations. I don’t want to build on something that will collapse ten years down the road. I don’t want to experience sudden growth that will crumble at the first hit. Below I will sum up my experience and thoughts from the past three years in Bordeaux-Bègles: it’s slow work, but a sovereign and glorious work.

Slow work

It’s slow work. It’s not just about rewriting a few church documents and storing them in a dusty cupboard (or on the church’s cloud/Google Drive). It requires leading members and visitors to see why such things are essential. It involves preaching and teaching and seminars. It involves being intentional with membership meetings. It involves patience because there are members who just don’t get it. It involves humility because I’m so prone to pride, and the Lord continually shows me that I can do nothing by sheer drive or willpower other than become a bully.

Thankfully this is not a work I’ve been doing alone. The Lord has blessed the church with three godly elders whom I value more than words can describe. We meet twice a month, once on a Thursday night and then on a Saturday morning. The Saturday morning meeting is entirely dedicated to training. We study 9Marks books which cover topics related to building healthy churches, and we study hermeneutics—how to faithfully interpret and apply the Scriptures. There is so much work that needs to be done. It feels overwhelming. I sometimes ask myself if I even know what I’m doing. I feel like I’m groping in the dark towards objectives that I can hardly see. I’m grateful to my church association, Action Biblique France, who provide encouragement and direction, and to GBM and Pantiles Baptist Church who provide spiritual support and guidance.

Sovereign work

It’s a sovereign work. There are two passages that have helped me see this. The first is the words of Jesus in Matthew 16:18: ‘I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.’ The Lord Jesus is the head and captain of his church. He builds it and leads it, and there is no power on earth or in hell that can frustrate his plans. Jesus is powerful. Jesus is unstoppable. Jesus is gathering a people to himself and deploying the power of the resurrection to bring people from spiritual death to life, from the domain of darkness into the kingdom of light. Jesus builds his church through the preaching of his powerful word—what wonderful news!

The second passage is 1 Corinthians 3:7: ‘So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.’ I want to serve faithfully and zealously. But I know that he alone sovereignly decides to give growth. I want to build on Christ as the only solid foundation. But ultimately, no matter my efforts, no matter how well or poorly I do things, only God gives fruit, and I need to remind myself daily that he alone is sovereign over the church’s growth.

Glorious work

It’s a glorious work. It’s easy to show up on a Sunday morning and not be impressed. Attendance is low, again! Why aren’t all the members here? Why do we feel small and insignificant? We need to remember that our little local church is part of God’s glorious heavenly universal church. The church is God’s masterpiece through which he shows the world his glory and wisdom! It is a community of people who are different from each other in the eyes of the world but who live together in unity and love because they have a common faith in Christ. That’s why Paul says these breathtaking words about the place of the church in God’s plan: ‘so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord’ (Ephesians 3:10-11). Each time we gather, we are reminding ourselves that we belong to something so much bigger and glorious and eternal than any human earthly institution. It is glorious to be a member of Christ’s body, his bride, his temple, his people, his church!