Jump Start # 3862
Isaiah 55:8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,’ declares the Lord.”
I was reading some pages in Alexander Campbell’s Millennial Harbinger the other day and ran across this statement from Campbell: “A church can do what an individual disciple cannot, and so can a district of churches do what a single congregation cannot.” And, if we were to add more to that we’d say, “A nation of churches can do what a district of churches cannot, and further, a worldwide of churches can do what a nation of churches cannot.”
Campbell was taking some heat and even being called on the carpet for changing his views about cooperation and churches working together. The returning spirit of the restoration was a process. Some did better than others did in getting back to the N.T. ways. Many got it in salvation and worship, but didn’t see it through when it came to the work of the church and how churches cooperate.
To justify district and later national missionary societies, which Campbell was the first president, a picture of a horse pulling a log was used. When two or four horses were hitched up and pulling that log, it was much easier and faster. That image opened the door for many congregations to pull resources, establish organizations larger and outside the church to do the work God intended the church to do.
The theory was logical. More churches working together could do better work than a single congregation on it’s own. And, that was all it took for a major civil war to be fought among brethren in the late 1800s. The Sand Creek (Illinois) declaration of the late 1880s declared that those who refused to leave the innovations of instrumental music and missionary society would no longer be considered brethren. Across the nation, divisions took place. Lawsuits followed as to who would have access to the finances and the church buildings. And, what came of that was the division of the Christian church and the Churches of Christ. In places like Indiana, for every ten congregations, nine went with the progressive innovations.
Our verse today reminds us that our ways are not God’s ways. We may try to out think God. We may believe that we have a better and more efficient way. We may think that what we develop is modern, workable and makes sense. It does to us. But, God has established what He wants.
In the development of the tabernacle, God declared that there would be 50 golden claps to hold the curtains up. Why fifty? Why not forty-five? Forty-five would probably get the job done and be cheaper. And, on paper, forty-five seems logical, reasonable, economical and sensible. The only problem is that forty-five is not Biblical. What is Biblical is what the Lord says.
Campbell missed it when he failed to see how churches cooperate in the N.T. If the pattern for worship matters and if the pattern for salvation mattes, then the pattern for how churches work together also matters.
Here are some thoughts:
First, when we try to out think God, we miss it. We miss it every time. Our faith is defined by trusting God. We may think that we have a better way, and when our minds go that way, we have lost trust. God has said what He has for a reason.
Churches could raise a lot more money if they engaged in selling things. But, that’s not the Bible way. Hiring PR firms to do some marketing and growth projects may work in the business community, but that’s not the Bible way.
Dropping controversial topics. Going easy on doctrine. Pushing feelings and telling stories may bring audiences to tears and give everyone warm fuzzies, but that’s not the Bible way.
Second, God has never asked someone to do what they cannot do. The same goes for a church. God has provided all the tools and the avenues for His work to be accomplished. The word of God is sufficient to get us to Heaven. We don’t need anything else. The church is capable of doing what God expected it to do. It is sufficient to do that work. Otherwise, God expects things that we cannot do. And, we are left to ourselves to figure out what’s the best way to accomplish those things. God has never left things up to us to figure out.
Third, the problem of what makes sense, human nature and what seems logical, is that those are the very things that got us in trouble with God to begin with. God’s way did not lead us to corruption and sin. Our ways did that. God’s way did not lead to slavery and sorrow. Our ways did. So, when we start talking about what makes sense or what seems logical, or what looks efficient, we best pause and open our Bibles. Our ways are not His ways. Our ways will not get us to Heaven. Our ways don’t work.
Simple faith is trusting in the Lord. God knows what He is doing. Just follow the Lord.
Roger