The Constipated Church
/
Pride
and Prejudice, a novel by Jane Austen, is a classic study in the
haughtiness of man. In 1995 the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) created a
miniseries from the book that starred Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle. In one
scene Mr. Bingley confronts his friend, Mr. Darcy, about seeing Jane Bennet in
London and unabashedly asks, “You tell me now that she was in London all
those months, and you concealed it from me?” Darcy’s reply, “Yes; I can offer
no justification. It was an arrogant presumption based on a failure to recognize
your true feelings. And Miss Bennet's!”
Arrogant presumption is an issue in
some churches because leadership thinks too highly of what their church is and
fails to recognize what Christ wants for the congregation. They assume they are
a strong and influential church when in reality they are constipated – that is,
so full of their history that they bloat their own importance. They reside in
the past, resting on ancient laurels rather than being steadfast in the present
for what God desires them to be now.
I was once
told by a pastor that his church was a leadership church. He and a few of his supporting
elders prided themselves on the fact that their church formed many ministries
and was highly influential in the area. I thought to myself, “What is a
leadership church? Does it mean that it is setting a trend that other churches quickly
follow? Or does it mean that the church was so progressive that other churches
looked toward it for direction?” Although I believed the church had many fine
qualities, it was far from a “leadership church.” In fact, the leadership was
conflicted in vision and direction; and really didn’t have a pulse on the true
needs of the sheep that had started wandering to other pastures. In other
words, the church was in decline some five or six years after its high point and
leadership refused to recognize it.
Constipation
makes us concentrate on “me” and when we do, we forget that the church is not
ours, but Christ’s. How soon we forget that the church is an assembly of
professing Christians who come together to worship Christ, obey his word, and
promote his gospel (Rom. 16:5; Col. 4:15)! As
a people of Christ, we are the body of the redeemed, for we are part of all the
elect given to Christ by the Father (John 10:29). The Church belongs to Christ, for he is the Good Shepherd who surrendered his
life for the sheep (John 10:11).
And if the Church is Christ’s, then leadership must get off their high horse
and submit to the lordship of Jesus, for he is the head of the Church (Eph. 5:23).
When
leadership fails to see the stages of decline in their church, they actually
participate in its downfall. For the most part, they wear rose colored glasses
and see a wonderful church, a family church, and an active church. But like the
person who has cancer growing on the inside of his body and yet seems very
healthy at the moment, the local church may seem fine but internally a disease
is eating away and will eventually surface causing debilitation and possible
death. That disease is for the most part “failed leadership.” Leaders are to
see through the lens of Scripture and rule the local church as appointed by
Christ.
The Church at
Laodicea
The Church
at Laodicea is an example of the constipated church. They were rich in material
goods and so wealthy they had need of nothing, but spiritually were wretched,
poor, and blind (Rev. 3:17). Laodicea
was a prosperous banking center; so, proud of its wealth that it refused Roman
disaster relief after the earthquake of A.D. 60, and was therefore rebuilt from
its own resources. It was also known for its textiles (especially wool), for
its medical school, for its production of ear medicine as well as the highly
reputed Phrygian eye salve.
The church though wealthy became
complacent in the spread of the gospel. They thought they needed nothing and
didn’t realize that their spiritual condition was one of misery and poverty. Whatever
we have as individuals or as a church really belongs to the Lord. What we do
with it belongs to us. The problem is that we have the tendency to hoard our
capital and keep it for a rainy day. Ironically, being a wealthy church may be
a deterrent to spreading the true gospel, for it keeps our focus on the earthly
rather than the heavenly. For instance, during the 1980’s there was the push
toward the mega church. Bigger churches had the money, the people, the
programs, and the reputation. They concentrated on technique and expansion and
acted like the gurus of the “here and now” church growth movement. Pastors of some
smaller churches became envious of those who had huge churches. They too became
constipated because of their worldly desires enticing them to be bigger and
greater. But money can’t buy love, particularly the love of Christ. In fact, riches
could easily be detrimental to spiritual growth, especially if we claim the
Lord blessed us with it, but do nothing for the enhancement of the kingdom on
earth.
When we don’t grow spiritually, we
become lukewarm just like the Laodiceans. Christ knew their deeds like he knows
ours. They were neither cold nor hot, for either condition would have been
pleasing to the Lord (Rev. 3:15).
Laodicea was located on the Lycus River in the same province with Hierapolis
and Colossae. Hierapolis was where hot springs were located to the north above
Laodicea. Colossae was located to the south, but at higher elevation than
Laodicea; it had fresh pure water that flowed from it. The hot water from
Hierapolis met the cold water from Colossae at Laodicea on the Lycus River; and
there the mixture became lukewarm.
To be hot would be like hot
springs, acting as healing waters to those who were hurting. To be cold would
be like bringing cool refreshment to people in need of encouragement. Jesus
commended either condition, but to be lukewarm meant that the Laodiceans were
tepid in their spiritual life and thought more highly of themselves than they
should have. So, because they were neither hot – acting as healing balm – nor
cold – spreading the refreshing taste of the gospel – Jesus would spew them
from his sight (Rev. 3:16).
There are
many Laodicean churches today. They stand on their past record and continue to
be rich through the legacies left by appreciating donors or by money bestowed
by present influential people. I have known a few churches that had magnificent
edifices and little financial worries. They lived on their past reputations and
maintained that they were still relevant in their community. The honest truth
was that they were blinded by their own ignorance, inflated with their own
self-importance, and had ceased being relevant years before.