Over the past week, a few incidents have converged to remind me of the proper way to build a church. The first was John MacArthur celebrated his
40th anniversary as pastor of Grace Community Church. What a magnificent example of the right way to build a church. The second was an AP article describing
Robert Schuller, senior pastor of the Crystal Cathedral and the Hour of Power TV broadcast, “watching his life’s work crumble.” While MacArthur has built his ministry on the systematic verse-by-verse exposition of God’s Word, Schuller built his ministry on himself. According to the AP article:
He studied marketing strategies to attract worshippers and preached a feel-good Christianity, describing himself as a “possibility thinker” and spinning his upbeat style into a 10,000-member church and a broadcast watched by millions worldwide.
Now things are crumbling for Schuller as contributions are drying up, something the AP observed is, “a problem common to personality driven ministries. Most have collapsed or been greatly diminished after their founders left the pulpit or died.”
After MacArthur and Schuller, the third incident happened this past Sunday morning in our church. As you might have seen from a previous
post, I was privileged to license a young man in our church for the Gospel ministry. As I was preaching from 2 Timothy 2:1-7, I couldn’t help but reflect on people like MacArthur and Schuller and what kind of model I’m emulating at Brushfork Baptist Church.
Pastoring a small rural church, it is very tempting to do things the wrong way. Hardly a Sunday or Wednesday goes by, after seeing empty pews and vacant classroom space, when I am not overwhelmed by the temptation to dive headlong into current market based church growth practices. “Sell the sizzle—not the steak.” “Find a felt-need and exploit that need.” “If there is no felt-need, create the need and then exploit it.” Those phrases, drilled into me by past sales training, constantly rattle around in my head. But how did Jesus say to build the church?
In Matthew 16:18, Jesus looked at Peter and reminded him of the name He had given him. You are Peter—you’re a little rock. You’re a good rock, but you’re still a little rock. Little rocks are good things, but they certainly aren’t suitable for building a foundation. A foundation built on little rocks like Peter would probably be even less stable that a foundation of sand that Jesus warned about in Matthew 7:26-27. But then Jesus changed from talking about Peter the little rock to talking about Himself as
the Rock. I don’t know if Jesus literally pointed to Himself as He said these words, but even if He didn’t, His words are pointed enough—“upon
this Rock I will build My church.”
It is as if Jesus was saying, “Peter, you’re a little rock—if I built my church with you as the foundation, it would crush you and the church would crumble. You are only a man and cannot bear the weight of the everlasting structure I’m going to build. But I can. And as I am the foundation, the chief cornerstone, the capstone, the head and the bridegroom of the church, it will stand. Not only will it defensively stand, it will even offensively storm the very gates of Hell itself. The church, built upon
this Rock, will be the instrument I will use to send forth my Gospel into the darkest depths of society to rescue those who are on their way to an eternity in Hell.”
The amazing thing is how
the Rock has chosen to build His church. He does it through little rocks like Peter, and MacArthur and me (not to elevate myself to their stature, but you get the point). We little rocks are not independent rocks like a person would find scattered in a field somewhere. We are little rocks who are broken by the Rock and broken from the Rock. We are to be of the same character and nature. In other words, we are to be the likeness of Christ—and as the likeness of Christ, we aren’t to point to ourselves. When people see little rocks like that, all they can do is think of the Rock from whence they were hewn (Isaiah 51:1, KJV).
Sometimes the Lord chooses to use His little rocks to build huge ministries like MacArthur or Begg or Piper. But sometimes, He chooses to build what we would think of as ordinary ministries like
Tom Carson
. I have no idea what God has in store for Brushfork Baptist Church. But in my desire to see it grow, may I never resort to the shifting sand of a personality driven ministry. May I be a faithful little rock that always and only builds on
the Rock.
Matthew 16:18-19
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