Called Out

 "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;" (1 Peter 2:9).

The word "church" in the Bible comes from the Greek word ekklesia, which means "called out ones." To be a member of a church body means that you have been called out of the wilderness of the world into the literal and spiritual Body of Christ. I don't think many will argue that or even have a problem with it, even though there are many professing believers within it whose lifestyle doesn't demonstrate that they have truly come out of that wilderness. They seek to keep one foot in the wilderness of the world while maintaining some kind of foothold and presence in the church. This is impossible, but that is a subject for another day. Today, I want to focus on a quote I found in a book titled, "Whatever Happened To Commitment?" by Edward Dayton.

In that book, Dayton shares a quote from a man named John Perkins, who said, "Each one of us should be convinced that God has called us to a special congregation, in a special place, at a particular time." Again, few are going to argue with that. I think most people, whether this is really the reality or not, feel that where they attend and worship is where they are meant to be. However, both Perkins and Dayton take the matter far beyond that, and what they believe will collide with the beliefs and actions of your average church member in the west.

Dayton writes that not only should a person feel it is God's full purpose and will for them to be a part of a particular local body of believers, but that they are to be fully committed to that body, and will not leave it until they hear clearly from Him that they should. More, that if they do feel they are hearing from Him concerning moving out, they are to enlist the church itself in determining where His leading in this may be. Here is where I think the majority will balk. Most of us put our confidence in what the individual feels they are hearing from Him. We feel it is our decision alone. We don't see the need to get the church involved at all. This is especially so if something or someone within the church has offended us. Most times, the church and its leadership don't know a person or family is leaving until they do. This is business as usual in the western church, and I believe it offends our sense of individual freedom to suggest it shouldn't be, and that is where we err badly. The church is not about the individual. It's about the Body, the community of believers. That's a foreign concept to our western mindset. We feel the choice to leave is always an option and it's one reserved for us alone to make. In this we miss the mark.....badly. True body life is rarely found in the American church. We are more a group of individuals, loosely bound together, and the bond is easily broken.

To live in true community is risky. It means we entrust ourselves not only to Him, but to each other. We make choices based upon how it will affect others, not just ourselves. This can be terrifying to the individual, because it means we not only trust Him, but we trust His people as well. We know God speaks to and through individuals, but He does so through His church as well. We are to be yielded to not only Him, but to the church as well. A church composed of imperfect and flawed people, but a church inhabited by His Holy Spirit. Certainly there are spiritually unhealthy churches, but even in that, a person should not leave without going to those charged with their spiritual oversight and sharing their concerns and seeing if a godly means can be found to bring health to what has been unhealthy. This is a process most don't want to bother with, so they leave the body, a body they were never fully a part of, and both they, and that body, suffer for it.

Any pastor will tell you of the pain involved in losing people. Even when it is in the leading of the Lord, it hurts, but it is doubly so when it is because of something that could have been resolved and brought Him glory in the resolving. Every pastor can tell you how the fellowship they pastored was crippled by a key person or family leaving for reasons either wrong, or simply the result of a potentially better job situation, or something like that in their personal lives. The thought of how it would affect the body doesn't enter in. Often, the crippling is permanent. The church never fully recovers. I think all of us will give an account for such decisions made only for these reasons and for what the consequences were for HIS church.

There is so much more to write and say on all of this. I would encourage you to take what I am writing before Him. Dig deeper into what His Word says about His church. Examine what it really means to be a part of His "called out ones." And where you know, where we know, that we have taken such actions as mentioned above, confess it, repent of it, and determine that the pattern is forever broken. His church is not an institution, though many see it as only that. It is a living organism, alive as He is alive. Let us each be alive in the place He has called us to, and may our commitment to that living body be complete.

Blessings,

Pastor O