PREACHING to the CHOIR

Perhaps you have heard the term: “You’re preaching to the Choir!” The last time I heard it was in a meeting with an executive of a Christian organization. It was 2010. We were discussing my new novel which addressed school bullying. During the conversation he asked about my distribution plan. I replied, “I want to start with churches.” His response? “You’re preaching to the choir.” He didn't see the need to target churches with a message, he felt, needed to be out in the world. “Church folk already know they should be nice to each other.”

Two years later, in 2012, when my novel was produced as an independent film, a friend asked where the screenings would be. I replied, “I want to start with churches.” She tried to dissuade me. From her many years of church experience, not only was I, “preaching to the choir,” but the “choir” was a hot mess—too caught up in tradition, personal agendas, cliques, politics and the like. “Why waste your time?” She asked. “You will only be disappointed.”

I didn't realize it then, but these two encounters have caused me to wrestle with reality as it is and as it should be. Reality as it should be is where “the choir” receives and lives out the gospel as ambassadors of reconciliation and change in their world. Reality as it is, is that many in the choir are so full of other pursuits, that they aren’t allowing the Gospel to penetrate deep down in their hearts and minds—where true transformation takes place. But, I truly believe that the choir can make a difference in our families, communities, schools, businesses, entertainment, politics and all other areas of human involvement! In order to do so, we must bridge the divide between what currently is and what needs to be.

A LITERAL CHOIR

A choir or music ministry represents a cross section of a congregation and serves as an interesting metaphor for the Church. During corporate worship, the choir presents itself as a unified whole of smiling individuals—singing and swaying to God’s glory. But after service, and especially during the week at rehearsals, a very different picture begins to emerge. At times there are disagreements and bickering, backstabbing and gossiping, arguing and even some walk outs. Why? Because of song selections, who will or will not sing the solo and who should or should not be singing in the first place!

In a very real sense, the choir is a motley crew, much like the disciples who followed Jesus... BEFORE they were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to walk in unity, love and power. In fact, the choir NEEDS to be preached to because the Gospel of Jesus Christ is significantly greater in scope, breath and depth than anything they have experienced to date. In many respects, the choir has placed the glorification of “self” above the glorification of Christ and have yet to realize the utmost importance of their call to minister to Christ so that the Holy Spirit can have full access through them to minister to those who are present in worship. That full access does’t have to stop at the end of worship either. The Holy Spirit desires access to our lives at all points through the week.

This may be tough to hear, but truthfully speaking, WE ARE ALL IN THE CHOIR—even if some of us can't hold a note! Because, though we may have received Jesus Christ as our Savior, Christ has yet to become our LORD in every area of our lives. And so, as the Choir, we need to receive the preached Word. We need to be taught. We need to be compelled and convicted. But, what message do we need? We need the message of unity in Christ.

A DISCONNECTED BODY

Ephesians 4:11-16 reveals that God provides spiritual leaders in the church to help equip and build up Christians so they will be able to do the work of ministry and grow together as the body of Christ. The passage also reveals that Jesus Christ is to be our central focus as God’s desire is for us to grow in our understanding and unified following of His Son. Jesus is the Head of the Church. Yet, in many congregations today, the body is disconnected from its Head. In fact, we see a body which tries to create several other heads to follow!

We place traditionalism as a head and rigidly declare, “this is how we've always done it!” We place business culture as a head and declare, “let's use the methods of corporate CEO’s to run things.” We place hype as a head and declare, “we need bright lights and loud music to entertain people.” We place money as a head and declare, “we have to water down the gospel to appease those who give the most money.” We place charismatic personality as a head and declare, “following the leader is more important than following Christ.” We place offense as a head and declare, “we don't have to reconcile with our sisters and brothers in order to be received by God.” We place worldly admiration as a head and declare, “the bloody cross of Christ makes people uncomfortable. So, don’t talk about sin.” And we place our personal agendas as a head and declare, “I can use you to get to my goal.”

Yet, Jesus declares, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you LOVE ONE ANOTHER.” (John 13:35)

We, the Choir, are in disrepair. We are disconnected from Christ and each other, and have been for a long time. The longer we remain disconnected, the more we wither and die. But Christ wants His resurrection life to flow through His Choir! Yes, His resurrection changes everything! And it can change us… if we let it!

IT IS IMPOSSIBLE

Now, you may say, “But there are no perfect churches because there are no perfect people!” You are right, but there is a missing point: many Choirs aren't even concerned with perfection. We are okay with subpar performance, both in singing and in character. We hide behind, “I’m not perfect.” and are satisfied with remaining where we are. We fail to realize that in the Master’s hands Christ is able to mature us as we journey towards the perfection He desires for us! “Be perfect, therefore, as your Heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48).

The life Christ is calling us to live is IMPOSSIBLE on our own! If it was possible, then He would not have had to come to earth and sacrifice His life to save us and resurrect from the dead to empower us! Christ is calling us to, an impossible life that He makes possible within us through His Holy Spirit! But, we must be willing to yield ourselves to Him for this reality to become real in us.

To save the world from eternal destruction, Jesus came and did for humanity what we could not do for ourselves. Then, he created the Church—the universal grouping of believers who are Christ followers—to be His Body on earth while He returned to heaven to prepare a place for us. He calls us to love Him and represent Him in all things at all times, as He creates a new humanity out of the old. And one day He will come again to receive us to Himself. He will also judge and vanquish evil in order to make the world and all creation perfect, as God originally intended. This is the heart of the Gospel.

LOVING THE GOSPEL

Do we love the Gospel? Before we can love it, we first need to know what it is… The Church is not just a social institution nor is it merely a humanitarian-aid organization. The Church is the Body of Jesus Christ and she has been entrusted with a great eternal work! Why does the Church need the Gospel now more than ever? Because it is possible to meet the physical needs of people and yet never heal their spiritual depravity. Jesus declared that a person’s life does not consist in the abundance of their possessions (Luke 12:15). The greatest need of the human soul can only be met by the Savior of the world! Nothing else is going to help save people but Christ lived out in the Church—and by extension—in society. Hype will not save people. Neither will politics, personal agendas, economic advancements, educational pursuits, nor traditions for mere tradition sake. The Gospel is rooted in the Person of Jesus Christ and it cannot be separated from Him. Any “gospel” that is separated from Christ is no gospel at all.

“Outside of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, I know of no other hope for mankind.”

-Konrad Adenauer, Chancellor of Germany after the fall of Hitler

“And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”

—Jesus, John 12:32

So what is the Gospel? What is this... Good News? To understand the good news, we must be told the bad news. Humanity, which was created in God’s image, has been corrupted by evil. We have a villain in the story of our lives: a very real devil who orchestrated our demise (Genesis 3). As a result, we sin against God and each other just as easily as we breathe! We only need to look within ourselves and throughout society to see the evidence of this tragic predicament! We are ravaged by sin—inside and out. We are fiercely independent of God and separated from His righteousness. We are blinded by our own depravity and don't even see that we can't save ourselves. We are slaves born into an invisible prison that is more real than the maximum security prisons we build to hold the vilest law breakers.

Why did the villain do this to us? Jesus reveals the answer in Matthew 25:41. God created hell as a place of eternal torment for the devil and the fallen angels. Since “misery loves company,’ the devil seeded our rebellion so humanity would face the same eternal punishment! Our enemy hates God and everything that reminds him of God: that includes us. We are created in God’s image. Sadly, that image has been broken due to sin. Yet, God loved us so much that He created a rescue plan to save us completely!

This is the Good News! We are doomed to eternal flames, but God sent his Son, Jesus to do what we could not! “God was in Christ, reconciling the world back to himself” (2 Corinthians 5:19). Jesus can save us from ourselves. He can save us from our sinful condition. He can deliver us from evil and bring us safely into His eternal kingdom!

God saves us, reconciles us and then begins the process of conforming us to the image of his Son, Jesus (Romans 8:29). He is preparing us to live with Him in His Kingdom! The Good News is that God establishes a personal, eternal relationship with those who place their faith and trust in Christ! And we spend the rest of our lives growing in that relationship. We discover who God is, who He has called us to be, and we complete the purposes which He created for us before we were even born (Jeremiah 1:5; Philippians 1:6). All of this happens as we seek to know Christ! This truly is the greatest story ever told. And it’s all true! Why would we not love God in return for His great gift given to us?

And here is the problem. In John 14:15, Jesus says if we love Him, we will keep His commandments. Sadly, the average Christian barely knows what Jesus taught! We are not students of His teachings, nor do we truly desire to be. To live out the Gospel we must know and love it! We must know and love Him! But, we are weighed down with so many distractions. As a result, we are stuck at the elementals of our faith—never “mastering” the foundations of what we are called to believe. Rarely growing in the boundless riches of Christ (Ephesians 3:8)! Do the words of Christ not prick our hearts? “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven has come near” (Matthew 4:17). If the Kingdom of Heaven has drawn near, shouldn’t we, who say we follow Christ, want to draw near to it now and not just wait until we die?

If the world is to truly hear the gospel of Jesus Christ and those who have yet to meet Jesus are given the opportunity to do so, then the Church needs to love the Gospel again. We must seek to “...know Jesus, in the power of His resurrection, and in the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable to His death, that we might somehow attain the resurrection from the dead” (Phil 3:10). Jesus has to become our central focus. We need to fall in love with Him and His teachings, realizing that the entire Bible points to Him (Luke 24)! Then, from God’s love flowing through us, we will demonstrate to the world the reality of God’s Kingdom in ways that defy common sense, baffles the unregenerate mind and melts the hardened human heart. Only when the fallow ground is broken up can the seeds be thoroughly planted and bring forth fruit.

SEEK TO FOLLOW

Jesus Christ calls us to follow Him in order to become His disciples. We need leaders who are more concerned about following Jesus and honoring Him than about building followers of their own “kingdoms.” We need leaders who desire the deep things of God rather than the shiny trinkets of the world; who can place Christ over human tradition and teach the Choir how to draw near to their Lord and Savior. We need to also realize that Christ’s call to follow  Him isn’t just for our leaders… His call is for all of us! Remember, we are all a part of “The Choir” which is the Church. When we, the Choir, truly begin to embody the Christ we sing about, then the music and melody which God will produce through us—both in voice and in character—will turn the world upside down once again. Then those who sit in darkness, will see a great light and run to Jesus (Isaiah 9:2; Matt 4:16; John 1:9; Colossians 1:13)!

“You’re preaching to the Choir!” Yes. I am! I love the Choir and hope we will listen because God has called us to tell the world about His Son! We are running out of time. The end of the age is fast approaching. We must wake up and prepare because our Bridegroom is coming!