June 18, 2001

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July 8 Lesson

Maturing members make for healthy churches ___Galatians 6:1-14 ___1Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. 2Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. 3If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. 4Each one should test his own actions. Then he can take pride in himself, without comparing himself to somebody else, 5for each one should carry his own load. ___6Anyone who receives instruction in the word must share all good things with his instructor. ___7Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. 8The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. 9Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. 10Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers. ___11See what large letters I use as I write to you with my own hand! ___12Those who want to make a good impression outwardly are trying to compel you to be circumcised. The only reason they do this is to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ. 13Not even those who are circumcised obey the law, yet they want you to be circumcised that they may boast about your flesh. 14May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

___By Jeanie Miley
___For years, Mrs. W. F. Howard, wife of the state director of the Baptist Student Union, made regular tours around Texas, checking on the various student ministry buildings belonging to the Baptist General Convention of Texas. She could walk into those well-used buildings and see, in an instant, if a painting had been moved or a chair needed repair. Her standards were high, and she expected the Baptist Student Union centers to reflect the mission they represented. Keeping buildings healthy is a big job.
___She insisted that the physical assets of Texas Baptists reflect the high value placed on ministry to students. The student ministers and the students, stewards of the investment of Texas Baptists on college campuses all over this state, took her visits seriously.
___Paul--setting the standard of excellence
___The church is not the building. The church is a living organism composed of disciples of Christ. The church is the body of Christ on earth, charged with carrying out the mission of Christ. Keeping the church healthy is a big job, demanding the best efforts of all its members if it is to function as salt and light in the world.
___The challenge of the early followers of Christ was to carry out the mission of Christ in their culture. Paul set a standard of excellence for the life of the people who represented Christ in that culture. His standard has relevance for the church, the body of Christ today.
___Paul did not start a church and then leave those early Christians on their own. His care and concern for those early communities of faith spilled over in his counsel and guidance, written in practical, no-nonsense language. Paul held the vision of the church as the body of Christ before the people as their standard.
___When Paul saw one of the churches drifting away from that vision, he was quick to exhort them to return. He minced no words in giving specific guidance on practical measures. Always his guidance was formed by his consuming love for Christ and his yearning for others to know the fullness of "life in Christ." The passion Paul had for the Jewish law was transformed into a passion for Christ and the church. The fervor and zeal that led him to serve the law with high energy and devotion was directed toward the formation of the early church.
___It would be interesting for Paul to take a tour around Texas today and assess the state of the various communities of faith known as Baptists. We have to ask ourselves how well we are doing at holding up the vision of what Christ intends for the church to be. Would Paul find us faithful to the grace and mercy of the indwelling Spirit of Christ? Would Paul be happy about the ways we represent Christ to our communities and neighborhoods? Where would he chasten and exhort us? In what areas would he call us into accountability? What would he suggest we do, church by church, to meet his standard of excellence for the sake of Christ?
___Let's be practical
___Paul's constantly called people back to the true vision and purpose of the church. He challenged the early Christians to take the high road in every area of their lives and in their life together, but he never lost sight of the downward pull of human nature. He acknowledged both the potential of people to be transformed by Christ and the reality of self-will run rampant. Paul exhorted people to live up to the grace offered through Christ.
___Paul's practical idealism and passion for others to experience the life-changing power of Christ grew out of his own understanding of himself. He knew peoples' tendencies and needs. He understood the hard questions that addressed everyday issues that ran the gamut of getting along with each other to the tough issues of sexuality, and he never backed away from those. To the church of Galatia, he was most concerned about the dangers of legalism and the preservation of the gift of freedom in Christ.
___Be responsible
___Paul's vision for "life together" in the church carried with it an understanding of mutual accountability and responsibility. He called for people to be responsible for their own attitudes and actions. His understanding of the interaction of the believers indicates a passion for people to be responsible to each other, under Christ, which is different from assuming responsibility for other adult followers of Christ.
___Paul knew the way to a healthy church was through a conscious awareness of one's own behavior and a mutual commitment to the high road of discipleship. Many of the injunctions for living in community, as followers of Christ, are everyday, kitchen-table kinds of wisdom, common-sense rules for getting along with each other.
___Restore each other
___The way of the world is to compete and defeat those with whom you don't agree. If someone doesn't measure up, they are expendable, even in the body of Christ. Paul's approach was radical. He called for folks to work together to heal each other's wounds and to restore each other in fellowship.
___It is so much easier to break off a relationship with someone than it is to understand him. How much easier it is to withdraw fellowship from those who are broken and hurting than it is to restore them And yet, Paul says, the work of the church restoring people is Christ's intent.
___Paul assumes the presence of those who are "spiritual," who are in touch with the spirit of Christ within their own hearts and who are willing to be Christ to those who are in need of restoration. Quickly, he counsels those who are called to restoring others to watch their own lives.
___What a revolution there is when churches take seriously the work of restoration.
___When Christians refuse to live in denial but are willing to call problems by their real names and address them with grace and mercy, change happens. When churches walk into the hard questions of life and tolerate the discomfort of difficult situations, working for restoration and health, the effects ripple out into the culture and from there, out into the whole world.
___Carry each other's burdens
___Across the country, individuals gather in small groups to admit addictions to various substances and activities. Guarding the anonymity of each other, they confess their sins to each other. They hear each other's struggles, encouraging one another to health. Twelve step groups are, for many people, "church."
___To be the church today in America, and to follow the injunctions of the New Testament, is to be in conflict with the self-reliance and individualism so highly valued in our culture. To be the church forces us to address the priorities of true discipleship against the entertainment and corporate mentality of our culture. To follow Paul's guidance is costly discipleship and requires time and effort, money and energy.
___Carrying each other's burdens may mean listening one day and providing practical help the next. Carrying each other's burdens may mean praying for someone over a long period of time. It may mean suffering with her while she makes hard decisions and faces life-threatening situations. Carrying each other's burdens may mean sitting with a sick child or providing relief for a caregiver. It may mean listening to another's confession and holding it in confidence. Carrying another's burden may mean you hold another to the high calling that is his, challenging him to live up to a standard of excellence.
___To carry another's burden. may mean you walk with a person into the horrors of his own addictions, as a sponsor or soul friend, because you have experienced your own recovery from that addiction. You may give emotional and practical support to a person who is living with a situation that never can improve or to encourage and inspire that person in the midst of the things he cannot change. To let another person lean on your faith, borrowing your belief for a period of time while he struggles with his dark night of the soul, may be life altering. Sometimes carrying another's burden requires giving encouragement to a someone as she struggles to assume responsibility for her gifts and call, to hold a person accountable for being the person he was created to be.
___No one person can carry everyone's burdens, but if everyone takes seriously the admonition to be a carrier of burdens, the work of burden-carrying will get done.
___You reap what you sow
___Paul's practicality reminds us that we do, in fact, reap what we sow, both for the good and for the ill. Often, we reap more than we sow, and the hard truth is those around us also reap what we sow. Paul knew that, in the body of Christ, we are interrelated. The attitudes, behaviors, habits and burdens of one member of a community of faith affect the whole community.
___Being conscious of how one person affects the whole group calls the individual to a daily accountability and a continual surrender of one's own will and life to the will of the Spirit.
___Persevere
___Healthy churches don't just happen. They are the result of doing the right thing consistently. They come about with the faithful efforts on the part of all members.
___Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom. And that freedom is always at risk.

For thought and discussion
___ How can a church encourage the manifestation of the fruit of the Spirit in the individual members?
___ What processes could help members address the problems of those "caught in sin"? How can the church provide restoration rather than judgment? Who should decide how this process is to be carried out in the local church?
___ How can a local church keep the vision of its mission and ministry before the people? Should there be "keepers of the vision," whose task it is to keep the vision of the church in the conscious awareness of the people?
___ How does a person grapple with the issue of carrying others' burdens and boundary issues? How does a responsible and responsive Christian set appropriate boundaries for himself? What happens when members want others to do for them what they should be doing for themselves?
___ It has been said that the church has nothing to offer the world if it does not deal lovingly with its own, "doing good" to those within the family of believers. How does a church walk the balance between its outward journey of missions and evangelism and its inward journey of caring for each other?___
___ How would you define a "healthy" church? What is your standard of measurement? How can a "sick" church be brought back to health?

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