Raising boys has given me a
great appreciation for the concept of transformation. My wife and I raised
three sons. They are all followers of Christ. They have all married godly
women. Two have children, and the third will grace us with another grandchild this
fall. We watched them move from toddler to preschooler to adolescent to
teenager and then to adulthood.
There are times when boys stall
out in their maturing from one stage of life to another. Content with the level
of care they receive in one stage, it is difficult to see the need to mature.
In reality, it is not just little boys who get stuck in one stage of life—we
all do it.
It even happens in the life of
individual believers and entire churches. We know that when Christ gets hold of
a life or church, transformation occurs. Scripture teaches that sin is
forgiven, mercy is shown, and lives are made new. But there are seasons when
transformation stalls. As believers, we have a new standing with God, but our
life in the world does not always reflect it.
The apostle Paul knew that the
ongoing transformation had stalled in the lives of the Corinthian believers. In
response, he wrote a tough letter to them about the nature of the gospel and
how it was to be lived out in the natural course of life.
Discovering
transformation
As we embarked on the
Transformational Church initiative at LifeWay, our study uncovered many
churches where transformation was ongoing, but also too many where it had
stalled. As I thought through the findings, Paul’s letter to the Corinthian
church seemed as applicable as ever. As in any generation, God’s children can
stall out, and the reasons seem universal.
None of us like things that
stall, but everyone seems to have experience with them. When Nellie Jo and I
were younger, we owned a terrible car. It would stall at the worst times,
normally the middle of an intersection. The only way to get my stalled car to
start again was to open the hood and slam it back. It was both odd and
embarrassing. But we did not have the resources to get anything better. So we
had to endure with something that stalled at the most inopportune moments. I
despised that car.
I dislike it even more when life
stalls, when I see the spiritual growth of my church stagnate. Christians are
to experience the new life in every new day. The connection to Christ is a
guarantee that transformation is continual. The eternal reality that we were
saved from sin should have a daily effect on life in this world. But sometimes,
it stalls. How can we help liberate our congregations from their spiritual
lethargy?
The Corinthians
and us
The first letter to the
Corinthians was probably tough for Paul to write and tough for the church to
receive. They were in the midst of a city known for all of the wrong moral
codes. Many of us live, work, and worship in cities similar to Corinth. Sadly,
the moral code of the city became the moral code for many of the Corinthian
believers—and the same happens in our day.
The letter from Paul leaps from
antiquity and into our laps today. When I read it, I don’t just hurt for my
congregation—it hurts me. The Spirit convicts me through it. I am often forced
to admit that a stalling effect has taken place in my own transformation. Read
this short passage in the third chapter:
“Brothers, I was not able to
speak to you as spiritual people but as people of the flesh, as babies in
Christ. I fed you milk, not solid food, because you were not yet able to
receive it. In fact, you are still not able, because you are still fleshly. For
since there is envy and strife among you, are you not fleshly and living like
ordinary people?” (1 Corinthians 3:1-3, HCSB)
The members of the Corinthian
church had placed their faith in Christ and moved from darkness to light. But
their lives stalled. They had not lost their salvation, but they had lost the
forward momentum in their daily lives for real-time transformation.
When we lead our people in the
process of transformation, we need to orient them to the reality of the war
within them. Romans 8:8-9 says, “Those whose lives are in the flesh are unable
to please God. You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, since the
Spirit of God lives in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ,
he does not belong to Him.” Once a Christian, the Spirit lives within us. But
the “old self” still wars against the transformation. It is a battle and
process that will continue until we enter eternity.
But I am given a great deal of
hope when considering the transformational churches discovered in our research.
The leaders of churches who have chosen to pursue change for themselves and
their church communities reflect what is possible through God’s work in us. I
think 1 Corinthians 3 gives us a portrait of what our church members must guard
against in order to experience the fullness of transformation God intends. Let
me point out three ways transformation stalls and give some responses as well.
1. Transformation
stalls without spiritual exercise.
Verse 1 says that the Corinthian
believers were acting like “babies in Christ.” They had Christ but were
neglecting to grow up. They should have been eating solid spiritual food but
needed to stay on spiritual milk because they lacked maturity. The only answer
is exercise.
We all know that the believer
cannot be transformed without the truth. Time in God’s Word is a necessity for
our spiritual exercise. Church members must not fall into the trap of thinking
that group study is enough. I think everyone should be involved in a small
group Bible study and be exposed to strong biblical preaching, but leaving out
their personal time with the Scriptures is a quick path to stalling their
spiritual transformation.
Exercise begins with prayer. In
another letter, Paul wrote, “Don’t worry about anything, but in everything,
through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known
to God” (Philippians 4:6). Prayer was so important to transformational churches
that we devoted an entire section of our book to it. In our research, we
discovered that 73 percent of transformational churches (i.e., churches that
are helping people become more like Christ and communities that reflect the
kingdom of God) agreed with the statement, “Seeing people praying together is a
normal sight in our church.” From the stories we heard, these are not
perfunctory prayers before fellowship meals; these believers, fighting against
a stalling form of Christianity, were truly listening and speaking to God in
prayer.
Remaining active in sharing the
Gospel is also important in staving off the stall that often occurs. I believe
that losing the sense of what the gospel can do in the lives of others has a
powerful effect in our lives. In our recent research, 77 percent of members in
transformational churches strongly or moderately agreed with the statement,
“Our church’s members understand the importance of sharing their faith story
with friends.” The work of evangelism has the side effect of reinforcing its
own power in the life of the one who does the sharing.
I would also add that serving
others keeps us on track as a spiritual exercise leading people toward
transformation. Service lifts our eyes from personal needs to those who are
needy right around us or in a different culture. God uses service to aid others
and to conform us to the image of Christ.
As physical exercise is a
discipline, so is spiritual exercise. Transformation is something that actively
takes place in our lives. We are transformed by the gospel to consistently
become more like Christ and lead others to do the same.
2. Transformation
stalls amidst envy and strife.
In verse 3, Paul tells the
Corinthians that they are “still fleshly.” Continually yielding to the world
precludes a person from yielding to the way of Christ. Obsession over the lives
of others brought about by envy and strife distracts from a focus upon the life
of Christ.
Envy and jealousy are extreme
forms of selfishness. With envy, we want someone else’s life more than we want
to be like Christ. With jealousy, we want what others have more than we want
Christ himself. These forms of selfishness move us away from personal
transformation and mission to personal promotion and ego.
These sinful characteristics deny
a person the opportunity to serve others, and transformation is abandoned. But
believers and churches experiencing transformation act just the opposite.
Celebrating acts of service was common in transformational churches. They
agreed with the statement, “Our church celebrates when members serve the local
city or community” at the majority rate of 53 percent.
The stories we heard from these
churches lead me to conclude that the fleshly attitude of refusing service to
one another is a self-inflicted wound. When we serve, envy and jealousy have no
room to stall our transformation. Rather, the service becomes an outworking of
Christ’s transforming character within us.
3. Transformation
stalls when we live like the world.
The final issue I see in this
short passage from Paul is his question in verse 3: “Are you not fleshly and
living like ordinary people?” It is an indictment of believers who have stifled
the transformation begun in them by the gospel.
One of the greatest condemnations
that can come into the life of a Christian is that he/she has settled for an
ordinary life. Transformation by its very nature means that something
significantly different from the world is happening in our lives. In C.S.
Lewis’ The Weight of Glory, he wrote: “We are half-hearted creatures, fooling
about with drink and sex and ambition, when infinite joy is offered us, like an
ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot
imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too
easily pleased.” (Lewis, C.S., The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses. San
Francisco: HarperCollins, 26) Lewis is right; we should see the pleasures of
this world as trinkets in comparison to the transformation offered by Christ.
Life is too brief to live like
the world and deny our new position in Christ. It seems counter-intuitive, but
giving our lives over to God’s power each day is the active path of experiencing
transformation.
Striving rather
than stalling
What if each morning, your
church members prayed something like this: “Lord, I choose to be sold out to
you today. Let me cross paths with those who need to see how your power
transforms a life. Let me put others ahead of myself. Rejecting the feebleness
of this world, help me to live like Christ.” Imagine the transformation
possible if they chose to place God’s mission and the interests of others
before their own. I fear that too many people simply hope to survive the day
unnoticed and unscathed. I discovered that such a mentality is too much like
the world and too little like Jesus.
In listening to the stories from
our research, we discovered that churches and individuals experiencing
transformation all went through a cathartic moment in life. At some point in
time, they looked around and decided that more was possible. Some came to this
conclusion because of negative circumstances and others because of a great
victory, but the principle was clear: a decision must be made.
The natural order of things is
for energy to wane, and things come to a grinding halt. But the Christian life
does not have that intention. God creates a new life in us and wants to
transform our everyday living into a portrait of the gospel’s power. If you
find your congregation stalled, then it is time to help them make a decision.
Christ’s plan for His people is that they might be more and more like Him.
Decide today that stalling is no longer an option for them, and choose the hope
born from transformation.Life Love Faith Ministries
by Thom Rainer
God wants every human being on the planet to be happy. Anything that anyone desires is because they think their desire will make them happy. Whether it is health, money, a loving relationship, material things, accomplishments, a job, or anything at all, the desire to know Jesus is the step to true happiness. But remember that following Jesus is a way to eternal happiness, and something on the outside can only bring fleeting happiness, because material things are impermanent.
