Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - May/93

Contributor - Jonathan Gerstner

Title - Finally Beloved.. The Ethics of Church Vitalization

Topic -Church Vitalization

Since this issue of Pioneer is devoted to ethics, I thought it would be helpful to discuss the ethical side of one of the most important tasks facing us as a fellowship of believers, church vitalization. Church vitalization, that is, making our churches into places alive with the presence of God, where believers are growing in their faith and where unbelievers are being reached with the Gospel, is not an item of moral neutrality. If churches are renewed and growing, it is result of the Holy Spirit blessing faithful responses to the moral commands of our sovereign God for His church. A good way of demonstrating this is by working through the summary of the moral law revealed in the Ten Commandments. These commandments are very rich in content, and some brief applications of how each relates to the moral imperative of our churches becoming on fire for Christ will be suggested.

I am the Lord thy God which hath brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

We will remember that God has acted in the past to produce His church and to revive and restore it. (Church vitalization requires having a good memory.)

We will examine ourselves to be sure that we have a personal relationship with God as our personal God who has redeemed us so that we will continue prayerfully to seek new life from Him for us and our congregations.

I. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

We will honour God alone as God and let Him alone dictate what our church's ministry is called to be. We will not fail to make our churches places of welcome to those outside, for He calls us to bring others into His banquet.

We will refuse to make our worship services places where we feel comfortable. We will rather make them places where we and others can come face to face with the living God. (People never I feel "comfortable" in the presence of the living God.)

II. Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image.

We will not let our church buildings, present or future, become the centre of our worship and the mission of our church. We will not honour the latest model of ministry, or the oldest traditional one, above God's call in Scripture.

III. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.

We will take seriously our solemn vows to God, made at our public confession of faith, as part of a lifestyle of confession and witness for Him. We will not talk of God in church and only in church. We will rather speak of Him in our homes and our communities, lest our calling of His name in church be empty. We will not offer prayers in worship which are too long and flowery for anyone to follow, lest our words become vain as we all drift off rather than being lifted up to the presence of God.

IV. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.

We will give back to the Lord His special day for public and private worship, so that we can have the time set apart for Him to grow into mature Christians calling others into a living relationship with Him. We will see our worship on God's holy day as holy, belonging to God. We will not view worship as something meant to please us, but to please God. We will work to make our worship services places of welcome to the prodigals and not points of comfort for older brothers.

V. Honour thy father and thy mother.

We will respect in our services the truths taught to the church in the past. We will breathe into them the life of the original reason behind the practice, not merely rigidly preserve the form. We will be sensitive to the needs of the elderly, including providing easy physical access and ample volume for all to hear. (God has not given us a spirit of meekness and our testimonies and prayers must not be too quiet for the elderly to hear.)

VI. Thou shalt not kill.

We will not be party to any church conflicts which involve a spirit of hatred. This type of conflict not merely deadens the life of the church, but also reveal those committed to that spirit as murderers. We will not kill off attempts to change our services which are attempts to more effectively reach the lost. (Killing a godly idea can be almost as wrong as verbally killing the individuals suggesting the idea.)

VII. Thou shalt not commit adultery.

We will proclaim in our services a faithful Christian view of sexuality and offer healing to those who have fallen. We will promote Christian marriages in our churches though training in righteousness, and by refusing to marry professing Christians to non-Christians. We will insist that leaders in the church be exemplary in their personal sexual life, and care enough to remove those who depart from these standards from positions of leadership out of fear of God, rather than a fear of the courts.

VIII. Thou shalt not steal.

We will not keep the Lord's tithe (10% of earnings) from His ministry. We will not keep all our resources in our local congregation, rather than sharing them with other fields of ministry and mission. We will not use music without purchasing copyright privilege, or borrow ministry insights from others without giving credit.

IX. Thou shalt not bear false witness.

We will not claim to be a Reformed church without striving to be faithful to the whole teaching of Scripture, a Community Church without having a burden to minister to our community, or a Church without being willing to evidence the marks of the body of Christ.

We will not spread stories about others in the church, especially about those with whom we disagree. (We will go directly to others when we hear disturbing stories about them, and confront those spreading stories.) We as pastors will be especially careful to uphold this standard.

X. Thou shalt not covet.

We will not be jealous about financial assistance or attention. given to congregations other than our own. We will not wish we had the success of other congregations without seeking to emulate what in their ministry is pleasing to God and reaching others.

There are many more observations which could be added with regard to each commandment. I hope many of you will add your own observations to these lists. The central point is that we need to see that seeking life and outreach in our congregations is a mat ter of integrity, indeed a matter of faithfulness to God. We must pray to God that He will accept our prayers of confession for sins which have stifled new life in our congregations in the past, and that He would grant us His grace that we may go and sin no more. He will then write His law on our hearts so that we will begin to see new covenant life in our midst.

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