Passion of the Church

Passion of the Church

Khen Lim | April 28 2019

Image source: Engage

Pretty much throughout the early Naughts, I sojourned from one to the next church. Like a journeyman, I stayed for a short time in one before I made tracks and moved on to the next. It was only in 2008 that I finally settled on a church once and for all. As some of you may know, that church finally closed its doors some seven years later.

In those eight years, I bore witness to the slow decline and decay of a once vibrant church. By the time I re-joined the church (I originally left six years earlier due to irreconcilable differences with a congregant and his wife), it was already a little more than thirty years old. Founded in the early Eighties by American missionaries, there was promise of a good start.

With typical missionary influence, the evangelical roots were strong but the timing wasn’t great. At that point in time, the federal government decided to clamp down on foreign missionaries coming to Malaysia to grow the Church, which meant whatever plans the Americans had to plant churches across the Peninsular stalled. 

The Ipoh church would not only be their last but also the only one to the north of Kuala Lumpur. All the ideas of heading north or even to the east coast and East Malaysia were no longer possible for them.

As for our Ipoh church, what basic structure the missionaries left behind couldn’t withstand the cracks that shortly appeared in the wall. Despite some hasty attempts at papering over the cracks, serious problems arose, leaving the church vulnerable. In the most unexpected fashion, the church’s first local pastor had decided on his own that it should become charismatic. He did so completely independent of consulting either the congregation or its board of governors.

Needless to say, dissent was rife and the church soon found itself divided down the middle even before its inaugural year. With the new pastor and his supporters pulling in one direction and the rest in the other, all forms of communication broke down and inevitably, the church collapsed even before any voting was mooted. After the pastor departing with half the congregation to start a new church, the remaining members were left to struggle with what was left of the whole mess.

And a mess it really was. For a while, the church was without a pastor and it shut its doors. Just as people thought it wouldn’t reopen again, someone literally appeared out of nowhere and revived it, giving the church a second chance at life. Even so, it was never the same again. The church reluctantly wore its scars somewhat like a badge of honour.

That was during the Eighties. More than thirty years later, the church never fully recovered. The pain and the hurt ran very deep with the members who stayed behind to try to rebuild through those many years. 

By the time of the new millennium, many of the founding church members had either passed on or left. The remnant essentially became fixtures with no more interest than to keep their chins above water. So long as the church doors were still opened, that’s as much as they would be willing to do.

In 2008, I returned with my wife who was then my fiancée. Despite the many years, church numbers had obviously dropped precipitously. Now there were no more than a dozen who kept the faith and still came. But no one could say it looked healthy. Though the stench of death wasn’t exactly lurking around the corner, it hardly look like it would rebound. 

Everyone looked worse for wear. No one had that spring in their step. Most were contended with sitting back and letting others do whatever they’d like to do. One thing was evident though – no one wanted to admit that they were losing the struggle.

Having now decided that this would be our permanent spiritual home, my mind was made up. I chose to work closely with the pastor because I needed mentoring. I took it upon myself to learn to preach and work my way to serve God in as many ways as necessary and with all that I have. In effect, I found myself at the right time and place to answer God’s calling to fulfil my obligations to Him.

The rot slowly sets in

Image source: The Pentecost

When I look back at how things became so bad, I realised there wasn’t much we could have done differently. We racked our brains thinking of as many ideas as we could to make our services meaningful but still interesting and edifying. We tried looking for new opportunities to try new things that we feel might be worth a try. In hindsight, what we could do, we did although the results were indifferent.

The fact was that we fell woefully short. Tried as we did to bail the church out of its troubles, there was only so much that our two families could do together before we too would collapse in a heap. In our fight to get the church to stay relevant, sometimes we too were beset with fatigue. We too felt jaded at times. On a few occasions, throwing the towel in was admittedly a consideration. Still, we carried on, looking at whatever it took to turn the tide.

Even so, those eight years together were, in their own way, rewarding and fulfilling for me. Given the chance to preach and lead, I quickly learned and developed my own skillset and style. For that, I am forever thankful to the pastor who, together with his wife, always made us feel welcomed. 

Together, we made a great team although, sadly, we couldn’t stop the church from closing its doors. It was obvious only late in the piece that all this while, we were really punching above our weight when it came to doing things to reverse the church’s fortune. Some of the things we tried to do, larger churches wouldn’t even think of attempting.

As the years rolled by, things got harder. Improvements were hard to come by just as the level of motivation from the others was next to nil. Year in and out, the same people did the same work. Church feasts were cast in the same mould for as many years as we could recall. The same dishes from the same people offered with the same bewildering sense of enthusiasm. No variations. No creativity. Just the same old, same old. No one felt strange that for the past many years, it was always the same range of dishes.

It wasn’t just the feasts. Whatever events we staged for evangelism purposes, the same people who planned them also made the arrangements and hosting. Those same people end up attending them while the others persisted with raising our hopes only to see them crashing down in complete disappointment. 

Some didn’t even care to pretend; they just sat in their chairs and stare blankly. It was always the same reason – too caught up with work and couldn’t free themselves to come. Otherwise, “we really would, honest!”

The usual Bible study classes and prayer meetings were no different. We’d more stray dogs outside the church to keep us company than our own church members attending any of them. We’d soon realise that ultimately, these were members who cultivate their own belief that Sunday services were enough to keep their faith. There was no need for corporate prayers and if they needed to know the Bible better, they would read it themselves. But of course, whether they really did do any of these, it’s something we’d never know.

The same people also staged the yearly Christmas and Good Friday (plus Easter Sunday) events. Although we only had a little more than a dozen regular attendees, our church during Christmas and New Year were often filled up with family members who return home for holidays plus some friends whom they could persuade to come along. 

Still, the same old people would literally do everything, from putting up the decorations to designing the special slide shows, rehearsing our choir bits and bravely putting up as good a show as we could muster on our own. At the end of these events, we were impossibly exhausted to the point of asking why we’d always torture ourselves. We even wondered if people even appreciate it. If the reader senses a tinge of bitterness here, please understand.

In the end, no matter what events we staged, the result was the same. Or to put it in another way, the result (or lack of) hardly mattered because most of the church members chose not to participate although they wouldn’t tell it straight to our faces. No one felt called to roll up their sleeves and put hands on deck. No one thought to ask if we even needed help. No one thought it’d be a good idea to come to any of these events. No one figured the importance of sharing God’s promise with their unbeliever friends beyond its theological worth.

And so, they never felt it in their interest to make up the numbers. It shouldn’t be too difficult to imagine our inconsolable state and also our increasing frustration and bitterness. So much effort we had to put up but so unrewarding the outcome. It had gotten to the point of beyond disappointing.

No commitment, focus and vision

Image source: Premier Christian Radio

It was simple. No participation, no real evangelism. No real evangelism, no new people to bring up the numbers. Invariably that means our funds were dwindling by the week. They ate into the church’s savings, depleting faster than we could pump back into the coffers. Virtually no one tithed or made pledges. Yet of course, we had bills to be paid and the rent to be settled.

To my horror, I even discovered that the church hadn’t updated the pastor’s salary for more than two decades. At his pay grade, it was nothing short of a miracle that he even stayed on. After all, given his qualifications, he could’ve easily found a deservedly better paid pastoral position in a church that appreciated him. And yet, year after year with every new leadership, no one cared enough to review his salary and made the necessary adjustments.

That wasn’t all. I came to learn that the church did not own all the equipment that was in place for use during the services and all the events. Items like the laptop, desktop computer, LCD projector, printer (to print the weekly bulletins) plus the necessary consumables and maintenance costs were all straight from the pastor’s pocket. 

Since there wasn’t even an office space for him to work from in the church, all of the work he did for the church were done at his own home. Without even offering a parsonage, there were no compensations given. Neither was the subject broached.

If the reader has come this far reading this, it’s not difficult to see a portrait of a church in serious disrepair and headed for oblivion. Right from the beginning, the wind was driven out of its sails. From the split, the church was mortally wounded though no one in their right mind knew how bad it was. Staggering through the decades, the church finally died for good. In all that time, much effort was expended to jumpstart it but the results were not forthcoming.

For any church to close its doors, that’s a big deal for any of us because we’re Christians. Given our faith, churches aren’t supposed to shutter but to flourish and grow, which is why news of its closure were shocking. However, looking back after three years, it’s easier to come to terms with it. In truth, it should have been closed much earlier.

The harsh truth of it all is that the church seriously lacked love. There was no commitment to do anything for God. It’s not untrue to say that most of the church members hardly remember why they became Christians and accept Christ when in fact, they ended up doing absolutely nothing for Him. There was, without any shadow of doubt, no servitude to God. Instead of serving Him, people were ignoring His presence.

There were no effort made by the church members to even come to services on time. And when they turn up, they weren’t even dressed appropriately. Shorts, baggy and holey tee-shirts, uncombed hair and beach slippers all made for a rather unpalatable sight not to mention, letting the phone ring at its loudest volume during the service. That same person was also often found asleep while seated, snoring away. The pastor believed she had even removed many of the church’s Bibles and gave them away to members of the public without permission.

A large part of the problem rested in a Chairman who sat on his position for more than two decades and did absolutely nothing during his long tenure. There was no progress in the church whatsoever. This shouldn’t come as a surprise when he carried neither vision nor mission for the church. 

In all his years leading the church, he made no address to the congregation for any event including major ones like Christmas, Good Friday, Easter Sunday, New Year, Chinese New Year and on the day of the church’s Anniversary. He simply felt that as a senior member and remnant of the original founding congregation, he took up a position that no one wanted.

The same applied to the other office-bearing positions including Secretary and Treasurer. At each annual election, we endured the ordeal of going through the same motion of nominating and seconding, to bring in the same people for years to play “musical chairs” with the positions that were up for grabs.

In its final year, the Treasurer position fell to a woman who had been a longstanding member of the church. Clearly miffed, she declared that she didn’t want it. Despite all the cajoling and encouragement, she baulked. Some of us offered to teach her about simple bookkeeping but still, she rejected it. 

Certain others said that position was ceremonious at best because we could get the ex-Treasurer to do the accounts in the background. Still, she shook her head to dismiss the idea. No matter what we tried, she was resolutely against accepting the post. And that left us in a quandary and in the force, the outgoing Treasurer was forced to carry on for another year.

Passionless, thieving and destructive

Image source: The Lighthouse Group

As my current church’s pastor often said, the church isn’t about events and activities but instead, it has always been about the people. Without the people, there is no church. And without love, these people become irrelevant to the purpose of the church they’re in. No matter how beautiful the church looks or how grandiose the activities are, without the people in it, there is no point. 

How the people exemplify Christ in their behaviour tells us more about the love of the church. How they may, on the other hand, choose to show no desire whatsoever to articulate their love for Christ but instead, exploit the church for personal gains. What about those who “play church” and appear on the outside to really be passionate about God when in reality, they aren’t.

All of these were of course very bad but to our horror, it only got worse. The extent of sin that pockmarked the church was beyond even the worst possible imagination. Crime was committed where money was stolen on two separate occasions. The first one we uncovered was money stolen from church collections that were meant to pay the rent. That wasn’t so difficult when the perpetrator was the church Treasurer who together with her husband plotted effortlessly behind the pastor’s back.

This was the same married couple whom I had irreconcilable differences with years earlier. I guess that this took place during the years I wasn’t at that church. By the time I began to preach in the church, they finally took permanent leave via text messaging, citing “disagreement” with the pastor for letting me take the pulpit. My guess is they didn’t want to be around in case we uncovered the theft.

In the months leading to the church’s closing, a greater horror greeted us including the new and unsuspecting Chairman. It appeared that even more money had been misappropriated all these years going back to when I wasn’t even in Malaysia. 

Missing was funds in the tens of thousands of dollars, which was too difficult to hide given that our annual accounts had to be not only audited but also submitted to the Registrar of Societies. A possible outcome was that all of us would have to explain away the missing funds. The worst-case scenario could well be that someone had to be the fall guy and land in prison.

In one of the church’s darkest hours, the few of us including our families prayed to seek direction from God. Some of us were so stricken by fear it was hard to think straight. The notion of facing the full weight of the law was terrifying and yet even as we submitted our burden to God, we all chose not to disclose the problem to the rest of the church. This was because the prime suspect behind the misappropriation was none other than the former Chairman, the one who had held the post for two decades or more.

As we all dug deep in search of God’s sign, He came through for our new Chairman but the solution was startling. In getting us together at our home, he informed us that should the problem with the church account be unresolvable, he would foot the bill and make up for the difference in the account in order that the church avoid trouble with the law. 

He felt strongly that as the Chairman, it was his and no one else’s responsibility. We were overwhelmed by all this, humbled by his sense of personal accountability but totally mystified by how God worked. As it eventually turned out, the church auditor was able to work around the issue and yet avoid getting our hands dirty.

The sheer gravity of all this immorality in our church became all too obvious to the few of us. We felt we needn’t have to be in the dark anymore; that the reason why the church became so intractable was because sin has clouded us all. The weight of the sin was so pronounced that it prevented us from growing. Not least too, we were a church void of love and ripe for God’s harsh rebuke.

We had all become dead and passionless driftwood floating aimlessly and going nowhere. Little wonder then that while visitors did come, they never stayed. Without a heartbeat, the church was as good as dead. It wouldn’t come as a surprise that the visitors felt what we were impervious to.

The honest thing we could say was that we did put our heart and soul in a desperate attempt to make things work. But when we finally came to the realisation that we had come to the end of the rope, both our families cried. As the pastor and I spoke to each other on the phone, we were both in tears. 

Nobody liked the idea of being part of a failed church. It didn’t matter that we tried our best or that the church failed not because of our doing. What counted was that we were there and we couldn’t help save it. Watching the church finally sink into oblivion was very difficult to accept. For some of us, it took a little more time to come to terms with it.

Not doing God’s work

Image source: Carey Nieuwhof

Of all the things the pastor and I could agree on, the obvious one was that this was a church so unloved by the people. Ultimately, they proved they weren’t the church. They attended the church but they were never the church themselves. 

In other words, there was no evidence that they were a willing part of it. I wouldn’t put past the visitors feeling or seeing all of this played out before their eyes. Putting all this together, it became clear that they were the reason why a church like ours was not destined to grow. With no hope in sight, the church was nothing more than a deadweight headed for death row.

The most outstanding failure of the church was the people’s unwillingness to hit the road and evangelise. We just weren’t the type to share the Word with others. We may recognise our failings in this regard and yet we didn’t do enough to overcome our fears and apprehension when it came to evangelism work. 

The spirit was willing, it seemed, but the flesh was way too weak. And unresponsive. We had a wonderful opportunity to do great things in the immediate residential neighbourhood but we squandered it. We could have become a community church serving the locality but given how we ignored God’s command, that was never going to happen.

We considered handing our tracts. We thought of inserting flyers in the newspapers before they were delivered. We also thought of holding evangelism nights involving watching movies. None of these materialised because there were always intractable problems of which facing the wrath of the Muslims was too significant to ignore. Another was everyone was too busy and caught up with their own schedules. No one felt the compulsion to spare some time for God.

I remember reading an article online where the writer recalled how a church was so close to death that he could smell the resurrection. Well, at least he could look forward to the resurrection. In our case, our church died never to experience another stab at life again. Once the cast was died, the sad news was shared with the members about the church closing for good. 

Quite unbelievably, no one shed a tear. The pastor and I including our families felt so stupid for being the only ones to do so. It seemed people were quite accepting of the bleak news because no one thought to ask why. No one asked if we still had anything else we could try. The only question someone did ask was when.

My guess is that no one felt the church was worth saving.

A passionless church doesn’t love

Image source: seekgif.com

The word ‘passion’ describes an emotional feeling that we can’t keep contained. Passion is unbridled enthusiasm (or feeling). It is so bountiful that we struggle to keep it under the lid. Instead, it spills over. Passion drives us to do amazing things. It challenges us to go beyond what we normally otherwise think is improbable, impractical or even impossible. 

With passion, there is that unmistakable sense of determination and conviction borne out of love and desire. It gives us a whole new sense of purpose and empowerment. Yet even as I say this, not every church is filled with passion.

After that church closed its doors, my family and I took a brief break before I set about looking for a new one to go to. My thoughts were to visit a few and maybe stay for a few months to get a better idea before making my mind. To save my family of all this, I took it upon myself to do the footwork on my own.

One of the few churches I visited was one housed in a corner upstairs shop lot. When I entered, I was taken aback by the fact that it was completely run by expatriates from a neighbouring country who were in the country as hired professionals on contract. 

For some reason, they didn’t want to be part of the local church scene but decided to start their own church. In the process, they sought the help of American missionaries to man the pulpit and organise Bible study classes and Sunday schools.

Being missionaries, the sermons were always excellent. Being a visitor, the general impression was cordial. I didn’t feel unwelcomed but there was not a sense of being settled. Most of the expats kept to themselves. If I didn’t make the effort myself to talk to them, I would have been left alone with no one to fellowship with. Still, there were some oddities I couldn’t get comfortable with.

Firstly, they forbade me, a Christian of more than 35 years, from joining them in Holy Communion, which I felt was unreasonable and unacceptable. It left me feeling lost and frustrated. Worship service was pure Fanny Crosby-style hymns, which I wasn’t used to although I was prepared to get used to this. 

But the strangest experience was when I expressed an interest in finally joining the church. This required me to attend an almost-two-hour-long “interview” where I faced some of the most perplexing questions.

One question focused on what Bible verse came to mind as I was getting baptised. Given that my baptism occurred literally decades ago, that would be impossible to answer! Besides I wasn’t the same Christian then as I am today. 

In other words, I wasn’t too spiritually invested to remember such small details at that time. It wasn’t something I thought was significant. Considering the oddness of the question, I was surprised that they didn’t ask to see proof of my baptism. Maybe they should.

I mightn’t have been in that church for long enough to appreciate the nuances but I could say that I didn’t feel the love or warmth in the few months I spent there. Impressions are important and if the passion is evident enough that you can feel it under your skin, then you don’t need to be around the church for months to get a good sense of it. 

In fact, a church that is passionate about Christ and His people oozes warmth, friendliness and a great sense of acceptance once you get to experience their worship service. You don’t actually need to wait till you can fellowship after the service to know it.

When we’re passionate about something, we often can’t stop talking about it. Whether it’s a new car, a smartphone or a beautiful piece of artwork or even a really irresistible slice of cake, we’ll find someone to share our joy with. And we’ll keep at it because our passion defines something we just can’t put away.

When we Christians say we love God more than anything else, then He should constantly be in our thoughts. God should be the persistent reminder of how our lifestyle should be. If we are passionate about Him, then hiding it from view should be just about impossible because it’s written all over our face. Our love for God should be so outwardly visible that it’s hard to be private about it. Everything we do and say, our expressions, thoughts and conduct and our disposition towards everyone permeates the very fibre of our being.

Because we love the Lord with all our hearts, our passion should extend towards those who don’t yet know Him. Our passion becomes a deep concern for their welfare. He can be a neighbour, a school or college friend or a work colleague. He may even be a fellow passenger on the same flight or coach ride. Perhaps even a cab driver you’ve taken a ride from whom you share a great conversation with. The terrifying fate that awaits those who perish without having known Christ should motivate us to bring them to Him before it’s too late.

Early last year, my father informed me that his long-time loyal friend was diagnosed with bowel cancer. He was a retired widower and a non-believer. He lived alone in a house that was in need of repair. Every time it rained, he would worry about the possibility of a flood. And since his wife died of cancer some years back, he’d felt the loneliness being on his own but even so, he wasn’t the type to impose on his grown-up children who already had families of their own.

Importantly, he was remarkably faithful friend to my father. Almost every early morning, he’d drive for miles just to come see my father and go for breakfast together. They would talk about the old days and reminisce as only older people could. 

In all the times that dad was hospitalised for whatever ailments, you could count on him to visit and spend hours cheering him up. And if there was anything that my father needed help with, he would always be there for him even if that meant taking a day trip interstate.

One day, my father sheepishly asked if it was okay that I find a way to share the Gospel with him. I was happy to but not being fully conversant in Chinese made such a task near impossible. Not giving up, I roped in our church pastor to help out. 

Together, we arranged to visit him at his home but unfortunately on that very day, he was at his daughter’s house and so we scratched the idea. Most unfortunately, the opportunity to seek him out again was lost forever. In June that year, my father’s dear friend passed away and never had the chance to know the Good News.

I felt sick in the stomach because I couldn’t reach him and introduce him to Jesus. Though my passion for the Lord was tested, I’d failed Him terribly. I knew I didn’t try hard enough. I knew I allowed procrastination, slackness and apathy to wipe me clean. I had no one else to blame but myself. 

I dragged my feet until it was too late. I felt I had all the time in the world to tell him about the God of Abraham and why His promise of Salvation was more precious than anything else in the world. My intentions were good but I was an appalling executor and I allowed indifference to undermine me.

Had I been more serious and focused, this wouldn’t have happened. I couldn’t guarantee that he would accept Christ but at least I would’ve given it a better shot. I would’ve been able to demonstrate to my father’s close friend how God has influenced my life and set me free from the bondage of sin. I would’ve shared with him the real passion of life that the Lord inspired in me. There would’ve been so much to tell him if only I was spiritually more mature. But as it were, this terrible failure saddened me greatly.

As it turned out, my passion did not extend to those who don’t know the Lord when it should. My father’s dear friend died without knowing and accepting Christ and that’s a big deal for a Christian like me. In other words, that fate should not befall people we can reach. 

God opened the opportunity for me to bring someone to Christ and I ended up not taking it, which makes me honestly wonder if He would trust me with new ones in the future. Of course I hope He will. And of course too, I want to do a whole lot better next time.

If we are truly passion-driven, then we must have that sense of urgency to share God’s unique one-of-a-kind life-changing promise with those among our unbelieving friends and families, neighbours, work peers and anyone else we come across, knowing that all of them are at such a great risk. We need to do this by simply reminding most of ourselves that someone in our past life did just the same by placing themselves in a position to share that same Good News with us.

Passion? What passion?

Image source: Passion City Church

We’re all churchgoers but as followers of Christ, we’ve got to be a whole lot more than that. That’s what passion really should be. It should bring a sharper focus to our love of God. On the other hand, if you’re a Christian and not a churchgoer, you need to really re-evaluate what faith means to you. 

When we look at the word ‘passion,’ we’ve got to know what it really means within our context and how we should properly apply it in our lives. So in that sense, a scripturally-defined portrayal of passion should be four-fold:

•         Passion for Christ
•         Passion for one another
•         Passion to share the Gospel to make disciples
•         Passion to serve the ‘least of these’

However if secular society were to have its way, then our view of passion would be a little more worldly. We would then be required to redirect our passion towards the way they view social or sociopolitical issues. 

Society wants us to be less conservative and more liberal. Society expects us to be more pro-choice rather than pro-life because they tell us that the modern woman’s needs and lifestyle demands it. Society expects us to believe that migrants have a right to just waltz into any country and demand that their minority rights are respected at the expense of the host nation’s own sovereignty rights.

Society demands that as Christians, we should fall into step with all the emerging issues concerning gender neutrality, same-sex marriage, homosexuality, Darwinism, abortion, LGBT, feminism and all the vacuous political correctness. Society actually believes we should be passionate about all these things because we are supposed to be advocates of ‘social justice.’

But why such a serious ‘disconnect’? Why are we so defocused from the very things that we should make a stand for as a church? Many of us believe that the church at large has become misaligned because it has struggled to attain a good balance between two things.

On the one hand, it wants to attract new ones while it retains existing church members. It wants to grow and grow, in other words. On the other hand, it wants to transform and mould disciples in and for Christ. Doing the both seems a very difficult goal. 

In reality, finding a happy medium in between just makes it even harder. It is this problem that has tarnished our reputation for righteousness for as long as many of us can remember. And with that, we end up doing all the wrong things or at the very least, we have become so misguided in the way we run our churches.

Here are at least seven reasons why this is the case:

First, our “passion” for our church may actually be way overrated. 

Just as we think we are passionate about our church, we might be fooling ourselves. Many people like church but possibly for all the wrong reasons. They like church because the breakfasts are great. Never mind the message shared at the pulpit, people are more interested to know what meals they’re going to be served later. 

Younger Christians place a great deal of concern over the worship music. They demand ‘performances’ that electrify their passion so that they can all become ‘involved’ and carried away. If they don’t get this, they’d go looking for another church until this thirst is quenched.

Many people love the idea of meeting lots of people and socialise. They call this ‘fellowshipping’ but on the other hand, they don’t want to get their hands dirty with the various ministries. Socialising means doing things together outside of church but that doesn’t necessarily mean sharing the Word. Nor does it imply that they would take the initiative to do or contribute anything in church.

Second, I’ve certainly come across churches that encourage members of other churches to leave and join them. 

It’s like persuading someone to switch brands by talking up their strong points and demeaning the others’ weaknesses. By increasing their numbers this way, they think the church is growing. Others who see through such conduct calls it ‘poaching.’

There are also churches that induct other churches’ members, calling them ‘new believers’ as they undergo a radical “re-baptism.” It’s as if they do not recognise and therefore reject the fact that they already were baptised earlier. That’s simply another way of claiming doctrinal superiority over the others. 

It reminds me of the existence of a local church here that calls and prides themselves as “The True Jesus Christ Church.” I guess they consider all other churches to be fakes. By “re-baptising” those who are already Christians, they can then inflate their numbers as evidence that their church is growing while others are not.

Third, some churches are seen to take care of their own flock but they do little to alleviate the suffering of those beyond their church doors. 

Ever seen a church that rejects the homeless and the beggars from entering? Ever experienced a church where the congregants avoid sitting next to those they dislike? Unthinkable conduct, yes, but these churches do exist.

To say that these churches are so out of touch with their purpose is an understatement. The plain fact is they have forgotten the mandate of reaching out to those in need of salvation. The urgency to serve the “least of these” is lost to churches with elitist attitudes. 

In fact, it is a very strange oxymoron to think of an elitist church! Little wonder that we’re not making the right kind of impact on unbelievers. Little wonder too that churches are not changing society for Christ but instead are being influenced by worldly forces.

Fourth, countless (though not all) churches prioritise growth and expansion but fail in loving and impacting the world around them. 

Churches may grow and grow and then find themselves building great imposing structures that are as impressive as they are symbols of success. Along with growth in greater numbers, these churches are impressively technology-driven. Their media power is expansive and sophisticated. During the services, ushers go around toting offering bags with wireless credit card machines in hand.

Churches like these have endless intricate rules for everything and they’re printed and posted everywhere. They also have committees and sub-committees for just about anything and everything that requires discussion and approval. They run their countless ministries along such lines as well. Nothing gets away without invasive checks and balances. If you think churches look like corporate businesses, look no further than these ones.

For all the sophistication, they lack love, compassion and empathy. Church leaders may be groomed for maximum efficiency and productivity. They may be imbued with impressive head knowledge. They probably can quote Bible verses off the cuff with consummate ease. 

But they don’t show enough love. They are absent of wisdom and passion. In its place, they are cold, clinical and often keep an arm’s length. By their conduct, they inspire members to behave like them. And in the end, churches become passionless.

Fifth, a growing number of youth-inspired churches are spending way too much time engrossed in sociopolitical issues and not enough concern for the needs of their own flock. 

Gen-Z’s and millennials are the likeliest to feel a strong desire to belong and with social issues opening up opportunities for expression, they make media headlining front-liners.

Contemporary youths, even Christians for that matter, pour considerable effort in lobbying political circles, cutting their teeth on issues like gun control, homosexuality, climate change, migrant rights and environmentalism including anything they might feel requires urgent attention. 

These issues may not have anything directly to do with Christianity but in their capacity to “make a difference,” they plunge headlong into them, often emotionally as well. However, all of this is often at the expense of those within their own church who may have needs that remain unmet. By showing less interest in real concerns among their own members, fallout is, not surprisingly, likely with members feeling empty, uncared for and unloved.

Sixth, churches with toxic leadership issues are on the rise everywhere. 

These issues are varied and they include church leaders who abuse their position of authority, who engage in scandalous affairs, who engage in politicking, who allow preferential treatment of certain members (eg wealthy ones) over the others, who like to believe their interests take precedence over their flocks’ and who place greater importance on themselves over Christ. These, of course, aren’t all. If we dig deeper, there will be other equally as disturbing issues.

The problem with the behaviour of these church leaders is that they both drive members away and not bring in new ones. Or new ones come but leave just as quickly once they see what is going on with the leadership. Churches with toxic leadership problems have bad reputation issues that give churches in general a bad name. They do nothing to attract unbelievers because no one wants to be part of any setup that exhibits such abuse.

Seventh, there are some churches that just oddly don’t grow no matter what they do. 

My former church is an example of this. For too many years, the church stagnated. It wasn’t just that the numbers didn’t change but instead, they were declining. Attendance numbers stumbled and fell precipitously over the years until the church closed a few years ago. In the end, the number of members coming for Sunday service couldn’t even fill out a proper-sized cell group.

There was no denying that some of us tried to bring new people to church. A few other times, we also had walk-in guests. Either way, they didn’t stay. Many didn’t even return after their first visit. It was obvious that they saw or felt things we were too blind or deaf to know. 

Often, insiders fail to understand the very things that outsiders looking in can and this was a classic case of this. It wasn’t until we stumbled across the sort of stuff that might go some way in explaining this mystery.

Things like embezzlement and theft are just the tips of a proverbially large iceberg that over the years had gotten even larger and uglier. Don’t forget that disciplinary issues, apathy and indifference are just as if not worse. All these were dark stuff and at my former church, there were lots of them that took some time to unearth. By the time we did, it was already too late to save it from falling.

But in the end, the biggest crack in the wall for the church was its sad lack of passion. And for that, God’s blessing had not showered on us. In hindsight, I think the church lived past its use-by date when we should have closed the doors a long time earlier. All these immoralities were like millstones around our necks. They destroyed the church from within and we weren’t wise enough to sense them.

And herein lies the big problem for many churches. Churches in general lack the kind of burning passion required to inspire great spiritual growth. It’s easy to get blinded by big numbers; hence churches on the upward growth trend might think they’re on to a good thing. After all, numbers don’t lie but they do hide other disturbing problems very well because they offer the wrong impression that all’s well if not better.

Besides, big numbers don’t mean there is passion, at least not the type that matters. There might be the fiery passion to ring up the numbers and see membership surge but that’s not what we’re talking about. There might be passion shown to some members but this is preferential or selective treatment. There might be passion to put up new structures but devoid of loving God, these are meaningless too.

Growing a high-impact church

No church can be considered healthy if it resembles anything like the one I was in before it shuttered. In other words, healthy churches grow; unhealthy churches eventually die. Churches should never be pegged down to whatever size. Of course that doesn’t mean every single church must go mega sized to be relevant. What it means instead is that churches must be given every chance to max out their potential.

Churches that are Christ-driven will develop and flourish, showing an exemplary spiritual sense of purpose and offering a direction where people clamour to follow. Churches must be in the position to make a strong impression on their surrounding communities, influencing them to come hear the word of God and then be moved to follow Christ. They must also be powerful examples of transformation from within, changing to rid ourselves of our worldliness and embracing the life of Christ.

God’s express purpose for each of His churches is to grow and be expansive. To do that, He has planted in us seeds of faith where we can then grow into mighty trees that reflect the vastness of our passion for Him:

“Here is another illustration Jesus used: ‘The Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed planted in a field. It is the smallest of all seeds but it becomes the largest of garden plants; it grows into a tree and birds come and make nests in its branches.’” (Mt 13:31-32, NLT)

When we get to that point, we are then called to grow together as mighty trees that stand in unison resembling a church with a combined size and spiritual wealth that is the true measure of church growth. Only then can we project influence to impact and attract others to make churches even larger and mightier to the glory of God.

None of this has anything to do with numbers. We are often sold on the idea that strength lie in the numbers that define church success but this couldn’t be any further from the truth. Numbers for its own sake don’t impress God. 

After all, we can enjoy the largeness of a church and yet feel the cold draft and be cossetted by emptiness. I’ve been to churches here and abroad that made me feel that way and by the time I walked out, I just felt lonelier than I thought.

Loneliness is redefined as going to a large church and be among a crowded congregation and yet still feel like you don’t belong. People don’t talk to you. You don’t feel comfortable talking to them either. People keep their distances. You may be seated among people around you and still feel alienated. You want to socialise but you can’t get into their conversations because they talk about things you cannot relate to. And no matter how you try, people don’t make it easy for you to join in their conversation.

God’s true measure of a truly growing church does not rest on numbers but on the fruits we produce. In a growing church, people interact dynamically. They are warm and welcoming. They receive you in their arms with a glowing smile and a readiness to help. They make you feel belonged. Their eagerness to accommodate you help you embrace their passion. All of these are so obvious. They are written all over their faces that you can’t not notice.

Our success as Christians is measured by the impact we make to draw others to Christ. We may be a few but our collective voice must reflect the Christ who lives in us and we in Him. When we are in that position, we can bring down whatever barriers placed before us. A church of any number that conducts itself in this manner will always be larger than life. A church that shows true love of acceptance will always outsize any big but passionless church.

In other words, size is just a number and numbers ultimately don’t matter. God makes this clear to us in the Book of Judges. Here, God convinced Gideon that he had no need for the 32,000 warriors to rescue Israel from her enemies. Instead, He whittled the army down to a band of a mere 300. When it came to numbers and what it mean (or doesn’t mean), here lies God’s important and powerful message to Gideon concerning numbers:

“If I let all of you fight the Midianites, the Israelites will boast to Me that they saved themselves by their own strength.” (Jdg 7:2, NLT)

The rest of the story should be a familiar one to Christians: God delivered a miraculous victory to Gideon and his 300 warriors. God proved that victory doesn’t lie in numbers. Two verses later in the same chapter, God said further to Gideon:

“There are still too many! Bring them down to the spring and I will test them to determine who will go with you and who will not.” (Jdg 7:4, NLT, m.e.)

After cutting his numbers down from 32,000 to 10,000, God sought to reduce Gideon’s army down to 3 percent or 300. In the above verse, God reveals how He would examine the hearts of the remaining warriors to determine those He would finally use to wrestle victory for Israel.

Church leaders constantly face challenges to grow their churches. They frequently encounter barriers that discourage or stunt growth. Though they will face opportunities every so often to up their numbers, church leaders can also be confronted with difficult decisions as to whether they do or don’t work. 

In my former church, opportunities did knock on our doors more than once but invariably, the results didn’t turn out the way we’d hoped, laying proof that what we see as opportunities can in fact be anything but. Without deferring to God and waiting on Him, taking matters into our hands can result in unnecessary failure. Here are a few examples from my old church:

In one case, a couple of church members set up free tuition classes in a hope that we could use it to attract students living nearby to attend. There was also another incident where an outsider did the same, using our church as a venue for his tuition classes. In both cases, success eluded us because in the end, both were nothing more than exploitation of the church’s resources for personal gains.

In another case, our sibling churches from a neighbouring state answered calls to help. In one instant, a church sent their worship teams to come and flesh out our Sunday services, injecting a pleasantly fresh feel to our praise and worship time. In another, a seminary chaplain took it upon himself to come monthly and shared God’s message. In yet another instant, our denomination’s central body occasionally despatched pastors from the other churches to help out.

Despite all of these, the church showed no signs of recovery. Right through to the final month before the church closed, many of these activities had vainly continued. Why none of these worked was because people offered their assistance but had no clear understanding of what the church’s problems really were. If they didn’t know what these problems were, obviously whatever they ‘threw’ at the church wasn’t likely to address them. 

Furthermore, none of our church members did anything to make full use of these activities. They could have invited their friends to come and listen but they didn’t. They could have taken advantage of the fellowship and be inspired and motivated to lift their own spirits. Again, they didn’t.

However, none of these held a candle to the worse possible case we experienced. One evening after our usual Bible study class came to a close, a visitor suddenly appeared, offering us copies of a newly-launched book that we could share with the members. From something so innocent, it snowballed into a completely different situation where he was invited to share at the following Sunday service. Nobody thought anything of it.

In short, this visitor captured our imagination as someone with a phenomenal grasp of Bible knowledge. He was so impressive that we were all humbled. From there, we took up his offer for “intensive” Bible study classes that he’d conduct for us and anyone else who was interested to learn more. Hailing his arrival out of the blue as “truly godsend,” we basically let our guard down, believing that he must have been the result of our prayers.

It took a few months for us to finally come to terms with who this visitor was but not before he drew on his “followers” to join our church and fatten our numbers impressively. To say we were all impressed and happy would be an understatement. We were literally overjoyed! At last, we thought, things were starting to move!

It was when the visitor intimated to us that he was, in fact, “John the Baptist” reincarnated that our jaws finally dropped. So, this was what a false prophet looked like, we thought. Worse, he told us excitedly that “Jesus” was already here. South Korea, to be precise. That was just another way of telling us to prepare for the End Days were very nigh, like literally just around the corner. So the hint was to better pack up and follow him to the church in Korea if we were interested in survival.

Of course it was preposterous but his eisegesis perfectly fitted his agenda. He did that by using Scripture to “back up” his claim that the Son of God was already here. Amidst his excitement, we were, on the other hand, horrified by his admission. 

To say we were almost duped is an understatement. We were just steps away from a complete disaster but that didn’t mean we were not traumatised by it all. The whole sordid story actually began a lot earlier when he described parts of his life in Singapore that left us in some doubt about who he actually was. But none of that could compare to his self-depiction as Jesus’ cousin.

Shocked by it all, the pastor and I including our families met up and shared our feelings. Not surprisingly, we were all very upset. The pastor’s wife was confused and in tears, worried if all of those allegations were in fact true. It wasn’t a great time among us. We had sunken to a new low and most unfortunately, our church had to be dragged along. At this point, all we could do was to pray and commit to fasting for a week as we looked to God to show us a sign of what we need to do next.

Opportunities may be plentiful but our painful experience with this false prophet is a timely reminder of the difference between what we first thought and what it really turned out to be. From euphoria and great expectations to shame and humiliation.

To conclude the story, God had told each of us the same thing and that was, to stop working with the false prophet and not follow through. From that point on, it wasn’t difficult to find conclusion because he sensed that somehow we had “changed” although that didn’t mean we turned nasty on him. 

When we began to slow down on any of his proposals, he decided to pull the plug himself and move on but not before he dragged the recent new members along with him and badmouthed the pastor and me to others wherever he went. It was only then that it all made sense to us but by then, some of us were aggrieved by his deception.

Like what we experienced, every other church has its own stories to tell with the opportunities that came their way. Of course, some would be better than the others. While churches are unique in their own ways, God has destined that certain principles will apply to all of them. These principles are to help shape the kind of change that impacts the lives of not just the laity but also the surrounding communities and possibly beyond.

In Chip Ingram’s excellent leadership training series called ‘How to Grow a High-Impact Church,’ he identifies twelve principles – he calls them “laws” – that help us to build highly influential and life-changing churches. He uses these “laws” to explain why churches need to transform themselves. In the need for inner transformation, he focuses on the leadership as well as the congregation.

Chip’s twelve “laws”

Chip Ingram (Image source: Church Leaders)

In his leadership training series, Chip identifies the twelve “laws” and explains what they are and how they impact churches for powerful and meaningful growth. They are as follows:

1. The Law of Purpose

Churches that enjoy real growth know their purpose within the sphere of their influence. As Christians, nothing should be more urgent and important than to share the Gospel and win over lost and hurting souls for Christ. In every endeavour for Him, only one commitment fleshes out our real purpose. This one is it.

2. The Law of Expectation

In short, we can’t stay the way we are. We can’t just sit around and not do anything. All churches grow because some people put the effort to drive others to make them so. Besides, churches are meant to grow. Growing churches believe that growth comes with the territory. 

It’s normal to expect it. It’s something we shouldn’t be too awed about. Yet growth is supernatural and important within God’s larger scheme. In other words, growth is as predictable as every morning’s rising sun.

3. The Law of Design

Churches grow because their leadership believes that saints must be equipped to preach to others. Because every member, by design, is a priest (1 Pt 2:9), the church pastor should not be so burdened to deal with even the smallest problem and get buried by everyday issues. 

Members must have the liberty to organise group prayers, take the initiative and organise visitations to members who are ill or hospitalised and help other members in need without distracting the pastor from his focus on the larger issues at hand.

4. The Law of Liberation

In Christ, we are all freed from slavery to sin and death. And by the power of the Holy Spirit, we are also liberated to enjoy the fullness of life and holiness. Liberation paves the way for us to relish using our God-given spiritual gifts to drive our churches to growth and maturity. Churches enjoy such fruitfulness because they use their liberty to help their members to identify and use such gifts to the glory of God.

5. The Law of Dependency

One of the chief characteristics of successfully growing churches is their dependence on regular prayer, fasting and true repentance not just corporately but also individually. These dependencies are so integral in these churches that they become a strong signature culture with an unmistakably powerful spiritual vitality.

6. The Law of Structure

Successfully growing churches recognise the distinction between the different sizes so that they can act accordingly. In the series, Chip keeps this simple to work around by defining them as large, medium and small.  With these, he then talks about how their growths can eventually wane and flatten but he also offers workarounds so that these sociological barriers can be overcome.

7. The Law of Inspiration

Successful churches grow but they do so by offering a dissimilar range of different but equally meaningful worship experiences. While each of us may not find many of them our cup of tea, they invariably work because they respond successfully to their respective cultural settings. 

That’s the same as saying that what works for one church might not for another but even so, they have no difficulty offering amazing feelings of inspiration and meaningfulness.

8. The Law of Focus

Great churches succeed because they focus on their choice of perspective. To confront a challenge with joy and not trepidation requires the church to have an upward, outward and forward focus. In contrast, a struggling church tends to look inwardly thus losing focus since they are inclined to be self-absorbed. 

All problems to them are half-glass empty; in other words, more doomed than a challenge. They have no true joy and they cannot grasp what God wants them to learn and express.

9. The Law of Community

If you’ve been involved in small group dynamics, you’d experienced at least once the lack of deep connection among the participants. It’s as if they hardly know each other. They can be in the same room and still not share any meaningful dialogue. Hardly surprising then that even churches that witness people showing up for their activities can struggle with building a genuine community.

10. The Law of Intentionality

Successful churches are very clear about their mission. They are specific about their goals, visions and the means to accomplish them. It’s no surprise then that they have well thought-out strategies and deliberated plans in place in which pastors know to “begin with the end in mind.” 

This means churches know what the desired end result looks like and from there, they work backwards, discovering the important steps they can better plan to fulfil their vision.

11. The Law of Love

All great churches know a thing or two about the so-called ‘Ephesus’ syndrome and the “first love” complex. Without love, a church is bereft of warmth, laughter and hospitality, depriving it the chance to grow. This is because love is indispensable and a vital piece of culture that shapes and guarantees growth. As Paul clearly expresses, neither faith nor hope is greater than love (1 Cor 13:13).

12. The Law of Kingdom

Churches are successful not because they are competitive minded against one another. They don’t see rivalry but instead, share a common vision of being part of the Kingdom. Churches join together on important issues of historic Christianity through regulated prayer and worship times as well as engaging one another’s pastoral staff. Successful churches mutually assist with the collective aim of impacting communities for Christ.

None of this is meant to be a plug for Chip’s work but there is no denying that the twelve “laws” make sense. Drawing from his vast experiences, it’s not surprising that these “laws” offer us a practical but truly biblical approach to grow a church.

As a brief background, Ralph Browne “Chip” Ingram II, a pastor, author and teacher, witnessed impressive growth in a rural Texas church from 30 to 500, an almost 17-fold increase. But that pales in comparison when he became a senior pastor at a Santa Cruz church. There, he took the congregation size from 1,000 to 4,000, a 400 percent hike. Last year, he announced he would step down from his pastoral position to focus on an even more far-reaching mission that would take him around America as well as throughout the world although he would be concentrating on China and the Middle-East.

Why we need these laws

Image source: ajc.com

In a word, PASSION. Chip’s “laws” fortify our passion, bringing a far stronger focus on the way we can achieve church growth. His “laws” help us to better understand the necessary steps to underline our love for Christ and His people. It is, therefore, all about passion.

Passion is a powerful word. It means, ‘strong and barely controllable emotion.’ When we say that a person has passion in life, it means that his passion inspires him to work and do the things he normally wouldn’t. Without passion, chances are that many things in life wouldn’t have been done or tried let alone experienced. If it weren’t for passion, we certainly wouldn’t know what falling in love means let alone how we should act on that passion in order to love someone.

Passion fuels motivation. It inspires one to work towards success. Passion empowers us to master the task we wish to accomplish. It offers us the justification to embrace new experiences that add to our contentment and happiness. Passion begets enthusiasm and vigour. It is the key to overcoming obstacles and hurdles. It inspires us to overcome even the most intractable challenges. It makes the impossible look not just possible but very doable. Importantly, passion serves up a sense of purpose.

Like some would say, there are churches and there are churches. It’s not that difficult to tell if there is passion in a church. Walk into a very successful church and feel the all-enveloping passion. In their worship service, see how people truly praise God from their hearts. When the godly message is preached from the pulpit, witness how the congregation responds with passion. 

If you’re new to the church, savour the welcoming experience where people respond enthusiastically in wanting to meet you. Watch how love overflows when they do that. It becomes all too obvious that such a church is the embodiment of true passion, unstinting commitment and overwhelming biblical truth.

Have I personally come across such a church? I have but admittedly, they’re not commonplace. Most churches I have attended then and now truly lacks genuine passion. We now know why.

Passionless is meaningless

Image source: Parenting Pathway

A church that has lost its first love will also lose its love for others though it doesn’t happen overnight. While a passionless church has long forsaken love for any number of reasons, what is more concerning is that almost no one seems to care enough for a long time to do anything about it. That’s enough to explain why the ‘Ephesus’ syndrome persists till today among so many churches.

Here are four of many possible reasons why churches are void of authentic passion:

-        People possess unhealthy emotional reactions

There are so many misguided people in churches who desire “experiences” but without proper Bible study or a sound knowledge of who God truly is. When a church has such a desire, people tend to end up lacking real spirituality and therefore are incapable of responding with authentic passion, which is why people display unhealthy emotions.

-        People prioritise mind over feelings

In this age of Rationalism, reasoning power, knowledge and logic trump emotional response, let alone faith in God. People who consider themselves rationalists place greater importance in thinking over anything to do with truly feeling. 

Rationalists do exist in churches and they read Scripture with neither the expectation nor the desire to personally experience God within themselves. They prefer to trust what their minds tell them but not how their emotions help them to feel the Living God.

-        People have a detached relationship with God

Relationships exist because people react and respond to one another emotionally. That doesn’t mean we have to burst out crying but it does suggest that we relate to people by the way we feel. 

Because of God’s unchanging nature, there are churches that render Him non-relational, meaning that, He becomes someone whom people don’t truly understand. Not only is this absurd but it is also unbiblical.

-        People fail to emotionally relate to the Holy Spirit

Strange that Scripture teaches that the Holy Spirit is a person with emotions and yet many churches either underestimate this significance or they ignore this fact. In fact, it isn’t just the Holy Spirit. 

The Triune God – meaning the Father, Son and Holy Spirit together – has feelings. God has all the capacity to feel, which is why the Bible records His happiness, satisfaction, anger, fury and sadness. Yet not enough emphasis is placed on teaching people to fully appreciate this biblical significance.

Lessons from the seven churches

Image source: videoblocks.com

A passionless church can also be one of two things. It can either be waylaid by abject mediocrity or it is seriously maligned by deception. As the Book of Revelation emphatically reveals, there cannot be anything else.

Firstly, let’s examine Jesus’ remarks concerning a loveless church. With the church in Ephesus, this is what the Son of God says:

“I know all the things you do. I have seen your hard work and your patient endurance. I know you don’t tolerate evil people. You have examined the claims of those who say they are apostles but are not. You have discovered they are liars. You have patiently suffered for Me without quitting.

“But I have this complaint against you. You don’t love Me or each other as you did at first! Look how far you have fallen! Turn back to Me and do the works you did at first. If you don’t repent, I will come and remove your lampstand from its place among the churches.” (Rev 2:2-5, NLT, m.e.)

Elsewhere in Scripture, the Apostle Paul places great emphasis on the importance of love without which, nothing matters (1 Cor 13:13). With the church in Ephesus, it is not that the people are without merit. Jesus did acknowledge their strong points, pointing out their diligence and patience, their intolerance of wickedness and their ability to discern evil and also how they suffered for Christ. Yet without passion, all these are nothing.

While Ephesus epitomises a church void of passion, one that is anchored down by mediocrity is just as bad. Here then is a church that will conscionably settle for a lot less than God desires. Two churches mentioned in Revelation stand out. They are Sardis and Laodicea.

Of Sardis, Jesus says:

“I know all the things you do and that you have a reputation for being alive – but you are dead. Wake up! Strengthen what little remains for even what is left is almost dead. I find that your actions do not meet the requirements of My God. Go back to what you heard and believed at first; hold to it firmly. Repent and turn to Me again. If you don’t wake up, I will come to you suddenly, as unexpected as a thief.” (Rev 3:1-3, NLT, m.e.)

To be mediocre is to be very average. If you are one, you’re not very good at anything. You strive for the minimum or the passable. Just being acceptable is good enough but in God’s eyes, such a church is so ordinary as to be unacceptable. A church that fails to grow is obviously not good enough because inevitably, it will recede, fade and then die. Sardis could well be such an example. After all, a dead church can’t possible grow.

As for the church in Laodicea, Jesus says this:

“I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other! But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth! You say, ‘I am rich. I have everything I want. I don’t need a thing! And you don’t realise that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.” (Rev 3:15-17, NLT, m.e.)

Neither hot nor cold, the Bible says. In other words, neither here nor there. A church that has no identity is a church that is going nowhere because the people will not be able to relate to it. It is directionless or rudderless. 

A church without a vision or a mission won’t just go nowhere but it will also not grow. Churches that are like the one in Laodicea will become irrelevant, ambivalent and ambiguous before people decide they’re too confused to understand what’s going on. Or if anything is even going on. Eventually, they will also die.

Two other churches mentioned in Revelation stick out for its deceptiveness and therefore, have clearly displeased God. In the Book of Revelation, Jesus highlighted the churches in Pergamum, and Thyatira.

Of Pergamum, He says:

“I know that you live in the city where Satan has his throne, yet you have remained loyal to Me. You refused to deny Me even when Antipas, my faithful witness, was martyred among you there in Satan’s city. But I have a few complaints against you. You tolerate some among you whose teaching is like that of Balam, who showed Balak how to trip up the people of Israel. He taught them to sin by eating food offered to idols and by committing sexual sin. In a similar way, you have some Nicolaitans among you who follow the same teaching. Repent of your sin, or I will come to you suddenly and fight against them with the sword of My mouth.’ (Rev 2:13-16, NLT, m.e.)

Although Jesus recognises its loyalty, He condemns Pergamum for its wickedness especially towards His own people. Though not a false prophet, Balam (also written as Balaam) was evil. As a prophet, he did hear from God and God did speak through him. Yet, given this privilege, Balam’s heart wasn’t in the right place and invariably, he exposed his immorality by leading Israel astray.

Jesus then raised the issue of harbouring Nicolaitans. As followers of the Nicolaism cult, they indulge in Christian heresy by upholding the “doctrine of Balam” and live lives of unfettered hedonism. In other words, they were an abomination to Christ. 

Like the Gnostics and other false teachers, Nicolaitans perverted God’s grace and replaced liberty with licentiousness. While the Ephesian church was intolerant of such evil, Pergamum did not rebuke them.

Without a doubt, the church at Pergamum is guilty of misguided teaching. Had there been a real passion for Christ, this wouldn’t have taken place. Instead, the church would lean on teachings that raise Christ aloft. They would also have rejected Nicolaism.

As for the church of Thyatira, Jesus is equally as scathing:

“I know all the things you do. I have seen your love, your faith, your service and your patient endurance. And I can see your constant improvement in all these things. But I have this complaint against you. You are permitting that woman – that Jezebel who calls herself a prophet – to lead My servants astray. She teaches them to commit sexual sin and to eat food offered to idols. I gave her time to repent but she does not want to turn away from her immorality.” (Rev 2:19-21, NLT, m.e.)

Like the church in Pergamum, the people were being deceived. They were also lured into acts of immorality. Jesus recognised all this but in His grace, He offered the woman a chance to turn her life around, which she spurned. Despite proof of love, faith, service and patient were duly recorded, an angry Jesus found the acts of the church abhorrent and unacceptable (vv.22-23).

Recounting the church at Ephesus, the issue of “first love” takes precedence over everything. That is what a true Christ-loving church is all about. Literally everything else is relatively speaking unimportant. When a church recognises the importance of the “first love,” its actions are not only noticeably different but they offer us invaluable lessons just like what the two remaining churches – Smyrna and Philadelphia – underscores.

In Smyrna, Jesus’ comment is:

“I know about your suffering and your poverty – but you are rich! I know the blasphemy of those opposing you. They say they are Jews but they are not, because their synagogue belongs to Satan. Don’t be afraid of what you are about to suffer. The devil will throw some of you into prison to test you. You will suffer for ten days. But if you remain faithful even when facing death, I will give you the crown of life.” (Rev 2:9-10, NLT, m.e.)

In these two verses, there is not a word critical of the church of Smyrna. Instead, Jesus recognises its suffering simply because the people chose to follow Him. But the rewards for doing so are incredible. Being one of Five Heavenly Crowns, it is important to understand the word ‘crown’ translates in Greek (Gk. στέφανος or ‘stephanos’) to ‘reward’ or ‘laurel wreath.’ 

In other words, it is not the same as the crown or tiara worn by royalty. More accurately, the word is a reference to the laurel crown, similar to the one awarded to the winner of a sporting contest of the ancient Olympic Games.

Like the other four, the Crown of Life doesn’t equate to eternal life. In fact all Five Heavenly Crowns are rewards for certain special acts of service or perseverance in service to God. By all appearances, these five crowns will likely be some sort of real reward handed by Jesus to believers when He returns in the future and is seated at the Judgement Seat of Christ.

The Crown of Life is destined for those who suffer for their faith through temptation, tribulation and persecution. It is a unique reward for service dedicated to the King of Kings. It is the crown that Jesus places on the heads of those who reach the finish line after suffering harshly for Christ. It probably won’t be an actual physical crown or even a ring or garland of leaves but instead, will probably be a form of special blessing, honour, privilege or unique recognition in the future eternal kingdom of Christ.

And then in the case of Philadelphia, Jesus says this:

“I know all the things you do and I have opened a door for you that no one can close. You have little strength, yet you obeyed My word and did not deny Me. Look, I will force those who belong to Satan’s synagogue – those liars who say they are Jews but are not – to come and bow down at your feet. They will acknowledge that you are the ones I love.” (Rev 3:8-9, NLT, m.e.)

Like Smyrna, the church of Philadelphia suffered greatly at the hands of the wicked to the extent that the people had weakened. But even as they struggled through the pain and hardship, they never gave up their faith. They may have their strength sapped but they did not deny Him. This is true first love of the very first order. This is the love that Christ constantly talks about and encourage of us.

For the churches of Smyrna and Philadelphia, Jesus’ encouragement and promise of reward are unmistakable. Where the other five lacked, these churches offer us an invaluable view of what true passion looks like not to mention its power of motivation and the recognition that Christ accords it.

Passion is not optional

Image source: Gospel XYZ

God’s not done with those who believe and accept Christ and are hence saved. Day after day, He seeks to mould us increasingly into Christlikeness. In our lives as Christians, spiritual growth is not an optional checkbox. This is because we are progressively being transformed from the inside out. If this is true for individual Christians, how much more it is for the church as a whole!

Like the people who make up its congregation, the church is neither mechanical nor automatic. Instead, it is fully organic and dynamic. In other words, church growth is not just a concept but very much a living possibility. Spiritual growth is as indispensable a necessity for the individual as it is for the church.

While a successful church is obvious just by experiencing it, a toxic church isn’t quite the same. If you don’t look hard enough or don’t know what to look for, a church with serious issues may actually be fairly hard to identify. As embroiled as such churches are with their toxic problems, nothing is quite as destructive in a long run as passionlessness.

A passionless church drowned in mediocrity may actually escape scrutiny because its members may not see anything wrong with it. Humdrum people shape humdrum churches. Therefore they have no problems identifying and accepting such a drab and characterless church. 

In fact, it’s likely that they dig just such a church! Mediocre people are into fixed mechanical motion without the challenge of change or variety. That explains the same usual rituals during Sunday services.

Or the same colourless breakfast fellowship after the service. Or the same old people seated in the same predictable pews for years doing the same old repetitive things. Or the same usual lot who don’t turn up unless it’s a feast day or a major event like Christmas. Or the same mundane decorations that adorn the church’s interior and outside grounds for all the usual ‘special’ events. Or the same musky carpet that hasn’t been changed for the last millennia.

Unlike a toxic-tainted church that may be harder to track down, a passionless church, as we can see from the above examples, is a little more obvious. It might even be written all over the tired or disinterested faces of some of the people who attend such a church.

From my own experiences, even a special (or major) event loses its shine because the same people organising and arranging them for the past many years continue to be the same ones doing them for the next number of years. The more things are expected to change, the more they actually remain unchanged. 

Christmases bring forth the same people singing the same repertoire of carols and hymns, performing on a tired stage with unchanged but fast-fading props and background settings. And as I said earlier, the Christmas feast is probably going to be prepared by the same people, dishing up the same stuff over and over again. It’s like having ten years in a row rolled into one without feeling any different.

When passionlessness turns toxic, it becomes invisible or seamless. When that happens, it poses an even greater threat to the church because it can lurk without being noticed. No other poisons that a church faces is as deadly. None render a church as powerless and irrelevant. 

When passionlessness becomes hard to detect, it takes on a whole new level of destructiveness. It strikes even the most enthused church members, turning their zeal into smouldering wicks that eventually become nothing more than embers waiting to die out.

Full-on believers will begin to lose interest and quietly backslide their way out of church. Before long, they will either move to another church or if they become disillusioned, they will prioritise activities that take their Sundays away. 

Even once-energised ministries filled with the Holy Spirit will shift gears and become dull, mundane and lifeless. Monotony sets in and soon, they become meaningless. Before anyone knows it, no one wants to be involved anymore.

Passion energises the people who then light up the church, filling it with zeal, optimism and a life force to transform deadness into power. It turns the impossible into the imminently possible. It reanimates dead cells into a living organism. 

A church without passion in everything it does and represent will always be boring beyond even what you can imagine. It will be dull and monotonous with a rhythmic thrum as interesting as water droplets off a leaky faucet.

A passionless church may not be completely dead but it’s hardly alive. It’s merely clinging to life. It’s hooked on to a life support machine but frankly, someone might as well pull the plug and end its misery. God gave us stewardship to drive His church with passion to serve Him and His people with a level of vitality that reflects His glory. It must therefore be filled with relentless energy. It must exude indescribable enthusiasm. And it must be defined by powerful vibrancy. God wants His churches to possess all of these and more.

In the Gospel of John, Jesus was recorded as saying:

“The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.” (Jn 10:10, NLT, m.e.).

God so desires our churches to have a fullness of life and fulfilling ministries. By attaining this, church members can then have a powerful basis for a rich and rewarding life. If that’s true, it should also mean that church life is meant to be enjoyed and not merely tolerated. It must be fully satisfying and not just filling in time. And when all of these are in place, there is much to be passionate about!

Unfortunately, so many churches including their ministries and leadership lack all of this. Many just go through the motions, clocking in the day only to endure and hold on for the rough ride. Keeping their fingers crossed, they merely hope to survive yet another year before the whole cycle begins once more. Along the way, churches witness how their footprint is shrinking in society, their influence receding and even their hold on their members fast losing grip over time.

This is passionlessness at its peak lethality.

Remember our first love

Image source: Bible Study Tools

Jesus’ remarks about the church in Ephesus have an unmistakable resonance that should give us reason to pause. As food for thought, it’s worth revisiting those verses again:

“I know all the things you do. I have seen your hard work and your patient endurance. I know you don’t tolerate evil people. You have examined the claims of those who say they are apostles but are not. You have discovered they are liars. You have patiently suffered for Me without quitting.

“But I have this complaint against you. You don’t love Me or each other as you did at first! Look how far you have fallen! Turn back to Me and do the works you did at first.” (Rev 2:2-4, NLT, m.e.)

Let me ask you, do you remember your first love? Do you recall your first date? Can you recollect the first time you showered her with flowers? How about your first Valentine? What was her reaction when you slip the engagement ring into her finger? Were her response memorable when you proposed to her? If you’re married, do you recall how you felt on the days running up to your wedding day? If you’re in a serious relationship, can you reminisce those first few days of meeting for the first time?

Whenever she gets the chance, my wife would bring back memories of the first time we met. She talks about the unbridled excitement and the electricity we felt between us. We remember the places we went visiting, the restaurants we dined and even the way we dressed. Even the things we talked about. I could recall the unusual shoes she wore on our first date. And how could I forget the first time I introduced her to my parents. What a precious moment it was just to look at their facial expressions!

Such excitement. Such passion. That was the first and lasting love. Even as we can crystallise those memories so many years ago, it’s easy to lose track of time and then find that such precious moments of our lives can be buried under the passage of years gone by. 

With all the ups and downs we experience in life, it’s not difficult to find ourselves so distant from our first love. It’s like stashing away all those memories into a collection box and then have it shut and locked away only to be stored in a far non-descript corner of the attic never to see sunlight. Decades can go by without once thinking about that box. Although not thrown into the landfill, it’s nonetheless conveniently put away.

Set against the humdrum monotony of life, keeping up with the highest point of passion in our lives can be quite a task in itself but that is precisely what Jesus railed against the church in Ephesus. No doubt that the Ephesian church wasn’t entirely bad. Jesus made sure to say that they were faithful and did many things right. 

At the epicentre of a city almost buried in idol worship, this was a diligent and persevering church that when seen at first glance, was pretty impressive. The impression was they were doing many things that met with God’s approval.

Let’s not fool ourselves; many churches today are not far from the Ephesian example. You may even know of a church that conducts itself in a similar way, attending to all sorts of things and programmes, deeply involved in everything but their own people and then naively declaring its Christian-ness. 

Like the Ephesian example, they appear to be doing everything right. They even feel they’re on the right track and “delivering” the results. It’s a conviction that is left wanting.

Overcoming passionlessness  

Image source: Divine Renovation

Let’s revisit Jesus’ words concerning the church in Ephesus once more but this time, let’s focus on His warning as well as the countermeasures:

“But I have this complaint against you. You don’t love Me or each other as you did at first! Look how far you have fallen! Turn back to Me and do the works you did at first. If you don’t repent, I will come and remove your lampstand from its place among the churches. But this is in your favour: You hate the evil deeds of the Nicolaitans, just as I do.” (Rev 2:4-6, NLT, m.e.)

Four things stand out in these passages. These are the things that churches can do to turn away from the threat of passionlessness. Based on the verses, here are the important snippets:

1. “…as you did at first!”

KEYPHRASE: Don’t forget

Based on Jesus’ use of the past tense, He is telling us to not forget what we used to feel and do in the past. Within context, the church in Ephesus commenced well. They remembered Christ. They loved Him at the beginning but over time, they lost that feeling and did things that convinced Jesus that they don’t love Him the way they used to.

Back in Moses’ days, God spoke powerfully about the importance of remembering:

“Remember the days of long ago; think about the generations past. Ask your father and he will inform you. Inquire of your elders and they will tell you. When the Most High assigned lands to the nations, when He divided up the human race, He established the boundaries of the peoples according to the number in His heavenly court.” (Dt 32:7-8, NLT, m.e.)

To remember is to relive the feelings we used to have. It also means we must not deny ourselves of how we felt about the way we once loved. In the cold business-like running of a church, it is easy to ignore the all of that. Often, people including pastors can be guilty of being so serious that they lose track of their feelings. They assume these feelings are unimportant, more convinced that, in fact, they are bothersome and they get in the way of doing things effectively.

The above passages remind us how wrong we are to think that. Feelings should never be discounted. Being human means all our relationships are based on the way we feel. If we find ourselves jumping in joy because our soccer team won their match, then it should not be too difficult to find it in us to remedy this.

2. “…repent”

KEYPHRASE: Make change

To repent means we change out of contrition. It means we regret our actions enough to want to turn things around. The Apostle Paul makes it clearly enough to understand:

“Now repent of your sins and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped away. Then times of refreshment will come from the presence of the Lord…” (Acts 3:19-20, NLT, m.e.)

In the passage in Revelation, Jesus tells the church in Ephesus to change under no uncertain terms… or else. It’s the part “or else” that communicates a terse warning of repercussion in the event that His warning is not heeded.

To turn things around, in this case, means to choose to rekindle our first love, to rediscover that excitement, to return to a deep relationship with Jesus and re-experience the joy that we lost. And because that decision still lies in our hands, He reminds us with a thinly-veiled warning of retribution.

3. “…do the works you did at first”

KEYPHRASE: Take action

However, repenting isn’t enough. We must prove it by way of works or deeds. Jesus tells the Ephesian church to do an about-turn and “do the works you did at first.” This means we must back up our words with action:

“So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless. Now someone may argue, ‘Some people have faith; others have good deeds.’ But I say, ‘How can you show me your faith if you don’t have good deeds? I will show you my faith by good deeds.’” (2 Jms 2:17-18, NLT, m.e.)

It’s quite simple – don’t just talk. Don’t declare to everyone you’ve changed. Prove it. Put your words to work. Take action and make the difference. Show it.

4. “…hate the evil deeds”

KEYPHRASE: Stay righteous

In His final remark, Jesus offered what appears to be a conciliatory concession, in effect sounding like there was hope for the church in Ephesus. He commented favourably that by loathing the wicked works of the followers of Nicolaism, they fell in line with Him. To the Ephesians, that must have been a big relief!

However, don’t get too ahead of yourself. Take note that it’s not good enough to repent and do good works just to prove that we have repented. It’s also not good enough to remember our first love and rediscover that same feeling of joy that we once treasured.

What we also need to do is to avoid sin. By staying on the straight and narrow, we can then continue to conduct ourselves righteously before an approving sin-hating God.

Remember Paul’s words in his letter to the Romans:

“Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. Love each other with genuine affection and take delight in honouring each other. Never be lazy but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically.” (Rom 12:9-11, NLT, m.e.)

Sin is the scourge that will continue to divide and separate us from God. Staying on the right side of Christ is as equally important a thing to do as the others. Otherwise, verse 6 wouldn’t have made sense for Jesus to remark.

Reprioritising church, rekindle passion

Image source: panaynews.net

With a world damaged by and creaking precariously in immorality, we are as flawed as we are sin-tainted. And knowing of our haplessness, God made His Church the sole answer needed to eventually bring us home. The Church is His loving response to a hurting and wounded world. It is part of His wider plan to take us under His wing.

Our church is our family. It is our haven of fellow Christ-loving friends. It may not be perfect but it is, all the same, our spiritual home. It is where we can be with our brothers and sisters in worshipping Christ worshipping and praising God, listening to His word preached and partaking in fellowshipping and sharing of spiritual views. It is where we can sink ourselves into the Word and seek to know Him more intimately. It is our life redefined not by secular values but by God’s.

We’re now in the cusp of the first and second quarters of the year. The weather seems to have gone a little crazy. Days can be as hot as none of us can imagine and then suddenly the rain will come and turn things upside down. Life in Malaysia with the new federal government just keeps getting unpredictable although signs of economic recovery keep persisting. We just don’t know what to make out of them.

Church is church. We’ve had our ups and downs. Church is never perfect and it will never ever be. Our little twins are fast growing up and soon, they’ll be going to kindy and also begin attending Sunday School. Meanwhile we’re pouring over the youth in church, concern over their future welfare as they prepare to leave us to continue their education out of state.

I get it. It’s head-spinning stuff. Things are running so fast they sometimes make my head hurt. At the same time, it’s exciting times because as things change, the new will replace the old. As some members leave us for greener pastures, new ones will come visit our church and we’re praying they will stay.

I also know that some of us have so much on their plate that church becomes nothing more than a secondary priority. Finding time to just help out in church is compromised by workplace demands but aren’t we forgetting our first love? Aren’t we lining up for Jesus to rebuke us just as He did the church in Ephesus? Shouldn’t we be circumspect about the repercussions should we not turn things around and reprioritise our life? Aren’t we afraid because Jesus has already warned what would happen otherwise?

What about the spiritual gifts and calling? Remember the talents that Jesus spoke about (Mt 25:14-30). We are to give an account of how we use the talents gifted us by God. He has furnished us with all that is needed for us to do what He has called us to. Are we to forget that we work for the Master and not for our own selfish purposes? Do we really want to be held accountable for our poor stewardship? Don’t we realise that with the talents we are each given, we are expected to be productive and multiply them?

Let’s seriously reconsider. Let us urge one another to make fellowshipping a top priority even in our busy lives. Let us together encourage and spur each other on just to reignite our first love and enjoy the fruits of a rekindled relationship. Let us prove that we can turn our lives around through good works. Let us track down people in our church who are on fire for God and get close to them so that their zeal will rub off on us. Let’s avail ourselves to being inspired and driven by them.

At the same time, let us also be wary of those wet blankets who cast negativity for they are nothing but wolves in sheep clothing lurking within our churches. Let us not ever allow them to get under our skin and drag us down to their level. If we aren’t careful, we’ll discover how easy it is to slip down a few rungs and begin to think like them.

Instead, let us draw courage from and be inspired by those who are driven to love Christ so that we may follow suit and be passionate. Let us be consumed by the Holy Spirit whose presence in us revive our passion for the Lord. Let us revive our church so that we can all rediscover and act on our love for God and His people.