Dysfunctional Churches

I apologize for not writing too many posts so far this summer. We were gone for two weeks on vacation, away for a weekend for a wedding, and I’ve been very busy. I’m trying to get some projects done during this supposedly “slow” time, plus I’ve had a number of funerals.

I recently gave a sermon on the Parable of the Weeds (formerly known in King James English as the Parable of the Wheat and Tares) in Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43. In this parable, a farmer planted good seed, but an enemy came and sowed weeds among the good seed. Both the wheat and the weeds grew up together, but at harvest time, the weeds were separated from the wheat and burned in the fire. The harvested wheat was put in the farmer’s barn.

In that sermon, I stated that like most parables, it can be understood a number of different ways. One possible meaning is that Jesus was anticipating problems in local churches. In this meaning of the parable, the field would be the local church. In the case of the local church, Satan disrupts by planting those who look like and talk like devout followers of Christ, but have their own agendas. Maybe they are control freaks, or they engage in power plays, or they insist the church do things the way THEY want them done – or else.

Unfortunately there are plenty of such churches out there. I hear the horror stories from my pastor friends, and it isn’t pretty. What these counterfeit Christians do is hinder the work of the church by substituting their own agendas for the Holy Spirit’s. In addition, they drive people away because visitors can sense the tension and the dysfunction. What’s left is a dying church, often controlled by one or two families, and that church is ineffective and not in God’s will.

Sadly, many pastors are too timid to deal with these people effectively, so the church’s mission is compromised and the cause of Christ suffers. But it shouldn’t be up to just the pastor to handle such dysfunction. The laity should take the initiative to deal appropriately with those who are pulling the church down.

The reason is that these kinds of church members seem sincere in their desire to serve the Lord, but they are following their own ideas and not looking to God. They want THEIR church to be in their image and likeness. That may sound harsh, but those who follow their own agendas instead of God’s are disrupting and compromising the work of the church.

So we have been warned. Watch for those who aren’t furthering the cause of Christ in their local churches and be careful not to fall into the trap of being influenced by them. So let us make every effort to serve the Lord in spirit and in truth, following the leading of the Holy Spirit in all we do.