All of us are statisticians at heart...this fascination begins early, and I suppose last all throughout life; I recall as a child, one of my first remembered efforts with statistics... ;being aware of the weight and bulge of marbles in my deep pants pockets which I had won in shooting contests on the grammar school grounds... Later it was comparison of my scoring averages per game on the varsity basketball team...Next, a keen mind for batting averages of Chicago Cubs members the year they won the world series... Then planning in college course registration that I had enough hours of classes in each semester with good enough grades to graduate in four years... ;On entering, by a sense of call into my chosen vocation, gauging the strength of congregations I served as to their comparative financial and membership status, historically and denominationally...
Today I ask you to join me in this continuing fascination of mine, in assessing when the Church of which I and you hopefully are all a part...I challenge you and myself to think of this in three ways: in the congregation(s)...denomination(s)...world-wide church. Matthew 16:13-19 -what promises evidence of strength and confidence...
As in my boyhood, and throughout your and my life, all of us have tinkered with statistics, like George Gallup, and the church at the three levels has as well in assessing the churches strength...
Today we look at numbers: members and monetary gifts, but history has shown us that such can be deceptive, for throughout the churches history more money and numbers have been at the churches disposal at all levels. Early on in our denomination, each congregation was asked to report how many members tithed...and again...the number of households holding daily family devotions...
Looking over the expansive records of church history at the several levels: local, denominationally, world-wide, we might be able to discover some indications of strengths that should be our guides for today. History teaches that it is hard when Christians are living their faith in different times, to gage the strength of their witness in the span of time... We can look at the history of this congregation. Presbyterianism, and Christendom and see more clearly today their strengths and weaknesses and the effectiveness of their witness than they would at the time.
At times in history the church has been evaded, chided, sidelined, disregarded...at other times it has been stable...prophetic and redemptive....What are some of the "rock" foundations we should recognize which would please Jesus and woo the world ?
Let me mention five - several signs of strength
I. When the Bible has been central....
That has not always been so....I could tell you of times...and show you examples...the Bible was embellished...more the excitement of printers than readers....
Or times when the church kept the word of God from the people of God...times when translators were put to death for their efforts, as well as efforts of distributing it... Martin Luther, the champion of the Reformation never saw a copy of the whole Bible until he was a young man ... When the Bible is in the language of the people ... used ... taught ... the church grows stronger.
The 20th century has become known as a time of Bible translation and distribution. Bible Societies have produced the word of God in over 1,200 different languages...
The Bible is the textbook for every worthwhile and wholesome change and correction in life...and speaks to our day in plain and uncomfortable ways...we neglect it at our peril.
II. When it has been mission minded.
There have been times when the church (three levels) has drawn in its arms, and done no more than hugged and congratulated itself...played solitaire, so to speak...at other times it has reached out in proclamation and service.
In the 18th century a cobbler in England...went before a Baptist body...concerned for the heathen...Their response: "When God wants to save them, he will do it." But William Carey was persistent in his pursuit of a need. On a day in 1793 the French crowned the God of Reason in Notre Dame Cathedral...Xty seemed to be pitifully on the wane...The next day Carey, having gathered support, set sail for India, and began a era of mission expansion which grew and grew, and is still influenced today by his initiative of concern and dedication .. He heard and followed the biblical call: "into all the world."
A congregation in Chicago approached me in my first pastorate, about a place on their staff to mainly ride in and out of the city on commuter trains to visit, each, and lead worship in those times of travel and confinement.
III. When it has been sound theologically.
The church needs to know what it believes as it lives in and confronts the world. The old adage: "practice what you preach" can just as well be turned around ... When the church has been challenged ... questioned, it has had to defend itself...it has formulated creeds, which they outlined in short statements about the truths of God's actions and dealing with humankind. These creeds chronicle the historic sweep of the people of God as they run up against all kinds of questions and seek God's guidance. For us the creeds are not set as hardened lava, but God's people need to continue to state new understandings of eternal truth in new times.
A Latin phrase states our Presbyterian attitude toward God's continued presence, and our need to confront the age in which we live with the gospel, which if not rightly understood in its universality can seem to some out-dated.
The phrase: "the church reformed...always (or continually) reforming" . In other words...the church must be conversant with the meaning of the unchanging gospel in changing ages and circumstances.
IV. When it has been united (ecumenical)
Ephesians 4:5 "There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father Of us all, who is about all and through all and in all."
Paul must have been aware of Jesus' prayer for his early followers: John 17:21 "I do not pray for these only, but also for those who believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, even as though Father, are in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that thou has sent me.."
V. (When it has been a singing church.
Think of the comfort of singing...the disciples leaving that Upper Room experience after singing to be accosted by events leading to the crucifixion, all of which they couldn't understand...Paul Silas in the Philippian jail....other stories of comfort and sustenance privately and in mass worship which uplift us through the talents and treasures of servants of Jesus Christ...
Martin Luther ... John Calvin ... not only placed the scriptures in the hands of the people, but opened their participation in worship through music.
A quote: "The age which has no great anguish on its heart will have no great music on its lips."
Writing in the short-lived Atlanta Times newspaper years ago about influence and change years ago, a Presbyterian Elder in an editorial penned these words: "Let me write the music...and you can make whatever laws you please."
Such strength can never be seen on a large scale until it is individually true.
Defending the church...doesn't strengthen it ... Living the faith does ...A Baptist ministers story....during that denomination's turmoil, which isn't over, told the story of a European Castle owned by an absentee landlord....his direction to the care-taker: Build a protective wall around it fashioned out of like stones as the castle.
Returning seasonally the owner joyfully noted the wall going up each time he came. On a later visit, he noticed something that had been going on all the time, but he had overlooked it: there was no more castle, all of the stones had been needed to construct the wall.
The effort of protection had outdistanced what was being protected. Our efforts should never undo that upon which we rely.
Dr. John C. Livingston,Honorably Retired from Trinity Presbytery, who resides with his wife in Greenwood, SC.