Is your local Adventist church like Jesus?
This week, I want you to take a quiz. Do it on your own, but also invite others in your church (leaders or not) and do it with them as well. In this quiz, we are going to identify wether or not your church is like Jesus.
Good news: There are only three questions. (Sort of.) But first, we need to read the parable of the lost sheep in Luke 15:1-7 because the quiz is based on the parable. So here goes:
“Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
Then Jesus told them this parable: “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’
I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.”
OK, now that you have read the parable I am going to break it down into 3 overarching points. Those 3 points will form the basis for our quiz.
Who Does your Church Attract?
The first point that leaps out from this parable is that the sinners were “all” gathering around to hear Jesus. Not the religious folk. Not the culturally conservative. Not the theologians or scholars. They were the ones in the back of the room judging, condeming and complaning about Jesus. In their heads, they couldn’t figure out how a holy and sacred God would associate with people like that—people who were clearly immoral. So the story begins with this simple picture: The religious people on one side of the room, Jesus on the other. And where are the sinners? With Jesus.
I had a friend years ago who was part of a ministry that gave free rides to drunk students on campus. During one of the rides, a student asked her: “Why would people like you (Christians) want to be around people like us?” In the same vein, I have had so many friends tell me they will never set foot in a church. “The building might burn down” some say. “Ill get struck by lighting” others say. But in the end, the message is the same - todays culture does not see the church as a safe place for sinners. We are, in effect, the opposite of who Jesus was. While Jesus attracted sinners, we scare them away.
So my first question in our quiz today is: Who does your church attract? Does it attract sinners or saints? The easiest way to find out is to ask a few followup questions. Questions like:
Who is most at home in your church? (If the religious folk are, its often at the expense of the non-religious.)
Who loves your church most? (If the religious folk love you, it’s because your church caters to them and not the lost.)
Who is most excited to attend your church? (If there is a trend of visitors coming and not staying at your church, it’s because your church only connects with saints, not sinners.)
So who does your church attract? Thats the first question.
Who Does your Church Prioritise?
Jesus attracted the sinners while the religious folk did not. So Jesus tells them a story that reveals exactly why. In the story, Jesus asks a really interesting question: Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?
Jesus question is interesting because he states it as a matter of fact: “Doesn’t he”? Its as if Jesus is assuming that the normal thing to do if you lose one sheep is to leave the 99 and go find the one. But from an investment perspective, this makes no sense. If you lose one the best thing to do is count your loss. You don’t leave the 99 “in the open field” and go searching for the one because you risk losing another ten! It seems to me that the best thing to do is count your loss on the one and preseve the 99 you have left.
But Jesus does the oposite. He leaves the 99 and goes searching for the one. It’s as if Jesus is saying: The 99 are not my priority anymore. The one is.
Funny thing is, most of our churches tend to operate the other way around. We live to coddle the 99. We exist to keep them happy, pacify their desires and pamper their every whim. When the 99 complain, the leaders have to find a way to keep them happy. And the sad part is, many of the 99 want a church where they are comfortable—a church where the one doesn’t fit in.
And this is why Jesus attracted sinners while the Pharisees repelled them. Jesus did not exist to coddle the 99. He did not come to the earth to make church folk happy. He came to reach the one. He had a heart that beat for the one. He wasn’t concerned with meeting the expectations of the 99. He was concerned with reaching the one.
Who does your church prioritise? Is it the 99 or the one? Here are some build-up questions that can help you figure it out:
Which department in your church gets the most money? (If your outreach budget is tiny compared to the amount of money you spend on “in house” things, thats worth contemplating.)
How committed is your church to understanding its un-Christian neighbors? (Is your church constantly putting on programs that only feed the saints with things that have little to no missional use? Or is your church investing in resources and tranining on how to connect with its secular surroundings?)
How open is your church to changing its culture and methodology in order to more meaningfully connect with the lost that surround it? (Most churches refuse to change any of their cultural or methodological practices because thats the way they “like it”. This is a sign of a church more interested in the 99 being happy than in the one that is lost.)
What does your church celebrate?
People celebrate when they win. And the easiest way to know what your church celebrates is to find out what it considers a win. Celebration isn’t always a loud party. A celebration can be quiet and hard to identify. So don’t answer this question by trying to find the times when your church throws a party. Instead, dig for the “win”. What is your church’s win? Because when it happens, a celebration ensues wether or not its evident.
For Jesus and all of heaven, a win is the one coming home. When the one returns, Jesus celebrates. Now most churches are happy when theres a baptism - I mean, who wouldn’t be? But that doesn’t mean they are celebrating because a baptism may not be a win for them. Instead, there are churches who consider it a “win” when they disfellowship someone. Others consider it a “win” when they get rid of a particular pastor, gain control over a particular issue in the church, or when they finally scare off those pesky young people with their weird ideas.
Some churches have no win whatseover (in that they have never discussed what a win is or have no unified win) and others consider it a win to reject or resist particular theological developments (ex. churches that pride themselves in being anti-WO or anti-”new theology” etc.).
But Jesus didn’t have any of those as a win. His only win—the only thing the Bible says heaven ever has a party over—is when the one comes home.
So then, what does your church celebrate?
These three questions: Who does your church attract? Who does your church prioritise? And What does your church celebrate? constitute the “Is Your Local Adventist Church Like Jesus? Quiz”.
What are your answers? Share them below and lets chat.
You might be asking: What do we do if our church is not like Jesus?
To answer that question, I have put together an online mission and discipleship school. Tap the button below to learn more.