Who are the strong and who are the weak among the church?
Arthur at “The Voice of One Crying Out in Suburbia” recently wrote a short review of Dave Black’s new book Paul, Apostle of Weakness: Astheneia and Its Cognates in the Pauline Literature. Arthur’s review is called “Book Review: Paul, Apostle of Weakness.”
Last week, Arthur published another post called “The Strong Must Accept the Weak” in which he responds further to Dave Black’s new book. While his review is really good, I appreciated this post even more.
Arthur begins by reviewing his own history with the “strong” and the “weak”:
I have always gravitated toward traditions in Christianity that focus on “being right” and often those traditions made “being right” a lot more than just an honest attempt to live faithfully. Instead they all too often became a way to lord over the “less mature”, uninformed or just plain ignorant among the Body.
Arthus ends with some new thoughts after reading Black’s new book:
The church is not set up to be a place where the strong dominate the weak but where the strong love the weak.We tend to naturally gravitate to a hierarchy where we place the strongest at the top and the weakest at the bottom. The strong are recognized by title and prestige. There is of course nothing wrong with recognizing the more mature among us but they should be noted for their service and exemplary lives, not for dominating and demanding.
The church is only as strong as it treats the weakest among us. If we see the weak as people to be ostracized and avoided lest they infect us or as fools to be corrected by our superior knowledge, perhaps we are not quite as strong as we think we are.
As I read through Arthur’s post and as I thought about this topic (i.e., Paul’s use of the term “weak” – astheneia), I realized something.
There are times when Paul counts himself among the “strong”:
We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. (Romans 15:1 ESV)
And there are times when Paul counts himself among the “weak”:
If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. (2 Corinthians 11:30 ESV)
So, is Paul “strong” or “weak”?
Typically, today, when people talk about the “strong” and the “weak” among the church, they point to some as being the “strong” and others as being the “weak.” The strong are always strong, and the weak are always weak. (By the way, I’m not suggested that either Arthur or Dave Black are saying this. I’m simply relating the way I’ve typically heard these terms used.)
However, it seems that Paul thought that he could be strong at times and weak at other times. And, I think this is the right way to think about this. I can be strong at times, and I can be weak at times. Sometimes, you are strong; at other times, you are weak. This is true of any followers of Jesus Christ – male or female, young or old, mature or immature.
And, it also seems that the “weak” rarely recognize their weakness, but often they see their weakness as a strength.
If we recognize this in ourselves and others, we would accept that we might be the “weak” and our brother/sister might be the “strong” in any particular situation. We would treat our brothers and sisters in Christ with more respect and honor, even when we disagree with them.
I think this would greatly improve our ability to relate to one another, to disciple one another, and to be discipled by one another.
What do you think? Would it be beneficial to treat someone with whom we disagree as “strong” instead of “weak”? How would it benefit our relationships and ability to disciple one another if we recognized that we may actually be the “weak” party?
Moving beyond our expectations about fellowship
As I mentioned in my post “An Unexpected Journey with the Church,” I’m planning to get together with a group of believers in the Charlotte area in April to discuss how expectations often hinder us from finding fellowship in Christ with one another. Over the next few days, I’m planning to write about various expectations and how those expectations can affect our ability to find fellowship and share our lives with other brothers and sisters in Christ. I’ve already written about how we don’t always find fellowship in expected locations, we don’t always build fellowship through expected activities, and we don’t always find fellowship with the expected people.
Regardless of what we expect in regards to fellowship, those expectations can hinder our ability to actually find and build fellowship. We can become disappointed when our expectations do not play out – even good expectations. And, we can miss opportunities for fellowship because we don’t expect to find fellowship in certain locations, through certain activities, or with certain people.
It really does work both ways. Both “positive” and “negative” expectations can hinder our ability to truly find fellowship.
But, we have to be honest with ourselves. We all have expectations. Even if we recognize the dangers related to these kinds of expectations (and other kinds of expectations), we will still have expectations.
Suggesting that we simply stop having expectations is not only impossible, but not always beneficial. Expectations can be good in many situations.
So, what do we do about it? How do we live with our expectations while not allowing those expectations to hinder our ability to find fellowship?
As we continue thinking about expectations, I’d like to ask a few questions:
1) What expectations do you have related to finding fellowship in Christ?
2) Do you take any steps to make sure that those expectations do not work to hinder fellowship? If so, what steps?
3) How can we help others find fellowship outside of their expectations?
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Series on Expectations and Fellowship
You don’t always find fellowship with the people you expected
As I mentioned in my post “An Unexpected Journey with the Church,” I’m planning to get together with a group of believers in the Charlotte area in April to discuss how expectations often hinder us from finding fellowship in Christ with one another. Over the next few days, I’m planning to write about various expectations and how those expectations can affect our ability to find fellowship and share our lives with other brothers and sisters in Christ. I’ve already written about how we don’t always find fellowship in expected locations, and we don’t always build fellowship through expected activities.
But, what about people? Fellowship is all about people. So, how can expectations related to people negatively impact our ability to share our lives with one another and to find and build fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ?
Expectations affect our ability to find fellowship when we only expect to find fellowship with certain people or we expect to never find fellowship with other people.
What kind of people? Well, things like church organizational membership, doctrinal beliefs, denominational association, and also things like educational level, employment status, financial rank, race and ethnicity, age, living conditions, etc. We can (even subconsciously) assume that some of those characteristics would limit (or even increase) our ability to find fellowship with someone (or some group).
Another limitation related to people is the time that we have to spend with them. While spending much time with someone is always beneficial toward fellowship, we should not discount our ability to find fellowship with someone because we only have a short amount of time to spend with them.
With some people, we expect to find fellowship, and when we don’t those expectations negatively affect our ability to find fellowship with others. With other people, we do not expect to find fellowship, and – obviously – those expectations negatively affect our ability to find fellowship with them – but also with other people.
So, what’s the answer? Well, being ready to share our live with anyone. Yes, that means that as we “approach” people for fellowship, many of those people will reject us. But, it’s not up to us to decide who will and who will not reject us. That’s between those people and God.
And, yes, I know that many people – many of my readers – have been hurt by people because of rejection and betrayal. Again, you cannot project that hurt onto other people and assume that others will treat you the same way. That’s also between those people and God.
Instead, it should be our goal to share our lives with anyone who God brings across our path – if they’re willing to accept that fellowship, of course.
Have you ever found fellowship with an unexpected person or group of people.
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Series on Expectations and Fellowship
You don’t always find fellowship through the activities you expected
As I mentioned in my post “An Unexpected Journey with the Church,” I’m planning to get together with a group of believers in the Charlotte area in April to discuss how expectations often hinder us from finding fellowship in Christ with one another. Over the next few days, I’m planning to write about various expectations and how those expectations can affect our ability to find fellowship and share our lives with other brothers and sisters in Christ. I’ve already written about how we don’t always find fellowship in expected locations.
In this post, I’d like for us to think about activities. Activities and fellowship can go hand-in-hand, but it’s also true that activities can often work as blinders to the real fellowship that’s available to us.
To begin with, when you think about fellowship, what activities do you think about? (Yes, I know that fellowship is not all about activities, but for this exercise, please think about activities that you associate with fellowship.)
When some believers think about fellowship, they immediately think about activities like Bible studies or prayer meetings. Others think about activities like sharing meals or a cup of coffee. Still other Christians think about fellowship in the context of serving others – maybe serving food, construction, etc.
And, to be honest, any of those activities can be beneficial in building or maintaining fellowship with others. Since fellowship is about sharing our life in Christ together, then any of those activities – and many, many other activities – allow us to share our lives with one another.
But, what happens if we expect to find fellowship through certain activities, but we struggle to get to know the people involved? What happens when we’re taking part in certain activities in which we do not expect to deepen our relationships with others? In each case, the expectations associated with those specific activities will affect our ability to find fellowship.
Perhaps we will be discouraged because we don’t find fellowship in those activities when we expect to, or perhaps we will miss opportunities for fellowship because we’re not taking part in activities that we associate with fellowship.
In either case, the basic problem is the same. We’re allowing the activities to work as a filter. Instead, we should see any activity as an opportunity – although not a guarantee – to build relationships with one another as we share our lives together. Obviously, some activities will be more likely to provide opportunities for fellowship while other activities will provide less opportunities for fellowship.
But, again, any activity can be an opportunity for fellowship… if we do not allow the activity to become the focus and if we do not allow the activity to distract us from the people around us.
Lately, I’ve been most surprised at the amount of fellowship and the deepening relationships that I’ve found while running… especially long distance runs.
What about you? What activities do you find are most conducive to fellowship? Have you ever found during unexpected activities?
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Series on Expectations and Fellowship
You don’t always find the church where you expected
As I mentioned in my post “An Unexpected Journey with the Church,” I’m planning to get together with a group of believers in the Charlotte area in April to discuss how expectations often hinder us from finding fellowship in Christ with one another. Over the next few days, I’m planning to write about various expectations and how those expectations can affect our ability to find fellowship and share our lives with other brothers and sisters in Christ.
Over the last few years, I’ve found that location is a huge expectation when it comes to the church.
Okay, I know what you’re thinking. It’s time to harp on church buildings, right? Well, yes and no.
It’s true that many, many people expect to find “church” in a specially set aside building, and outside of that building they do not expect to find fellowship. Yes, this is a problem of expectations. But, this same problem of expectations based on location can affect Christians who do not gather in specially designated buildings.
What? That sounds crazy, at first. But, in reality, it’s all the same. You see, it IS possible to find fellowship with brothers and sisters in Christ in “church buildings,” and it is possible to find fellowship with other believers in homes, and it is possible to find fellowship with other Christians in parks and beaches and pubs and any other location.
Expectations get in the way when we ONLY expect to find fellowship in a specific location (whatever that location), and expectations also get in the way when we NEVER expect to find fellowship in certain locations (whatever those locations).
Fellowship is sharing our life in Christ together, and it requires sharing all of our life to grow deeper and deeper in fellowship with one another and with Jesus Christ. When we begin to expect location to affect that ability to share our life, then those expectations (not the location) WILL begin to affect our ability to share our life and find fellowship.
We might expect to find fellowship in a certain location and be disappointed when relationships are not formed or deepened there. We might not expect to find fellowship in a certain location and miss the opportunities that God provides for us to get to know our brothers and sisters better and to serve them.
Are there some locations that are more conducive to building relationships and sharing our lives with one another? Yes, sure. But, we should never discount any location in which we are with our brothers and sisters in Christ. Any location can be a place in which we find and deepen fellowship.
Church buildings? Homes? Parks? Beaches? Office buildings? Schools? Anywhere.
Wherever we are, let’s keep our eyes and ears open, discerning what God is doing in our lives and in the lives of the people around us, and we will not be disappointed by expectations related to our location.
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Series on Expectations and Fellowship
An Unexpected Journey with the Church
Occasionally, I’m invited to spend some time with a group of believers in a different city. Until recently, primarily because I was having to work several parttime jobs, I had not been able to accept any of those invitation.
However, recently, I’ve been invited to gather with a group of brothers and sisters in the Charlotte, NC area. My friend, Leah, is organizing this get together, and she’s inviting several people to join these believers to encourage them in their walk with Jesus and their walk with each other.
I’m excited about this time together, because the focus is on expectations. I’ve talked with several people recently about expectations, and I think this get together will work well with what I’ve been learning lately.
In particular, this gathering is being put together for those who are seeking fellowship in Christ but are struggling to find it. While there are many different reasons that this could be the case (and I’ve written about them previously), I’ve found that expectations play a big role as well.
I’m not exactly sure what I will be doing in the time allotted for me during this get together. But I do know a few things:
1) My topic will be “What happens when you find the church, but it’s not what, where, or who you expected?”
2) It will be extremely relational and interactive.
3) I will probably learn as much as anyone else.
I’ve decided to write about expectations over the next few days and how these expectations might affect our ability to fellowship with others. I look forward to your input on this topic.
By the way, this get together will be in Mooresville, NC (NOT Morrisville… don’t get that confused like I did), on Saturday, April 27, 2012 from 9:00 a.m. until 9:00 p.m. There is a small fee to cover rent for a place to meet and food for the day. (All meals and snacks will be provided.)
If you’re interested in joining us that day, let me know, and I’ll send you more information. You can leave me a comment here or email me at alan [at] alanknox [dot] net.
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Series on Expectations and Fellowship
Replay: Walking together in a worthy manner
Five years ago, while studying Ephesians, I wrote a post called “Walking together in a worthy manner.” (Interestingly, we just finished studying and discussing Ephesians together when we gather on Sunday morning.) In this post, I meditate on what it means to “walk in a worthy manner” when everything is not going perfectly among a community in Christ. What if there is relational friction or disagreements? What would it look like then to “walk together in a worthy manner”?
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Walking together in a worthy manner
In Ephesians chapter 4, Paul begins to “flesh out” the implications of the previous three chapters of the letter. He begins with these words:
I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. (Ephesians 4:1-3 ESV)
I’ve been meditating on these verses lately. I realize that Paul is calling us to live a certain way together – remember, this was written to the church, not the individual. But, I’ve also started thinking about the assumptions behind this statement.
Why would Paul remind the church to be humble? Why would he encourage them toward gentleness and patience? Why would the church need to bear with each other in love? Why would they need to maintain unity?
The church is composed of people – yes, the people of God, but we are all still fallen people. In order for the church to walk in a worthy manner, we must recognize that those around us are not perfect. What should we expect? Pride… harshness… impatience… apathy… division. Paul is painting a picture of a church that is composed of real people with real problems. But, Paul also recognizes that there is a solution.
The Ephesians no longer have to respond to pride with pride; they can now respond with humility. They no longer have to respond to harshness in like manner; instead, they can be gentle. When divisions occur, the Ephesians are now able to maintain unity. Why? Because, even though they are human with human failings, they are indwelled by the Spirit. This new people will continue to deal with sin in their lives and in the lives of others, but they can now respond in a completely new way: with the grace, kindness, love, patience, and unity of God.
We who find ourselves in the church should recognize that we will struggle in our relationships with other people. If we were not going to struggle, then there would be no need for Paul’s statement. However, like the Ephesians, we no longer have to respond like the “old man”. We can now respond as the “new man”.
So, as you walk together with those believers that God has placed around you… and as those around you stumble and cause friction… walk in a worthy manner.
Do you really care about people?
Do you really care about people? You remember when Jesus said something about loving others (and then Paul, Peter, James, John, and others picked up on that theme in their writings)? Well, it seems kinda obvious, but you can’t love others if you don’t care about them.
A few days ago, Randy at “Bible Study Geek” (his subtitle ‘Nerd Groks Word’ always makes me smile) published a post called “People.” Although his post is about relationship problems, it really comes down to caring about people.
He wrote (in part):
You get close enough to someone and eventually you will disappoint him and he will disappoint you. The disappointment can be handled in several ways, but it will always be there and it will never go away. It will affect your relationship.
I have disappointed my wife so often that I’m embarrassed to still be alive. She–a woman of great grace–has forgiven me and she loves me with a hunka burning love. But in certain situations, she doesn’t quite trust me because I have proven that I am not totally trustworthy. Even if my record is good for the last several years, there is a certain level of distrust remaining. That’s my fault, not hers.
That’s just one example.
I have a long string of victims in my wake. Like a Palm Sunday tornado, I’ve left strong trees toppled along my path of destruction. I wish I could stand those trees back up, but I don’t know how.
Like Randy, we all have “left strong treest toppled along [our] path of destruction.” It’s true… all of us. And, of course, we’ve all been hurt as well. For some, the hurt goes deeper than others, but everyone has been hurt by someone else.
And, like I said, the hurt often (if not always) begins because we really don’t care about other people – or, at least, we care about them less than we care about ourselves.
Around the same time that I was thinking about this, a friend of mine left the following on Facebook:
About two weeks ago I determined to do the following: Be more present, interested, and attentive to others – and – to look at people as having a sign hung around their neck that says: Please listen to me and value me. I am already seeing this bear fruit in my life and believe me it does not just benefit the people with whom I interact with—it has benefitted me more than you can imagine. Can you think of the benefits that would come from interacting in such a way with people you come in contact with? How does it benefit others… how would it benefit you?
Do you see what he’s doing? He’s reminding himself that others are important. If we remember that other people are important, then we’ll begin to care about them.
Do you listen to people? Do you value them? How do you show it?
I think these are good questions to ask ourselves. But, for now, I’ll close with the questions that my friend asked on Facebook:
If you started looking at people as having a sign around their neck that says, “Please listen to me and value me,” what benefits would come from interacting with people in that way? How would it benefit other people? How would it benefit you?
Hurdling toward discipleship… but don’t trip over that big hurdle
Joe at “More Than Cake” has written a very good post called “8 Obstacles to Making Disciples.” In the post, he lists some hurdles that we have placed between us and our ability to help other people follow Jesus Christ (i.e., disciple people or make disciples). (By the way, Joe says that this list comes from a book by Greg Ogden. You can a link to the book on Joe’s post.)
For the most part, I think the list is a good representation of what we often find among the church these days, and I agree that these are definitely obstacles to making disciples.
Here are the eight obstacles (with a little more info in Joe’s post):
First, the gap between those claiming to be disciples and those living as disciples exists because in many churches, the pastor/elder has been diverted from their ministry calling.
Second, church programs have replaced relationship.
Third, much of Christian life has been reduced to seeking after the immediate and material benefits over living out the lifestyle of a disciple.
Fourth, there is a gap between word and deed because discipleship has been presented as a “next step,” rather then as the natural result for every follower of Jesus.
Fifth, leaders have been unwilling to call people to discipleship because they are too concerned that some will “fall away,” which is code for “attendance will drop.”
Sixth, far too many Christians have an inadequate view of church and see it only as an event or a place rather than a vibrant community.
Seventh, Christian leaders have not provided a clearly defined biblical path to maturity and left to their own devices and definitions, God’s people have exhibited a manifest failure to grow.
Finally, the last obstacle to bridging the discipleship-gap is the lack of personal mentoring.
Like I said, I agree that these are obstacles to helping others follow Jesus that we often find among the church today.
But, reading through the list, I think I see a ninth obstacle that’s not spelled out, but is assumed in the list: an over-reliance on leaders among the church. In those eight obstacles, “leaders” are specifically mentioned in three of them. And, since “programs” are typically the sphere of leaders, #2 above would bring the count to 4 obstacles about leaders.
In fact, I think that an over-reliance on leaders (or actually a reliance on ANYONE else) to make disciples is the biggest obstacle toward disicpleship. And, it could be the most difficult obstacle to overcome.
Why is it the most difficult? Because this kind of reliance on leadership reaches into every aspect of a person’s life. Even if a person’s thinking and understanding changes in regards to leaders among the church, there is still much that must change.
But, I can tell you from experience, change of thinking and change of life can and does happen.
If you’re wondering why so little discipleship is taking place, and you immediately begin to think about church leaders, then perhaps this kind of over-reliance is an obstacle for you too.
We still want to HAVE a priesthood and not BE a priesthood
My friend Eric at “A Pilgrim’s Progress” just finished a great series on the new covenant priesthood under Jesus Christ. He wrote four posts describing this priesthood: “Priesthood and Responsibility,” “Priesthood and Self-Sacrifice/Service,” “Priesthood and Reciprocity,” and “Priesthood and Intimacy.”
Eric began this series with this statement: “All Christians are an equal part of the priesthood of all believers. This is both a great privilege and a great responsibility.” In that statement, he linked to 1 Peter 2:5-9 in which Peter describes the church like this: “You yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices sacceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 2:5 ESV)
As Eric works through the various privileges and responsibilities related to the priesthood of Jesus Christ, something becomes fairly obviously. In many ways, we still want to HAVE a priesthood and not BE a priesthood.
Every religion on earth has a priesthood of some kind – a special class of people who are somehow closer to the divine, are endowed with special privileges, and are given special responsibilities.
Interestingly, in the New Testament, the role, privileges, and responsibilities of the priesthood are given to everyone who follows Jesus Christ – that is, to all Christians. There is no longer a special class of people who are somehow closer to the divine, are endowed with special privileges, and are given special responsibilities.
But, we still want there to be a priest class. We want to give that role, those privileges, and those responsibilities to someone else. We want them to do the priest stuff for us while we live as normal non-priestly people.
Unfortunately – or fortunately, depending on how you look at it – you cannot give away (or sell) your priestly role, privileges, and responsibilities in God’s family. And, by the way, no one can take them away from you either.
So, read through Eric’s posts, and tell him what you think.
Then, I’m hoping you’d be willing to answer a few questions for me:
1) Why do you think people want to give up their role, privileges, and responsibilities as a priest?
2) Why do you think people want to take the role, privileges, and responsibilities of a priest from others?
3) What practical steps would you recommend to someone who wants to start living as a priest?