PRIMED: INTENTIONAL
Noel K. Anderson
First Presbyterian Church of Upland
Text: PHILIPPIANS 3: 12-14 NRSV
12 Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13 Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ. †
FAITH: All is Response
This is the kicker
Our text follows a passage wherein Paul reminds the Philippian Christians that he was a fine and very advanced Jew in his former days, yet he counts his high pedigree as garbage compared to being found in Christ. Verse 12, which reads,
“Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.”
We can imagine Paul’s readers thinking, “But you’re the Apostle Paul! If you haven’t obtained it, then who has?” Paul’s point—which is evident and constant in all his writings and, therefore, the biblical standard—comes from the question, “Who obtains whom?” Who does the obtaining? Is it our work—as in Paul’s former Judaism—or is it God’s work?
When Paul says he considers his Jewish accomplishments as garbage (the actual word is cruder—excrement), he does so because of his concluding statement, that “Christ has made me his own.”
Every proper understanding of salvation in Christ must emphasize that God is the agent of salvation and never we ourselves. As common jargon, we talk about becoming Christians by “accepting Christ,” but this never appears in Scripture. Not once. Nowhere in the New Testament do the Apostles tell anyone to “accept” the Gospel of Jesus. Not once. We can safely paraphrase our text, hearing Paul say,
Not that I have accepted Christ, but that I have been accepted by Christ
as central to Paul’s proclamation. This we find everywhere. American Christianity, for the past 200 years, has put the trailer in front of the truck. In short, you are going to Hell unless you accept Jesus into your heart (again, found nowhere in the Bible) in the particular way we think you should, be it the Sinners’ Prayer, re-baptism, or any of the other forms of human-invented procedures to make oneself right with God.
Yes, there are calls to repentance—many—which means to think differently and turn away from sin. But this turning is not itself the means of salvation; it is a response to the message of salvation. The gospel of salvation precedes repentance; it does not follow it. Paul in Romans 2:4 says:
Do you not realize that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?
God’s kindness in Christ is first—it is the substance of our proclamation—repentance follows that good news. To put it the other way around—as we’re probably used to—is to have the trailer in front of the truck.
Theologian Karl Barth called this the Gospel at gunpoint. Whatever else it may be, it is not good news but rather a threat and manipulation. In the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church said the same thing—serve the Church as we say or burn in Hell for all eternity—complete heresy and found nowhere in Scripture.
It did make for successful evangelism, though, which is why it is still in practice. We evangelicals like to feel that our efforts have a payoff, we invent ways to quantify our success—that’s all there is to it, and all are vanity—all are false gospels to the degree they make us and our actions the means of salvation. They are all like Paul’s former Judaism—the garbage he leaves behind—because all were based on human efforts and identities.
I know this is a hard word for many of you to hear. You may think I’m throwing Billy Graham under the bus, and to some degree, I am, but if you’ll listen closely to Graham’s preaching, he regularly reminded his hearers that Jesus says:
“No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father” —John 6:44
Scottish theologian T.F. Torrance puts it bluntly:
“You will not be saved unless you make your own personal decision for Jesus Christ as Savior” is a False Gospel.
We are not the agents of our own salvation—God is. God has saved, is saving, will yet save through Jesus Christ—and our call is to respond to that good news.
Now we can hear Paul correctly. Verses 13 and 14:
13Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.
Again he says, “I have not made it my own,” but I press on toward the goal. This is word-for-word, Olympic track racing imagery. “Pressing on” is a runners’ term. Like a good sprinter, you set your eye on that goal line and do not dare to look behind you—or even beside you—as you press on. Focus! Run! That’s it.
PRESSING ON
The Trap of the Technique Bubble: Know-how
How do churches “press on”? What kind of race do they think they’re running? Do they know what they’re supposed to be doing? How a church presses on tells us everything about it, and just because a church is running hard doesn’t mean it’s running well.
Today, there are more “How to do church” books available than ever in history. And there are a lot of church developers who try to start new churches using those books.
I have a pastor friend up in the Bay Area. His church—Presbyterian—is 120 years old, and the membership has dwindled steadily since the mid-70s. Elsewhere in the Bay Area are certain “IT” churches. Do you know what an IT church is? IT churches are today’s brand for today’s people. They have crazy momentum, which means they grow like weeds and reproduce their efforts site after site. Usually, they look for older, dying-0n-the-vine churches who might like the chance to renew themselves by having a team from the IT church come in and show them how it’s done.
My friend’s church was one of those churches. Discouraged by years of non-growth and waning membership, the church leaders figured the best thing might be to have one of these hot, growing IT churches come in and pretty much take over. And by “taking over,” they meant really taking over. None of the church’s older fellowships would take place anymore; neither would their old mission projects, choir, or former programming. The serious conversion of the congregation into the new IT church was to be a complete DNA transplant.
My friend sat in on staff meetings, and though in his mid-40s, he felt very much like an old relic. He was impressed at their organization and ambition, for they expected to have 1,000 members at that location within a year. The music was loud, the dress casual, the preaching pumped in from headquarters—it was a slick operation. My friend was surprised that for all their hard work and enthusiasm, there was little talk about the substance of faith—almost none about theology—but instead, all discussion focused on church growth and organizational success. They were committed to doing church much better than other churches. They valued know-how above all and attacked every program with textbook precision. While the people were all very impressed. My friend was simply depressed.
He said, “They really knew what they were doing—what they were supposed to be doing week-by-week and month-to-month to grow into a multi-site megachurch.” At least, until they failed. That’s right, the project failed, and the IT church moved on to be the IT church somewhere else.
The problem with IT churches is that while excelling at know-how, they can fail at know-why. It is only too easy for church leaders—pastors, elders, trustees—to become so driven to succeed that they get trapped in that “technique bubble.” The technique bubble happens when a driven, high-energy church thinks that know-how is central. Their hand is ever on the pulse of culture, and they are quick to adapt themselves to whatever needs to be tried next to feed that momentum.
It is as though they say, “We don’t care what kind of church we become as long as it’s popular and successful.”
The INTENTIONAL Church
Know-why guides our strategic planning
The unintentional church knows what it is doing, but it may have lost touch with why. Know-why—not know-how—makes a Church different from a business or a country club, and know-why makes a church intentional. It means we think and act strategically.
[Strategic Thinking clip]
To be intentional means we don’t program at random—just throwing things at the wall to see what sticks—but strategically.
When I was a paperboy for the PressEnterprise in Riverside, I picked up my papers at 5:30 am on Saturday and Sunday mornings. It was, during part of the year, completely dark when I started my route. The neighborhood I served wasn’t charming. One of my first stops was an old building—a collection of apartments surrounding a courtyard—with about 8 or 9 doors. They didn’t have any lighting—none—it was as dark as being blindfolded. I couldn’t see a thing in that courtyard—it was a pitch-black abyss of nightmares and zombies—so of course, I was too scared to enter. I roughly knew the doors of my subscribers because I threw that route every weekday afternoon, so I just guessed and flung the four or five papers into the darkness, hoping I might luckily hit a porch or two. Usually, I got complaints that came back to me. “Why can’t the paperboy put the paper on my porch?” It was too dark, and there was no way I was going to crawl in there to feel around for porches!
This image returns to me often—straddling my bike on the sidewalk, looking into the blackness, and flinging the papers into the abyss, hoping to get lucky. When churches are not intentional, programming is like this. We put things out there and hope it will hit at least one or two porches. Sometimes we get lucky, but for the most part, the endeavor is foolish and wasteful. “[Flinging motion]Here’s your good news! ”
Being intentional means we don’t program at random. We don’t fling things out there to see what might stick. Instead, we program according to our mission, vision, and values.
If someone comes to staff or Session with a “great idea,” our first question is not will it work? As we value being intentional, we ask, would this program advance the mission of First Pres? How does this idea help us to grow in Christ and Make Him Known? No matter how energetic or fun the idea may be, if we can’t justify it as furthering our mission, then it is a waste of our time and energy.
There are a thousand things we can do to be active, but because we are intentional, we will reserve our resources for things that clearly align with our purposes.
DIFFERENT. BETTER.
Honoring our distinctive place in God’s Kingdom
Being intentional means we stay aware of the larger landscape around us. There are a dozen churches—perhaps more—in the one-mile radius around us. As we press on for the prize of the upward call in Christ, what makes us distinctive?
In his business classic, Good to Great, what author Jim Collins says of American companies applies to churches as well. He says that for a business to flourish, it must be either different or better than similar businesses within its circle.
As we plan and strategize, we should regularly consider what things we can do that distinguish us from other churches. What makes us different? What can we do better than other churches? If you have ideas along these lines, know that we are always eager to consider them.
And finally, being intentional means that we live for the gospel, and we live or die for the gospel. I’m sorry to say there are still churches that believe that the gospel exists for the Church—that the good news is there to bring life and flourishing to the Church—but that, too, puts the trailer in front of the truck.
Like martyrs, missionaries, and apostles, many congregations have given their lives to the gospel. Some of them die for remaining faithful while refusing to sell out to culture. But this is the calling of the Church—every Church and every congregation—for we are called to be faithful. We are not called to be successful. In the balance between successful and faithful, we must—and will—choose faithful every time.
. †
Questions
- Paul “presses on” toward “the heavenly call.” What does that mean?
- What is the “technique bubble” and how does it hurt churches?
- What is an unintentional church?
- How might a church transition from know how to know why?
- What is the connection between intention and style?
- What happens when a church’s style dominates over its mission?
- How does strategic planning simplify church life?
- Does First Pres have any new intentions?
- Are there differences in either style or intention you would like to see?
- Can you see how our preferences either limit or open up our mission?