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A House Divided

THE CRISIS OF DISUNITY

NINE

“I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, F7 beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, 2 With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; 3 Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; 5 One Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. 7 But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. 8 Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity F8 captive, and gave gifts unto men. 9 (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? 10 He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill F9 all things.) 11 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; 12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: 13 Till we all come in F10 the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: 14 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; 15 But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: 16 From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love." —Ephesians 4:1-16

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I recently got into an argument

with an older sister at bible study, a dear woman who seems to know every written word in the King James (only) version of the bible. The problem is, she knows the letter of the Word but knows little of the meaning behind it. She knows what the Word says but she doesn't know, and is not interested in learning, what those words actually mean. The archaic language of 17th century England is precious to her, and when queried on what “With one accord” means, she dug in, folding her arms and averting her eyes and repeating, “All I know is it's what the Word says. It's what the Word says.” Yes, but does it mean the believers decided to be on one accord or does it mean the believers submitted themselves to God in prayer and supplication and their unity was a result of that process? Which came first, the chicken or the egg? “I don't know about no chicken,” she said, “The Word is the Word.”

And when the day of Pentecost was fully come,
they were all with one accord in one place.

Matthew Henry suggests Luke's use of “With one accord,” in Acts Chapter 2 was not so much a conscious decision on the believers' part as it was a product of the believers' submission to God. Since the ascension, the believers had been praying together on a regular basis (Acts 1:14), and that unity within the Body of Christ was a natural result of that activity.

For years now, I and many other ministers in town have been trying to solve the seemingly unsolvable problem of the fractured disarray of the black church here in Colorado Springs. A relatively small city, Colorado Springs is, of course, the headquarters of the massive Focus On The Family mega ministry, and the expansive New Life Church dominates the city's protestant churches.

The black churches here in town have typical memberships of somewhere around 100 to 150. They are underfunded, poorly administrated and are of only marginal political or economic concern to the city at large. There are somewhere around 60 black churches in town, most of them spun out of one core ministry by members who split off to start their own church after becoming dissatisfied by the pastor or church leadership.

A century ago there was one black church in Colorado Springs, St. John's Missionary Baptist Church, the oldest black church in town. Over the years, ministers and congregants have left St. John's to start Trinity Missionary Baptist Church, Friendship Missionary Baptist Church, Greater Tri-Rock Missionary Baptist Church, Divine Spirit Missionary Baptist Church, New Jerusalem Missionary Baptist Church, Antioch Missionary Baptist Church, and other churches around town. New Jerusalem in turn birthed True Spirit Baptist Church and other members left for Cornerstone MBC, New Light Baptist Church and others. In 1963 Friendship MBC members left to organize their own ministry which would become Emmanuel Missionary Baptist Church, the city's leading black church. Trinity MBC's pastor founded New Resurrection MBC when he was fired from Trinity, and a Trinity minister now pastors Perfect Peace MBC. King Solomon Baptist Church recently split, a group of believers leaving to found New City Community Church.

All of this dividing and founding has increased from an occasional oddity into a common occurrence. Church histories typically omit the grittier details of how the church was founded and what drove the congregants to start their own church. While the best face we put on things suggests these churches were glorious new and spontaneous moves of God, the more likely and less recorded scenario is one of disgruntled members ceding from established ministries to go their own way in largely personality-driven departures. The believers then pool around personalities they feel more in agreement with. Over the decades, these sub-tribes have coalesced into hardened arteries within the Body of Christ, with increasingly less emphasis on diversity and tolerance with one another. This has resulted in a common acceptance of church-divorce, either in small measure (individual members leaving) or in larger and more disruptive ways, with members attempting to oust pastors or, failing that, divide the church. It seems every year the bar is being lowered for disgruntled members to bolt or divide or otherwise disrupt the church.

Disruptive and divisive influences are not ever inspired of God. God does not author confusion or inspire division. God does not inspire us to whisper amongst ourselves or conspire against the pastor. God does not inspire fistfights at national conventions or clandestine back-room deals among deacons and trustees to freeze someone in or out. We give God both credit and blame for things He has absolutely no hand in. Things that are borne more out of our own spiritual immaturity, the immaturity of people who have spent a lifetime in church. A lifetime wasted, as our church leadership has ultimately failed to impart any external or infallible or eternal truth to us, or failed to recognize that the truth of God, the Spirit of God, has not in fact taken hold in the lives of those they pastor. Either way, it's a terrible failure of leadership, one that we have neither recognized nor come to terms with.

We seem to have so very much less patience with one another. And, while we give lip service to unity, the truth is, with so many churches and so many activities, members are exhausted and drained, broke and tired of all the running around. Our Sunday morning congregations continue to shrink, and our “city-wide” gatherings summon only handfuls of the faithful. We are competing with one another for the same (and increasingly shrinking) group of Black Christians.

With rare exception, the black churches here in town have no definable objective within the communities they are located in. In fact, for many of these churches, their location happens to be one of opportunity and/or circumstance, with the membership traveling from various parts of town to meet at the church, and then dispersing in like manner, leaving the community, the actual neighborhood the church is located in, wondering what the church actually does and who actually goes there. Far from being a lighthouse in the community, or the friendly church on the corner, the black church is, in large measure, an invasive presence. Loud black people and loud black music invading the quiet and then vanishing, ignoring the lonely, the lost, the hungry, and the needy literally doors away from the church.

I've likened one church, one of the larger churches here in town, to a great and fearsome battle ship, with huge guns and cruise missiles and state of the art weaponry. Only, this ship never fights any battles. Never leaves port. As the battle for the hearts and souls of men and women rages, this elite battleship never leaves dock. Never fires a shot. Instead, all we do is polish the brass and swab the deck and put on grand celebrations of what a great and fearsome battleship we are, celebrating each passing year of our mighty vessel taking up space at the dock.

Faith without works is dead (James 2). Christ never died for us to spend our days congratulating ourselves and fighting with one another. God is not the author of confusion (I Corinthians 14), “...but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.”

What conclusions do we then arrive at when we consider there are dozens and dozens of black churches in this one small town, that precious few of them cooperate with or support one another, that they are, in large measure, poorly administrated and poorly focused, ineffectual in the neighborhoods they are located within, existing in large measure only to congratulate themselves every few months for this or that Annual Day? Is this what our Savior had in mind when He was suffering on the cross? If this the measure and worth of His precious blood? This carnival we've got going out here?

Jesus' entire ministry was about risk. He took risks. He didn't save money in banks and he didn't ever, even once, congratulate himself for the X-Anniversary of His ministry. Jesus fed people. Jesus comforted people. Jesus defied the order of the day by ushering in the new age and the new dispensation. There is no scriptural example and no sound basis for the navel=staring self-absorbed circles our black churches run in here in town. Most of our church calendars and annual budgets are, in fact, in direct conflict with the clear example of the scriptures themselves.

As a result, we are not with one accord, and we will not ever find ourselves with one accord until we align ourselves and our ministries with the Word of God. As is, we align our churches with the tradition of our church. A rich tradition to be sure, but even the richest church traditions must align themselves with the obvious theme and example of the scriptures. Luke said Jesus, “Went about doing good.” Every reasonable example we have of church and ministry involves risk and sacrifice, supplication, love and cooperation. This example has become distorted and twisted and lost somewhere along the way, to the point where we think it's perfectly normal to prioritize useless pageantry over outreach and meeting basic human needs.

2 Kings tells us this story about the Prophet Elijah fleeing from Queen Jezebel and hiding in a cave. An angel of the Lord appears to him and asks him why he's hiding. Elijah, despondent, tells God, “I'm the only prophet left. I'm the only one left who truly believes in You. Who truly believes this thing. And they're trying to kill me.” Pastor Reynolds, who should have been somewhere laughing it up with his parishioners and scarfing up fried chicken and greens, was instead nibbling on leftover banana bread, huddled in his office, while we all went to party somewhere. In his eyes: exhaustion or despair? Was he thinking, Lord, I'm tired, or was he asking, What am I doing here? King on the mountaintop or Elijah in the cave?

I know that feeling. I know that exhaustion. I know the anger, the frustration, the sheer futility of trying to get people to work together. But if we don't do it, who will? We have some wonderful leaders here, but, taken as a whole, the Black Church here in Ourtown still scores a D Minus because we're so very fractured.

The pastors I've profiled here have, to a man, expressed to me their frustration at our seeming inability to work together. Oh, we take stabs at it, but it's mostly pomp and circumstance. It's dating without commitment. It has no teeth to it. Our “unity” is ineffective.

As I see it, our leadership role should, ideally, be superceded by that of the pastor once he is in place. And then we should either submit to his leadership or fire him. There's no scriptural example of the kind of nagging, browbeating defiance we see in many churches. There's absolutely no scriptural example of the Chairman of Deacons or even of Trustees having contravening authority over the pastor once he is seated. As I understand scripture, these men are ordained to help the ministers, not order them around. The board should either do as the pastor asks or vote him out. But all of this pastoral hog-tying is part and parcel of the dysfunctional spiritual eco-system here.

Men and women of faith need to take the risk, need to risk the wrath of sheep who have taken over the shepherd. Those of us who have long ago parked our spine at the door need to risk it all, bet our entire lives and livelihoods on the perfect will rather than the permissive will. Pastors need to stand up and say This Is What We're Going To Do. And we, as the flock, need to fall in line behind our pastors. We should have the courage to match our convictions.

There is far too much good here for us to be running in circles like this.

Christopher J. Priest
10 January 2004
editor@praisenet.org
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