The Right Balance? (1): Balanced Church: Individual yet Corporate
- Rev Norman Cameron

I want to begin a new series this morning. At the start of the church year I think it is good to refocus our hearts and minds on the great topic of the church. No matter how long we have been Christians, no matter how involved we are in church life, I still think it is helpful to hold before us some basic principles of church life so that we together are working for a common goal and vision. We have all heard probably the KJV quotation that without vision the people perish, it is actually not the most accurate translation of that verse, but the sentiment is right. Without a vision we do not prosper, rather we flounder, we go around in circles, we achieve less than our full potential in God.

So as we consider church life for a few Sunday mornings I want to do so under the overall theme of being a balanced church and what it means to be a balanced christian. As individuals we have strengths and weaknesses and that can carry over into our churches which are made up of individuals. If we take church life as roughly being divided into five areas - worship, teaching, fellowship, service, and evangelism we will find that sometimes as churches we might be a strong teaching church but weaker at fellowship; or we may find that worship is strong but evangelism is weak. We are fallen creatures and there is no perfect church and we tend to have leanings in certain directions. It is part of being human.

However we do not rest in that knowledge. I think we strive to be stronger where we are weak, to reach for the divine and have a holy discontent with sinful leanings and preferences. This is what growth and sanctification is about, the maturing and strengthening of areas where we are weak.

The Bible gives us the balance, it presents the ideal and in Jesus of course we have the most perfectly balanced individual who has ever walked this earth, who in John’s words, is full of grace and truth (John 1:14). As well as the Bible for our guide can I recommend a couple of books which I have also found helpful in looking at how to be a balanced Christian and a balanced church – Total Church by Chester and Timmis and The Living Church by John Stott are helpful in thinking through this issue further. Please read these books in conjunction with what I am saying so that we are all “on board” in terms of sharing the vision of achieving a better balance in our church life.

I will not be saying anything new, but I want to say it with a force hopefully that will come to you as if it is new and with a new potency and urgency. I have chosen some issues which I think are pressing in the western church and in our own church. We need to rediscover and keep rediscovering the truth that to be Bible people Jesus urges us to walk the way less trodden and to (in the words of Rom.12) transform our thinking and be shaped by the Spirit of God rather than to be conformed to the world’s thinking. This is why we are here – to be transformed, to change our thinking from what is generally accepted in our world.

In the last twenty years there has been an explosion of interest in the theology and doctrine of the church. There have been many new books on the church recently but more significantly there has been an explosion of new forms of church. While the traditional big denominations still hold some sway new churches are springing up and are attracting more and more people and it is fair to say that some of the new churches have emphases in areas where traditional churches have been weak.

This is often what happens in reformation movements, they spring out of dis-satisfaction or discontent. Because they spring out of discontent they tend to emphasise and swing very far in the other direction – the pendulum swings quite far one way and it probably needs a little time to achieve some balance in the new church but new movements can be healthy in the overall scheme of things for God can use them, although extreme they can help the middle ground churches to see areas of weakness and correct them.

This I think is what is happening in what has been termed the Emerging Church movement which has seen some weaknesses in the evangelical church and has sought to correct them. In some cases it has swung too far with some confused doctrinal thinking I believe, but it has served as a wake up call to the evangelical church to redress some areas where we are weak and I will touch on some of these issues in this series.

Today I want to emphasise that to be a balanced church we must see that we are individuals yet corporate; in Christ we have an identity and a significance as a person that gives us a value in God’s eyes that we need to hear. We live in a world where people more than ever are numbers and statistics but we need to hear that we are named individuals who are known by God, saved by God and whose very hairs on our heads are numbered. But we also need to know that we are not just individuals. When God saves us he places us within a family called the church with brothers and sisters, a body corporate, a living organism called the church to which we have responsibilities and which has responsibility for us.

This morning I want us to explore this balance, this paradox, this tension and see the strength of each and tease out some practical implications.

1. Individuals

My starting point is the starting point of God’s people, the church and for that we do not go to Acts, we do not go to the beginning of Matthew, no we go all the way back to Genesis and to Abraham. In the call of Abraham in Gen.12 we see this balance of the individual and the corporate. The Lord spoke to Abram as an individual. I am not sure whether this was an audible voice, a dream, an impression but it was clear enough to be unmistakeable. But he spoke to Abram as an individual and said Abram I have a plan for you, a purpose for you. Abram I want to bless you. Now God wants to bless us. He does not have the same purpose and plan as he had for Abram. Abram had a very special purpose, it was a grand purpose and we are not Abram. But nevertheless God knows our name, he knows where we live, the Bible tells us as an individual our days are numbered, and when David eloquently states that he is “fearfully and wonderfully made and my frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place and all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be” (Psalm 139) they are not just pretty words, there is truth here and I believe that this truth does not just apply to David but to all of us. Each of us is special, each of us has separate fingerprints and DNA, each of us is unique. There will never be another me or you in history despite what the re-incarnationists say. This is it. You are here for this generation, this is your time and when your life is centred upon God and his purposes then your life reaches its fullest potential. You are custom built, you are bespoke, when God made you he threw away the mould.

Paul says in Ephesians 1:11 “In Christ we were chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in accordance with the purpose of his will … for the praise of his glory.”

Last week on the radio as I was driving I heard an interview with a lady writer who had been adopted as a young child. When she was still quite young she discovered that she was adopted and the parents were worried that she might have an issue over this or feel that she was less their child. But then they discovered that the child had latched on to a truth about adoption that affirmed her, that blessed her and made her feel special and wanted. That truth was that she had been chosen. She had not just been given birth to, she had been chosen, thought and intention had gone into the adoption.. Rick Warren says in the Purpose Driven Life “many children are unplanned by their parents, but they are not unplanned by God”. You are not an accident. We are adopted by God and to be adopted is to be chosen, God chose to set his love upon us. I, a sinner have been chosen to be a child of God. What an immense privilege.

Abram was chosen, David was chosen, Paul was chosen and you and I are chosen. We are not just a number we are a name. We are special, unique. There are some here today and you feel insignificant, worthless, a small cog in a big machine and in a big church you may feel what can I contribute, what gifts could I have, how can I make a difference. I am only one. The power of one is very significant when it is in relationship with God. Every one we lock eyes with matters to God and therefore should matter to us. Where the world today de-personalises we need to highlight personhood. A balanced church realises this and emphasises uniqueness, and celebrates diversity. Church ought to be a place where we are free to be ourselves and we celebrate someone dressing differently or looking differently. Conformity to God’s way of thinking leads to non-conformity in the peripherals. In the 17^th century Presbyterians used to be non-conformists refusing to be squeezed into an episcopalian mould – maybe we need to recover something of that non-conformist attitude again!

Yes we are individuals but we are

2. Corporate.

In the call to Abram it was not a call in isolation or to isolation. It was a call set in the wider context of family, tribe, nation and indeed the world. “Abram go to the land I will show you, I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you….all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” Yes Abram was an individual but God’s purposes for him would be worked out through the corporate community, it was not just about him, it would be about a people for God’s glory. Paul in Ephesians 2:19 says “you are no longer foreigners and aliens but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household…”. Paul says to Titus in 2:14 “Jesus gave himself for us to redeem us and to purify for himself a people that are his very own”. Peter says in 1 Peter 2:9 “you are the people of God”.

You see church is about individuals but it is not just about individuals it is about being a people, it is about being a corporate body. Paul in 1 Corinthians celebrates individuality, diversity, gifting, but he also emphasises unity and corporate responsibility. “There are many parts but one body (1 Cor.12:20f.); “there should be no division in the body, its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honoured, every part rejoices with it. Now you are the body of Christ and each one of you is a part of it.”

You are part of the body. When you are adopted by God you become part of the family, we are your brothers and sisters. In healthy balanced churches relationship is key – relationship with God and with each other. The bible knows nothing of lone ranger Christians. Healthy Christians seek to interact and inter-relate with other Christians. In larger churches we have to work harder at this. John Stott says “Large crowds tend to be aggregations rather than congregations – aggregations of unrelated persons. The larger they become the less the individuals who compose them know and care about each other. Indeed crowds can actually perpetuate aloneness instead of curing it. There is a need for large congregations to be divided into smaller groups – a community of related persons where the benefit of personal relatedness cannot be missed nor its challenge evaded.”

And there is a challenge of getting closer to people. This is part of the challenge of church. When we emphasise the corporate aspect we see our differences up closer and we have to work harder and learn really what it is to love each other. The most distinctive mark of the church according to Jesus was not fine teaching, it was not great worship, it was not spectacular buildings – it was love. John 13:34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

Jesus believed in families and family life but he also put a high priority on the Christian church family and the commitments that follow (see Matthew 10:34-39 and Mark 3:31-35). One of the emphases of the Emerging Church is the community aspect of church life. They are strong on this and it is making an impression on people who are carving for community and acceptance in an increasingly disjointed and individualistic world.

For we do live in a pervasively individualistic society where people emphasise their needs and wants and their rights. In Romans Paul throws out the challenge “do not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Start thinking differently. Yes you are a unique individual loved by God, custom made with needs and wishes – that is one side of the balance – but here is the other, Rom.12:3 says “Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgement, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.” The world does not revolve around you and your gifting, you are set in the context of a body, a church, diverse yet equal, you have a responsibility and a commitment to the people sitting around you. (See Total Church p.132). When Paul wrote to the church the word you is plural always, not singular. The church is plural – individual yet corporate.

Some of us feel insignificant and small – hear this - you are special. But some of us are full of ourselves and have little time for others within the church, you need to hear that you are called to be a part of a body, to contribute, to share, to love and to be loved, to give and to serve and receive and be served. This is the balance of healthy Christian living, of a healthy church. May God help us to make the necessary corrections for his glory and the good of his church.