Back in the middle of the 20th century, 2 obscure countries were at war. After years of fighting, the Commander of the Armies of one of the countries rode into the capitol of a major province and gathered everybody together inside the capitol building. “I just returned from the biggest battle in the war,” he said, “And my army was victorious! The enemies back is broken, and they know that they can no longer stand against us. All we have left to do is drive them back to their country and accept their surrender. I came to you because I wanted to give you a chance to join in my victory-I want you to join my army, so you can be present when I accept the enemies surrender! All you need to do is come, and join my camp. I will arm you. I will train you. I will organise you-everything you need, I will provide!”
The General’s offer became the biggest news item in the entire province. A chance to share in his victory-who could pass it up?? Unfortunately, many citizens decided right away that they wouldnt take the General up on his offer-after all, they had families, businesses, friendships and lives to worry about, all of which were far more important than somebody elses war! Many other people decided that they wouldnt just take the general up on his offer, they would do better-instead of making the General provide training and weapons, they would equip themselves! Although they didnt have the factories requirewd to produce modern rifles, machine guns, or artillery, but the could sharpen pitchforks and make clubs to carry into battle-not much, but better than showing up with nothing! Once the weapons production was underway, they realized that they could also form their own Battalions and Divions-after all, wouldnt the General be impressed if, instead of an unorganized rabble he saw a mighty army march out to join him? It didnt take long for conflict to develop between the self titled Majors and Captains running the newly formed units-arguments over every small detail of how things should be run, what the uniforms should look like, what anthems should be chanted while marching to the front, and everything else imaginable. Those who werent stuck in the middle of the arguments became complacent-why should they all go and fight? Why not keep most of the army at home to keep the peace? They decided to send out small scout teams to join up with the General’s great army, but keep most of their men back home, at least until all the trouble had been ironed out.
Months passed. The General managed to drive the enemy back to their capitol and drive them to surrender, however when he called for the volunteers from the province he had visited to come forward with him to accept the surrender, only a handful of men came forward. Angered that the people he wished to honor didnt take up his invitation, the general returned to the same provencial capitol he had visited long before, called everybody together, and returned to the stage. When he looked out at the crowd surrounding the stage, the General saw a large group of sullen men in front of him wearing business suits. “Where were you?” he asked them, and somebody stepped forward. “We have lives to live. Families to look after. Businesses to run! We just didnt have time for your war!” The General watched them as they stared at his honor guard on the stage. Despite the wealth made clear by their clothing, their pride vanished as they stared at the battle scars and uniforms of the soldiers onstage. “Very well,” the General replied, “I understand your situation. As you know, I’ve returned victorious from the war! To celebrate my victory, there will be a feast tonight! However, I’m afraid that I cant afford to have you there-I have my men to feed, and medals to award-there isnt any more room for you at my feast than there was for my war in your lives.” With that, he sent them out of the room. Next, the General saw a group of men wearing shabby uniforms carrying pitchforks and clubs. The one wearing the least muddy uniform stepped forward. “Welcome back sir!” he said, “Were glad to see you again! Look at everything that we’ve done for the cause-we made our own uniforms, our own weapons, and formed our own army to win the war for you!” The general shook his head at the contrast between the dirty coveralls of the “army” in front of the stage and the pressed, spotless Battle Dress Uniforms of the men onstage with him, and the pitchforks and clubs carried by those in the crowd and the polished, menacing assault rifles carried by his soldiers, then looked the leader of the ragtag militia in the eye. “I didnt ask you to arm and train yourselves, did I? Your men would have been killed if they faced the enemy with gear like that! I am the only one who can equip you so you can survive! All I asked for you to do was come and join me, and you were so busy playing soldier that you didnt even do this! As I told the others, my victory feast tonight is only for those who fought in the war, and you did not. Now, leave my presence-my men have a feast to enjoy!”
As Christians, we tend to struggle when it comes to focus. Rather than devoting our lives to Christ Himself, we put massive amounts of time and energy into things that, although “spiritual”, arent overly important. We see the Church and our interaction with it as our chance to impress God, and run around in circles trying to make it as impressive as possible-we build massive, modern buildings with the technology needed to awe congregations. We run wild with programs, groups, retreats, seminars and anything else we can do to ensure that the announcements section of the bulletin is packed! We look everywhere for the newest speaker, song, teaching or perspective needed to make our message sound modern, impacting, and appealing to the world. We try to create worship services with all the splendor and audio visual effects of a rock concert (with Crosses instead of band logos and coffee instead of beer of course), and do anything we can to woo the world into the Church…and yet, somehow it doesnt seem to work as well as we want it to. All the radical new movements tend to fade as soon as the next radical new movement starts. Bitterness tends to form over pointless issues, from how many guitars should be onstage during worship to whether the rapture will happen before the tribulation. Our attempts to impress the world and draw them into our midst never seem to catch on-although megachurches are growing rapidly, Christianity itself is shrinking. Seeker friendly Churches arent attracting “seekers”, just Christians looking for more entertainment than what their old Church could offer. It seems like everything we try doesnt work the way it should!
The reason that we run into so much trouble with all of our ideas is that we make the same mistake that the self formed army made in the story. Jesus didnt call us to impress Him with how well we can handle the Church-instead, He made it clear that He is the one running it! The Church of Christ is only capable of following the calling of Christ through the strength of Christ-were doomed to failure without Him. We will never win a spiritual battle with the teachings and ideas that we develop-a fluffy, sin free gospel will do about as well in the world as a squad armed with pitchforks would do against an actual army, even an army that is headed for defeat. The only teaching that has the power to change lives is the one that was already provided to us-”Jesus Christ, and Him crucified” as Paul described it, and the only purpose that can create a strong, united Church is also one already given to us-the spread of that Gospel! The worst thing a soldier can face is peace-units that stand united in battle often tend to descend into bitter factions in peacetime. A Church that is driven to spread the Gospel to the world doesnt have the time or energy to quarrel over unimportant issues, while the Church that lacks that drive is doomed from the start-it will spend all eternity trying to reinvent itself, refocus itself, reinvigorate itself, and seek the next big thing until it either dissapears, or finds that “the secret” was actually laid out in full 2,000 years ago, and will never change. I have a feeling that, when Christ returns for His Church, He wont be overly impressed by the self made armies standing before Him, beaming with pride as they explain the genius of their programs and teachings. Thankfully, He hasnt hidden what He wants for us-Christ will be glorified in our lives through one influential figure-Himself. And through one message-the one that He laid out for us in His Word. Anything that seeks to please Him outside of those 2 key elements is wasted time.
