King of the Hill

Everyone likes to be acknowledged for what he/she can do well.

It's a natural part of life and a well-known fact. After all the blogs we've posted, this would naturally be the part of the blog where I start to dismantle such a desire, but that's not really the point of what I'm here to say today. I've found that the desire to do well and be acknowledged really isn't that dangerous by itself. However, it can get pretty nasty when it is led by or gives way to a certain issue.

You see, the simple desire to excel and achieve wouldn't be such a problem if it weren't for our flesh. Adam was given a job in the garden of Eden and it's safe to assume that he didn't approach it with a lazy or lackluster attitude. Cain, however, envied the favorable treatment that Abel's offerings were given and instead of doing the right thing, he murdered Abel out of jealousy. Most of you already know that, though, so it's not like I'm saying anything ridiculously new, but his actions foreshadowed a simple problem that has gone throughout churches for centuries.

I believe it was C.S. Lewis who said that pride is the sin that makes many amoral human desires into sin and so it occurs with the simple desire to be acknowledged. Sure, we as humans (and as Christians) want to be acknowledged for the good work we do, but what happens when no one seems to care or when someone else does a better job?

All of a sudden, envy comes up and proverbial shots are eventually fired. This is often why you'll see a church that really emphasizes one form of ministry over everything else. I don't mean churches that are low on resources and can't do things like large music ministries or extensive mission trips. I'm talking the kinds of churches that attract one kind of crowd and nothing else.

Say, a really good musician gets kicked out of a church because the leadership doesn't like the way he plays or the style of music he uses. What will he do? Start or attend a church that recognizes and appreciates his abilities (or does so as much as he wants them to). After that, he'll probably surround himself with good musicians who feel the same way about music and about the church that spurned him. Soon enough (if he hasn't repented by this point), he'll be spearheading a church that exists to destroy and rebel against the ones that treated him so unfairly.

Exaggeration? I don't think so. Look around, it's happening all over the place (especially in music, but I'm not gonna touch that subject today). We have highly evangelistic churches that despise the deeply theological churches and vice versa. We've got wars between the administrators and the visionaries, the evangelists and the apologists, the pastors and the theologians, and (of course) there's the philosophers. Everyone seems to hate them.

It's nasty, it's ugly, and it's not solving anything. So often (but not always), the whole thing continues because of a failure to reconcile differences, accept compromise, and acknowledge equal value between believers. For example, the theologian feels like he is being mistreated and devalued (or it is happening), so he goes off to separate himself from the detractors, surrounds himself with those who value his work, and (in the honest attempt to prove his usefulness to the body) ends up doing the same thing to the angry pastors.

Hence, the title of my post: King of the Hill. Each group just ends up pushing the rest of the parties off the summit to feel more important and the battle never ends. I am of the opinion that this is part of the reason why Christ described the whole of the believers on the earth as a body: because we're supposed to work together. Watching different kinds of Christians battle each other like this is like watching your own body try to tear itself apart. Imagine your hands warring against your internal organs (or even your fingers fighting each other), your eyes battling your spleen, or your bones trying to tear your blood vessels.

Not only is it chaotic, but its impossible for the body to actually do anything in coordination when this sort of thing happens. If your hands won't trust your feet or your lungs, how will you be able to do something like climbing a ladder? Likewise, have you ever considered how the world feels as it watches us fight this endless battle against ourselves? I can assure you, it's not giving them a good impression.

As Paul discusses in 1 Corinthians 12, each part of the body is not only important, but each part is also equal. The eye can say that it's not a part of the body all it wants, but it's still an eye and needs to do the job of an eye. The hand can complain that it's not a foot, but it will still remain a hand. I always thought that it was strange for Paul to say that parts that complain about not being something else would NOT cease to be their respective part, but now I've come to see that it's because each part cannot deny or change the way that it has been created. Just like none of us can stop being ourselves, we can't get rid of the gifts, personality traits, and abilities that God has given us. No matter how hard we try (take it from someone who spent 18 years trying).

You can't walk with your face and you can't eat with your feet. Why? Because you're not supposed to. There are already parts of your body that were created for each of those tasks and more. In the same way, there are Christians who are created to do certain tasks in this world. We are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works that He prepared in advance for us to do. That verse doesn't just apply to the Jerry Falwell's and John MacArthur's of the world; it's for every single believer on the face of the earth.

Somewhere along the line, we all got it in our heads that the ministries and roles of some people are more important than the roles of others and it screwed everything up (it's still screwing up churches all across the nation and even overseas). However, doesn't it make sense that each of us would bring more glory to God for doing what He created us to do than for attempting to do the work of someone else?

I'm not saying that this will be easy and I'm not about to start suggesting that we invite heretics and wolves into the Body, but it's time for us as believers to end these petty squabbles and battles for supremacy and work together as one body, like we were supposed to do all along.

The only way to do that, however, is to ensure that we're all listening to the Head.

Grace be to you all in Christ Jesus,
~Jason Clarke
Bassist of Generic Music Group