The church is a little bit like an old car that you find find parked in the shelter belt of a farm somewhere. Perhaps you hand over a few hundred dollars to a farmer who can barely believe that you would pay him to take the piece of junk out of his yard. You load the 1950 something Chevrolet onto a trailer and you haul it home and put it in your shop. You stand back and look at the rusted and dented thing and declare, “Yep… It’s a car.” That’s about as far as the creeds get us, “I believe in the church.” It’s about as far as we often think but, there’s more. Something must be done with it. So now what? Well, I suspect that if you’re the kind of person who hauls rusted out old cars home you might also be the kind of person who isn’t content to say, “It’s a car.” You want to make it run. Before long you’re cleaning the carburetor and checking spark-plugs and learning how to pump the gas pedal just right and hoping and praying for that glorious moment when the dead comes to life. It does but, you’re still not satisfied. You turn wrenches and bang knuckles and learn that you can not only make this thing run, you can make it purr like a kitten.
How do we make the church run well? What is the ecclesiastical equivalent of cleaning out the carburetor and swapping spark plugs? We begin by realizing that if you are a part of a church, and all Christians should be a part of a church, then a significant portion of the responsibility to make the church run well rests with you. You can’t outsource it to a consultant, a regional minister, the denominational head office, the deacons, the elders, a pastor or any alleged expert in the matter. You may ask their advice, certainly but the responsibility rests with you. You may never sit on a board or a committee or hold a title beyond ‘brother’ or ‘sister’ but, if you are a part of a church your responsibility is inescapable. The phrase that is used to describe this inescapable responsibility is congregational governance. We catch glimpses of this congregational governance in the New Testament. It is a local church under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, that launches Paul’s first missionary journey (Acts 13:1-4). It is a local church that administers the Lord’s Supper (1 Corinthians 11:17-34). It’s the local church that handles sensitive matters of church discipline (Matthew 18:15-19). I think you can tie all of this together by saying that as a member of the church you have a responsibility to ensure that the gospel is lived and taught.
Let’s focus for a moment on the second part of that responsibility– ensuring that the gospel is taught. One of the disciplines I was encouraged to practice as a young pastor was to keep a folder full of cards, letters and notes of encouragement. On difficult days, it is not even necessary to read any of this appreciation. One needs only to look at the bulging folder and take courage. Later, someone suggested that I should begin a second, complimentary file containing all the rebuke and correction I have received. I told him, I didn’t think it was wise to keep a hit list in my desk but, be assured me that wasn’t the intent. On some days we need encouragement and on some days we need to be humbled. Perhaps, it says something about my vanity that I never started that second file. This separates me from the churches in Galatia. When they read Paul’s words, “I am astonish that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel” (Galatians 1:6), they must have wanted to put the whole thing in the circular filing cabinet but, they didn’t. They kept this word of correction.
The precise nature of the problem that called for this word of correction will become somewhat clearer as the letter unfolds. Right from the beginning however, we learn something of the root of the problem. It is arising because, “there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ” (Galatians 1:7). Notice who takes responsibility for this. The false teachers are in for it to be sure but, Paul begins by calling the Galatian church on the carpet. It is they who are deserting the gospel. It is they who have allowed this teaching to take root. They bear responsibility for this trouble because they must determine whether the teaching they are choosing to listen to lines up with the gospel they have received. Paul says that they are even to subject his words to this litmus test, “even if we or an angel from heaven should proclaim a gospel contrary to what we proclaimed to you, let that one be accursed!” (Galatians 1:8) The local church bears responsibility to ensure that those who teach in the church are teaching and preaching the gospel. If you’re a part of a church this is your responsibility.
God does not give anyone outside of this church the responsibility to ensure that this church is preaching the gospel. That’s your job, so you better do it! That means you’ve got to know your stuff. That means that you better invest some study and prayer in understanding the gospel. It also means you’ve got to have some pretty strong knees. Sometimes the people who are twisting the gospel into no gospel are intimidating characters. They’ve been to seminary, they have titles like Reverend or Doctor. No title can excuse a twisted gospel and according to the Bible the responsibility to ensure that the local church is teaching the gospel rests with the congregation.
I have chosen to focus on this part of the local church’s responsibility because our church is about to make an important decision. We are about to decide whether to call someone to live and teach the gospel among us as pastor. Sure, it would be easier if we could delegate this responsibility to somebody in a denominational head office but, we can’t. The New Testament calls the local church to seek the will of God together, to preach and teach and live the gospel together. So over the coming weeks I invite you to be a part of this process. Listen carefully to the preaching and teaching of the candidate. Talk with members of the search committee about the process. Spend time on your knees asking that the Holy Spirit would speak to us and that we would listen.