Before Church: Confessions of a Church Hopper

Confessions of a Church Hopper ~ Farmers and Builders

I Corinthians 3

Church hopping. Since moving to Kentucky, I’ve done a lot of church hopping.  Mega churches, mini churches, contemporary or traditional, been worshipping with all kinds.  Conclusion: no perfect churches out there, so if you’re looking for that, stop.  Good churches?  Lots. So what makes a good church? 

Let’s talk about leadership. Farmer or builder?  Workers in God’s Kingdom are labor in His field, or on His house with Him as the foundation.  Paul (and Sosthenes 😊) use these metaphors to show that God directs the work and the workers, and we workers are – nothing.  We plant, we water, but God gives the growth.  Paul is saying this so that we – Christians – do not form cultish attachments to our leaders and make celebrities out of them.  It is to protect us from making human idols.  It is to give all glory to God.  And it is to proclaim that the church continues no matter what leaders come or go, and all leaders should be striving for God’s glory, not their own. 

Christians – not just leaders – should be doing our best work for God.  We all should be working and our work should shine.  We are building on the foundation of Christ, and that should inspire us to do our best.  Not using wood, or hay or straw (two out of three of the little pigs found out how fragile those building materials were); our work should be like gold and silver and precious gems, so that when the fire of God comes at the end of the age, all the work we have done that is true and good and actually glorifies God will shine in eternity. 

Leaders belong to their people: “So let no one boast in men.  For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos, or Cephas [Peter], or the world or life or death or the present or the future – all are yours, and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.” (vs. 21-23).  Spiritually we own all of it in Christ, and therefore we boast only about Christ, and look for others who seek only His glory. We don’t boast about people, this leader or that one.  We don’t boast about which teacher we follow, we don’t make idols out of our pastors or teachers or leaders.  We boast only about following Christ.  Certainly we celebrate the work of many Godly leaders and the work of Christians in all vocations, but we must never take our eyes off Jesus Christ, the Author and Finisher of our faith, our great Cornerstone, our only Foundation.  His work is the basis for our work, and His glory is always our goal.

Not sure where I’ll end up when I find a church home, but it will be where Christians in all callings work shoulder to shoulder to glorify Christ