Core Behaviors (Values Series 2 of 6)
Church planters need to be very clear not only on what are their beliefs, and what are the required beliefs of members and church leaders, but there are certain behaviors that church planters and pastors require, whether written or not written.
You don't have to be there very long before you find out these are the behaviors that are expected. The more clear you can be on the front end in terms of what behaviors are expected and what are not, the better it is for everybody. Let me give you some examples of behaviors that are sometimes written, sometimes not written, but they're clearly expected.
Number one: members are expected to be in regular attendance in worship on the Lord's Day. The idea of showing up once a month is not acceptable to the leaders unless that person is worshiping in another Bible-centered church, but if that's a long-term pattern something's wrong somewhere. How far are you planning to go in upholding that expected behavior? Will you put it in writing? Will it be one time a month? Will it be that the elders of your church never say anything to anyone? What will the expectations be of your elders, of your deacons, of your group leaders, of your members? You will have to make this decision, it's just good to make it on the front end.
Another real common one: financial giving. Will you be someone who says that when we take this membership vow before God and others to support the church, will you be the kind of church planter who before giving that vow, just like a good pastor before leading somebody to take a wedding vow, a marriage vow will say let me tell you what this means, will you say that to support this church means that you give financially to this church? In two decades I never knew what one member gave to the church but I had other people who took the offerings, who collected it, who tracked it. I didn't want to show favoritism or prejudice, and so I didn't know.
On all of these, like breeds like, and what you start with is what will continue. You don't have very long to set in motion the corporate culture of your church. Is this a church that values the Lord's Day and Lord's Day worship? Is this a church that values regular sacrificial, generous giving to the church? Will there be an expectation of your elders or deacons that will be higher than your members? Some do that. You won't be an elder or deacon in this church if you are not a model before the members, and that means the model starts with you.
It never in Scripture is the amount of money anybody gives. That's the widow's might. It's irrelevant. It's whether or not you're giving proportionately, sacrificially, and cheerfully. You can surely expect a team of leaders to rally around you and they'll join right in with you with your story of why you're not giving sacrificially, generously, and proportionately.
Attendance, finances, serving. Can a member come to the church and basically be a seat warmer or just a check writer? Is serving a part of what's expected? Is that not part of the membership vow? What about being in a community group? A lot of church plants I know say if you're a member of our church body that means you're in regular attendance of the community group, because becoming a member of this church is joining one of our community groups. You're under the care of an elder. You're under the care of deacons. You’re under the care of people who love you and to nurture you, and yeah, our community groups get together on the Lord's day and worship, but this is expected behavior here.
How about ethical standards? If a member of your church is in blatant, outward, known, public relationship with another man or another woman, do you just quietly at an elder meeting takes that eraser out and take him off the roll? This is what Schaeffer meant, purity of life, purity of doctrine, or does the church mobilize, and we're not talking about shunning. In Matthew18, God condescended to inscripturate literal steps to take in situations like that when brothers or sisters in Christ are an heinous sin.
Jesus literally said, step one: go to that person in private. The concept is over and over, go to them in private. Plead with them to come home and if they don't go get one or two other people. The implication is that they deeply respect, that they know what they're good, and go to make sure you're not wrong, and go to them repeatedly and plead with them. The whole goal of what you're doing is not to chastise them but to restore them. If that doesn't happen Jesus said tell it to the church. That doesn't mean get up on Sunday morning. It means tell it to the church elders.
The problem is Schaeffer said most church elders would say, "Oh, well we just erased him," but what's supposed to happen is you tell it to the elders and then Jesus said if they don't listen to the elders, if this man does not listen to the elders, if they don't listen to the church, be to him as tax gatherer and a sinner. Now, what that did not mean is shun him. Jesus was a friend of tax gatherers and sinners. Be his friend. Seek restoration but take him off the rolls of being numbered among the visible body of Christ. The final stage never ends because the final stage is the entire church mobilizes to win the tax gatherer and the sinner by being a friend and seeking to restore them, and love them well.
Is that the kind of church you're going to have? Well, that's the behavior. How do you plan to respond to behaviors? Are you willing to risk losses, defamation of character? Most, Schaeffer said, weeping, just turn the other way. Listen to these last three in my tradition, the Presbyterian tradition. We've asked you the two about what you believe. These are the three things we ask you to affirm in terms of behaviors. Listen to these.
"Do you now resolve and do you promise in humble reliance upon the grace of the Holy Spirit that you will endeavor to live as becomes a follower of Jesus Christ?"
Next question, "do you promise to support this church in its worship and work to the very best of your ability?" It's like an “I do.” I do.
"Do you submit yourself to the government and to the discipline of this church and promise to further this church's purity and this church's peace?": You know what that means? I take a solemn vow before God that if the elders come to me I will submit to them.
Those are holy vows. We are talking about the purity of the bride in terms of doctrine and life. What kind of church are you going to plant? What beliefs will you require? What behaviors will you require?
People are leaving mainline denominations in droves. There was a book written called Why Conservative Churches Are Growing. Basically this was the one take away. Conservative churches are growing more than liberal churches because conservative churches counterintuitively require more of their members than mainline churches. For some sociological reason the conservative churches are very clearly requiring certain beliefs and certain behaviors whereas the mainline churches are not. The main reason why conservative churches are growing is because they require more. They place higher demands on their members.
Human beings created in the image of God and re-created by God's Holy Spirit in Christ have been designed to give their lives away to something grand and cosmic. They have been designed as image bearers to give themselves to something greater than themselves, and that would be the purposes of God. They have been designed to be willing to die for something, and to live with dying in mind because the cause is greater. The real deal is the Jesus that said, "Come, take up your cross and follow me." The real deal are the Bonhoeffer's of the world. You want to follow Jesus? Come. Come and die, and then you'll live.
What kind of behaviors are you going to expect? Is this going to be a nice little country club to help people minimize pain and maximize pleasure? Are you going to be that little quadrant of their life that's just kind of missing the spiritual dimension, to help them move up Maslow’s Hierarchy to greater senses of fulfillment? Are you calling people to come and die that they might live?