A North Star from which to find our bearings

What is the Christian church meant to be? The answer isn’t as simple as you might think.

Christians (mostly) agree that some parts of the New Testament are not directly relevant to us because they were written to a specific group of people in a particular cultural context.

There are now very few churches that, based on 1 Corinthians 11:2-16, forbid women from cutting their hair, men from having long hair, and direct women to only come to church if they are wearing a hat. Most churches don’t follow this biblical instruction because a woman with short or uncovered hair was as shameful as a man with long hair in that time and culture. Those things are not true in our culture, so most churches see these verses as not applying to us.

There are even fewer churches, at least in Australia, that welcome people to church with a ‘holy kiss’ as directed by Romans 16:16, 1 Corinthians 16:20, 2 Corinthians 13:12, 1 Thessalonians 5:26 and 1 Peter 5:14. Despite being one of the most repeated commands in the New Testament, a kiss in our culture is not the sign of general welcome that it was in the first century.

Working out which bits of the Bible apply to us now can lead to disagreements amongst Jesus’ followers.

For instance, some churches would say, based on some of Paul’s writing^{[1] ,} that women shouldn’t speak in church. Others would say that Paul was writing to a specific context at a particular time, and the weight of the rest of the New Testament tells a different story.^[2]

If some of the New Testament is not specific to us and other parts are disputed, how do we find somewhere firm to stand from which we can review how we have been going so far and glimpse the road ahead?

I suggest a good place to start is the one part of the Bible that no one can say is irrelevant. Did you know that Jesus prayed specifically for those who would come after the disciples (that’s us!) and that he asked for something very particular? He prays:

I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

John 17:20-21

Jesus’ central prayer for us is that we would be one and that, somehow, our oneness would impact the world.

Let that sink in.

Surely, Jesus knew, from his three years with his disciples, that there was very little chance that his followers would be one. Why on earth would he pray a prayer that would never happen?

One of the things that is repeated in almost every leadership book I have ever read is that the core function of leadership is to give people a vision they can work toward.

Jesus’ prayer for us is an invitation to a radical realignment of our understanding of the purpose of the church.

By praying that we would be one, Jesus gives the disciples a convenient way to measure how they live out all that he has been preparing them for and a “north star” to help them navigate.

In an article designed to help leaders amidst the uncertainty of a post-covid world, Kathy Miller Perkins wrote in Forbes Magazine:

Scientists explain that the North Star is located directly above the earth’s surface, and all other stars spin around it while it appears to stand still. Yet it always leads travellers in the Northern Hemisphere due north.

Likewise, your personal North Star, in the form of your leadership mission, is stable. And it orients you as you make decisions and choices as a leader.[3]

Jesus’ prayer is a mission statement for his church. It is a firm point from which we can get our bearings.

Like the North Star, Jesus’ vision of a church completely one, as he and the Father are one, is unreachable, at least this side of eternity. However, also like the North Star, the vision of a church reflecting the life of the Trinity provides a continual point from which we can measure our progress.

The church has tried other North Stars. Through the twentieth and early twenty first century, many churches agreed with Donald McGavran that the chief and irreplaceable purpose of their mission was church growth.[4]

Most people have not heard of McGavran, but most have heard of those who were deeply influenced by his ideas such as Bill Hybels, John Maxwell, Jerry Falwell, John McArthur, Robert Schuller, and Rick Warren.[5]

One of the lines that proponents of church growth repeated over and over was “healthy things grow.”

The North Star of church growth meant that instead of focussing on the relationship between Christ and the Father, the church focussed on itself. Instead of seeing success as people who are reflecting the glory of God, success became numbers at a Sunday service.

Most egregiously, a cornerstone of the church growth movement was that “People like to become Christians without crossing racial, linguistic, or class barriers.”[6] Called the ‘homogeneous principle,’ churches were encouraged to find their demographic segment and build their church life around the preferences of that unique group of people. Rick Warren famously identified “ a collared khaki-wearing, upwardly mobile, business entrepreneur type of person who’s trying to move up the ladder,”[7] who he labelled ‘Saddleback Sam’ and organised his church around serving.

At a human level this strategy makes sense. It is basic marketing practise. But McGavran’s encouragement was diametrically opposed to Jesus’ prayer and this way of thinking led to increasing polarisation in the Christian church.

Martin Luther King jr. rightly said, “I think it is one of the tragedies of our nation, one of the shameful tragedies, that eleven o’clock on Sunday morning is one of the most segregated hours, if not the most segregated hours, in Christian America. I definitely think the Christian church should be integrated, and any church that stands against integration and that has a segregated body is standing against the spirit and the teachings of Jesus Christ, and it fails to be a true witness.”[8]

If we take John 17 seriously, we understand that the church of Jesus’ North Star vision is meant to be made up of people who wouldn’t ordinarily associate with one another in the general community. It is this kind of group that requires a miracle of the Holy Spirit in order to be one and therefore can be a true witness and reflection of Jesus’ prayer.

I have attended many church conferences, read hundreds of books, and listened to countless podcast episodes. Many people have had many good ideas about how the church can advance. I have never heard anyone simply point to Jesus’ prayer and ask, “What if we tried that?”

---

[1] 2 Timothy 2:12 and 1 Corinthians 14:34

[2] They point to things such as Mary sitting at Jesus’ feet^[2], a place normally reserved for disciples; Paul’s teaching that women should pray and prophesy in church with the only limitation being that they should wear a hat;^[2] that Phoebe was a deacon of the church in Cenchreae,^[2] and probably the first person to ever explain the book of Romans to a church; Junia (a woman) is listed as an apostle,^[2] and that Paul calls Priscilla one of his co-workers.^[2]

[3] https://www.forbes.com/sites/kathymillerperkins/2022/10/07/want-to-become-a-great-leader-find-your-north-star/?sh=438969617c6e accessed 30 August 2023

[4] Donald A. McGavran. Understanding Church Growth Kindle Edition (1990), Location 390

[5] McIntosh, Gary L.. Evaluating the Church Growth Movement (Counterpoints: Church Life) . Zondervan. Kindle Edition. Location 475 and 745

[6] Ibid, Location 2036

[7] https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/podcasts/quick-to-listen/rick-warren-saddleback-church-purpose-driven-podcast.html Accessed 6 September 2023

[8] Meet the Press 18 April 1960