Listening To The Church

DEC. 29, 1981, 6:07 AM
FARM, FRONT OF FIRE

Yours is not a ministry in which you have direct and immediate access to Me for answers to the questions of others. But hear, o son, and know that when opportunities arise for Me to speak to another’s needs, through you, I just may avail Myself of the opportunity. You were awakened early, and the time seems right to speak to this theme. You proceeded rightly, for you, leaving the initiative to Me… having given clear indication that you would like to help.

My servant George shall have the opportunity soon to listen to the Church, through the executives of the Presbyterian portion of that functioning in Texas. He has no trouble thinking about what he shall say to them… except in deciding what he shall say, taken from all that he could say, in the short time allowed. He does wonder, and wisely, how and to what he shall listen.

These are all good Christians, of the Presbyterian type, but each shall have some difficulty in bringing together that Biblical knowledge and personal commitment to Christ with what they perceive as the realities of the institutional job. That struggle is an important focus for hearing. The task is to assess where most of them define true reality – is it the Christian faith superimposed upon and overarching a bureaucratic structure or are they faithfully fulfilling bureaucratic tasks in which they be functioning as simple pastors, deacons, and teachers? Does Christ and My Spirit really come first? He should listen for this.

One of the true challenges to the Church in its large and organized form is in remaining the Body of Christ as against the pressures to be an efficient organization. Now efficiency is desirable when it reflects a concern to avoid trivial, paper pushing tasks or endless meetings to “affect communication”. But efficiency is misplaced as a virtue when it means minimizing human concerns and spiritually motivated contacts. Is this meeting perceived as a marvelous opportunity to share (which means some proclaiming and a lot of listening to others) insights and convictions that are at the heart of what they are now called to do? Or does it seem to be just another meeting, which robs them of time to do their assigned or self-assigned managerial tasks? How do they seem to view efficiency?

In My view, of course, some of the many papers need not be filled, in or out, and the question must be everlastingly asked, “Who is going to read and profit from these?” Do they truly enhance the mission of the church? Do these papers facilitate souls being Christian with one another… or are they essentially trappings of a “respectable” bureaucracy? There is certainly nothing wrong with doing a task decently and in order… as long as it is worth doing. He should listen for evidences of what is thought to be “worth doing”.