Humbler Church, Bigger God

If there were one lesson most churches ought to learn right now, it would be this: we should become humbler so that God might seem bigger.

The sole purpose of the church is to live out the mission of God. We are God’s hands and feet to be used for God’s work in this world.

Yet despite this basic truth, many churches – especially many churches of an evangelical or restorationist bent – have seen in themselves an outsized role in the kingdom of God. Maybe this stems from latent deism. Perhaps it’s a misunderstanding about God’s kingdom. Whatever the case, it reveals a form of arrogance that forgets that the church must serve God’s purposes, not the other way around.

There was a window of time a few years back in which I was a candidate for preaching positions in some large or formerly large congregations within Churches of Christ. During that season, my current church was undergoing great turmoil, and I felt the need to explore my options. In some instances, I pulled back from advanced conversations. In others, I ultimately was not the one chosen to enter final negotiations.

In every circumstance, however, I noticed a trend that I found difficult to stomach. In various ways, each church’s search team wondered what “magic bullet” I brought to the table to ensure the revival or continued success of their particular church. They wanted to know what strategies I would unveil and what special initiatives I might use to raise or restore the church’s prominence.

Admittedly, I struggle with this desire and have been unafraid to say that out loud – which may explain why it was never a good idea for me to explore those opportunities in the first place. Something strikes me as deeply unhealthy when churches (or church leaders) speak so openly about trying to raise their profile or capitalize on their market potential. It feels like these conversations are missing something important: the work of God. Where is God in this talk? Is God a window dressing for such aspirations?

Today, most of us are in a very different place. Not every church weathered COVID so well. But for folks like in my church, the struggles of the COVID era might end up being a blessing in disguise. There were proper lessons to be learned. The main lesson is that we as churches should be humbler. In the process, this gives a chance for God to seem bigger.

I know it should never be this way. We shouldn’t have to speak in comparatives. It should be an oxymoron to use the words humbler and bigger. The church’s stance should always be one of humility. We are a missionary people with a posture of humility toward the world. We are people of the cross, a most humiliating form of torture that our Lord had to suffer.

And God should always seem big in our eyes – ginormous in fact, incomparable to all other beings and powers. Our humility should scream of God’s greatness. God shouldn’t need to become bigger.

But with churches that have been too full of themselves, God has been less visible than is proper. Truth be told, some churches are still living with the belief that they are sufficient, that they have the tools and recipes to survive and thrive in today’s world. God bless them.

For most churches, however, this is a day of anything other than self-confidence or self-sufficiency. Day by day, we see our weaknesses and shortcomings. We understand that we have some answers for a few issues. Mostly though, our most pressing issues are far too complex and changing too fast for us to know the answers – or even what questions to ask sometimes.

Where does this leave us? Hopefully it leaves us humbler.

If this is the case, and if we still retain our faith in God revealed through Jesus and indwelling us in the Spirit, then we might finally be able to see a bigger God.

People coming together in the name of Jesus, being empowered by the Spirit, and living into the mission of God. Isn’t this what the church is always supposed to be?

Humbler church. Bigger God. That is my prayer for this season.