turbulent times

These are turbulent times. And I'm not really talking politics here at all.

I'm talking about the experience which many Christians are having these days.

Troubled, unsettled: distressed, disturbed: not knowing quite what to do or, indeed, where to go.

We live in times of change.

Change in itself is not a bad thing. It's part and parcel of life. We grow: we change. The two belong together. Change is a feature of life.

But the changes today are not of that sort. They're a change in direction. A change in persepctive and outlook. A change in attitude. A change in relation to God.

The currents of Christian conviction are confronted today by the inrushing currents of a culture committed to self. The waters are truly turbulent.

It's hard enough to cope with this out there in the world at large. But what should you do when that turbulence starts to appear in the church to which you belong?

We have people who share in our worship each week who are actually members elsewhere.

I'm not saying that's by any means unique - far from it: there'll be folk from here, I'm sure, who'll be found elsewhere when it comes to Sunday worship. So it's not unique at all: it's really quite common these days, I'd guess. But it is, I think, indicative of the struggles which so many good and godly folk are facing in these days.

Why do those, who are members of another church - why do those who join us in our worship on a Sunday tend to come?

Listening hard to what they say, I think it's mainly for the teaching that they're given, and the reverence in the worship which they find.

We're far from being a perfect church - very, very far - but there is a real priority always given to the teaching of God's Word; and there is, I'd hope, a warm, attractive reverence attendant on our worship of the living God.

What should folk do in such troubled and turbulent days, when they no longer find what once they could be sure of in the churches they've been members of for long enough? And how do I advise them when they come and ask that question to my face?

Well, let me get some things clear from the start. I don't make decisions for others. I'm not that directive at all. I simply put some markers down - along these lines.

Don't adopt a 'consumer' mentality. You pays your money and you takes your choice is a line that has no place in Christian living. You're not a consumer: you're a worshipper. It's not a case of what you get out of your worship: it's a case of what you put in.

So don't begin to address the thing in terms of whether you're getting precisely what you're looking for. That's the consumer society: shopping around for the right sort of Christian 'product' that will meet your personal needs, or will satisfy your personal whims, or will titivate your personal likes.

Don't become a 'consumer'. Because the moment you do, you move from being a worshipper to being in truth an idolater.

Don't downplay commitment. Our culture today is weak when it comes to commitment. Of pretty much any sort.

Folk assume 'freedom' means never being tied. They like to keep their options always open. Relationships (I might find someone else who'll better meet my needs), work (I might find a job that's better paid or more fulfilling or less demanding), leisure pursuits (I might something else which will be more interesting or more impressive on my CV, or whatever).

The butterflies are free. And our culture today wants that freedom.

Don't be deceived into seeking such freedom yourself. The license to live as you choose is not really freedom at all. It's a subtle, corrosive bondage.

Commitment is crucial. You don't run away when the going gets tough. You follow through on all responsibilities.

Don't pre-empt the call of God. I know it was addressed to a slightly different context, but the principle Paul articulated has a relevance right here as well.

"Each one should remain in the situation which he was in when God called him."

Now, as I say, I know he was talking about something slightly different. And I know that's not the last word to be said on the subject. But it's a useful and helpful starting point. An important default position.

Not least because it underlines the priority in our living of the will and the call of God. What I feel about the situation is largely irrelevant: the question is always - what does the Lord feel? What I would like is always trumped by the far more basic card of what the Lord himself wills for me at this time.

So stay where you are until it's really quite clear that the Lord is calling you elsewhere. Pray hard and long, yes. Read and ponder God's Word, yes. Seek the counsel of others, yes.

But stay where you are until it's quite clear that the Lord is calling you on.

Don't end up being 'rootless'. That can happen quite easily. You feel it's time to move on and so you leave the local fellowship of which you've been a part.

But you're not quite ready to join elsewhere.

Rootless.

That's dangerous. And wrong.

You need to be submitted - somewhere. You need to be accountable - somewhere. You need to give outward, practical expression to the Lordship of Jesus over your life - somewhere. You need to be under authority - somewhere.

You need to be a member of a church. Submitted, as a follower of Jesus Christ. Ready to accept the lead of others to whom that authority is given. Even when it jars with you a bit.

Which it almost certainly will from time to time.

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Those, then, are the sort of 'markers' I put down. A set of basic guidelines which I need myself as much as those I speak with and am pastoring, as they, like me, sail through the troubled waters of our present times.