When Roger Bannister broke the four-minute mile in 1954, he opened up new possibilities and shattered standard ways of thinking. That happened to me last year, only it wasn’t Bannister, it was Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D.C. And it wasn’t a four-minute mile that was broken, it was a multiple-service mentality.

ONE CHURCH IN TWO LOCATIONS WITH THREE SERVICES

We planted our church a decade ago. For five years we had one gathering consisting primarily of college students and singles, which met in a local sanctuary on Sunday evenings. To reach families, we felt the need to have a morning service, which we eventually started in a local movie theater. At the same time, we kept an evening service for students near the local university. I preached the same message morning and evening. As more attended the theater location, we started a second morning service. We said we were “one church in two locations with three services.”

A NEW MINDSET

Then, in the fall of 2011, our leadership attended a 9Marks Weekender at Capitol Hill Baptist Church and we were impacted in ways I hadn’t expected.

We were struck by the number of university students who were at a membership class on a Friday evening, hungry for more information as they moved toward joining the church. On Sunday morning, we were impacted by the many students who were thoroughly integrated into the Core Seminar classes and engaged in the worship service.

As a result, our elders returned home and immediately planned to end the college service and more fully integrate our students into the whole of our church life.

Previously, I had personally championed the college service, believing that it was essential for reaching students. However, we quickly developed new convictions. We now believe that:

1. It is much healthier for students to experience the intergenerational life of the body of Christ than to have their own service in isolation. Experiencing the whole ministry of a church while in college, not just a customized slice, better prepares students for a lifetime of church involvement.
2. It is best for the rest of our congregation to draw on the passion and enthusiasm of these student-saints, as well as for these students to gain from the wisdom and discipleship of older believers.

So, we brought our evening service to an end and started this year with our two morning services. While there are some who would prefer to return to a student-centered service, we love having our college students mixing in worship and small groups with the rest of the church as well as volunteering in our children and youth ministries.

Next, our goal is to be all together in a single service. I respect many pastors who’ve led their churches to multiple services and sites, and I am not saying that those are wrong approaches. However, our ideal is gathering together as a local church in a single assembly.

SOMETHING HEALTHY AND UNIFYING ABOUT BEING TOGETHER

“One church in two locations with three services” sounds so fractured to me now. We want our people to be exposed to one another and to each of our elders. That is increasingly difficult with multiple services and, obviously, with multiple sites. There is something healthy and unifying about being in the same room at the same time, worshiping the same God through the same songs and the same message led by the same leaders. 

WHAT IF THE BUILDING GETS FULL? SEND MORE

“But what if the building is getting full and you still want to reach more people?” Certainly, we should not pursue one priority (community) at the expense of another (evangelism).

So, as we seek space that enables us to assemble together as well as reach more people, we must also be giving much prayer and thought to how God might have us send our people out. For a church to aggressively seek the lost with only one assembly requires that church to be vigilant in developing disciples and sending them out to start new churches and strengthen hurting churches. And as hard as it will be to part with people we dearly love, our elders see that very sending as a measure of the success of our disciple-making.

Kyle Cheatham is preaching pastor of Terranova Church in Georgetown, Texas (www.tnova.org).

A pastor friend recently emailed me with the following question:

In a pastoral counseling or shepherding situation, when do you say, “I have nothing else to give,” and move on?

My elders are working very hard on a seemingly endless list of hard cases. Sometimes I wonder if a few of them do too much. It is very likely I am just less of a pastor than some of my elders, but I fear that they throw themselves into hard cases and never get out. They will in deep on a case and then get texts and emails and calls throughout the day. And when cases drag on they never feel like they can leave.

Where does “shake the dust off your feet” come into play? What does it mean for elders to be diligent but not try to be the Holy Spirit? We don’t want to give up on people, but it is hard to help people who don’t want to change. Our elders are feeling like fire fighters—putting out people fires all the time—and I’m afraid they’re getting burned out!

Good question. So I emailed a few brothers to see what they thought. Here are a couple of replies:

Jeramie Rinne (South Shore Baptist, Hingham, MA)

Elders minister in order to "present everyone mature in Christ" (Colossians 1:28).  But could there be rare occasions when an elder needs to back off from shepherding a member for the sake of that member's maturity?  What if a member develops a heavy dependence on an elder, flooding him with emails, voicemails and texts and turning to him with every latest development in his struggles? Though well-intentioned, an elder's continued attentive care can subtly encourage a member to lean on the elder and dwell on the struggles rather learn to stand firm in Jesus and focus on his glory. 

Maturity in Christ also includes participating in the mutual care of Christ's body.  A deeply involved elder might inadvertently keep the needy member from experiencing the love and gifts of the broader congregation.  An elder might even model a kind of maturity by pulling back in order to protect himself and his family from ministry burnout.

Just as parents must sometime say a painful "no" for the sake of shaping a child's character, so elders must wisely discern when a "no" might be just what a member needs to hear.

Mike McKinley (Guilford Baptist, Sterling, VA):

I think the right impulse is to be patient with someone. Sanctification can take a long time and progress can be difficult to discern.

But if someone is stubbornly unrepentant, won't take or implement any of my counsel, or seems to be uninterested in growing and changing, then I will move on to sheep that really want my help. I will continue to call that person to repentance and change, but I won't invest a lot of my (limited) time in them anymore.

I also think that it's wise to put limits on how much time you spend on any one person or situation. While there are certainly exceptional cases, I find it helpful to let people know at the outset that my goal is to wean them off regular meetings with me.

So, for example, if a couple comes to me with an acute marriage situation I will meet with them frequently for a month, then maybe once every two weeks for the next couple of months, and then (hopefully) they won't need to meet at all.

I think Jeramie and Mike are right on. Proverbs talks about not responding to a fool in his folly (Prov. 26:4), and Jesus talks about not throwing your pearls to pigs (Matt. 7:6). I certainly don’t think we should ever use the word “fool” casually, yet nor do I think we should be unwilling to ever use it. One of the purposes of Proverbs, as I understand it, is to help us know how to recognize a fool when we see one.

In my own experience, there have been times when, in the course of a counseling relationship, it has become increasingly clear to me that I was interacting with—I hate to say it—a fool.

Yes, yes, I can be foolish, too! In all seriousness, ask my wife. But that’s just the point: God has given her to me, in part, to help me learn how to recognize my folly, so that I can repent and be wise. I pray that I would have ears to hear.

A fool, according to Proverbs, is unwilling to recognize his or her folly. Or, even if he or she verbally acknowledges it, he/she is unwilling to change: “A rebuke impresses a man of discernment more than a hundred lashes a fool” (Prov. 17:10).

It would be worthwhile to read through Proverbs and come up with “a pastor’s guide for how to spot a fool.” But let me sum up some of what I’ve seen in my own words:

• Either: The person loves to talk about all their grievances or hurts and will talk to anyone and everyone about it. Or: the person will only talk to one specific person because no one else “can be trusted.” (At the same time, this latter person quickly finds reasons not to trust the latest advisor, and quickly adds people to the black list.)
• The person never takes the counsel given. He/she might outwardly affirm the counsel when we’re together. But nothing changes back in real life: “You say you want to stop getting drunk, so why do you keep going into the bar?”
• The pattern of bad decision-making not only continues, it sometimes gets worse.
• The person is selective about what information to share, because, ultimately, he or she is unwilling to come fully into the light or risk losing the ability to do exactly what he/she wants to do.
• The person is unwilling to inconvenience him or herself in anyway, or to make any changes to his or her lifestyle.
• The person shows a pattern of continually prioritizing something besides repentance (e.g. the addiction, not looking bad in front of others, etc.).

What’s more, the characteristics described here occur over a prolonged period.

Sometimes fools are outwardly successful, and their worldly success keeps them from seeing their folly. But often, they are outwardly miserable. They complain and lament and even weep with grandiloquence. They talk about “how awful” they are, “how unhappy” the world is, “how unfair” circumstances seem. And often they are right. There are awful and unhappy. And life has been unfair to them.

Still, quietly hiding beneath the surface is a granite-hard bedrock layer of pride. At the end of the day, they refuse to trust. To believe. To surrender control. They’ve made their lives an absolute mess, but they still insist on being king. It’s almost unbelievable to behold.

And somewhere along the way, maybe after two counseling sessions, maybe after twenty, you figure this out. They are not going to listen. You are banging your head against the wall. And you do better to stop spending time with them. You do better for the sake of those who are teachable and would be better served by your time (there are only so many hours in a day). And you do better to move on, frankly, for the sake of the fool. Your present system of letting them air their grievances, receive counsel, and then do nothing, very well could be strengthening their ability to ignore wisdom.

Am I saying that pastors/elders should not be long suffering with fools? No, I am not saying that. I am saying that pastors/elders (and Christians) need to realize that this is one of their options. It’s one possible tool. Once again, listen to Proverbs 26:

• Verse 4: Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you will be like him yourself. 
• Verse 5: Answer a fool according to his folly,
or he will be wise in his own eyes.

Sometimes you need to be long-suffering; sometimes you need to walk away.

Ultimately, humility recognizes that people are not ours to fix, which in turn means that there is not a one-size-fits-all answer. There is nothing we can do to guarantee a certain outcome. Instead, we need the wisdom to know when to stay, when to move on. 

Must someone be baptized before he or she can join a church? I've been told by people who know history better than I do that Christians of almost all traditions have said yes for 2000 years. It's really only today that people have thought otherwise.

The historical precedent is pretty compelling in and of itself. It is also helpful to think about what a local church is and what church membership is, which I have tried to do in two previous posts. But understanding the relationship between baptism and membership finally requires us to consider the purpose of baptism. To do that, let's start with a story. We will call this story...

Must Wearing the Team Jersey Precede Playing with the Team?

Player: "Hey coach, the team owner just hired me. I'm ready to play."

Coach: "Great, let's get your jersey on and put you out on the field."

Player: "Wait a second, I'm not comfortable wearing a jersey. I'd prefer to hold off. Maybe I'll play a few games, and then consider wearing the jersey."

Coach: "Well, no, actually, you have to wear a jersey before you can play for us. It's how everyone knows who you are playing for."

Player: "That's ridiculous. First, I admit the rule book talks about players wearing jerseys, but nowhere does it explicitly say that I HAVE to wear a jersey BEFORE the first game..."

Coach: "Ahhh, hmmm, you're right. The rule book doesn't actually say that baptism must come before membership. Maybe we should not require our team to wear their jerseys at all. Some will; some won't. Nobody will be confused by that."

Player: "You're being sacrastic."

Coach: "Yes, I am. But tenderly so. Look, the rule book says players must wear jerseys--period. It doesn't say before or after the first game. It just says they have to wear them. And the point is, you need them from the start because those jerseys are the very thing which tell people whose team you belong to. That's what this little rite is for.

Player: "Okay, fine. But I haven't got to my second point."

Coach: "Yes?"

Player: "Second, I still think you're being a little legalistic. I mean, I'm a team member! The team owner hired me. I don't need the jerseys to prove that I'm a member.  It's a done deal. So now I want to go and play, and I think I will play best wearing my old gym shorts."

Coach: "True, the owner hired you, and that's what made you a team member. I'm glad he did. But the owner ALSO wrote rule book which said that all the players have to wear uniforms. And he delegated to me the authority to make sure you wear it. So jersey up!"

[Curtain close.]

Is my parable making sense? Let's start with baptism. Baptism is like a team jersey. To "put it on" is to publicly identify yourself with the Trinity. That's what Jesus means when he speaks of being baptized "into the name" of Father, Son, and Spirit. When you are baptized, you are saying, "I'm with them!"  You are putting on the team jersey.

What is local church membership? At its heart, it is the same thing. It is a declaration that we belong to Christ's kingdom and to his universal church. (See discussion here.) How does a local church make that declaration? It does it through baptism (and the Lord's Supper).  

So go find my own local church's directory of names. Inside you will find all the people who we have collectively taken responsibility for as members of the universal body of Christ. We have taken responsibility to declare this short list of names to be "Christ's church" whenever we administer baptism and receive the Lord's Supper.  

Must baptism precede membership? Yes. I'd even say, of course! I suppose it is possible you could have an extraordinary situation where the order might get reversed by a few weeks. Getting the order right is not a matter of ontological or salvific necessity, per se. But yes, it generally must precede it, because of what these things are.  Baptism (and the Lord's Supper) is the mechanism that Jesus has given us for declaring someone to be a member of his body, and this happens among real people in a real place called the gathering of a local church.

There's an amazing story recorded for us in I Kings 13. If you remember the context, Jeroboam has built an altar in Bethel to compete with the temple of Yahweh in Jerusalem. Then suddenly, an unnamed prophet let loose a blast against the altar:

And the man cried against the altar by the word of the LORD and said, “O altar, altar, thus says the LORD: ‘Behold, a son shall be born to the house of David, Josiah by name, and he shall sacrifice on you the priests of the high places who make offerings on you, and human bones shall be burned on you.’” And he gave a sign the same day, saying, “This is the sign that the LORD has spoken: ‘Behold, the altar shall be torn down, and the ashes that are on it shall be poured out.’” (1 Kings 13:2-3 ESV)

That's a fantastic prophesy: specific, accurate (see II Kings 23:15ff), piercing, angry in all the right ways. O. Palmer Robertson calls it "one of the most remarkable prophesies found in the entirety of Scripture". I'd kill to preach a sermon like that some day.

But that's not the end of the story. It gets better:

And when the king heard the saying of the man of God, which he cried against the altar at Bethel, Jeroboam stretched out his hand from the altar, saying, “Seize him.” And his hand, which he stretched out against him, dried up, so that he could not draw it back to himself. The altar also was torn down, and the ashes poured out from the altar, according to the sign that the man of God had given by the word of the LORD. And the king said to the man of God, “Entreat now the favor of the LORD your God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored to me.” And the man of God entreated the LORD, and the king's hand was restored to him and became as it was before. And the king said to the man of God, “Come home with me, and refresh yourself, and I will give you a reward.” And the man of God said to the king, “If you give me half your house, I will not go in with you. And I will not eat bread or drink water in this place, for so was it commanded me by the word of the LORD, saying, ‘You shall neither eat bread nor drink water nor return by the way that you came.’” So he went another way and did not return by the way that he came to Bethel. (1 Kings 13:4-10 ESV)

How awesome is that? What preacher wouldn't love to deliver a home-run sermon and then have your opponent's hand shrivel up? That's a pretty good day at the office.

But the story doesn't end well for our unnamed prophet. Even though the Lord commanded him not to eat or drink, he was convinced to eat at the table of a old prophet. Here's what happens as a result of his disobedience:

And after he had eaten bread and drunk, he saddled the donkey for the prophet whom he had brought back. And as he went away a lion met him on the road and killed him. And his body was thrown in the road, and the donkey stood beside it; the lion also stood beside the body. (1 Kings 13:23-24 ESV)

What's the moral of the story? Don't judge your own spiritual health by the things that God says and does through you. It's not enough to preach good sermons, we must obey the Lord.  As Paul told Timothy:

Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers. (1 Timothy 4:16 ESV)