a tale of two churches

In the book of Revelation, we find Jesus addressing various churches. While He speaks to seven, two of them in particular stand out to me.

The church at Ephesus was quite a church. They were commendable for their work and effort. They were doctrinally sound. They recognized the error of false apostles. Their perseverance was admirable. I get the sense that today this church would be recognized for their dedication. Most likely they would be a case study for those in academia desiring to discover the secrets of growing a successful church.

Immediately following the description of the church at Ephesus we find another church. The church at Smyrna was certainly not nearly as successful. They were poor, experiencing tribulation and suffering. They faced persecution. If one reads between the lines, it would appear that they were a broken church; one that would never be held up as an example of a successful church.

Ironically, the church most reprimanded was the “successful” church. In all their activity they completely missed the point. The weak broken church elicited praise from Jesus once again pointing to the fact that the ways of God are drastically different from our paradigms of success.

For years, I attempted to build an Ephesus church. Over the years we succeeded in the endeavor. Pastors from other churches and communities began to ask me the secrets of our success. That’s heady stuff for a young man! Yet in the success something was lost. Like the church at Ephesus, I became focused on the activities and the dedication required to achieve the vision. As our labors began to bear fruit, we became even more focused on the vision. As vision becomes more focused it easily becomes the sole focus. No longer is it an outworking of our relationship with God, the vision becomes god.

It took God asking me to relinquish the position of leadership to begin the process of seeing the emptiness of our labors. Success according to God is frequently at odds with our humanistic ideals of success. We think big is better. Busy activity is esteemed highly. Yet God seems less impressed with our activity and our success than with our brokenness.

Today I interact closely with group of broken followers of Jesus. We are messy, and broken. Each of us clearly recognizes our weakness. When it comes to telling an impressive church success story, one would not point to our band of believers. Yet in the midst of our brokenness we have discovered the reality of God. No longer is He a simply an aloof figure in an intellectual theological framework. He is alive, interacting with us in our brokenness. His presence highlights our weakness; His healing grace highlights His goodness.