Have You Left Your First Love?

“But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember, therefore, from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.” (Revelation 2: 4-5)

Ed Stetzer serves as director of LifeWay Research and missiologist in residence at LifeWay in Nashville, Tennessee. He is an erudite (great learning), having earned two masters and two doctoral degrees. He has written several books: Comeback Churches, Breaking the Missional Code, Lost and Found, etc. He writes and blogs extensively. He is a man who speaks to today’s culture and to the way today’s church goes about its Kingdom work. He is one of the most highly respected voices in Southern Baptist life when it comes to high-impact ministry today.

He was interviewed recently by "REV! Magazine” concerning the "80/20" rule in most churches - where 20 percent of the people do 80 percent of the work. In the interview, he discussed the “most common sin in many churches today. Here is the interview:

Ed, Group's church leadership unit has a vision of 80/20 by 2020. We want to flip the 80/20 rule so that by the year 2020, eighty percent of regular church attendees are actively serving in some ministry. Unfortunately, our State of the Church '09 study indicated that currently it's more like fifteen percent of the people who are active in ministry right now. Why do you think that is?

Part of it is that we have to recognize that we've created the system that we loathe. I don't think the reason 15 percent serve is because 85 percent are lazy. We've created a system that glorifies the clergy and marginalized the laity. We got the outcome we created programs for. We've become "clergified." There's a 3-tiered structure: laypeople, clergy and missionaries.

All religions tend to create a class of people who are above others so (1) they can revel in that and (2) the rest of us can say it's their job. Christianity was started without any of those structures, and ended up like so many false religions do when they create a ministry caste structure. When we see real movements of God take off, they happen when people are free. Look at the thriving house church movement around the world.

So how do we break free from that tiered structure?

Part of what we have to do is help pastors understand that ministry is something that has to be owned by all of us. We shouldn't call ourselves ministers; we should call ourselves pastor/elders. The church needs to be unleashed, and we have to recognize that it's the normal activity of normal believers to engage in normal ministry. Pastors and congregations are in a co-dependent relationship. My dad was a drunk and my mom would rescue him. She gained her identity from rescuing my father. The church has fallen into the same thing. We've created a clergy system with a superman syndrome. The pastor thinks it's their job to rescue the church--and they get affirmed for doing it. So we get our identity from doing things the people should be doing.

Once we've identified the problem, how do we fix it?

The way these things are always broken is that the co-dependent recognizes the problem first. So mom one day said, "I'm not going to take care of you, because all I'm doing is helping you to fail rather than stand." I tell pastors all the time to stop enabling that. If people ask you to talk to their kids about Jesus, say no. That's their job.

If I preach about gay marriage, everybody cheers. If I preach about sin, you can hear the amens ring. But those aren't the real problems. I tell people that the biggest sin in our church is you sitting there doing nothing and still calling yourself a follower of Jesus. Ultimately you have to get your leaders on board. I did a project on how you get people off the bleachers and into the game. We got rid of two families that got mad, and a year later everybody in the church was serving and the church doubled in size.

Use every form of influence you can to move the leaders and the people. As much thinking as we are putting into evangelism right now, we need to do that much thinking about how we're going to move ahead.

The elephant in the evangelical room is that we're not making disciples. People are still struggling through how to do that. We studied 2,500 Protestant church attendees and did so again a year later and the spiritual development was shocking and frustrating.

You've said that ministry goes beyond the church walls.

My guess is that above your fifteen percent, there are another five to ten percent that are already doing some community service without their church tracking that kind of service. We need every member in ministry, but we also need every member on mission. Churches need to recognize that ministry outside church is still ministry, and we need to recognize, empower and measure that.

The term "call to ministry" is not a good thing. If you're a Christian, you're called to ministry. John 20:21 says if you're a Christian you're also sent on mission. The only question is where and to whom.

Ed publicly stated what we as a staff addressed back in September (09) when our “Servant’s Heart” series was formed. Our goal was and still is “getting people out of the pew and into “high-impact servant ministry.” That is our yearlong pursuit and our lifelong passion. When asked how the church can “break free” of its “clergy responsibility servant ministry” Ed stated:

Part of what we have to do is help pastors understand that ministry is something that has to be owned by all of us. We shouldn't call ourselves ministers; we should call ourselves pastor/elders. The church needs to be unleashed, and we have to recognize that it's the normal activity of normal believers to engage in normal ministry. Pastors and congregations are in a co-dependent relationship.

What a challenge to me! I am a pastor/teacher, called by God to “equip the saints” to serve. I am certain there are many areas where I and our pastoral staff have failed to do just that. We must enter a “co-dependent servant relationship.”

I talked about the most common sin in many churches. I am guessing there are many, but I think one of the most common is a lack of obedience.

My observation is that we often preach against sins that are not a problem in our church (sins more prevalent in the world) while not preaching against sins that are a common problem in the church (like lack of ministry involvement in this case).

So, let’s evaluate our lives and our ministry by considering Ed’s assessment of the church: “I tell people that the biggest sin in our church is you sitting there doing nothing and still calling yourself a follower of Jesus.”

I cannot help but reflect on Christ’s charge to the church at Ephesus (Rev. 2:1-7). Christ says to a church. "You have left your first love, which is me."

Those must have been hard words for the church at Ephesus to hear. They are hard words for any church to hear. They are hard words for us to hear because in hearing them we realize that there is a possibility that Christ could be saying it to us. If it were possible for the church at Ephesus to lose their first love, it is possible for us to do it.

I don’t imagine that their forsaking their first love happened in one giant step. It wasn’t that just one day they decided not to love God any more. It was a gradual thing. For a while their love for God was so great that people were drawn into their fellowship. But then, people who used to pray a lot gradually stopped praying. People who may have been giving a lot gradually stopped giving. People who used to witness to the lost gradually stopped witnessing. Until finally, when Jesus looks at this church, He says, "This I have against you. You have forsaken your first love."

Today, will you join me in an honest, open, spiritual assessment of the heart? What is Christ saying to you concerning your love for Him and your desire to serve His church? Have you lost your passion for spiritual disciplines? Have you gradually grown complacent?

Are you as passionate today about salvation as you were the day Jesus entered your life? Do you desire daily intimacy with Christ? Are you being conformed to His image? Are you serving your church and your community? Do you know how God has designed you for “high-definition servanthood?”

Jesus charged the Ephesian believers to “remember the height from which you have fallen, repent (turn from all known sin), and repeat the things you did at first.” While some things have changed over the years, Christ’s call to spiritual health has not! Remember! Repent! Repeat! That’s some pretty good “Monday Morning Manna!”

Until Next Week,

Dr. Derek