I am blessed to know many of my readers personally. As pastor of Seoul International Baptist Church (SIBC) for almost twelve years, I met so many Christians from various denominations, traditions, and cultural backgrounds. At any one time, we averaged about twenty-five nationalities in our congregation. I’m not sure about all the Christian traditions represented, but Lutherans, Presbyterians, Anglicans, Four-Square Pentecostals, and a host of others were a part of our church. I used to joke that Baptists were the minority in our Baptist church.
Anyway, it’s the nature of international churches for people to come and go. I’m guessing, but a three to five-year stay in Seoul was average, maybe even a little longer than average. The result? I was the pastor of a secret “mega-church”! Without the headaches!
You may be wondering where I’m going with this and how it relates to the subject of Christian spiritual maturity. The answer is found in those things we emphasized at SIBC, as well as those things we did not. As I continue to reflect on the nature of Christian maturity, I want to take the time to share with you our emphases and experiences as God’s family gathered together in Korea.
I expect to be writing on this subject for some time, and I have some specific Bible passages in mind to work through with you, but for now, I just want to bear witness to what God did in our little “church on the edge.”
One of the most important decisions the elders and deacons of our church made was to NOT place too much emphasis on official church membership.
There was a reason for this, and it is directly related to what I believe is a sign of genuine spiritual maturity among God’s people - unity in diversity. In fact, one of our four values, which I’ll be sharing in another post, was - We Value Diversity.
I’ve been reading N.T. Wright’s commentary on Galatians in the Commentaries for Christian Formation series. I love the way Wright digs into the historical, cultural, and linguistic context of the Bible. One of the reasons modern-day Christians are so blind to and entrapped in worldly ways is our lack of emphasis on these things both in the first century as well as in our own day.
While not discounting the importance of God’s grace and unmerited favor in salvation, Wright argues that “keeping the law” in the context of Galatians is not so much an emphasis on morality as it is culture. (And I need to emphasize that Wright is in no way discounting the importance of Christians living moral lifestyles.)
The “law” in Galatians focuses on the cultural distinctive of Jews as God’s people. Circumcision, diet restrictions, and Sabbath are primary. Because of these things, good, godly Jews separated themselves from “sinner” Gentiles. Wright explains the term “sinner” as it related to Gentiles like this -
“. . . a ‘sinner’ is someone outside the law, blundering around in a world where one can’t help sinning because that is, so to speak, where one lives. That is why gentiles are, as it were, automatically ‘sinners” — and of course they prove the point with their idolatry and consequent behavior.” (Wright, Galatians, p.275.)
Jesus fulfilled, for Jews, the requirements of Torah. He did this not by his outward behavior. He did it by his inner purity, to which his sinless life clearly witnessed. Jesus didn’t break the Sabbath; he was Lord of the Sabbath. Jesus also declared all foods clean. (See Mark 7:19 and following.) And ultimately, our Lord’s emphasis on baptism replaced circumcision as the sign of God’s covenant people.^1
The issue among the churches in Galatia, as Wright points out, was genuine fellowship among all followers of Jesus in the midst of their diverse cultures and traditions. This is why Paul confronted Peter when he stopped eating with his Gentile brothers and sisters after the fundamental, conservative, Jewish Christians showed up from the church in Jerusalem.
By doing this, Peter was dividing Christ into camps, some camps obviously being closer to God and scripture than others.
When we decided not to emphasize official membership at Seoul International Baptist, we were seeking to avoid this camp mentality, which in my opinion, implies that Christian maturity is associated with camps; it’s not. Christian maturity is seen in and expressed through the unity of the body of Christ - “As it is, there are many parts, but one body.” (I Cor. 12:20)
I’ll continue this Monday, but I need to say one more thing. I’m not making an argument for deemphasizing membership in your church. There are enough (too many) prescriptions for doing church “right” out there as it is. This is what we did in Seoul based on our circumstances and what we believed was the leadership of the Holy Spirit.
And what we did in those circumstances contributed to a growing understanding of church and of Christian maturity in our lives as well as in the lives of those who were a part of our fellowship.
^1. Although I am afraid we have made baptism the same thing Jewish Christians did with circumcision - emphasizing the outward sign more than the inward, spiritual reality. (See Romans 2:28-29)
In Christ,
Dan
Check out my podcasts from Church on the Edge and my books on Kindle.