Turning Over Tables

By Larry Short

I am very much enjoying being a part of a small but lively community group designed for newish and upcoming group leaders. We rotate and share responsibility for leading Bible studies, sharing and prayer times, and fellowship.

Recently Rebekah McKenzie led our Bible study on the topic of Jesus overturning the tables of the money changers, in the second half of John 2. It was her first time leading, and I was really looking forward to it. (And she did a great job herding us cats!)

I tell leaders, “Success in leading a Bible study is not up to you. It’s up to the Holy Spirit, moving as He desires among the members of your group, in accordance with the gifts He’s given them.” Effective group leaders really should simply be facilitators of this process, more than teachers, per se.

And that takes a lot of the pressure off, doesn’t it?

Working Together in Our Gifting

After studying Ephesians 4, particularly verse 11, I’ve recently come to the same conclusion regarding the Church itself (and Jesus’s own church with a small c, here on the corner of 94th and 128th, Elim Evangelical Free Church). It’s God’s Church—not ours—and we must look to Him to work His plan for it. And He will do so through the effective working together of the gifting He gives to the members of the Body.

We learn the following from Paul in 1 Corinthians 12:

• There are a variety of gifts and a variety of types of service. We are not all the same. (Thank God for that, right?!)
• The purpose of those gifts is to build up the Body of Christ. And that means that Body will not be healthy unless those gifts are being used properly! (This is why I think it is so important for us to seek to understand how God has gifted us and experience His freedom in learning to use those gifts well and wisely.)
• If one member of the Body suffers (and I think from the context this might include those who may not be using their gifts as God intended to serve others and build up the Body), the entire Body suffers.

Then in Ephesians 4:11 and following, Paul shines an even sharper spotlight on the five specific gifts that are super important for the healthy functioning of the Church:

¹¹ And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, ¹² to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, ¹³ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God.

And Paul goes on from there to reveal more about what spiritual maturity and church health look like. (It’s definitely worth a read, at least through verse 16! Also, it’s worth noting that some scholars believe the last two [shepherd and teacher] are actually one gift alternately translated “pastor.” And I definitely think these are two distinct skill sets or gifts.)

The Forgotten Ways

But what caught my attention here (for the first time, recently, thanks to “the forgotten ways” and innovative 5Q work of Alan Hirsch and our local EFCA district) is that Paul here focuses specifically on a subset of the myriad of spiritual gifts that exist. Why?

My conclusion is that while the exercise of all gifts is good, right, and healthy, the exercise of these four or five gifts in particular is critically core to the health of a vital, viable, and growing church! They are “pastoral” gifts.

What happens in most of our churches (which derive their paradigm from the Christian church in Europe, which sadly is now practically dead in many places) is that they focus on the last two in what Hirsch calls the 5Q, or APEST, model—shepherding and teaching. They completely ignore the first two—apostle and prophet—and mostly marginalize the third—evangelist.

I said “they,” but you can make that “we” if you want to! Our church is also in this camp.

Hirsch made two other points that spoke to me, which leads to my title about Jesus overturning tables:

• God has given the Church everything we need for healthy function. Therefore, those gifts already exist in our Body. Our main task will be to find them, encourage them, and release them. A key function of our “professional” pastors will then be to model these gifts to whatever extent possible and to lead our members in the discovery and exercise of these gifts as they already exist within this Body. (Obviously, this has profound implications for the pastoral search upon which we are about to embark!)
• We need to clearly identify and call out the paradigms (the ways we have always done church—for instance, investing in a pastoral structure that reinforces certain gifts and diminishes others) and be willing to replace those failed paradigms with new, more biblical paradigms.

Which of Our Tables Need to Be Overturned?

This is where turning over tables comes in. In our small group, we have at least three leaders with the gift of prophecy fairly high up there in our profiles (Dave Lingenfelter, Isaac McKenzie, and I). All three of us got very excited during Rebekah’s study as we began to discuss the question, What tables might Jesus turn over in our churches today and in the way we do church?

Actually, I take that back: Isaac and Dave got excited, and I (as an elder) was mostly getting nervous! I think this was because I sensed we were starting to touch on something that God wanted us to do, which would probably not be comfortable in our own Body at this time: carefully identify our existing paradigms, asking Jesus to turn these over and substitute His paradigms for this Body.

This Will Be Uncomfortable

I was warned that even mentioning this possibility might be upsetting for some, particularly those who are more change averse. But I think it’s good to give fair warning. The elders all agree that a time of transition such as this might be just the opportunity God wants us to take a serious look at how we do church, reengineering it to become more effective at achieving Christ’s mission for us.

Also, when you hear the word paradigms here, it might help to think of the phrase ministry structure. Our ministry structure is the way we as elders and a Body hire staff and ask them to run specific ministry endeavors, and it’s the way we involve ourselves in those efforts.

Speaking of uncomfortable . . . if I’m sitting at a table, doing something the way it’s always been done and believing there’s really nothing wrong with that, and then suddenly that table gets turned over by a Guy who is backed up by a whip made of cords, I have a strong feeling it’s not going to be a pleasant experience for me!

But the real question is, Are we (as a church) willing to have our tables overturned for the sake of what God really wants to do in our midst? It will probably stretch us (out of our comfort zone) in many ways. But remember whose Church it is!

And I think the same question can be readily applied to my personal life. What aspect of being a Christian am I a little too comfortable or complacent with? Am I willing to allow Christ to overturn some tables in my own life? What might those tables be, and how does He want me to respond?

Freedom to Serve the Way We Were Made

Realizing and leaning into my own gifting has given me a unique sense of freedom I don’t think I’ve ever fully experienced before. I’ve begun to feel free to speak out more (as I’m doing here . . . and don’t say it, I know some of you are thinking, So he was holding back before? Uh-oh.) in ways that might make my brothers and sisters uncomfortable. I realize I need to do so in love—responsibly, understanding that there can also be a dark side to the way we as fallible humans use any gift God has given us. (Prophets can drive people absolutely nutzoid, I know, and they can also get themselves sawn in half!)

Nevertheless, I challenge and encourage each of us, as members of His Body, to figure out how we fit in and what role we should play. If you don’t yet understand what gifts God has given you and how you should use them, connect with your community group leader or mentor and suggest that they spend some time helping you figure this out. (And please feel free to give me a call or send an email if you can’t figure out who can help you, and I will help get you connected!)

May Jesus overturn whatever tables in our lives and in His Church that are standing in the way of the salt and light He wants us to be as we love people in our community and around the world to Christ!

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