You'll be used to receiving updates about what people are doing in these emails, but this one is a little bit different. Tony is in a season of receiving lots of fresh revelation and has written this article to share what God is saying for the moment with you. Be blessed by it, and feel free to pass it on to anyone you think would benefit.

Church – satisfied or dissatisfied?

Satisfied

A superficial look at the title takes us simply to the idea that we want to lead, or be part of, a church that is satisfied. We think of a situation where everyone is happy, where there are no difficult circumstances to handle, and where all goes well from week to week, month to month, year after year.

A glance at the New Testament tells us that such a situation was not common in those times. Many of the epistles sent to churches were written in response to problem situations or dubious theology that required correction. Churches in Asia “left” Paul. Something in me wants to know what Alexander the coppersmith did. Whatever... there is no doubt that there were problems.

Perhaps the most satisfied church mentioned in the New Testament was in Laodicea. It offended no one by operating a middle-of-the-road policy; it was neither hot nor cold, neither one thing nor the other. Perhaps they thought their programme was safe and responsible - but it was obnoxious to God. The situation was so bad that Jesus was standing at the door knocking! He was on the outside, looking in.

When we’re satisfied, we don’t need anything to change. We’re neither hungry nor thirsty. We go through our routine with no regard for the leading of the Spirit. Nothing changes: it just decays. Many past movements of God have given birth to new church groups, but the "new" churches have so often fossilised, trapped in a static version of the revelation that birthed them. They failed to move forward. In fact, today we see many “traditional” churches discovering a freshness of the Spirit of God, new revelation, and advancement into new things that take them beyond many "new" churches. They have achieved this because they were not satisfied with the way things were.

Dissatisfied

Perhaps, then, we should be a church that is always dissatisfied? At first glance this might seem a good idea. We want change, we want it to happen quickly. But then pressure is applied, factions rise up. Dissatisfied people let their feelings be known – and then the church has a major problem.

Dissatisfaction in itself is not healthy. It is based in character, not in the Spirit, and you tend to find that dissatisfied people are never satisfied. So dissatisfaction breeds division. Strong, intransigent views are expressed by people who insist that they are right. There are two results from this: one is division, the other is hardened views that become increasingly bigoted. Without repentance, there is no solution. Dissatisfied people don’t express themselves well. They speak from the frustration in their hearts, not a pursuance of the Truth that sets free.

Any and every church leader knows what it is to have dissatisfied people in the church. They are difficult to handle. No amount of love, grace and generosity of spirit brings reconciliation; if anything, they regard these things as weakness of leadership. The irony is that dissatisfied Christians may actually have heard God. But they've handled in the flesh what was revealed to them by the Spirit. It’s like the prophecies given by the people Jesus describes in Matthew 7. They may have moved in the things of God but He never knew them at heart level.

What is healthy?

If neither satisfied nor dissatisfied is right, where can we go with this? Is it possible to recognize a healthy church that continues to grow and progress numerically, spiritually and supernaturally? Just as we looked at the church in Laodicea, so we can learn from Smyrna. Jesus writes to this church saying: 'I know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich)’ (Rev 2:9). They knew poverty; they were also rich. They were looking for more and yet they had plenty. As Mary said, ‘He has filled the hungry with good things, but the rich he sent away empty’ (Lk 1:53).

So there are those who are thankful for what they have, yet they keep looking for more. They remain comfortable with change because they know they need to keep changing for the better. There is a place for asking God for more of His Kingdom to come. Equally, we need to be constantly learning to draw on the wells of the Spirit already within us but untapped.

We're healthy when we understand, acknowledge, embrace and engage ourselves for more on the basis that we know there is more than we currently express concerning the Kingdom.

Leadership

Our prime concern as leaders should be that we present ourselves as examples to those we serve, to the world and to our peers. We speak out of experience (and sometimes out of the lack of experience!) resulting from our own walk with God. We are the ones in particular who sow into others because our influence as leaders is so much wider.

A satisfied leader will sow complacency. We will fall into the same trap as so many previous (and great!) movements of God where what we are doing becomes a comfort zone for those around us. I never want to be part of something that becomes arrogant over what it has achieved. If we only minister out of comfort, then faith is not filling our lives. The mustard seed that becomes the tree that should fill our world is restricted because we are no longer in line with the Kingdom of God which, remember, is constantly increasing.

On the other hand, a dissatisfied leader will sow dissatisfaction! His oversight of people will not encourage them to grow; instead it will put them under pressure to perform. In every area of church activity, fear will motivate people to strive for outward success. Unhealthy insistence on betterment will burden good people who carry that heavy sense of having to be seen to succeed in their area of responsibility. This results in wrongly-motivated people coming into leadership in turn, and adding to the burden of the people. Those loyal but hurting will quietly slip away, convinced they are not what they should be and afraid to undertake any responsibility in the future. In many cases, they withdraw from church life; self-protection and the care of the family understandably dominate in their considerations. I have seen so many real-life instances of this.

Truly hungry leaders bring change within themselves first. They know they have to be the example. A healthy hunger and thirsting for God emanates from the centre of their being and brings a healthy atmosphere that provokes godly change in individuals and in the church as a whole. I believe this is the kind of leadership we are to pursue in order to extend the Kingdom of God effectively.

Much of church leadership has been at one of two extremes – either controlling, or being controlled by, the people. A leader who remains in that healthy condition of desiring change does not need to control. Nor is he a wimp. Genuineness in the Kingdom, leadership that carries integrity, comes from those who know their God, know themselves and are confident that God Himself will bring about their fulfillment and their destiny. But that destiny is not in isolation – it grows out of the togetherness of a people who wait on God, and know their place in His purpose. So a healthy church is based on a stable foundation.