In part 1 we looked at how Paul responded to the people of God (Jesus-following Jews and-Jesus following Gentiles) when they found themselves in a time of crisis.  The solution was to find identity.  Once you know who you are and what you should be doing, you can address the crisis.  Identity for Paul is the Gospel story.  He no longer considered his former self alive; it passed away on the cross.  A new self was born!  But what does one do with the new self in Jesus?  

As a kid I would read Acts and would be blown away by the person of Paul.  Who was this guy?  What kind of human travels and re-travels the ancient world in seemingly constant danger?  Who gets shipwrecked?  (Think about it, do you know anyone who has?) Who bobs up and down in open waters for a day, seemingly abandoned by God, and later willingly hoists another sail, after such epic trauma?  Who gets tenderized via stoning, to the point of death, gets dragged out of town with the trash, only to stand up and walk right back into town?  I get why people in Lystra regarded Paul as a god.  Mere mortals don’t do these things.  Truly Paul’s new self was caught up in Christ.  Thus, Paul was the archetype missionary and reflection of Jesus.  He would do anything – anything! – to be able to declare the Gospel which saved him.

Yet in my youthful hero worship of Paul the MIssionary I think I missed out on one of Paul’s most important job titles, one that we, the shepherds of the church in crisis, really need to see right now.

“Because of God’s grace to me, I have laid the foundation like an expert builder. Now others are building on it. But whoever is building on this foundation must be very careful. …
Anyone who builds on that foundation may use a variety of materials—gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay, or straw.  But on the judgment day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a person’s work has any value.”  1 Corinthians 3:10-13

Most translations render the original here (σοφὸς ἀρχιτέκτων) something akin to “skillful builder.”  But Paul was more than a talented laborer.  Though he was certainly that, Paul describes the builder here as the selector of building materials and the designer of the building.  Those aren’t decisions day laborers get to make.  This may be a new paradigm for you but Paul regarded himself as the literal translation of the original Greek - a “wise architect!”  

Paul did not just see himself as an evangelist or even as a church planter.  Paul saw himself as the architect of a church planting network.  He had a definite plan for places where he wanted to work and for places he wanted to avoid.  He was careful to revisit works he had started while also making time to start new faith communities.  When he could not be physically present he wrote letters of instruction and encouragement to build up the network and he encouraged his churches to pass on his letters to other churches in his network.  He had a team of apprentices he was purposely raising up to bolster the greater building project for Asia Minor.  He leveraged burgeoning friendships with people he had never met to plant churches in places he had never been.  These aren’t just the actions of a willing firebrand (though few have ever burned hotter).  These are the actions of a thinker, a planner, and a designer for the skillful and strategic distribution of the greatest story ever told.  Paul saw God as a planner and designer of masterpieces to be used for good works (Eph. 2:10)  It should not surprise us that Paul tried to image God in the same way.

Now how can Paul the Architect be a game changer for us?  By redefining our job in the present church crisis.  No longer do we have to see ourselves as just willing servants, charged with the excruciating task of dispensing spiritual services to a dilapidating church, helpless to make systemic changes even though we know the system needs change.  No, we too can become architects. We can rebuild the house with a new layout.  We can become designers of new things, new faith communities, new approaches, selecting from the best of our materials to hand out a timeless faith for this place in time.  Paul the Architect becomes a role model for our task for our time.  If we can adopt this view of self, whose personal identity is in the Gospel story and whose job it is to distribute it with planning and network coordination, this would be a task not only worthy but also deeply fulfilling.  God the architect has selected us for this time and place.  Can we see our challenge afresh, becoming coordinated designers and builders of a new house for the lost of our generation? 

Next time: Part 3, Partnerships for the Gospel ​

Have you ever lived in a time when church felt more uncertain?  I have not.  Over the past 2 years I have been blessed to have front row seats on nearly a dozen new church projects, and have had the opportunity to visit several established churches, and visit with dozens of church leaders, from coast to coast. 

What word would I pick to describe the collective mood? … crisis.  “What is happening to our church?  Why is attendance so low?  Why aren’t people here?  How do we get our young people more interested?  When can we get back to normal?  Will we turn this around or is this a new normal?  If we don’t do something soon, this church could die in a generation,” are very typical summary statements.  Even in places that are growing, the growth seems tenuous.  It feels the very structure of things we have taken for granted (e.g. paid full-time ministers, owning church buildings, Sunday and mid-week worship formats) are all of a sudden “on the table.”  

To be honest I find “crisis” to be a fitting and appropriate description for our dilemma.  Yes, I know God’s church will never fail in any eternal sense.  It will not.  But we have to be honest with ourselves.  We have never seen the church in North America in a poorer state of health.  Should we not have deep concern for her decline?  And, a sense of crisis is not all bad.  It is a blessing to recognize when something is in trouble.  This awareness can get us emotional.  It can spur us to immediate and necessary action to promote our long-term health. ​

What should we do when the church is in crisis?  

A reading of Paul in the New Testament reveals a time of radical crisis and questioning of self-identity for the people of God.  The covenant between God and his people, which was centrally unchanged for 1500 years, was going through unimagineable change.  The changes were not tweaks or fresh coats of paint.  Fundamental plates were shifting.  Definitions of righteousness, worship, fellowship, and salvation were all on the table.  Paul the missionary par excellence reflects on the crisis for the disciples in Galatia.  They were in crisis because of what the church was becoming, because of what the people of God were losing, and because they feared the future.  Feeling lost and anxious, Paul gives the church this compass point.   

My old self has been crucified with Christ.  It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.  I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless.   Galatians 2:20-21.

For Paul, the solution to the crisis - for a confused collective identity is to remind himself who he is first.  So who is he?  He is not what he used to be.  He is what Jesus is doing inside of himself.  He is someone who will live on this earth, trusting in Jesus, knowing Jesus loves him, because Jesus exchanged his own life for Paul’s.  And Paul vows to never become blasé about the miracle that has happened.  Grace can’t be swallowed up by crisis.  This is personal.  This is the paradigm. This is not just a theological point.  

As we look to addressing our church crisis, it begins and ends with the Gospel, with the work of our Christ.  It begins with a firm immovable foundation.  A rock of love, grace, and trust.  It begins by knowing who we are so we act positively in peace and not out of panic.  In our time of church crisis, we must cling to the cross first.  In our time of doubt we cling to the Gospel.  And we clutch the cross with total confidence!  We know it is the solution not just for our personal destiny but also for the collective destiny of God’s work here on earth is his church.  If we cling to the Gospel, we can step forward with confidence, without fear, and without worry.  This is how the first believers were launched and the world was transformed.  This is how we should be launched too.  Once the foundation is established we can then address the rest of God’s building - his church. 

For next time: Part 2: Paul the Architect.