Good morning church family,

Every so often, the company that insures the buildings and property for our church will send a representative to walk the grounds and inspect the facilities. The representative’s responsibility is to limit risk to the insurance company by making sure that we at the church are doing everything we can to limit risks to the property. For instance, the insurance company wants to make sure that we have an adequate fire prevention system in place; one that is both properly maintained and in good working order. Were a fire to accidentally break out in the church kitchen in the middle of the night, a fire prevention system that’s working properly would sound alarms in the building and notify Central Station to phone the fire department downtown. Within minutes, ladder trucks filled with brave firefighters would come screaming into the parking lot and go pouring in through the front doors; containing the fire and its damage to just a portion of the building. Of course, there will still be a costly claim that the insurance company will have to pay but nothing like what would have to be covered if the alarm system failed and the fire took the entire building. It’s this desire to mitigate liabilities that has the company send its representative to look the place over; inspecting the roofs above, the plumbing below, the wiring throughout, and the doors and windows charged with keeping the church snug and tight at night.

When his inspection is complete, the representative gives us a report detailing any changes, upgrades, or repairs the company has deemed necessary for us to make. The language in the report is clear. The completion of these projects isn’t something the insurance company is simply encouraging us to do or suggesting we look into, but instead is a requirement for the renewal of their contract with us. If we value the coverage and have a desire to keep the contract, we’ll schedule the work and see it through.

In general, this arrangement works well for all parties involved. We sleep well at night, the insurance company turns a profit, local tradesmen are kept in work, and the campus is a lovely, well-maintained blessing to the community. None of it is cheap and, periodically, the arrangement may bring about a little disruption and cause some frustration. But overall, it’s certainly worth it.

John Wesley, the great eighteenth-century evangelist and founder of Methodism, wanted the relationship between a church and its congregants to be similar to the one insurance companies have with their clients. In the churches he founded all over England and the United States, Wesley wanted the pastors of these congregations to undertake a yearly spiritual inventory of the hearts and minds of their people and to make these assessments an important part of the life in the church. Wesley made it part of the church covenant that, once a year, a church’s pastor would make a formal visit to the home of each member and conduct a thorough and unflinching review of the spiritual state of each soul under his care. An investigation into a person’s devotional life would be carefully made, quizzes on the breadth and frequency of an individual’s use of the spiritual disciplines would be given, examinations into the believer’s comprehension of church doctrine and teachings would be administered, and a host of other mortifying and sometimes awkward lines of questioning would be made. After the pastor had completed his assessment of every heart, mind, belly, eye, and tongue, the Christian under his care would be given a report of sorts. Outlined for every church member would be certain repairs, upgrades, improvements, and remodeling efforts that the individual was expected to make. The language in these reports was similar in nature to those the insurance company writes for us. The changes prescribed by the Methodist minister were not suggestions or matters up for negotiation – they were requirements for maintaining fellowship and membership.

I’ve read a good bit about Wesley and have always been a great admirer of his ministry. I’m fairly confident that this program of spiritual inventory and assessment was not initiated as a means of exercising control; nor was it designed to allow for the manipulation of those in the pew by those in the pulpit. I truly believe it was an earnest attempt to bring about an increase in righteousness and sanctification within the church. To Wesley’s way of thinking, because of these honest inventories, marriages would be more loving, homes would be more ordered, ministries would blossom and bear fruit, local schools and businesses would be ennobled, the towns and communities would be improved, God would be blessed, His Kingdom increased, and everyone would sleep better at night.

As you might imagine, this program did not live on much after Wesley’s death. Attempts at spiritual administration through the creation of bureaucracies of sanctification usually end up either creating a prideful, slavish religiosity or degenerating into something unhealthy and cultic. It’s just too Old Testament for a post-Pentecost Kingdom. New wine can’t go in old wineskins without the ruination of both.

Knowing that Old Testament means won’t work in bringing about New Testament ends, these noble and important ends must be met another way. While I’d be happy to come to any of your homes and do whatever kind of spiritual inventory I can, I’d much rather you pursue the more difficult but rewarding way and allow the Holy Spirit to provide the assessments. Each of us should be fostering an intimate and abiding relationship with the Lord through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. And we know the fruit that this fostering produces: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Your sanctification doesn’t need ultimatums from a spiritual insurance company or more and better administration – it needs submission to the person and work of the Holy Spirit.

We gather together tomorrow morning to worship our risen Savior, to pledge our lives anew to the work of His Kingdom, and to fellowship with our blessed adopted family. It’s going to be a wonderful day! May the Lord, mighty God, bless and continue to keep us!

• Pastor Tate

Good morning church family,

Springtime seems to provide a ready illustration for the message of the Easter season. Bulbs long buried in frozen earth miraculously come to life as the ground thaws under a warming sun. Barren tree branches which rattled like dry bones in winter’s withering wind, are now budding with the promise of greens; pastel and verdant. The sun, which for months seemed unwilling to rise much above the horizon, is now soaring overhead with a light sufficient to lengthen the day. And so on and so on. I think you get the idea.

But despite all the easy associations made between springtime and salvation, the change in seasons is actually ill-suited to illustrate the redemption of mankind and can actually harm the presentation of the gospel. Think of it – that garden plot in your backyard never wanted to stop producing last fall. Whose fault was it that its offerings moldered and yellowed in the dim light and dampening coolness of autumn? The plot certainly wasn’t to blame, for its soil was every bit as rich frozen as it was warm. Nor can you blame the seed, the spade, or the gardener; for they all remained willing and able. No, perform an autopsy on your garden and you’ll soon determine that the cause of death was entirely environmental. The sun simply lost its strength, the wind turned bitter, and the mercury dropped. Ice soon came to officiate at the funeral; burying the bereaved garden under a blanket of snow. There was simply nothing your garden could do about it. It just lay there all winter, dead and gone.

But then comes spring and that plot, which was presumed dead, miraculously returns to life. What happened? Did the garden confess its sin and find repentance? Did it purpose in its heart to no longer give life to the weeds that had been allowed to grow along its rows? Did it pledge to support the growing of all good things; welcoming fruitful roots into the heart of the plot? Or was there just a change in seasons? Isn’t the springtime salvation of our gardens an entirely environmental phenomenon? Wasn’t the garden a passive participant in both its death and its resurrection?

It’s the world that wants to take the story of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus and reduce it to a tulip’s rise out of the muddy earth. It’s the world that wants to ignore the problem of sin and the threat of hell to focus instead on the promise of a universal newness of life. The world can’t conceive of a Savior who would beg forgiveness for those endeavoring to murder Him. Pagans don’t find strength in a Savior’s surrender to death nor do they understand the existence of a love powerful enough to upend the grave. They hardly even see the need for such a Savior. No, the world is much more comfortable imagining salvation to be an entirely benign and natural process.

Heinrich Heine, the famous nineteenth century poet and essayist, declared on his deathbed what an alarming number of people believe throughout their lives; that, “God will forgive me. It’s His job.” I’ve ministered to hundreds of grieving families who find a drunken comfort in this kind of thinking as they gather to lay their loved one to rest. I’ve lost count of the number of people who’ve waved off my offer of the Gospel in those moments; deciding instead to cling to some saccharine pap written in flowery italics on the back of the parlor’s memorial card. “Just as winter can’t last forever because the sun is sure to shine;” they say in not so many words, “I know my loved one will be in Heaven. I just know it.”

What a deadly assumption. I know that none of you would allow someone to jump from a burning plane with only an umbrella to unfold. “Hold on,” you’d surely say, “you don’t think that umbrella will carry you safely to the ground, do you? I don’t care what you may have seen Mary Poppins do – trust me, that parasol’s a death sentence. Here,” you’d say with earnest desperation in your eyes, “take this parachute instead. Please!”

We should have a similar response whenever we hear anyone going on about how, in the end, life will surely overcome death as springtime invariably overcomes winter. We should arrest anyone striking out onto that broad way which doesn’t lead to life but instead to eternal destruction. “Hold on,” we must say in those moments, “you don’t think there’s salvation down that wide and yawning way, do you? Here,” we must offer in genuine earnestness, “take Jesus Christ instead. Please!”

It will be so good to gather together tomorrow morning – for the gloominess of Friday night will be gone and the sad longing of Saturday will have passed; with hope and joy rising to take their place! We’ve run to the tomb to see the good news for ourselves and now we run from there to tell it to the world. He lives! May the Lord, mighty God, bless and continue to keep us!

• Pastor Tate