Problem No 1: Arrhythmia

Symptoms  and Cause

Whenever a patient goes to the ER one of the first thing to be checked is the heart.  For our patient, the Church in the ER, there is a sporadic heart beat, at times hardly discernible, at other times strong and seemingly healthy.   

The heartbeat when strong and seemingly healthy is when the Church is healthy, and the heart of the church is beating in time with the heartbeat of God.  There are obviously some local churches that are healthy and strong, and who continually seek to be listening to God, hearing, obeying and walking in step with him, so that this local church has a healthy heartbeat.  In reality, though, this is not the case for the Universal Church.

The Universal church is made up of many local churches whose heartbeat is rarely strong, steady and consistent.   When a good strong heart beat is detected it coincides with a large number of members having an adrenalin-like shot in the arm.  What happened?  They went to one of the many camps, conferences, meetings, revival meetings and retreats available seasonably, predominantly in spring or during the summer months.  Everyone who attends is fired up, blessed, challenged and resolute that “from now on I will maintain a closer walk with the Lord”.  People have prayed together, worshipped together, confessed their sin together, encouraged one another and together have a renewed vision of what church and the Christian life is all about. They have centred their hearts and lives afresh on the Lord, and committed themselves to seek after God, and his heartbeat for the nation and the world.  With this annual shot in the arm members of the Universal church return to their local churches with enthusiasm.  They share their visions, challenges and resolve to walk in step with God, to let him take his rightful position as the head of the church, and for a while all seems well. 

But then? 

O yes there is nearly always a “but then!”  After a while the enemy of the church, the enemy of every child of God, tries his hand afresh to separate freshly envisioned servants of God from their recent experiences of warm fellowship and fresh commitment, to separate them from likeminded committed folk, and gradually they return to normality – lifestyle, a job, a profession,  busyness, challenges, disappointments and confusion.  The determination to keep up that early morning hour of Quiet Time and prayer, reflecting the Bible readings/studies at those wonderful meetings, is squeezed into a few minutes here and there.  The junk food diet of “a thought for the day” or “today’s bible verse” is back.  

Whoops!  Missed the weekly prayer meeting again.  O no, I’m going to be late for church, again.  “Sorry pastor I know I said I was interested, but I really don’t have time to lead the Sunday School, the Youth Group, or the crèche”.  (Whatever made me think I could do that?)  “Maybe, when this present period of problems has sorted itself out…….” “House Group?  I’m so sorry I have to be somewhere else, maybe next week”.   “Church Barbeque?  O yes, I think we’re all intending to be there, let’s hope the weather holds out”.  “Missionary meeting?  Well you know, I’ve been thinking about that, there is so much need right here, I am hoping to go to the planning meeting next month for our local outreach event”. (Wow, that was close, but why should we send missionaries abroad when there is so much need right here on our doorstep?)

Looking at the photos, from the summer, bring back distant memories of a desire for God and his will.  A smile gradually emerges across your face as you think of shared burdens, and new friends who encouraged you and prayed with you, challenged you to go deeper into the things of God.  Now?  Well life has taken over again, maybe later or next year when things have balanced out a bit.  The desire for these yearly “fixes” reflects the fact that there is a hunger after God, and the fact that without exception they are probably all full to capacity shows that there is a felt need for something more than the church is giving its members.  Don’t misunderstand me, I am not against these conferences, meetings and camps, I have attended some and even been involved in organizing some and for many it is a major turning point in their lives.  Some may find the salvation which they have been seeking.  Others may hear God’s voice and respond accordingly.  I am just conscious that these experiences become yearly highlights shown by the fact that a few weeks after the event all is back to normal, instead of these events being a part of an on-going seeking after God.

Some parts of God’s universal church maintain a strong heart beat for God and his vision for His church, his bride, but the arrhythmia is caused by the many local expressions of the Body of Christ who still struggle to find that vital and life-giving relationship with the Head of the body.

In normal life arrhythmias can be very common and are not necessarily life- threatening, just a normal part of life, but in the church, many have ignored the signs for so long that they present with just an occasional blip on the heart monitor, and some  have even flat- lined already.