The “cart before the horse” is a time-tested proverb that is used frequently. There is increasing evidence that the Church is more and more engaged in activities that result from a confusion of mission and method.
A cart and horse are hitched together in order that the horse may pull the cart and its contents to a desired destination. Reverse the arrangement—put the cart in front of the horse—and the intended purpose cannot be achieved. Confusion results for all concerned.
To keep the mission and work of the Church in proper sequence it is important to ask some relevant questions.
Is the message and work of the Church that of redemption or of reformation?
It is popular today to speak of Christ as a reformer and a revolutionary, but this does not give a true picture of either his message or his activities. Christ came into the world to redeem individuals, to set them free from the power and consequences of sin. The words “redeem,” “redeemed,” “Redeemer,” and “redemption” are found many times in the Bible, while the truth expressed in these words appears many more times. “Reformation” and “reformed” appear but twice and in both instances are limited in their meaning.
And yet, from many of the activities and pronouncements of the Church one would gather that there are those who regard her primary purpose to be reformation, not redemption.
There is an ancient Chinese proverb, “One cannot carve rotten wood.” We find continued efforts to carve the rotten wood of unredeemed men into pillars of righteousness by the process of reformation, without the transformation that comes only through the Redeemer.
Study of the Scriptures reveals that the only sequence recognized is first a man’s redemption and then his living for his Lord in his daily associations.
A second question must be asked: Does the Church exist primarily to prepare men for this world or for the next?
Oh yes, we hear the chorus of those who inveigh against “other-worldliness,” “pie in the sky,” and so on. But we ought not to be frightened by such ridicule. This question goes to the very heart of our problem.
All through the Bible the glories of heaven are portrayed. The heroes of faith mentioned in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews were men and women who looked beyond the immediate and saw down the corridor of time the Eternal City. They endured in faith because of that hope.
No man is fit to live in this world until he is prepared to live in the next. There is no lasting profit in trying to make men who are not Christians live like Christians. There is no justification for the Church’s laboring to “make the world a better place in which to live” unless she works with even greater zeal to convert men who will be “salt” and “light” in the social order.
It is because the Church has so largely set her eyes on the things that can be seen rather than on the things that cannot be seen that she has impaired her influence in things of the Spirit in a world which so desperately needs the heavenly vision.
Again, Is the Church in the world to influence for righteousness or to coerce men into a right way of life?
A tragedy of our time is the attempts of the Church to use secular governments in order to legislate righteousness. Having failed to change men because of her neglect of preaching the Gospel, the Church now turns to secular governments to cover up this failure. Dr. Ilion T. Jones’s article entitled, “Enforced Christianity?” (CHRISTIANITY TODAY, April 10, 1964), is a clear statement of this problem.
The influence of the Gospel on the hearts of men is of incalculable value. Neglect the Gospel, or pervert its meaning, and there is no true righteousness in man; neither he nor society can rise above its natural capabilities.
Then there is this question: To which does the Church minister primarily, the body or the soul?
The needs of the body are obvious. The responsibility of the Christian to help meet the needs of others is axiomatic. The sick, the hungry, the destitute, the oppressed must be the objects of our compassion, love, and action. But again, if we lose sight of the fact that these unfortunate people also possess souls, our ministry to their bodies is but a passing gesture. Care for the sick, feed the hungry, relieve the destitute, and free the oppressed—their major need has yet to be met.
We are now confronted in many areas by a substitution of humanitarianism for Christianity. Compassion for human need is a beautiful and wonderful thing, but compassion for lost souls is even more compelling and must be the major objective of the corporate Church.
Again, Is it the mission of the Church to proclaim truth or to “search for” it?
Where are those days of deep conviction, when men preached with certainty and with the authority of “Thus saith the Lord”? Ours has rightly been called the “generation of the uncommitted.” Paul wrote to Timothy some prophetic words about people who would be “holding the form of religion but denying the power of it … who will listen to anybody and can never arrive at a knowledge of the truth” (2 Tim. 3:5, 7, RSV). These words are being fulfilled today.
The world is hungry for a word of authority, a word based on the divine revelation, not on the vain speculations of men.
Yet again, Shall the Church exercise love or force?
An increasing number of churches are becoming involved in lawsuits, or in the promotion of legislation to enforce what is thought to be the “Christian” approach to current issues.
Admittedly, we are surrounded by many problems. But should the Church use secular power and methods to effect change, or should she exercise her influence to change the hearts of men through the unchanging Gospel? We believe the latter is her true mission and that any other defeats the ultimate reason for her existence.
There is certainly a need for changes in the social order. Nevertheless, the Church’s task is spiritual: she is to change the hearts of men through the indwelling Christ and not through secular legislation.
Finally, Is the mission of the Church to preach repentance or to work for worthy resolutions in the hearts of men?
Man’s basic problem stems from sin in the heart. For this God requires repentance and not merely pious resolve. Repentance is an integral part of the proclamation of truth. Because it is so largely neglected today the churches are filled with unrepentant sinners.
The Church’s primary task has to do with redemption, the world to come, the making of new men in Christ, the ultimate destiny of the soul, the proclamation of truth, the exercise of love and compassion, and insistence on man’s need of repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. As long as she continues to put the cart before the horse, to look for fruit apart from the vine, she will continue to fail in her God-given task and add confusion to an already confused world.
