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Things I didn’t know (on my way to leading and loving the church)

Teresa Klassen

I never planned on being a leader in the local church. I didn’t think about it, dream about it or, frankly, even want it. I do remember a time when I was 16, discussing with a friend our “ideal future” – it had nothing to do with the church. So it is quite humorous that God landed this whole thing on me. Here I am, eyebrow deep in serving and leading, and I have discovered there are a lot of things I never knew about this thing called the local church.

I never knew that the local church was the hope of the world. When I was growing up, morning services meant I had to wear a dress, and evening services meant I had to miss Walt Disney. I didn’t know the church was God’s passion and that there wasn’t a Plan B to reach the world. I didn’t know that serving and leading was a privilege beyond anything else and that one day I would wake up and say, “I can’t believe I get to do this.”

I never knew Christians could be so wonderful and so horrible all at once and that this is the beauty and the challenge of being in community. The fact that God makes us all work together just proves that God’s ways are higher than ours because along with being so encouraging, Christians can be really mean. Christians who take the first train out of town when things get bad are missing the point: God wants us to tough it out with each other and not give up on saying the real thing, resolving our conflicts and working shoulder to shoulder. I never knew that.

I never knew that gifts played such a critical role in the local church and that when people just sit on them, they put the brakes on the church’s work. I didn’t know that one person could change everything, and be the adrenaline a church needs to move forward. I didn’t know how cockeyed people’s views were on the topic of “serving” and how much work it would be to create a culture of servanthood where the most natural thing would be for people to offer their gifts willingly, without strings. I never knew that God really meant it when He said that the church is like a body made up of different parts and that you really do notice it when a thumb is missing.

I never knew that when people aren’t faithful in their giving, the church goes from being prevailing to being pathetic. Some people have the gift of giving and should give outrageously, but all of us are called to be faithful and regular in giving the tithe. I never knew that the wallet was the last thing to get saved in a person’s life and how, if the believers would just give, it would relieve 99% of the stress points that should never be stress points in the first place. I never knew that the fact that churches struggle to make ends meet is a tragedy and completely unnecessary. Do people know they are not just giving to a “budget” and that tithing is not their personal vote for or against a pastor?

I never knew that falling in love with Christ and His Bride would wreck me. I can’t help but feel ruined over people’s pain and sin and lostness. I can’t help but feel frustrated when believers treat the local church like a permanent rest stop. Sometimes I feel like shaking believers and yelling, “Don’t you get it? We have a job to do!”

Here is another thing I never knew: God is waiting to pour out His strength on people who will stand firm and let nothing move them, who will pour themselves into the work of the Lord, finally understanding that this is the only thing that is never done in vain.

The local church is the hope of the world, and there is no Plan B. I know that now.

Mike and Teresa Klassen are senior pastor couple at SunRidge Community Church in Kelowna, B.C.

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Last modified November 30, 2001.

© 2001 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
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