The Minimum Factor
Imagine a barrel with several
staves. Now we pour water into the barrel. What happens? You can only fill the
barrel to the level of the lowest stave. Now imagine a barrel with eight
staves, each representing the Eight Quality Characteristics. According to Natural Church Development, those 8
quality characteristics include empowering leadership, gift-based ministry,
passionate spirituality, effective structures, inspiring worship services,
holistic small groups, need-based evangelism, and loving relationships. With
this analogy, you can only fill the barrel with “healthy water” to the level of
the lowest stave. So to increase the capacity of the barrel, we must increase
the height of the lowest stave. For instance, suppose we have inspiring worship
services and strong small groups, but if we don’t have a loving relationship, its
absence functions as the Minimum Factor that prevents growth. When we focus on
the Minimum Factor, the church growth happens.[1]
The Church of Thyatira
I share this minimum barrel analogy
because it surely applies to the story of Thyatira. Jesus said to the church of
Thyatira, “I know all the things you do. I have seen your love, your faith, your service, and your patient endurance. And I can see your constant improvement in all these things” (19 NLT).
That’s quite a compliment! Thyatira was excelling in many areas. But sadly, one
critical quality was missing, that is “holiness.” The church of Thyatira tolerated
a false teaching that led the saints astray. In verse 20 Jesus said, “But I
have this complaint against you. You are permitting that woman - that Jezebel
who calls herself a prophet - to lead my servants astray. She teaches them to
commit sexual sin and to eat food offered to idols.” Overall Thyatira Christians
were doing an excellent job for Christ. The love and the faith, the service and
persistence. Very impressive! But they had a fatal minimum factor that was
preventing growth and even harming the church. They neglected Christian
holiness. They compromised with the false teaching mainly because it gave them
an economic benefit and security. At that time Thyatira was an economic center
with a large number of trade guilds. In order to retain membership they were required
to participate in idolatrous practices. So the pressure on Christians living
would have been substantial.[2]
But then, one prophetess began to teach this message: “It is ok to participate in
the cult of Rome and eat food sacrificed to idols.” That false teaching was like
poisonous weed. It was like cancerous cell. Not only has the church body growth
stagnated, but also it became sick.
Pursuit of Holiness
The Bible says, “Pursue holiness. Without
holiness no one will see the Lord” (cf. Heb 12:14) The word holy in various forms occurs more than
600 times in the Bible. We know holiness is a good thing. But deep in our
hearts, for many of us, holiness has largely negative connotations. What image comes
to your mind when you think of the word holiness? To some of us it brings images
of bunned hair, long skirts, and black stockings. To some of us, holiness is a
series of specific prohibitions, “Don’t smoke, drink, dance, and so on.”
But holiness is fundamentally an affection issue, not a behavioral issue.
Jon Bloom, staff writer for DesiringGod, wrote an excellent article on
holiness.[3]
Holiness is neither a new behavior, nor a particular style of dress and
mannerisms. But holiness is new
affections, new desires, new motives that then lead to new behavior. It’s
from inside out, not from outside in. We
become holy when we spend both quality and quantity time with God, because God
is holy. In Psalm 16:11 David says, “You make known to me the path of life;
in your presence there is fullness of
joy; at your right hand are pleasures
forevermore” To live a holy life is to live a life before God 24/7. And when we
live before God, we find eternal joy and pleasure in his presence. True
holiness is a state of delight!
Repentance
Our next question is, “How do we
cultivate holiness in our Christian life?” The answer is repentance. In today’s passage Jesus gives the false prophetess and
those following time to repent (21). The no. 1 way to holiness is to live a
life of repentance. Martin Luther’s very first of the 95 theses was this: “When
our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, “Repent,” he intended that the entire
life of believers should be repentance. Repentance is not the ABC of the Christian
life. It’s the A to Z of it. All of the Christian life is repentance. In other
words, by repentance for every day and every moment, we make progress and become
holy in our Christian life.
Three Simple Rules
John Wesley was a champion who did
strive to live a holy life and also to live a life of repentance. He practiced
this way of living both individually
and communally. First, Wesley
cultivated personal holy habits marked by the following three simple rules:
Do No Harm
Do Good
Stay in Love With God
Do No Harm. We can repent by asking ourselves these questions:
- Have I looked down on anyone?
- Have I diminished those who do not agree with me?
- Have I been self-absorbed and indifferent and inattentive to people?
- Have I guarded my heart and mind and lips in order not to wound another child of God?
- Have I spoken or thought unkindly of anyone?
Do Good.
- Have I honored all people as children of God?
- Have I loved the one who hated me and prayed for that person?
- Have I avoided people or tasks that I know I should face?
Stay in Love With God.
- Have I spent quality and quantity time with God today?
- Have I found strength and guidance in communion with God?
- Have I found joy in companionship with God?
- Have I practiced what God had said to me?
We repent, not because we just want
to avoid God’s judgment. We repent, because we have grieved the heart of our
heavenly father. As we practice repentance and examine ourselves on a regular
basis, we are growing deeply into the character of Jesus.
Christian Conference
Second, along with his personal practice
of repentance, John Wesley also cultivated communal practice, called “Christian
conference.” In particular, through a band meeting – it’s similar to small
group leader’s meeting, Wesley and his Christian friends cultivated repentance and
holiness. In the band meeting they shared the following questions every time
they met:
- What known sins have you committed since our last meeting?
- What temptations have you met with?
- How were you delivered?
- What have you thought, said, or done, of which you doubt whether it be sin or not?
- Have you nothing desire to keep secret?
Once Wesley said, “I have found by
experience that one of these people has learned more from one hour’s close
discourse than ten year’s public preaching!”[5]
For me personally, I am grateful that I belong to John 17:23 clergy covenant
group. Four of us – Steve Straubel, Mark Lunn, Randall Burns and I – meet twice
a month. We have deep, close conversation. We share our struggles, failures, as
well as progress. We speak without reserve. We confront and speak in truth. We
deeply love each other and care for each other. I am also grateful that our
church has active small groups. My prayer is that our small groups may continue
to grow deeper in terms of the depth of our openness and multiply!
Long Obedience to the Same Direction
We need Christian conference. We
need small groups that we can watch over one another in love and pursue
holiness together. In November there will be a great opportunity to experience this
Christian conferencing. Starting from Nov 5 to 17, Monday through Saturday, for
12 days we will meet daily in the morning at 6 am and at noon time. We will
meditate on the Ephesians, pray with the Ephesians, and share communion. We
will particularly pray for healing, unity and strength against spiritual warfare.
Jesus promises to the faithful ones in Thyatira and in Houlton, “Hold fast what
you have until I come… And I will give you the morning star” (25, 28). The
morning star refers to Jesus himself. As we come and repent and seek his face,
Jesus will reveal himself and give himself to us. May the Lord give us desire
and strength to watch and pray! Amen.
[1] About
Natural Church Development (NCD), http://www.ncd-international.org/public/natural_church_development.html
[3] Jon
Bloom, “Holiness Will Make You Unbelievably Happy,” https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/holiness-will-make-you-unbelievably-happy
[4] For more
details, please read Rueben P. Job’s Three
Simple Rules (Abingdon Press, 2007) and Tim Keller’s article “All of Life
is Repentance,” https://static1.squarespace.com/static/530e4ef9e4b07ec5e7d89c14/t/571510a8e707eb4f78eaf0ad/1460998312452/All+of+Life+is+Repentance+-+Tim+Keller.pdf
[5] D.
Michael Henderson, A Model for Making
Disciples (Warner Press, 1997), 119-121.
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