Proclaimer Blog
Mystery worshipper
Last week we were at our Autumn Ministers conference and Vaughan kicked us off with Rev 2.1-7. I’m not sure that I’ve ever had a mystery worshipper visit a church in which I’ve been ministering. But Vaughan has. And there are some good stories. “Father Roberts preached for 25 minutes!” I rather enjoyed Vaughan’s comeback. “I’ve never preached for less than 30.”
The trouble with the mystery worshipper is that he has his own agenda. He’ll tell you the things he likes about your church (provided that they tie in with his own likes). He’ll tell you the things he doesn’t like (ditto). His loaded agenda can be hard to take.
The Revelation letters are hard to take not because Jesus has a loaded agenda, but because – unlike the mystery worshipper – they hit where it hurts. Jesus is absolutely able to tell us what we do well and where we need to change. It’s encouraging to see that Jesus sees what we do: he knows. Isn’t that good news? But sobering to think whether we still have that first love. Does our church have it? Do we have it? (Clue: there may be a connection).
The reality is that we encourage a kind of activism (do, do, do) precisely because of the nature of church and ministry. We are constantly fighting that battle. And so we need to cultivate our love for the Lord. How?
Remember: consider how far you have fallen. Not just one day (we can all feel low for one day). But we need to remember the glories of our walk with Christ in the early times.
Repent: age can dampen enthusiasm if we are not careful. But we must not accept a dull blandness in our Christian walk. Pray in truths and identify what needs to be repented of.
Repeat: do the things you did at first. In other words, get going again.
All this brings a wonderful promise – to share with Christ from the tree of life.