What Ministers Wish Church Members Knew
Who Owns the Church?
Rick Jensen
Matthew 16:13-20
Yankton UCC (Congregational)
July 28, 2013
Summer Sermon Series - #3
One pastor tells this curious little story: “Shortly after seminary I
served a delightful and growing congregation in a small town. A story about
a visitor to town was told as truth. Supposedly, a fellow was there over a
weekend for business. Saturday afternoon he inquired of the local
pharmacist where the Church of God was located because that was his
denominational background and he wanted to worship with that
congregation on Sunday morning. The pharmacist thought for a moment,
scratched his chin, shook his head and said, ‘Let’s see. The church over on
Main is Mr. Story’s church. And the one across from the school is Mr.
Johnson’s church. And the church just east of town is Mr. Allen’s church.
You know,’ said the pharmacist, ‘come to think of it, I don’t think God has a
church in this town.’ Ouch!”1
Jan Linn, the author of the title of our Summer Sermon Series, tells a
similar story of when he “introduced himself to the manager of a nearby
store as the pastor of Independence Boulevard Christian Church in Kansas
City. His reply was, ‘Isn’t that R.A. Long’s church?’ (R.A. Long was head
of the highly profitable Long Bell Lumber Company in KC). Linn replies,
‘Not wanting to get off on the wrong foot with someone I probably would
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have to do business with, I said yes, The fact was R.A. Long put up most of
the money—and it took a lot of it to build that church building many years
before. The store manager knew that. For him that meant it was R.A.
Long’s church. I guess for him if your money built it then you own it.’”2
Yet, how distinct it sounds to speak of any church belonging to any
single person or single group of people when we hear Jesus say in today’s
text: “Peter, on this rock I will build MY church, and the gates of Hades
will not prevail against it!” “MY church?” “MY church?” There it is for all
to see: Jesus uses the first person possessive pronoun “MY” Then he adds,
“I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.” Not the Board of
Missions or Finance or Foundation Board or the Council or even the Church
will hand out the keys to the kingdom. He says, “I will.” “I will!”
This raises an intriguing debate: Because the one thing we all want
everyone to have in the church is a sense of “ownership,” a sense that we
really belong and have an “investment” in the church. Both we clergy and
members often say we want our people to have “more ownership” of what
goes on in the church; because otherwise we might lose people to other
churches! So it doesn’t strike us as all that odd to hear about “R.A. Long’s
church,” or “Mr. Allen’s or Mr. Story’s church.” And we could use any
number of women’s names here too! There’s a sense in which we
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congregationally governed churches practice that great American ideal of
everyone’s ownership in that well-worn phrase, “WE, THE PEOPLE!”
It’s at least in part, why we’re doing the Unwrapping Our Gifts—Laity
Empowerment Program, because this is your church, not just us clergy’s!
But along comes Jesus saying the church is “MY church,” and then
adding, “I will give you the keys to the kingdom.” Do we sense a certain
conflict here? Really, whose church is it? Who owns this church: Jesus or
us or someone else?
A few weeks ago I mentioned the Parable of the Prodigal Son and the
younger son and the father. But I mostly skipped over the older son, who
had his nose out of joint when his dad threw a big party for his younger
brother but ignored him. I must say, I’ve always felt for the poor soul,
because I know I don’t like to be snubbed or overlooked and I dare say you
don’t either: especially when someone less deserving gets the reward!
But in our sympathy for the older brother, it’s easy to miss how
entitled he sounds! “Look at my brother,” he says, “squandering his
inheritance, sleeping with prostitutes, probably doing drugs and you kill the
fatted calf and give him the best clothes! But what do I get? Nothing!” It
isn’t just that the older brother was jealous his younger brother got the party.
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It’s that the older brother felt he owned his dad and deserved the farm and all
its privileges.
This is what perturbs ministers and lots of lay-folk! Those who think
they ought to control everything that goes on in the church, like they own it!
These are the “My Way or The Highway” folk who forget Jesus is the Way.
Retired preaching professor Robert Shannon remarks: “When they
inaugurated the city of Constantinople (today’s Istanbul) in 330 they wanted
to honor its founder and namesake. So they brought from Greece a statue of
Apollo, but they removed from the statue the head of Apollo and replaced it
with a carved image of the head of Constantine. Does it not seem sometimes
that Christ has been removed as the head of the church, and some other has
been put in His place? We commonly think of that in terms of famous
names and famous people, but some ordinary people can sometimes usurp
Christ’s place as head of His church.3 Isn’t this what still happens today: an
attempt to usurp Jesus’ position as the head of the church?
You know, when I read the history of this congregation soon after I
got here I learned that a “Pew Tax” was levied. I imagine this meant 3
things: First, every pew had its price with “better seats” levied a higher tax.
Second, if you could afford it you got the better pew. And third, you could
select your own pew and be sure no one else would sit there. You could pull
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out a receipt or some other proof you “owned” it. Presumably the “Pew
Tax” was levied in lieu of any annual general fund campaign.
This practice, obviously later abolished, had to have cultivated a
possessiveness members had about this church. When they spoke of “their”
church, they meant it! Some people probably gave to the church money or
time with strings attached. Somewhere along the way the basic claim that
the church belongs to Jesus, got lost.
But that sort of cabbaging onto the church still exists to a greater or
lesser degree in every church. One day my wife was asking one of the
deacons in the church we were serving at the time why she was being so
meticulous in the way she set the loaf of bread on the communion table.
“Oh, Mary (not her real name) gets upset if I don’t set the best side of the
loaf toward the congregation. Trouble is I don’t know which side of the loaf
is the most attractive.” Mary was so possessive of the congregation she had
other members twisted in knots about the pettiest matters.
In my last church a married couple serving as Historians moved the
Historical Room into a space where they had special keys made to the room
that made it practically inaccessible to anyone else. They also were cochairs of the Property Committee and would initiate projects without
checking with their committee, including changing our tech support. They
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did this while my wife and I were on vacation, only to learn to my surprise
when my computer went down I had no one I knew to call. The couple was
politely asked to let everyone know what they were doing so such surprises
could be avoided. But when this happened they left the church in a huff and
literally took the new furniture they’d purchased for the Historical Room
home, underscoring their perception they owned the church and no one dare
cross their line!
Many years ago Shawnee Park Christian Church in Shawnee, Kansas,
dedicated their combination sanctuary/fellowship hall. For nearly 10 years
the church had met in a converted garage area for a sanctuary, when the new
unit was dedicated. My mentor, Dr. Forrest Haggard addressed the church at
the dedication. He said, that though the church had built and paid for the
new sanctuary, the church didn’t belong to any of us, but to Christ, the chief
cornerstone of the church. He didn’t mean by this we weren’t responsible
for its upkeep. He didn’t mean Christ hadn’t put the keys of the church into
our hands. But he did mean that none of us “owned” that church no matter
how much of our capital campaign monies made the unit possible. He did
mean that while Christ has given us authority to be the church, we are NOT
THE authority that called the church into being. He did not mean that we
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were and are THE foundation of the church, but that Jesus is the church’s
one sure foundation!
The chief symbols of this truth? That the prayer we pray each week is
called “The LORD’S Prayer” and not your prayer or mine. And this altar we
gather around for communion the first Sunday of each month is called “The
LORD’S Table.” Not my table or yours, but Christ’s!
You see, at this table we are all guests. Christ is our host. He invites
us to eat and drink of the symbols of His body and His blood. As guests we
are here to please the host. That puts things in their right perspective
because it reminds us this is finally Christ’s church.4
In the long run the church would be better off if more of its members
and clergy believed that nobody owns the church and nobody owns God.
Then we would be able to concentrate on the one thing that is undeniably
true—we belong to God; and that’s the good news. Not that God belongs to
us, but we belong to God, Maker of heaven and earth. And that, by all
measures and financial accounting really should be quite enough!5
Charles Clark, “The Suicide of a Church,” Preaching, J-F 2000, p. 30
Jan C. Linn, What Ministers Wish Church Members Knew, StL: Chalice Press, 1993, p. 6.
3
Robert Shannon, “Illustrations Shine the Gospel Light,” Preaching, March-April 1997, p. 54.
4
Linn, Ibid., p. 8
5
Ibid. p. 11
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