How was your church this week?

"How was your church this week?" She asked me. At first my mind searched to recall the details of the morning worship service. I couldn't really remember the message topic, and the music was "ok" but not terribly memorable. "Ok", I said. "Nothing special, just the normal stuff." "No", she said, "How was your church - not your church service!" She continued, "I am less interested in how any given service the church observed, than the church itself." "How can I measure my church?" I wondered.

It seems that everyone that enters a Messianic congregation or a Christian church comes with a set of expectations. Some come to be cared for. Some come to learn new and exciting lessons from the Scripture. Some come for fellowship. All these reasons are part of the normal work of the church. Yet, in the final analysis, God established congregations (according to the NT) and God holds the measuring stick for the church. How does your church measure up?

A few years before the death of the Apostle Paul, he wrote to a younger church planter about the establishment of solid, well rooted, God honoring churches in Crete. The letter has been passed down to us in the form of the "Epistle of Paul to Titus". The younger Titus took directions from Paul as his sending agent. He handled difficult assignments for Paul in the matter of disobedience in a rebellious church at Corinth as part of his training to plant churches (2 Cor. 2:13; 7:6-7, 13-15; 8:6, 16-17). Paul was delighted with the sensitivity and strength of his disciple.

A careful reading of the Epistle to Titus reveals the message of the Gospel had already begun to take root in Crete, but the new believers had not yet been organized into strong local churches. The letter probably personally encouraged the church planter, but more importantly added an authoritative boost to his stature when rather sharp exchanges became necessary.

Another important key to the purpose of the letter was found in Paul's comments about Titus' approach. Titus was told to "speak evil of no man" (3:2) and deal with the lost in meekness. Some Cretans may have assailed Titus for lacking sharpness in the beginning, but these words from Paul would help set them at ease. It was not necessary to argue endlessly, but it was necessary to defend the flock and stop some of the subversive speech of the traveling speakers who were trying to pull Gentiles into keeping the Torah of Moses. Some early Messianics were confused because they knew the blessing of maintaining a Torah lifestyle, but they attempted to apply this to the Gentile believers. Their attitude, as well as their misapplication of the Torah (to be beyond those to whom it was given) caused sharp division and strife in the early congregations of Gentile believers.

Paul offered six key principles to measure the congregation in the letter. Though he wrote to Cretan churches of the first century, there is no reason those same principles cannot apply to congregations twenty centuries later. The situation may different, but these principles transcend time! These six major principles helped establish well-grounded and God-pleasing congregations:

1. Everything rises or falls on the quality of the leadership of the congregation, choose wisely! (Titus 1:5-9) It is worth noting that the text offers much about the quality and character of the men, and precious little about their job description. The import of that is obvious, character matters! God is less concerned about which leader records the minutes of the meeting, and whether he is called elder or deacon or board member - He is concerned with the character of those that lead the congregation!

2. The leaders must remember the church is a teaching organization, and the parameters of the teaching must be maintained and defended for the flock to be healthy, protect them! (1:10-16) If the church has "great worship" but "mediocre Bible instruction", it is a prescription for disaster. The first will draw a crowd, the second will ruin the crowd. One cannot read the "Pastoral Epistles" (1,2 Timothy and Titus) and not comprehend that Paul was intensely concerned with the transmission of the Word in the congregation. In fact, in those letters I believe he offered no words on "the worship" apart from the demands he placed on the missionary church planters as it regards their teaching of the Word. I do not argue that helping people sense the presence of the Lord in worship is unimportant, only that the careful teaching of the Word was Paul's highest concern in those letters!

3. The group becomes a true church when the members are equipped and begin to function in their relationships to each other and to the world, train them! (2:1-10) This cannot be overstressed. The measure of a God-pleasing congregation is not based solely on the services and the leaders, it is based mostly on the behavior of congregants. Look at the words used in the text for "your" group (categorized by age and sex:)

Older Men: (means "senior male" as in age not office of "elder" term as used in 1:5)

1) Sober: (NIV) temperate; adjective meaning to not "wine controlled", came to be used as a word for "clear headed"; possessing all the faculties at all times.
2) Grave: (NIV) worthy of respect; seriousness of purpose and dignified such that he commands respect. 3) Temperate: (NIV) "self-controlled"; possessing self-mastery.
4) Sound in faith, "sound" is derived from a building term for a solid foundation. The word has a Greek article, suggesting the meaning "their faith". The term faith may mean "doctrine" but here it appears to be their personal faith in the Lord Jesus.
5) charity (NIV) "love"; The word is for relational love, as opposed to a vindictive spirit or bitterness.
6) patience: endurance"; The word is a military term that denotes brave persistence and strength of character.

Older Women:

1) In behavior as becometh holiness: (NIV) "be reverent in the way they live"; literally a cultic term for the interior and exterior of a temple to be suitable for holy uses.
2) Not false accusers: (NIV) "not slanderers"; the word is elsewhere translated gossip.
3) Not given to much wine: (NIV) "not addicted to much wine"; the grammar suggests that #2 and #3 are linked. Was the problem at the wine bar? Was the problem loose speech after too much to drink?
4) Teachers of good things: the word is derived from the personal counsel of a tutor.
5) Teach the younger women to be sober: (literally "to return one to her senses"). The term for "teach" is different than the one used above, it was sometimes used in the Greek world as an athletic word for training that happens over a long and arduous process. The term "younger women" is the term NEW or FRESH and may mean either the newly married (less likely) or the NEW WOMEN IN JESUS. The training of the new women in the church was not the responsibility of the Elders, nor of Titus, but of the older women!

Younger Women: (Those newer to the faith)

1) Love their husbands: (literally) "devoted to their husbands".
2) Love their children: (literally) "devoted to their children".
3) Be discreet: (NIV) "self controlled"
4) Chaste: (NIV) "pure"
5) Keepers at home: (The KJV follows the text as "oikourous" or "home guard" , the NIV uses a different text that contains the word "oikourgous" which means "to be busy at home". The NIV thought the second choice made more sense with Paul's other admonitions as 1 Tim. 5:13,14 - to avoid idleness).
6) Good: (NIV) "kind"; the selfless demands placed on a wife an mother can cause her to cultivate a harsh and irritable spirit. Servanthood is contrary to human nature and Roman culture, so this training was valuable!
7) Obedient to their own husbands: (NIV) "to be subject to their husbands" is apparently to be read in middle voice, "subjecting themselves to in a voluntary way". Though she was equal in salvation (Gal. 3:28), yet she placed herself in subjection. The subjection was directly linked to the testimony of the home and of the Word of God!

Young Men

(and by example of Titus himself in vv. 7-8): (word IS for young men). Titus was told to "exhort" (literally "to come beside and show how") to be sober minded: (NIV) "self-controlled" as the teaching to younger women. Obviously the greatest need of the young Cretan men was to stay their impetuous nature and cultivate restraint.

Titus (Church planter, then Pastor)

(By example - commands of vv. 7-8 to him!) Show a pattern of good works: (NIV) "set for them an example" is literally "holding yourself beside them as an example" of a teacher of the Word.

1) Doctrine: showing uncorruptness: highest quality in teaching!
2) Gravity: teaching with a motive of integrity in all things.
3) Sincerity: teaching with outward dignity and seriousness.
4) Sound speech: his words were to be, when tested, found consistently reliable. There was an expectation that his words were opposed by some, but after testing, his word should have been consistent, and morally pure.

Servants

1) Obedient to masters (Greek - despotes): is literally "to attempt to please".
2) Not contradicting: (Greek - "antilego") is literally "not talking back to, or against them".
3) Not purloining: (NIV) stealing.
4) Showing in all fidelity: literally, "demonstrating good faith" - showing the best of the teaching of our Savior.

What YOU do adds or subtracts to the measure of the congregation. Are you an ASSET or a LIABILITY to your team?

4. The church was formed by God's grace, and maintained by careful obedience to the Father's commands lived out in expectation of the Lord's return, keep working! (2:11-15) These words are significant to profile what believers were to be about in the first century: grace, obedience and expectation! They were to recall God's goodness in their salvation, focus on their walk of obedience, and ever anticipate the return of Messiah!

5. The Cretan church was to be characterized by a gracious spirit toward the world and its leaders - a humility bathed in the memory of their own former sojourn, be gracious! (3:1-7) Wow! After all the tough things Paul told Titus about maintaining a high standard on the Word, you would think Paul wanted them to "feel superior" in their newfound morality. The very opposite was true! Paul wanted Titus to remind the congregation to treat those who are still walking in the world, with all of the lustful and carnal pursuits - to be gracious, and ever recall that "there by the grace of God go I". The point was that although they were to live obedient lives, they were not to elevate themselves. God alone saved them from their past, and God has a heart to reach their neighbor through their testimony. Their salvation was not to make them look more moral and pure, it was to add a foundation of holiness to back up their public testimony of how God accepts sinners!

6. Though they were to be gracious, they must not ignore the creeping influence of error and contention, be careful! (3:8-11) Without a significant difference in their lives (over that of the lost neighbors around them) their testimony would be blunted. Their "talk" was important (no one ever came to Messiah without someone explaining the message), but it could only go as far as their "walk" took them.

The letter to Titus gives six principles for the meter stick to measure a congregation. So, how was your church this week? What can you do to help?

May the Word light your path this week,

Dr. Randall Smith
International Director