September 2020 — pg. 9
Ephesians to “grow up” by learning to “speak the truth in
love” (Ephesians 4:15).
Control is another likely culprit. When we find ourselves
operating in ways that take us out of the light (open, direct)
and into the dark (secret, indirect), it is often because we
want to control the outcome. We probably don’t think of
it this way, but our desire for control likely reveals one of
two things: either I want what I want more than I want
what God wants or I don’t trust God to bring about His
purposes through or in spite of the proper channels.
Confronting our own fears and dying to the need to be
in control are essential in learning how to live in the light.
Living in the Light Corporately
If fear and the desire for control are obstacles on the
personal level, they are magnified tenfold when it comes
to living in the light in our local churches, conferences,
or even denomination. The stakes are also much greater.
Churches that choose to operate in the light bring life to
multitudes and can even transform communities. On the
contrary, churches that operate in the dark leave in their
wake broken lives and a tainted testimony to a watching
world.
It would be easy, quite frankly, to recount the many ways
we tend to fail on this front. A more challenging, but vastly
more helpful, exercise would be to envision what it might
look like if we truly devoted ourselves to living in the light
together.
I envision a community in which:
• Spiritual brothers and sisters draw strength and
encouragement from one another because someone
always has their back and no one whispers behind
their back.
• The “grapevine” that so often delivers messages
distorted by personal agendas has withered on the
vine because members have discovered the beauty and
clarity of direct communication.
• Leaders are free to invest most of their time and energy
in creative and meaningful work because they’re rarely
distracted by murmurs of discontent and wondering
just how many people are truly represented by the one
who claims to speak for others.
• Ministry teams are strong, healthy, and always
improving because members who have ideas or
concerns freely approach leaders with the confidence
they will be heard, taken seriously, and received non-defensively.
• Members give joyfully and generously because the
finances of the church are always handled with
integrity and transparency.
• The trash can that holds anonymous notes, emails and
letters is always empty because members are mature
and secure enough to speak the truth in love.
• Members are particularly careful on social media
when it comes to controversial issues, preferring
instead to dialogue in settings that allow them to tell
their stories, listen deeply, move beyond simplistic
and divisive responses, and prayerfully ask God for
the wisdom and grace to love each other well.
• There is never a need for a sidewalk meeting because
board members have discovered the miracle of
discerning God’s will together through prayer,
bringing their biases into the light, and trusting God
to lead them to agreement (see my guide, “Spiritual
Discernment and Decision-Making,” that follows this
article).
If this sounds more like fantasy than a realistic vision,
perhaps it is because our spiritual eyes have become so
adjusted to the darkness that we’ve forgotten what it is like
to live in the light of day. Such a condition is particularly
dangerous in these days of such great uncertainty, social
upheaval, and extreme polarization, all of which our
enemy gleefully uses to stir up our fears and desires for
control. It is in times like these that we must stand firmly
in the truth of who we are as the people of God:
“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy
nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare
the praises of him who called you out of darkness into
his wonderful light. … Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens
and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires,
which war against your soul. Live such good lives among
the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong,
they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day
he visits us” (1 Peter 2:9, 11-12).+