Towards a Theology of the Perfect Church By Dave Miles If you find the perfect church, dont go there.

Youll screw it up! That humorous, and profoundly realistic, quote came from none other than Howard Hendricks of Dallas Seminary. Through the years, Prof Hendricks, as he was called, would apparently repeat that statement to each class of students reminding them in a serious, but funny fashion that this side of heaven there is no such thing as perfection---for churches or pastors! That being said, it is often the job of the interim pastor to help a church become a more perfect example of the people of God. How do we do that? Here are seven theological principles to keep us on track: 1. Gods ideal is health, healing, and wholenessto see what perfection looks like we must go back to the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve communed with God, and with each other, in perfect harmony. This Trinitarian ideal was characterized by spiritual intimacy with God, emotional and relational intimacy with each other, and responsible dominion over creation. There was shalom. All was as it should be. This is what the church is to move towards. 2. Sin disrupts Gods shalom and destroys the beauty of creation and communityin Genesis 3 we have the disaster of disobedience. Sin frequently affects a church in transition. With sin comes: (1) Loss, grief and grieving. (2) Idolatrythe belief that something other than Christ will satisfy us. (3) The tendency to hidefrom ourselves, from God and from others. Three sins often make up an unholy trinity of transgression in churches in transition: idolatry, conflict and the misuse of power. 3. God is the sovereign initiator of renewalthis is the good news. God has sovereignly determined to destroy the sin that has disrupted the created order. In fact, throughout scripture we see God taking the initiative to do so (2 Chron 29:36; Rev 3:20). The gospel is the ultimate act of sovereign initiation (Rom 1:16-17; Col 1:6; 2 Pet 1:9). 4. The interim pastor is often the prophetic voice of God calling people away from danger and back to a place of safetyprophetic work can be challenging, disruptive, directive, and corrective (Rev 2:1-8; 3:14-20). 5. To move towards a more perfect example of what the church is to be congregations must repent, return, and surrender to Christthis goes without saying but its difficult for many Christians (2 Chron 7:14). Where there is great humility, there is great grace (James 4:6). We want the grace of God to fall on the people of God. Therefore, we must call people to a place of brokenness and humility before God and man. This is often accomplished through a Sacred Assembly (cf. 2 Chronicles 22; 29; Joel 1-2). 6. The result of real revitalization will be new behaviors and new structuresGod does a new thing. He is always doing a new thing. The new thing God does is a new wine skin that lifts up the person, work, and mission of Jesus Christ but is often very different from what

was done before (Matt 9:14-17). Therefore one of the goals of an effective interim minister is to hear what the Spirit is saying to the church (Rev 2-3). 7. The enemy of church renewal is the Devilits not culture, change, people who disagree with us, the Democrats or Republicans, new people, the board, or new ideas (2 Cor 2:10-11; Eph 6:12). The Devils biggest weapon is the lie. So interim ministers must call people to embrace and believe the truthtruth about themselves and about God. Its often when churches are in transition that Satan energizes for evil those who are spiritually weak in the body for doing as much damage as possible at the worst possible time.