Description
Introduction
The first church management audit ever conducted took place less than fifty years after the church had been established. The 'Auditor was no less than Jesus Christ Himself and His findings were in Revelations 2-3. We do not know exactly why these seven churches of Asia were chosen or what their leaders might have thought of the appraisals. Some of the outwardly successful ones, perhaps Sardis or Laodicea, may have had no inkling about the assessment they would receive and could have been rudely brought down to earth.
Others, maybe those in Smyrna or Philadelphia, had had little success and perhaps expected a low grade, only to be comforted by His sympathy and words of encouragement. Whatever the case, the Malaysian church can draw two conclusions. First, Jesus Christ personally holds each church accountable to Him. Second, the criteria used in this accounting can be radically different from the ones that are frequently used.
Given the absolute seriousness of the matter to Christ, churches everywhere ought to be in a constant state of prayerful contemplation of their true spiritual condition. The basis for self-examination does not lie in the organisational or managerial but in the spiritual realm. Indeed, an absence of concern would strongly indicate that there is reason for concern. Apocalyptic literature cannot be taken too literally as words and imagery are often used for a desired effect. The fact that none of the seven Asian churches survive today, not even the highly acclaimed Ephesian church, may or may not therefore mean that they had their 'lampstands removed'. This is a matter of speculation. Christ alone has the prerogative to rebuke, restore or remove and when this fact has been forgotten, trouble usually ensues. What the Malaysian church has to note is that hard work, great sacrifice and rapid growth are no guarantees that it will have a lasting impact.
Christians also need to constantly remind themselves that while the church is a sacred institution, it is also an imperfect one. For all the claims to truth and transformation, church history shows the bitter truth that churches and their leaders have not been immune to base human motivations. In truth, some of the greatest acts of inhumanity and immorality have occurred when the church wielded the most political power. In the name of doctrinal purity and the removal of heresy, the church conducted programmes of imprisonment, torture and murder that lasted six hundred years. Those who wish to disassociate themselves from this bloody past should remember that the New Testament church itself was marred by leadership disputes, disunity, greed, materialism, sexual immorality and bad discipline. Today, the scandals that rock the evangelical church, both abroad and in Malaysia, serve as a cilice (a spiked belt worn around the thigh) to speak to ourselves of the ways that churches have brought dishonour to the Almighty.
