By Gary Sciascia

But each one should be careful how he builds. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.
                                                                                                                                                        1 Corinthians 3:10-15

In a ministry training class in Boston some time ago, the history of Christianity was being discussed. If you stop and think about it, the history of the church is a history of reactions. In the 1600’s, Martin Luther reacted to several issues that he saw in the Catholic Church and Protestantism was born. The charismatic movement began in this country as a reaction to lifeless, staid religion. Our own history is rooted in the restoration movement – a reaction to the growing denominationalism of the 18th and 19th centuries, and a call to live by the Bible only. One could even say that first century Christianity was a reaction (albeit, one planned by God) to the legalistic mindset of Judaism as God sought after the hearts of men.

However, for almost every reaction in Christian history, there has been an overreaction. The Protestant reaction to legalism has, in many cases, produced a watered-down, cheap grace version of Christianity. Likewise, the Pentecostal reaction to lifeless, main stream Christianity has often produced an emphasis on feelings and experience over and above scripture.

Which leads to an important question; what about us? You wouldn’t find much debate that our brotherhood of churches has embarked upon a new era. I submit to you that we are “reacting” to some of the practices in our own past that were not best. Where you would find a debate, however, is in how strong that reaction should be, and whether or not we are overreacting. My guess is the answer to that question varies from town-to-town and ministry-to-ministry.

As we go through a time of growing pains, transition, and yes, reaction, I believe it is crucial that we do not overreact. If history is any indicator, this will prove to be very difficult. How do we keep from throwing out the “baby with the bath water”? That is something that I wrestle with almost everyday, and for sure, I do not have all the answers. However, one thing I am certain of is that now more than ever, we must be a people of the Word. All disciples, not just leaders, must search the scriptures diligently. As Satan tries to throw us off course by getting us to either overreact or react in ungodly ways, commitment to an honest study of scripture will keep us grounded and pointed in the right direction.

One thing that I believe will help us in this process is viewing our past, present, and future with a healthy, righteous perspective. In the sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, "The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness! – Matthew 6:22-23. Our perspective on things – how we see the world is very important. We need a mature view. I feel that it is immature to generically refer to all past ways of doing things as “bad” and all new ways as “good” (or vice-versa). Rather, I think that we should say that there were challenges and benefits to the way we led before just as there will be challenges and benefits to the way we operate now.

The debate should not be over “should we be old school or new school?”, but simply, “what is most biblical?” Shortcuts to building our ministries must be abandoned for the most biblical ways to build, regardless of how long it may take. Oftentimes, the most biblical ways of doing things may take longer or do not produce the kinds of quick results we have become accustomed to. However, in the long run, we need to trust God that doing things his way will produce fruit many times over (Mark 4:20), and fruit that will last (John 15:16).