Kingdom Contribution

10 March 2019

Dear Phyllis,

This morning I went to church, sat on a chair in silence for an hour and a half, got up, and came home. I wondered, “What have I contributed to the Kingdom of God today?”. As I ponder about my silence it came to me that perhaps, in this, I am fellowshipping with Jesus. I believe in many services Jesus sits in the back in silence and leaves unheard. I believe it can be safely said that the overwhelming emphasis of many, perhaps most, church services is entertainment. Far more than hearing from God, the main concern is that we have good entertainment. Good music is important. We must sing the right songs. It is vital that we have a good song leader. In some churches they have to have deafening, ear splitting, sound systems. Really good special music helps, and, of course, the main point is that we have a good speaker who gives interesting messages. If these elements are not there, you can right off church as a pretty bad trip. If Jesus was there, He probably sat in the back in silence. In most places it is unusual that Jesus is up front speaking.

The rare exception to this is times of a moving of the Spirit in revival. In church history one of the times when Jesus spoke the loudest was under Evan Roberts in the Welsh revival. Evan Roberts would stand up front in silence and multitudes would be griped with overwhelming conviction of sin. Very often, in times of revival, the Holy Spirit speaks the loudest when the speaker talks the least.

This is not to say that preaching is not important. Certainly the Lord uses His servants and there are times when we leave a service with an intense realization that we heard from God this morning. But if that is true, we are more impressed with what the Lord said to us than the speaker. I have been in services where the clock stopped and you were totally unaware of the passage of time. There have been times when I scarcely thought of who was speaking – only that I knew God was speaking to me. In former years I never heard of a church service where the speaker was rewarded with applause. One morning I was the guest speaker in a church in Japan. At the end of the service the leader said, “Let's thank Cook sensei for a wonderful message this morning”; and there was loud applause. I stood up and said, “I realize that you did this as an expression of appreciation to thank me for what I said, but if you can clap like that, that is a sign that the Holy Spirit has spoken very little to us this morning. If you walked out of the service in silence and tears I would be satisfied, but if you can clap that means you were well entertained.”

The best services I have ever been in was when there was no one standing up front. This was the secrete of Kichijoji. They had no pastor, no leader. We came there to worship God - not to be entertained. I was the pastor of the Karuizawa Bible Church when I learned of the Plymouth Brethren system of service. I told my people, “From now on we are not going to have a message, but sit in a circle and worship God.” Man howdy, did we have a bad time. It was awful. The next morning I was talking with Robert Mullen, a Brethren missionary, and told him, “Yesterday was a real bummer.”. He replied, “Oh that is easy. The problem is that everybody came with empty sacks and thought, 'Please fill it'.” I saw in an instant the fundamental difference with a traditional church service and a Brethren service. The way the system is supposed to work is that Christians are supposed to walk with the Lord, Monday through Saturday night. Sunday morning their sacks are to be so filled with the blessing of God they can't wait to come and pour out their offering to Jesus. But in stead of that, what we have is Christians coming to church like Joseph's brethren with empty sacks and say, “Please fill it”. Traditional church is referred to a battery charging session. We come to church to get our batteries charged and then go pup, pup, pup through the week. That is not the way the Lord intended the system to work. We come to church to give our thanks to God – not to get our batteries charged.

After talking with Robert Mullen I told my people the next week, “We are not going to have another bummer like last week. You all come with full sacks and we will see what happens”. Another bummer. After a month of really bad services the elders came to me and said, “Cook san, this isn't church. Please quit it”. I knew they were right. It was impossible to convert traditional Christians to a Brethren style of Sunday worship service. Take the Holy Spirit out of the system and you have really bad services.

A church with no pastor doesn't mean that we ignore the gifts of the Spirit. Of course there is a pastor. Of course there is preaching. The Lord equipped the Church with apostles (apostles are missionaries), prophets (prophets are men who know God – not self-appointed loud-mouths), evangelists, pastors, teachers for the perfecting of the saints (Eph. 4:11). Any healthy assembly should have men with these gifts. And when the Holy Spirit is allowed to be the administrator, it will be self-evident who has what gift. But a healthy church is not a one-man show. There should be a plurality of elders who will minister to the flock. There will be men who are gifted teachers. Some men are very good evangelists and some men are fine pastors. But one man should not be required to be all three. I am a good preacher and teacher, but a terrible pastor. Some men are good pastors but awful preachers. Why mix it? Some men have the gift of helps, but would die in a pulpit (1 Cor. 12:28). I have found in Japan a man with the gift of helps in one of the most valuable men around. And some missionaries don't know how to use a screw driver. God has equipped His Church with people with all sorts of gifts and we should allow each person to exercise his gift for the betterment of all.

Eighty years ago one of the mightiest men of God in the Nazarenes was Uncle Buddy Robinson. Buddy Robinson was an uneducated drunken cowboy from Oklahoma who had a flask of whiskey on his hip when he got saved. After he was saved he had a great desire to be a preacher. That was ridiculous. He was uneducated with a bad speech impediment. He stuttered badly and couldn't say “Mary had a little lamb” clearly. But he wanted to preach. So he bought a black suit and a big Bible. Then he rented the school house and put up posters in the feed store that there was going to be an evangelistic meeting in the school. People came from miles around to see this spectical and the building was packed. When Buddy stood up to preach the people began to howl with laughter. Poor Buddy could only stand there and weep. But as Buddy stood there sobbing the place quieted down and men began to take off their hats. Then a strange thing happened. Hardened old cow hands began to rise to their feet to come forward to pray at the alter. Before that meeting was over half the school house was saved. It wasn't a polished graduate from the seminary, but an uneducated cowboy with a bad speech impediment that brought down the power of God.

Oh, to hear from God! How wonderful it is to be in a hushed atmosphere where the basic sound you hear is people sobbing with tears coursing down their cheeks. I believe the most effective message Watchman Nee preached was the last 18 years of his life spent in prison. When Samuel Rutherford was in exile in Aberdeen he wrote, “May the tinkling of the chains on my hands and feet be a love sonnet of praise to Jesus. If so my soul is satisfied.” Amy Carmichael said, “Is it so important that I be a mouth? Can I not be a heart?”. A heart doesn't make a lot of noise but carries a very loud message.

I don't like sitting in silence in church, but if there is anything of my silence that could be a voice for God, I will sit there and praise the Lord.

Wherever we are, lets raise up our hands and thank God for Jesus,

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