Mending the nets — why church leaders cannot afford to ignore restorative practices.

In Matthew 4 Jesus calls his first four disciple’s from the shores of lake Galilee. The first Peter and Andrew are casting nets into the water and in verse 19 Jesus says to them;

“Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men”.

He then proceeds along the shore and sees the brothers James and John. When he calls them in verse 21 they are busily mending their nets — the Greek work used here is “katartizo”, which literally means to “restore” but can be also used to describe repairing, equipping, completing or preparing. As Christians we are called to be these “fishers of men” but life often leaves our nets tangled and torn. As Church leaders we cannot afford to ignore harm in the church because of the damage it causes to the nets of our congregations. Unresolved harm not only effects individuals but also the effectiveness of our churches and it is no mystery why so many churches are losing their catch or unable to get new Christians on board; their nets have holes in them! The good new is that we have a tool at hand to ‘katartizo’ our nets; Restorative Justice.

When I talk to Christians who are no longer in fellowship it is very rarely a breakdown in their relationship with God that triggered the slide but most often a breakdown in relationships with other Christians, which, because it was never dealt with or challenged has left them feeling unloved and questioning the value of Christianity. What could so easily have been restored at the outset has now become for many a hardening of their hearts due to unforgiveness and a fall away from a faith in a loving and restorative God. As for non believers why would they find a church an attractive place to go or look for a relationship with Christ when they see behaviour in the church that they would not accept or expect from their own friendship circles?

Tackling ‘discipline’ issues in the church and indeed in many places has become a taboo subject in this post modern world where there is no right and wrong but only opinion, where people are free to live exactly as they please as long as it doesn’t effect ‘me’ and where leadership is all about being friends with everyone and keeping people happy. As Albert Mohler says

“The decline of church discipline is perhaps the most visible failure of the contemporary church. No longer concerned with maintaining purity of confession or lifestyle, the contemporary church sees itself as a voluntary association of autonomous members, with minimal moral accountability to God, much less to each other”.

(Read his full article here). Unfortunately for those chosen to lead Churches you would be on very dangerous ground indeed to accept many of the post modern theories as the Bible is very specific when it comes to tackling sin and on the responsibility on a leader to act. Sadly all too often we fall down in the same way that Adam did; standing idly by while someone sins; our sin is that of inactivity. Paul describes the current state of the church and our responsibility in 2 Tim 4:1–4;

“I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away.”

When it comes to tackling conflict in churches it is only too easy to duck the issue and leave it to those directly involved, but as we read in Proverbs 24v11–12 we are called to

“Rescue those being led to death, hold back those staggering toward slaughter. If you say, ‘But we knew nothing about this,’ does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who guards your life know it? Will he not repay each person according to what he has done?”

and as James concludes his letter in chapter 5v20,

“he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and cover a multitude of sins”.

So there is a clear responsibility on us to help those in conflict to repent of their sins before God and each other, and there are both positive and negative consequences for us dependent on our actions. We need to hold people accountable to the word of Jesus Christ, so what should be our attitudes when approaching someone who is involved in a conflict? Well Galatians 6v1 talks about someone who is “caught in their sin”. The word used for caught is “prolambano” which means to be overtaken or surprised. Ken Sande in his excellent book on Biblical Peacemaking “The Peace Maker” describes it like this,

“the brother that needs our help is one who has been ensnared when he was off guard. He is like a fisherman who wasn’t paying attention and gets entangled in his net as it was going overboard, and is now hanging desperately to the side of the boat, in danger of being drowned. Both the fisherman and the man caught in sin have the same need — their problems have become so serious that they may not be able to save themselves”.

So our role as leaders or facilitator is to lovingly haul them aboard and hand them the knife; a prayer of repentance and reconciliation as brothers or sisters in Christ.

If we return to a position of dealing with conflict and sin in our churches as the Bible proscribes then I am sure they will be the ‘fishermen of men’ that they are meant to be and that the world will once again turn to the church and God for answers. We will see our nets filling and will have much happier fisherman on board! God has a heart to “katartizo” our congregations — are you ready to help?