The Church that survives the Fire

On the evening of April 15, 2019, the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris was engulfed in fire. Five years later it is restored but apart from the initial thought of it as an accident caused by a cigarette butt or an electrical short-cut no one knows why it started, but it did.

There are many empty run-down church buildings in the UK. Of course some buildings are sold as the congregation outgrow numerically the building. But the majority, because the members have died or moved away and no one is left have sold their building. A ‘fire’ had come to the church. It was a season of testing and it didn’t survive. When I walk past these buildings I often pray and ask ‘why?’

“If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, ¹³ their 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 person’s work. ¹⁴ If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. ¹⁵ If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames.” (1 Corinthians 3 v 12-15)

Paul is in the middle of correcting a divided church. Many have preached this as the end times when everything is judged by the testing fire of Christ and salvation ‘but only just’ for those who are like those fleeing from a burning building. Paul will speak of this again in 2 Corinthians 5:10. Whether this is the end-time fire or a seasonal fire that comes to every church, a time of testing, the results are the same and perhaps they are meant to be.

So from these few verses, the Church that survives the fire, is the Church that:-

• Continually recognises the foundation which is Jesus Christ and His teachings, nothing else, no human or cultural trends but the orthodox, yesterday, today, forever, who was, who is and who is to come, unchanging, irreplaceable, Son of God.
• Purposely build to endure the testing by using the right materials. The gold, silver and costly stones could be representing the preaching of Christ, the unity brought by the Spirit and the obedience to the Bible. The wood, hay or straw could be representing the preaching of the wisdom of the world not the cross, chasing the masses to please anyone and everyone to get more people into church by embracing not the Spirit but the spirit of the world. That is where the argument commences for what is the right materials. Those building with wood, hay or straw will say these materials are gold, silver and costly stones. Even the elect can be deceived. The fire will reveal, our work will be shown for what it is
• Embrace accountability by having regular testing before the real fire comes. The testing fire is definitely coming to the Church. I was with a friend yesterday and they described their denomination as definitely going through a shaking right now. The fire is coming so the wise are motivated to maintain the highest standards of ministry and personal spiritual growth and seek counsel and an outside perspective on the work they are building. Self-awareness and emotional intelligence is crucial to the wise and with humility accountability is embraced.