Embodied (A Discussion of Church and Ministry)

Pastor Mike
The word koinonia that is on a picture

Don’t worry. The irony is not lost on me. Here I am, trying to write a blog post describing the function and role of the church. Here you are, reading this post off of a screen or a print-out of our Newsletter (Shout out to Susan for preparing it!). Unfortunately – and I do mean unfortunately – for some, this may be their only experience of church: words written by someone they will never meet in person – despite the desire held by every pastor that prepares content like this: that it will lead the viewer and reader to connect to the ministry in deeper ways (I’m assuming).


I don’t think writing this devotion is a waste of my time, nor of yours in reading it. If you’ve had faith related questions answered or your trust in Christ deepened by online content, that must be counted as a win! But don’t we find that Scripture pushes us to engage in deeper ways as well?

I’d like to focus primarily on one of these “push” passages. The Apostle Paul wrote that “Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. […] Speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ” (Ephesians 4:11-13, 15). Dwelling on this passage together, we can reach a few important conclusions:


Conclusion A: The church and its ministry are all about Jesus. If that’s obvious to you, that’s good! Nothing is more obvious than your and my need for Christ, because “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Scripture reveals that there isn’t a single person in this world that can save themselves apart from Christ (this is the message of the Law). “And all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:24), which means that salvation and love (the message of the Gospel) are fully available to all through Christ. To be the church Jesus wants and designs means that every ministry endeavor that is undertaken must guide sin-sick souls to the refreshing waters of the gospel. Then, the church is fulfilling its God-given role.


Conclusion B: Life is challenging, and so is living in the light of this gospel. We need guidance, support, and fellowship. Just think about this devotion series! We’ve walked through tons of essential doctrines that Scripture teaches and the Lutheran church preaches. How many times have you wondered, “So now what? What does this mean for my life now? For my day tomorrow? How do I take this and follow through with it? How do I treat people who don’t believe this truth? What if I don’t fully understand this yet?” For this, Christ has given us each other. He gives pastors. He gives parents. He gives members of church council. He gives church elders. He gives Sunday School teachers. He gives older, wiser believers who have been around the block (so to speak) and can mentor youth. He gives young (and “young in the faith”) members with fresh perspectives that challenge us to consider truths from different angles. He gives us the truth of Law and Gospel to ground us. He gives us each other to “spur one another on toward love and good deeds” (Hebrews 10:24).


Conclusion C: Jesus designed an embodied ministry. (Hopefully you caught the pun.) Modern technology offers a superabundance of methods to connect, learn, and grow – and none of these should be discredited! However, as research conducted by secular scientists seem to suggest, when anonymous communication via internet replaces person-to-person, face-to-face interaction, we suffer. Our emotional well-being, our growth, and our self-images can be harmed. That makes sense from a Biblical perspective. It’s hard to envision the growth, the sharpening, the “spurring one another on,” and the specific answers to that question “So what now?” to happen meaningfully without person-to-person interaction. Just as Jesus took on a body to make God’s love real and personal in your life (1 John 4:12), the church becomes Christ’s body, where the gospel is lived and shared through in-person worship services, person-to-person fellowship and study, and concrete community efforts.


But just because this is how Christ wants the church to be, doesn’t mean the church is always great at it. Pastors can be caught leading people to themselves rather than to Christ. Churches can be caught chasing recognition and cultural relevance rather than chasing Christ. Leaders and members can focus more on their favorite, comfortable ministries above the central gospel message. Leaders can think they’re showing members how to “live for Christ,” when they’re actually bullying them to fall in line and not make noise. Their methods of leadership can suffocate members from airing questions, voicing doubts, confiding about their temptations and their laments. The church and its members can get so caught up in learning their Bibles that they forget about reaching the lost (i.e. doing what is commanded in the Bible). Pastors can start to think that their charisma, charm or whit is what people show up for on Sunday, rather than the gospel. We can focus so much on our version of what “love” is that we forget about the call to speak God’s truth. We can focus on our preferred version of the “truth” that we forget the call to speak it in love (read Ephesians 4:15 again). All of these things can happen without our knowing the errors we’re committing.


In fact, it happens a lot. As I have listened to the stories of people who were willing to share their journey with the church, I’ve heard some common themes. To some, church was an obligation to them, and they left it as soon as they could. For a variety of reasons, it was not the place of rest and encouragement Christ designed it to be for them. Some have been harmed by a church or a church leader. In errors that rank anywhere from a lack of social awareness to outright abuse, they mishandled their calling to shepherd people to Christ. The ones who are sinned against in this way are left with such a strong impression of church hypocrisy and lovelessness that they are left, for a time, unwilling to think of church as a place of healing and help.


In response to these things, let me get personal. My heart breaks for the hurt that church leaders and churches cause every day because they fail to lead people to Christ using his Word. There is also reason to become afraid, because I know that of the mistakes mentioned above, I have committed every one of them – sometimes all in one day! If the success of the church rests on me – my charisma, my strength, and my faithfulness – it is doomed. However, God responds to my heartache and fear about the human element in his church the same way he responds to yours: go to Christ. It’s his Church. It’s his Body.


This Sunday we’re celebrating Christ’s Ascension into heaven. After he rose from the dead, and before he was taken up into heaven, he chose his parting words to us carefully. In Luke’s account, Jesus declares to us the centrality of his redemptive work for the life of the church when he says, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things” (Luke 24:46-48). Matthew adds to this discharge of duty a tremendous comfort, when Jesus says, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:18-20).


The message we are given, that we are ‘witnesses of,’ and to which the entire Bible points, is to the immeasurable and unconditional love of Christ for sinners. My weakness as a leader and pastor doesn’t subtract from the glorious message of the gospel – it proves it. My weaknesses prove my need for forgiveness of my sins just as much as any of the people I pastor. Our struggles to live out our callings as Christ’s church only prove the necessity of his presence and work. The fact that we fall short of Christ’s ideal prove to us that none of us is Christ, that we all need him, and refocus us on the gift that this ministry is founded first-and-foremost upon Christ’s work, Christ’s love, and Christ’s message. Where we’ve deviated from these, repentance is required. Where we have failed each other, forgiveness must be asked. Where there is confusion, returning to Christ through the Word and Sacraments is the solution. And--- wouldn’t you know it? -- as we respond to our weaknesses in these ways, we are being the Church.


We hope that you are blessed by online faith-related content. We also hope, and pray, that you enjoy the deep blessings that come from the person-to-person ministry that is founded upon and fully centered on Christ.



Pastor Mike Cherney

The Art of Giving: Conclusion

By Pastor Mike • June 27, 2025
There! Now that we’ve cleared up all the misunderstandings above giving an offering, we are all ready to worship God in this way with regularity and joy! I’m just kidding. We’ve only touched on a few of the false conceptions that are possible. Because giving is an act of sanctification – a fruit of faith, thankfully offered to God in response to the gospel – it is something to “grow into.” There may still be misgivings, questions, and reluctance. Some readers may have been seriously hurt by church leaders who prevailed too strongly upon their debit cards and bank accounts. To those, one blog post will not be sufficient to restore the act of giving to its Scriptural, rightful place. For others, giving was never properly explained as a fruit of faith, not an act that earns goodness from God. To those, I pray this discussion has been helpful. I write this post as one who is himself growing in the act of giving. May God continue to shape our understanding of how to use our gifts to his glory. Giving to God is not a science. The act of giving looks differently among Christians, just as their acts of service and fruits of faith look differently. There are no hard-and-fast equations. We can’t say that giving an offering ensures that you’ll get rich in return (maybe God will choose to bless you in this way, maybe not). We can’t say that giving will come easy once you have a more stable income (your sinful nature will likely resist no matter how much income you have). We can’t say that you should never feel concerned or self-critical over your giving (is there ever an amount that will properly express your thankfulness to God?). So, I would say that giving is much more of an art. After taking in all of Scripture’s guidance about how to approach the act of giving, we proceed using our best judgment. We start with the gospel, meditating on what wonderful things God has done for us through Jesus Christ. We then look at the gifts God has given to us: our finances, our time, our personality gifts. We envision how to respond to God’s goodness with these gifts. While there are some acts of giving that will look very similar among various Christians (for example, we all give of our time when we attend worship and Bible study together), each one of us goes through our own process of deciding how best to respond to the gospel with our gifts. We submit our hearts to God for audit, recognizing that there are often mixed motives within them (Psalm 139:23-24). We rely on God to work within us and through us even as we thank him (Philippians 2:13). After all, this is about our relationship with God – not about securing it for ourselves with offerings, because it is already secure in Christ. Rather, it is about living out a relationship of worship with God, expressing to him and to the world what he means to us. To that end, let’s close with these verses from Hebrews: “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name. And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.” (Hebrews 13:15-16) God bless you as you find joy in God’s pleasure over you for Christ’s sake, and as you respond to this gospel with thanksgiving! Pastor Mike Cherney 

The Art of Giving: Misunderstanding #5 – We live under the Tithe Law (giving one tenth of one’s gifts).

By Pastor Mike • June 27, 2025
This is a very common conception of the offering, and up to this point it might appear that we also teach the tithe – the practice of giving one tenth of one’s goods as a matter of the law, and not to deviate from that percentage. This is commanded to the Old Testament Israelites in passages such as Leviticus 27:30. But Christ has set us free from the letter of the law (Colossians 2:14, Colossians 2:16-17, Galatians 4:4-5). When the New Testament commands the act of giving, percentages are not mentioned. What is mentioned, however, is that giving be proportionate (1 Corinthians 16:2), generous (2 Corinthians 9:6), done with joy (2 Corinthians 9:7), and a good work sprung from trust in the Lord (2 Corinthians 9:8-11). This is not as specific as the tithe rule. It requires one to spend time reasoning out what a manageable and reasonable gift looks like for them, while still reflecting the thanksgiving and generosity that they wish to communicate in response to the gospel. In many households, ten percent remains a useful benchmark for giving, but must not be treated as a law. Some households will not be able to afford that amount. For others, “proportionate” giving means giving much more than ten percent. It is a lot easier for church leaders to make hard-and-fast rules to “keep people in line,” rather than offer these general encouragements. However, if we remember that giving is an act of worship in response to the gospel, we will avoid strictly laying down ground rules that Scripture no longer enforces. Instead, we will focus on sharing the beautiful gospel with our members, friends, and community, and allow the Holy Spirit to create and nurture the gospel joy that inspires acts of thanksgiving. Likewise, if someone’s giving is “off-kilter,” we don’t want to address their giving with the desire that they “get those numbers up.” That would convey that our worth in God’s family comes from our works. Instead, we express concern over their connection to the gospel, and nurture their relationship with Jesus through Word and Sacrament. Then, and only then, can we discuss what a proper response to the gospel looks like in our giving. Go to next post in this series

The Art of Giving: Misunderstanding #4 – We give ONLY to keep the church running.

By Pastor Mike • June 27, 2025
This misunderstanding is based partly on truth, but becomes misguided when it is treated as the main issue. Like millions of churches across the world, our church is a not-for-profit organization. We rely solely on the offerings of members to keep the doors open and the air conditioner running. It would stand to reason, then, that we should encourage giving so that the work of the church can continue, don’t you think? After all, the Levites (ministers in the tabernacle and temple worship of the Old Testament) were to rely on the offerings of the rest of the tribes of Israel for their livelihood (Numbers 18:21). The Apostle Paul encouraged offerings so that Christians in dire financial need could be provided for (1 Corinthians 16:1-2). There is a practical side to giving an offering. However, this should not be divorced from the attitude of thankful worship described above. Above all, giving an offering is a fruit of faith inspired by thankfulness in response to the infinite grace of God. It is an act of worship. The opportunity to praise God in this way does not cease when the church’s bills are paid off any more than your need to come to worship services ceases when church attendance is up. Go to next post in this series

The Art of Giving Misunderstanding #3 – Giving an offering if optional.

By Pastor Mike • June 27, 2025
In Romans 12:4-8, Paul lists generous giving as but one example of service that God equips people to render within the church. This could lead to the thought that giving is optional for Christians. That would be misguided. Proverbs 3:9 says, “Honor the LORD with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops.” Wealth takes many forms. For the Old Testament believer, their material blessings primarily took the forms of crops, flocks, and herds. For most modern Americans, God bestows wealth in the form of finances and material blessings. The directives in both Old and New Testaments to praise God by bringing an offering from our wealth are so thorough that one can hardly ignore or side-step the issue at hand. It is true that our whole lives are to be offered to God as thank offerings for what he’s done (Romans 12:1). It is also true that God is more concerned with the attitude of the heart than with the dollar amount given (see passages above as well as Mark 12:41-44). But it is also true that God’s design for showering us with material gifts is that we honor him in front of others by giving a portion back through this act of worship we have been calling “an offering.” As Psalm 50:23 says, “Those who sacrifice thank offerings honor me.” Not all Christians are capable of giving the same amount, or even the same proportion of what they have (we’ll talk about this more in a second), but God’s Word is so full of directives about giving that it is hard for any one of us to exempt ourselves. To put it another way, God seems to be completely comfortable telling us what to do with our money. After all, we only have it in the first place because he gave it to us (see the response to Misunderstanding #1). Go to next post in this series

The Art of Giving: Misunderstanding #2 – God doesn’t care about your offerings.

By Pastor Mike • June 27, 2025
If the discussion is about how we’re saved, how we know that we have a good relationship with God, then offerings have no place in that discussion, nor any work that we do. But it does not follow that offerings have no significance whatsoever. Placing a financial gift into the collection plate or box, or donating through our online service, is a work. We are saved purely by God’s grace through faith, and not by works (Ephesians 2:8-9). God loved and saved you apart from anything to do with your potential to “pay him back” with a weekly offering. Jesus gave up his life as the atoning sacrifice for your sins without consideration of your cash flow or income bracket. But when the conversation shifts from “how we are saved” to “how do we thank God for our salvation” or “how do we live out our identity as God’s people,” offerings do have a part in that discussion. Offerings do not provide God with anything he needs, but they are expressions of our heart’s orientation toward him. In both Malachi 3:8-10 and Psalm 51:17-19, giving a sacrificial gift is presented as a way of demonstrating one’s repentance (sorrow over sin and seeking salvation only from God). Giving of what we have is also a communication of our confident trust that God will continue to provide for us. He may supply our needs extravagantly, far above what is necessary. He may only give us our daily bread (Luke 11:3). That’s for him to decide. What’s always true is that God will always provide in some way, shape, or form (Psalm 145:15-16). We have previously defined faith as a trust relationship with God. What better way to say, “I trust you, Lord, and I thank you,” than to give? Go to next post in this series

The Art of Giving: Misunderstanding #1 – God needs our offerings.

By Pastor Mike • June 27, 2025
Psalm 50:9-13 says, “I have no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens, for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. I know every bird in the mountains, and the insects in the fields are mine. If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it. Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats?” What did offerings look like before money was invented? The Israelites in the Old Testament worshipped God by giving of their crops, herds, and flocks. In these verses, God makes it clear that the purpose of these offerings was not because he gets hungry and needs to be fed. He is the immortal, eternal, completely self-sufficient God. Sometimes I really think of myself as an asset to God, as if I provide him with something to him that he otherwise would not have had. Or that God relies on my gifts and service to be able to “do his thing.” These thoughts are delusions that come from my (our) selfish pride. There is a part of our hearts (the sinful nature) that would love to assure ourselves of God’s love because of what we do. But to believe this would amount to believing that God’s love is for those who are worthy – who give enough, serve enough, and are generally good enough. The person who gives millions of dollars to their church no more deserves God’s love than the one who gives fifty cents. It is God’s grace (his decision to unconditionally love sinners) that has saved you, not your actions (Ephesians 2:8-9). Whenever we fall prey to these delusions in the equation of God’s salvation, we should remember David’s words. When his eyes feasted on the beautiful offerings the Israelites brought for the construction of the temple, “But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand” (1 Chronicles 29:14). As the hymn goes, “We give Thee but Thine own.” Go to next post in this series
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