Parkway Baptist Church McKinney

             You might have noticed that our builders are applying insulation on the structure of the new auditorium. Before installing each roofing panel they lay down a double layer of insulation. Another crew is affixing fiberglass-covered sheetrock which also serves as a form of insulation. These guys will place much more on the inside of the building as the project progresses.

              We insulate our building to keep out the cold of winter and the heat of summer. It shields us from the extreme outside temperatures and prevents the escape of conditioned air, thereby keeping us comfortable and reducing energy costs.

              Building insulation serves as an apt analogy for the church. The New Testament teaches that we are to be in the world but not of it (Matt. 5:14; John 8:12; 9:5; 17:15-17; Phil. 2:15; James 4:4; 2 Pet. 1:4; 2:20; 1 John 2:15). We insulate ourselves from the world’s values, but we don’t isolate ourselves from the world's people (1 Cor. 5:9-10). We go into the world with a deliberate mission, to be salt and light. We let Christ live through us in the world and we share the gospel to make disciples.

              We insulate ourselves from the world by living in union with Christ (Rom. 6:11-14). We protect ourselves from the world and the evil one by addressing the flesh (Gal. 5:16, 17). The Devil uses the world in making his appeal to our flesh. When we live as crucified and resurrected believers we insulate ourselves from his appeals (Gal. 5:24).

              As a congregation we insulate ourselves from the world by thinking clearly about the purpose of our gathering. We gather to worship Jesus Christ, to have fellowship with one another, to provide an environment of accountability and availability, and to build up one another in the truth. We don’t confuse our gathering with our going. We gather as the church and we go as individual believers. We don't gather to attract lost people. We don’t gather for “the seeker.” We gather to glorify the One who sought us.

              The elders of Parkway insulate the pulpit. We protect it from legalism, heresy, psychology, entertainment, politics, denominationalism and various other forms of exploitation. We protect God’s glory by letting Him say what He wants to say from His word. We preach the word in season and out of season (in all kinds of cultural weather). 

              Parkway’s elders guard the unity of the flock by keeping an eye out for wolves. They start with holding themselves accountable in what they teach and how they behave (Acts 20:28). The Discovering Parkway class seeks to prevent the planting of tares among the wheat. We do our weeding early with specific application of the Scriptures. We identify and address the spiritual wolves that arise in the culture. We fortify the church body with solid theology to protect the flock from the religious pressures of the day.

              But again, insulation is not isolation. We gather to make disciple-makers but we go to make disciples. Jesus told us to make disciples as we are going. In our going we are deliberately on mission. Though we insulate ourselves from the world, we don’t isolate ourselves in the world. We care about the spiritual condition and eternal destiny of relatives, co-workers, classmates, neighbors and even total strangers. We pray for them, we love them, we minister to them and we share the gospel with them. We allow Christ to live His life through us so that we don’t sabotage the gospel message with our personal behavior.

              Insulation, it serves as a good analogy. Let the church be the church, insulated from the culture and at the same time engaging the culture. If we are to be in the world but not of it, we must think clearly about the distinct purposes of our gathering and our going. Let us maintain our spiritual insulation without defaulting to isolation, and thereby keep the glory of God from departing.