A Murky Mind and Clouded Heart

When we come to God through Christ He gives us a new heart, a heart for Him. This heart needs nourished by things which God has determined will help it stay healthy.  The problem is that these things rarely come naturally to us.   That’s where the distractions come in and divert us from doing the things which will nourish our hearts and propel us to a rich life with Christ.  In the bible God says “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind”.  The mind is the very place where attention is paid and focus is maintained. A good friend of mine once encouraged me to pay attention to what I’m paying attention to, to think about what I’m thinking about. While that encouragement sometimes hurts my head just to ponder, he does have   a point.  Let me encourage you my friend.  Do not be mislead by what you feel, discouraged by doubtful thoughts, or diverted by negative circumstances.  Instead continually present yourself to God and asking him to continue the work of renewing your mind.  This, in my experience will really help to begin to change the way we think.  

That New Wine Is Good Stuff!

In the latest version of Star Trek released onto the big screen (a movie that I ended up regretting having watched), a young Captain Kirk is required to go through a simulation as a condition of his graduation from the academy.  (Hang in there you non-trekky people.) Upon finding out that the simulation had been designed to fail and that doing things the “Star Fleet Way” would inevitably lead to failure for him, he decides to reprogram the rules portion of the simulation in a manner that would allow his unconventional methods to bring about the first success in the simulation's history.  While he could have been kicked out for cheating the system, his unwillingness to accept the premise that this is the way that things have to be done and his unwillingness to accept the status quo end up earning him his own command. 

Now to my point.  In Matthew 9:17 Jesus is faced with multiple accusers all basically saying the same thing- that he is not doing things the “religious way" or the "right way”.  He responds by saying the following:  “¹⁷ And no one puts new wine into old wine skins. For the old skins would burst from the pressure, spilling the wine and ruining the skins. New wine is stored in new wine skins so that both are preserved.”  I used to skip over this passage as being culturally irrelevant because it talked about something that we no longer use- wine skins. But based upon my recent experience, it seems to make real sense to me.  Old wine skins had been stretched to the limit as wine fermented and expanded in them. Because old wine skins had already been stretched to the limit, if they were filled with new wine, it would ultimately burst them when it expanded. In the same way, it appears that Jesus was condemning the traditional rituals of the time by saying that they must never become a straitjacket that hinders us from embracing the message of God's new covenant kingdom life style.  Just as Kirk changed the rules of the Federation to make the goal of survival of the test a possibility, the rituals of the old covenant as well as the rituals of the John the Baptist preparatory era were not to be allowed to hamstring the message of the kingdom.  Wow, that was quite an analogy, not worthy of the Bible college professors from my past training, but probably as timely as I know how to give.   

You see, my passion is that the Christian church wake up and be the relevant expression of what God intended church to be when he created it.  I don’t believe it was God’s intent that we just morph the old covenant concepts of the temple, priests, and the law into the new covenant concepts of the church, the pastor, and the expectations of what it means to be a “Good Christian”.

The church in the New Testament is a community of believers all intricately involved with the welfare and progress of each others' lives. Not a building, an organization, a business-like corporation, or an ongoing series of events or programs.  Jesus came to make a way for man to relate to the father directly with no other go-between than Him, yet many of us view our pastor as the one who is to go to God on our behalf and get for us what we need.  When the apostle Paul says that he considers rubbish all the things that he once thought were so important, he is speaking about knowing and following the law and the traditions that man had about the best way to do so.  He goes on to say that these are rubbish compared to the surpassing greatness of just knowing Christ.  I believe that he chose to emphasize the relationship with Christ and not just the knowledge of Christ as a manner to emphasize the relational nature of the kingdom.  Behavior modification was not the goal of the kingdom, it was relational modification that God was after.  Don’t get me wrong, relationship with the one true living God will certainly modify your behavior, but simply modifying your behavior alone will not increase your relationship with God.  If it would, we would not have needed Christ’s sacrifice. 

If you have read my blog before, you will know that I believe that much of the practices of the modern church, while not bad in and of themselves, have become the focus of Christianity instead of the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ himself.  Let me encourage you to be certain that the way your express your Christianity lines up with the message of Jesus found in the gospels, not just with what you have learned from others regarding what the verses in the Bible mean when they mention church and its various expressions.  When the Bible tells us not neglect meeting together with other believers, we naturally interpret that to mean we need to go to a church service multiple times each week or month, but what it actually says is meeting together with other believers. While that can happen at a church service, it doesn’t just happen naturally by being together with them at an event or programmed service.  Let’s let God define what church is by taking a closer look at the teachings of Christ, the history of the early church found in the book of Acts, and the principals of relational Christianity found in the epistles of the New Testament.  In doing so we will inevitably see where that sort of an expression of church takes us.  I personally believe it will take us to the next level.    If you would like to learn more about the church, start by reading more from this blog’s history, or by visiting our YouTube Channel at

http://www.youtube.com/user/CityLightTopeka

Let Compassion Be Your Guide

I received this testimony from a friend who recently visited the church my wife and I are planting here in Topeka.  Hope it encourages you. I thought it was an excellent example of being the church.  "Received a call from Sandy Slater, at the Topeka SRS building today about a man who was living in his pickup truck suffering from severe anxiety. Being nearby, I was able to locate this vehicular homeless gentleman along with my volunteer, and talk with him, offering services. Listened to this man for about 30min. During the conversation he went to his truck and pulled out a Jehovah's Witness Watch Tower publication and he advised that he grew up as a Jehovah's Witness and that he was in a laundry matt in Topeka and picked up that publication and it made him feel good. I could see that the man was searching again in his life. I told the man that we had something in common with each other and it was God and asked him if he could see that, and he said yes. I mentioned that he must believe in prayer and he said yes, and I offered to pray. In prayer, we asked Jesus to bring healing to his anxiety, his nerves, his shaking and to the heaviness in his chest that kept him from breathing, thanking Jesus, and ending the prayer in Jesus' name. My volunteer Kenneth Oldridge, noticed the man's speech slowed down. I also offered to take him to a facility in Topeka that could assist him with any medical or medications he may need, since I am a collaboration promoter for multiple agencies in Topeka. He followed us to the facility I recommended. In the counselor’s office, the man relayed his story of coming to Topeka, his anxiety, his struggles. Then the man mentioned to the counselor that he ran into nice people today that wanted to help him and then he held up his hands and noticed that they were no longer shaking. He was calm. The counselor asked why he had stopped shaking and he told her that it was the prayer and it was Jesus that had calmed him. He is not sleeping in his truck tonight in a big Wal-Mart parking lot. He is sleeping in a home, with a bed and meals. This is what it is like to minister in love to anyone, to include a vehicular homeless Jehovah’s Witness. God does not discriminate. Minister in love, by loving God, and loving your neighbor (the one in front of you) as you love yourself, or as you would want to be treated. Seal it in the name of Jesus; sign His name at the end of your day. We have an encounter with God, to bring a tangible encounter of God to the one in front of us. This is how God is bringing his Glory to Earth, through us anywhere in the city at any time; Heaven invading Earth. Yay God!"  Have a blessed day my friends.

What Do Lazy Cats and Trusting God Have in Common?

Was just looking at the alley cat that lives in my back yard and sleeps on my porch.  It occurred to me that he is always happy, always fat, and always sleeping while everyone else is working hard.  Part of that is that he is nocturnal, being that he hunts at night and sleeps in the day.  But I think he pretty much hunts cat food from the various neighbors porches who put it out to  feed their cats.   So he's sort of an entrepreneurial/thief sort of fat, happy, and lazy cat.  Well anyway to my point.  He doesn't worry, because he's pretty much taken care of by the neighbors willingness to leave food out and the generosity of my kids who give him their scraps.  While I'm not interested in the scraps or the cat food, the not worrying  part really intrigues me.  You see the cat can be fat and happy and rest because his experience suggests that his providers will take care of him, and they do.  He doesn't worry about what he will eat or where he will sleep or what to do when it gets cold or wet, because other more "intelligent" creatures take care of those details, insignificant to him.  I on the other hand often find myself wondering how it will all work out where the next check will come from or how to juggle the income and expenses in order to make the ends meet.  I wonder if the cat has found some truth that I could learn from.  God whose ways are far higher than mine, takes care of all creation and provides for the needs of all who seek Him.   We can rest in Him (if we choose to) because he promises to keep at peace those whose minds are stayed on Him.  As far as the fat part goes I pretty much have that covered without God's help.  Well I hope that you can lay down your fears and worries as God is teaching me to and honestly trust Him to take care of your needs and to make straight your paths. I guess if God could use a donkey to get a person's attention in the bible that He can use a cat to get mine today!
Stinking Cat!

What are People Thinking?

Have you ever have one of those experiences that just leave you shaking your head wondering what people are thinking, or if they are thinking?  A while back I had an experience that still leaves me baffled to this day.  I remember it each time I walk past the donut counter at my local grocery store. (Which isn’t as often as the number of times when I stop by the counter unfortunately.) 

It was a normal Sunday morning in that I was off to get the donuts while my family was still asleep.  We gather as church on Sunday afternoons so it allows most of my family to sleep in on Sundays which I might add is a nice change.  I walked up to the store shelf and grabbed a prepackaged dozen of frosted donuts with sprinkles and began making my way to the check out line. As I was walking I noticed some movement in the box so I looked closer.  Sure enough there was a fly trapped beneath the plastic lid.  I made a bee line (or should I say a fly line) for the donut counter to get another box.  Not wanting someone else to get this box without noticing it’s “extra contents”, I took it to the woman at the counter and explained the situation.  To my amazement she asked me if I would like her to mark down the price of the box of donuts with a fly in it.  I gave her what I’m sure was a very strange look, and said “No thanks I think I’ll just get a different box.”  (that does make me think twice about going to the “day old” marked down pastry shelf).

Now before any of you well meaning moms tell me that there are starving children in Africa that would have loved to have that box of donuts fly and all, I want you to know that I’m not unsympathetic to their plight.  But I was not about to pay any amount of money for a fly laden box of donuts. 

The whole story made me think.  In what aspects of my life am I settling?  What areas of my life am I willing to keep doing the same thing on and on because its mostly ok, or because at first glance it lookls good, but upon closer inspection it’s laden with things that have the potential to sicken my life, or hold me back from all that God has destined me for?

In what realms of my life; family, church, work, friendships, am I putting up with the flies because the rest of the situation looks really good?  Don’t get me wrong the answer isn’t necessarily changing of venues, but maybe changing of expectations.  Don’t be willing to settle for just having fun with your kids instead of being willing to deal with some of the tough behavior that you have been tolerating when you know it needs corrected. Don’t be willing to have areas in your marriage where you just don’t go because you or your spouse aren’t willing to talk about it.  Don’t settle for friendships that are merely social in nature with no intimate conversation.  Don’t continue to work a job that you don’t enjoy without making a plan to move up or move out to something better.  Don’t continue to do church or attend church if you aren’t growing closer to God and others as a direct result of what happens when you gather as church. 

Let me liberate you  Jesus said “I have come to set the captive free”  and If He were literally walking the earth today, I believe he would be not only tending to the sick of spirit who are apart from Him lost in their world of sin, but that He would also be tending to the sick of spirit who because of what they have believed about Him, or His church have settled for a life all wrapped up in something that will make them act religious, but that lacks the power that could make them change. (2 Tim 3:5) 

Let me encourage you to do something Godly today and make a decision.  It is one way in which we are created in the image of God that we have the capacity for choice, a free will.  But a free will used only to decide to stay the same when the same is less than God intended for you, can be a toxic thing.  Proacatvity and intentionality are meant to be our friends, not things that will inspire fear or paralyzation.  Spend some time today in your Sunday routine asking the Spirit of Christ within you to highlight areas of your life that He wants you to better steward and then take a step to bring that change about.  For life is too short to settle!!!

Ben Bit the Big One?

About three years ago, a stray cat- barely a year old herself- took up residence in our back yard.  We had gotten rid of our indoor cat due to my youngest son being dreadfully allergic to cats.  Unfortunately, he loves cats very much and seems to be sort of a cat magnet in our neighborhood.  So anyway, it became obvious before long that this stray was pregnant.  Now, I’m not sure what the gestational period for a feline is, but it seemed like only days from the time she started showing before there were five little kittens running through our back yard and she was true to form for a momma cat- off and gone leaving the kittens to fend for themselves.  They all made it through the summer, but as fall approached the most loved one, Beautiful (I didn’t name them), was hit by a car and we found her lying along side of the road with that familiar smushed look.  Several months thereafter, Muffin Berry (I didn’t name the cats) was found frozen along side of our car parked in front of the house, leaving Tuff, Benny, and Shylow (you know!). Shylow went to the pound as a consequence to my kids because they followed her out of the yard and into the alley behind the houses and crossed the street in an unabashed violation of our don’t leave the yard rule.  This leaving Benny and Tuff.  I discovered in the spring that Tuff, much like her mother before her, was starting to show, and because I didn't want to relive this saga over again with a fresh litter of kittens, I took her to the pound as well.  That left Benny.

Benny was the runt of the litter, smaller than all of the rest, one ear bent down and the other sticking up in an almost permanent unbalanced look.  His voice was always scratchy, like he was sickly and about to die, and his naturally smooth stride was interrupted with a limp from a crooked leg that had been broken because my son fell on him while carrying him when he was a kitten.  We have all grown very fond of the scratchy meow he makes while trying to sneak into the house as you open the door to leave.  He has made it through two winters, many a turf defending fight, and a whole lot of tough love from my sons.  As I left for work today, I noticed in the middle of 3^rd Street just off of Topeka Blvd the familiar look of road kill, but this road kill had gray colored long fur and a white belly just as Benny did.  I circled back around to make certain, and even though it is difficult to tell when you can’t see the face, I was pretty sure my fears had been realized. I called my wife to give her the bad news and both of our hearts sank.  Our kids will be very sad. While walking through the Home Depot getting some bids for my window business, I began to think of life lessons from Benny’s short life, and I would like to convey just a couple here.

First off, there is the obvious lesson that the most popular, the fastest, and the best looking  are not necessarily the ones chosen to live the longest, most fulfilled existence.  Even King David was chosen to rule the nation of Israel after all of his other brothers who were stronger, better looking and bigger had been passed over.  God loves to use the foolish things by this world’s standard to confound the wise.  

Secondly, there is the unconditional love factor.  Benny was proof to me that my kids had the capacity to love unconditionally even when they played too rough with him, and he would bite one of them in self defense, they still didn’t get mad. 

Thirdly, he had been to me an example of loyalty.  Every time I came home, almost without fail, he would be there on the porch to meow at me as I would recite to him our own personal catch phrase, “How you been, Ben?”

But the most serious lesson to me was the one the Lord whispered to my heart- that people are far more important than animals.  He lovingly encouraged me to remember to have compassion and empathy for the hurting, abused and broken that cross my path each and every day in our great city. Because He died for them, too. 

After leaving the store I decided to take some time off to bury Benny with my kids' help and use the moment as a teachable moment for my kids regarding the brevity of life.  As I drove toward home, I received a call from my wife, whom I expected to break this horrible news to my kids because moms are just good at that sort of thing.  She said that she had looked out the window towards the smushed gray mass in the street and couldn’t tell for sure if it was Benny when she noticed Benny sitting on the rail of the front porch, guarding his turf and looking all noble.  The last lesson God showed me was be careful not to make assumptions before having all of the facts.  The road kill, on closer inspection, seems to be a rabbit. If you know any one missing a large gray and white rabbit around the 3rd and Topeka area you might forward this blog to them.  Have a blessed day.               

Worry, The Anti-Faith

One of my favorite passages of scripture is found in Proverbs chapter 3.  It tells us to trust God with all our Hearts and not to lean merely on our own understanding.  It promises that if we do this that God will make our paths straight.  I have once again been wrestling with the tendency to worry about where my next paycheck will come from. It's comforting in these times to read what the apostle Paul wrote when he said "why do I keep doing the things that I know I should not do".  In some ways my being self employed has a hidden blessing of helping me not to worry about getting laid off because it happens to me several times a month.  Once I complete a bid for someone my job is finished and in essence they lay me off.  I get more pink slips that most people I know. But once again I have found myself falling into the tendency to worry when I reach the point of not having more work lined up.  It is as if I have to be the one to provide instead of trusting God to do so.  Now I believe it is a fine line we need to do our part to be open to pursuing ideas we have and taking steps of faith when the path is not as clear as we would like it, but we need to remember no matter how straight the path may be we do still have ups and downs.    One of these downs happened to me yesterday as I completed the last know work I had lined up.  I got home and went to the computer looking through want ads regarding income opportunities, trying to make something work if you will.  As I was finding nothing, I was gripped with the fear of how am I going to pay these bills.  Almost as a counter to that thought my phone rang and it was a local number that I did not recognize.  I answered to find it being a new potential customer who was looking at an advertisement that I had placed on the internet over a month ago.  I had pursued the idea to place that ad a month ago with no response since posting it I assumed it was all for not, but just when I needed a new income lead to follow, BAM! the phone rings.  I am going to do my best to keep from acting in anti-faith (worry) for it doesn't benefit me one bit, and seeing my good and loving god come through for me in the ;last minute way builds my faith and beats back my fears.,  He is Good and, He is for me, and I am getting to know Him better with each circumstance I find myself in.

The Friends I call Church

I shared yesterday afternoon with several friends who I call church.  We enjoyed a meal, laughed at life, and eventually began to open our hearts and talk about the things which affect us most deeply for both the good and bad.  Our struggles laid bare, our insecurities confessed, and our shortcomings revealed, we began to notice something.  There was no condemnation, no posturing, or jockeying for control or attention.  We just were!  It never ceases to amaze me at this point when after one bears all, the response form others in the group is supportive and encouraging.  One may relate by sharing a time when they dealt with a similar thing and Jesus helped them through it.  Another may share a truth from scripture, or correct a misapplication of some popular Christian cliché.  Tears are shared, hugs exchanged and prayers entered into.  We all leave changed for the better, more focused on Christ than when we came, and looking forward with faith and expectancy to the next opportunity to be the church, whether at an official gathering, or just through e-mail, text, phone conversation, or a coffee shared on the town.  I can’t help but feel that the Lord is smiling and I can’t help but feel excited about what He is doing in the lives of each of us that are opening ourselves up to be His church.     

Destiny, mediocrity, and the future unwritten

The enemy has forces at play that will try to lull and seduce you into mediocrity,  traps and snares that won’t necessarily kill you or pull you down, but they will hold you back. He will use anyone and everything to accomplish his task. So let's "not be unaware of the enemies schemes". Instead let’s rise to the occasion, rise to the possibilities, and rise toward our full potential. 

I once heard it said that the location with the greatest untapped potential is the cemetery.  As followers of Jesus we don’t need permission or an invitation to pursue the destiny that God has written on our hearts.  We just need to take a step.  Because good ideas don’t make you a visionary- they may you a day dreamer.  Being a visionary is about taking steps- little steps every day that move you from complacency toward becoming a world changer.  Each of us has world changing written right into our DNA; it’s called the desires of your heart. When you discover and follow them, you help to create a future that touches others and brings God glory. That is what destiny is all about. 


What will you do with your day? Will you invest it or just spend it?
It really does matter.  Why not take a step into your destiny today?

Doing vs Being

I just finished reading an article on innovative church movements in North America.  Unfortunately from almost the first sentence it was apparent that I was in different place than the author.  As with anything I read, I eat the meat and spit out the bones, and this article certainly had plenty of meat, but it just surprised me how even the most cutting edge of innovators in the church world still often miss some of the most basic of innovations .  It may have been simply semantics, but the article started out by saying “in our postmodern culture finding innovative ways to do church is essential” While I agree with the point being made, I think it reflects a bit of skewed doctrine regarding the church, for If we are “doing” church, it will inevitably end up just being one of the things on our ever increasing list of things “to do”.  I understand this now more than ever, for I have just ended a 40 year run at doing church.  It involved membership in and association with nine different organizations of people that were all doing church. At each location whether I was an “attender, member, or pastor” each organization had its membership rules and expectations, its organizational structures, and systems.  In the best of scenarios these things were set in place to move people through the system in the most efficient way so that the people could accomplish the purpose of the organization.    In the worst of scenarios they reflected the shortcomings and weaknesses of the leader who put them in place, often a leader who has been gone for some time, but whose influence still permeates the organization because change is the most resisted thing in the lives of virtually everyone I know.  

One of the primary things that I am trying to keep at the forefront of the work that I oversee is that we don’t do church we are The Church.  Things we do are temporary.  They have a starting point and ending point.  Whether events, services, or ministries, we do them for a period of time (Sundays, or Wednesdays) and then go back to the rest of our lives.  But we as Christians are the Church not merely members of a church but the composition of The Church itself.  We, who have come to Christ, are a house made up of living stones being built by the Lord as we grow in maturity and in our numbers.   The “modern” church for the most part has shed the false doctrine of the building being the church, so we no longer go “to the church”, but we have adopted an almost as problematic doctrine of “doing church” which will have to be shed in order for us to truly accomplish what the Lord had in mind for us in the beginning.  As I mentioned before it may just be semantics, people may just be used to using certain terms, and the structures of their organizations may well reflect the living communal nature of the church, but I have always been a proponent of the concept that you can tell what we believe by what we say, not what we say we believe but by what we say,  so take a few minutes as you read this to ask the Lord, The Head of the church if your actions reflect a life of doing church, or being the church.  As the head of the Church, He will be faithful to answer and to guide you to the take steps to assume your true identity as The Church.   

Lord here's what I want, now bless it.

“Commit your plans to the Lord and He will establish your work.”  Proverbs 16:3.  Oh, how often I have prayed through and spiritually mulled over my own plans, committing them to the Lord for his stamp of approval and eventual blessing.  And why not?  They make so much sense to me.  The problem is that my perspective is flawed.  The Bible says that “there is a way that seems right to man but in the end it leads to death.”  What seems so right, just, and reasonable to me pales in comparison to God’s plan.  For His ways are higher than mine.  Thankfully we don’t always get what we ask for.    I just finished reading from an insightful book that quoted the Proverbs passage from above.  The book states that the Hebrew word for commit actually translates “roll”.  So reread the passage “Roll your plans to the Lord and He will establish your work.”  You can’t hold onto or even keep touching something that you roll to someone else.  Our best hope is that God will honor our desires and giftings by presenting us with His plan, which is tailor-made to the destiny He has for us.  If there’s something that you have been really praying for and wanting to see happen- maybe you have even told God how He could accomplish it swiftly- why not roll it to Him and see how He can do more than you could even ask or imagine.

What's The Point

What’s the point?  All of us have asked this one time or another.  I have always been drawn naturally or supernaturally for that matter, to this basic yet ominous question.  I seem to always be looking for the bottom line with regard to why we do what we do.  Don't get me wrong and cast my views aside as the ongoing rants of some disillusioned soul who wasn't willing to tow the company line or commit to sacrificing for the "greater good".  On the contrary I have always been the one to defend the cause and buy into the program whole heartedly.  I actually tend to be overcommitted to the vision of another often at the expense of my own desires.  So hold on tight as I try to flesh out my ideas in a manner that I believe is both biblical and practical. 

A good friend of mine once asked me the question if we could change anything about our church, without worrying about the fallout what would it be.  I believe that my response was along the lines of "We should first figure out what it is that God wants the church to be and then set out to make that happen.  That way we can allow Him to deal with the fall out instead of shouldering that responsibility ourselves”. 

I first grasp this spiritual principle a decade ago when after months of praying, pleading, and begging God allowed my son to die at only 23 hours old.  His death was the result of a birth defect that decimated his kidney’s ability to function, but it was also as a result of God’s lack of intervention on his behalf.  I had thought “surely this innocent unborn child deserved God’s intervention as much as any of us do”.  But it was not to be.  Somewhere between his death and his funeral, I took captive a thought and penned the words that would soon start serving as a guideline for my relationship with God.  “It is better to accept God’s plan that to try and bring about you own, for if you pursue your own plan, you alone are responsible to bring it about, but if you submit yourself to God’s plan it is up to Him to fulfill it”. 

Since that conversation about changing our church with my friend years ago, it has been an ongoing goal of mine to challenge believers from all sects of Christianity to rediscover what God’s plan for being the church was all about.    Outside of the bible itself, the dictionary is one of the best places to start that journey of discovery.  It seems to me that the modem English language in specific, often loads up words so that they get used in a manner maybe never intended by their originators.  To quote a line from a popular movie from my childhood "I do not think that word means what you think it means".  Church as defined by the dictionary is a "a gathering of likeminded individuals committed to the cause of the founder”.  Jesus being our founder stated that He would build his church upon the foundation of His gospel or Good News that God wanted relationship with man so bad that He gave Christ as the sacrifice so that man's sins would no longer have to be counted against him, thus paving the way into heaven for even the most egregious of sinners so long as they turned away from the sins and turn to a relationship with Christ as their only inroad to salvation. 

The principles of the great commandment and the great commission seem to be the preeminent way that the God intends for the Good News to be lived out in our society.  But even these basic principles seem to be difficult for us to grasp hold of in the modern version of the Christian Church. 

The first of the two principles is (The Great Commandment) “‘you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. … equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.” Matt. 22:36-39 NLT.  Being the son of a high school English teacher, I like to think of this principle in terms of the verbs and nouns.  Love, the action verb cannot take place without motion.  Love is not a feeling, that’s the infatuation and warm fuzzy, butterflies in the stomach sort of love.  We are to love and that word in and of itself requires action and demonstration.  The nouns of the verse provide the context in which we are to love.  We are to love the Lord, to love ourselves and to love those around us as much as love ourselves. 

The greater question of what is the point of the church can be answered with the application of this principle, but how we carry out that love in the modern church seems to be a bit elusive.  Shaking hands with other believers during a greeting time at one of our services hardly seems to sum up the love mentioned in the verse. Attending a class or a common interest group can also fall short of that love demonstration.  It seems to me that the best way to arrive at the answer is to look at what the bible says the early church spent their time doing.  The early church seems to be more a community than an organization and the book of Acts says that they gathered in public places as well as from house to house on a daily basis.  They were sharing meals together, and doing whatever it took to meet the needs that anyone had.  The passage suggests that the people knew each other and that they knew each other well.  That type of relationship develops after spending a lot of time with someone.  It is obvious that there was intimate relationship because they knew what each others needs were. 

An examination of the letters that make up the rest of the New Testament shows a wide range of admonitions to the church members to demonstrate their love for each other by some of the following: be devoted to one another, honor one another, live in harmony with one another, edify one another, accept one another, instruct one another, greet one another, agree with one another, bear each other’s burdens, be submitted to one another, and forgive one another.  The modern context of the Christian church has often broken these admonitions down to simply sit in the same room with one another a few hours a week while the professionals do the heavy lifting of body ministry.

The second principle that we can apply to best live out the Good News in our modern culture is to implement the Great Commission. “Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age”. Matthew 28:19 NLT

Being that I recently hit the big 4 0, I took some time to reflect on what it is that I have been doing with the years that God has entrusted to me.  It occurred to me that I watch too much TV, stress out too quickly, and don’t spend enough time doing the things that matter the most   A quick calculation also showed that I have spent nearly 8000 hours of my life attending church services.  While that may be a lot compared to some people, it may not be even a drop in the bucket compared to others.  One way or the other those hours spent in services have given me one thing, a decent perspective on just how it is that the churches I have been a part of try to fulfill the Great Commission.  In my church experience we have employed an outreach principle.  We try to reach outside of the walls of the church building and get the “unchurched” (not God’s Term) to come into the church facility to attend some sort of “outreach event”. It can be a drama, concert, seminar, give away, carnival, bizarre, bake sale or pancake feed.  Most of these events ended up focusing on the event, than the message as though if we just get people to the facility that some of our Christianity might rub off on them. 

With all of the time, effort, and money involved in outreach events it seems to me that we often still miss the point that we were to GO.  I believe that in order to fulfill the Great Commission that we need to focus on going to the lost not expect them to come to us. 

           The bible says that Love (the great commandment) is going to be the way that the world will know that we are Christ’s disciples.  In the book of Acts it states that the world looked in and liked what they saw and that the Lord added to the church daily those that were being saved.  In those days the church gatherings were conducted in public places as well as in private homes, but the church was being lived out everywhere that Christians went, for the church is constructed of living stones, the people of God.  I would suggest to you that Christ intended for us to go live out our Christianity in whatever venue we are in.  When our lives reflect the light and love of Christ it should wet the appetite of unbelievers around us.  I believe that the Christian fully alive living out their passions and public is the bait on the hook when fishing for the lost.  All the programs we want to a put together, all the efforts to get the lost the darken the church building doors pale in comparison to the testimony of one changed life that goes on to flourish in such a way that causes others to take notice.  The bible says that we should “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have...” 1 Peter 3:15 Notice that it says to be ready to give and answer.  That suggests that people will be asking a question.  Why do you have such hope? That may well translate to: Why don’t you yell at the ref like the other parents do?  How come you are so positive all the time?  Why do you work so hard for the company? How come you don’t talk bad about the boss like everyone else?

I suggest to you that we take our faith into the world and live it out in an attractive manner.  This will require intentionality, but it will require something even greater, that our faith in Christ be genuine and that the world can see how it is so positively transforming our lives.  That may be the biggest challenge we face in the current Christian church.  Are we genuine and growing?  If not it may be reflective of the way we have been doing church instead of being the church.  If we just accumulate attenders instead of converts, or are settling for converts instead of growing disciples what the world sees may not look much different than what they already know.  For the ineffective faith is hardly attractive, it almost relegates the Good News to a get out of jail free card.     

           I’m not suggesting we abandon our commitment to involvement in the church, I'm not looking to promote the concept of small churches or house churches or the doing away with the authority structures within the organization that we currently call church.   I am however fully committed to rediscovering what God intended the church to be and then helping the believers around me to be just that The Church.   Novel idea Huh?  A friend of mine recently called it a church experiment, and it may well be, but I like to think it has a better chance of success at fulfilling God’s plan for his disciples than how I had been doing things in the past and it seems to me, THAT IS THE POINT!  

           I believe I'm am called to inspire courage in the average believer to be fully themselves,  to live out a no holds barred, full speed ahead, love filled life with Christ.  If we can forget about the fallout, remember who we are truly accountable to, ask Him to highlight our impure motives and to give us wisdom and understanding, we can rediscover what church is supposed to be.  If you hear my heart and are intrigued or inspired by something I have shared, please share your thoughts with me.  corywalker@cox.net