Gossip is a disease in the body of Christ today. It causes various kinds of harm to those who gossip and to those who are the subject of gossip.
I explore this and 3 questions that can be used to cut off gossip before you receive it in a new article posted today on the 3rd Race Blog.
Click here to read the article.
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Happy Independence Day on this Monday, the 4th of July! I’m very thankful to live in a free country where I am not persecuted for following Jesus. (No, I don’t consider the current social disregard for Christ and Christians as persecution.)
I’d like to share something today that I wrote some time ago about our true freedom in Christ. Just click below to read it.
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Have you ever claimed to have righteous anger?
Can you find “righteous anger” in the Scriptures?
I used to believe that I had a God-given right to be angry. But I’ve learned over time that anger is not the 10th fruit of the Spirit.
And 1 Corinthians 13 highlights that the most excellent way is love.
The video below is of Brant Hansen, a radio DJ and author, sharing from his book Unoffendable, which I reviewed here.
I highly recommend watching the video below and getting the book as well.
Especially if you often find yourself angry and believing you have every right to be.
Question for Discussion:
~ Did this video change your view of anger? How so?
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If you think you can judge others, you are wrong. When you judge them, you are really judging yourself guilty, because you do the same things they do. God judges those who do wrong things, and we know that his judging is right. You judge those who do wrong, but you do wrong yourselves. Do you think you will be able to escape the judgment of God? (Rom. 2:1–3 NCV)
What’s more, for those who still want to make anger a nutritious part of their spiritual breakfasts: in the Bible’s “wisdom literature,” anger is always—not sometimes, always—associated with foolishness, not wisdom. The writer recognized that, yes, anger may visit us, but when it finds a residence, it’s “in the lap of fools” (Eccl. 7:9).
So what if—just dreaming out loud, here—Christians were known as the people you couldn’t offend?
~ Brant Hansen
Being angry and offended on behalf of God has become a sacred pastime for many Christians today. As American culture becomes increasingly less interested in Christianity (to put it mildly), too many of Christ’s followers are, ironically, not following Christ in their response.
Instead of showing love and mercy, much of the church has become offended, which yields anger, bitterness, and separation.
However, the gospels reveal Jesus’ mercy towards those who appear to be the worst sinners, and he levels some pretty strong rebukes to those who think they are above sin.
But wasn’t Jesus angry at the religious Pharisees? Perhaps, but it didn’t rule his heart. In His last breaths on the cross, he asks God to forgive them even though they didn’t have a clue what they had done.
So what are we to do when we are offended, angry, and hurt?
Enter Brant Hansen’s book, Unoffendable: How Just One Change Can Make All of Life Better
I don’t usually say, “Every Christian needs to read this book,” because it has become a bit overused and cliché, so I really mean this: every Christian needs to read this book.
Brant is a Christian radio DJ and also turns out to be a great writer. He hits hard on a tough subject, but does it with love and good natured humor (check out the chapter titles alone to get an idea of the humor). I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, even though it was very challenging.
But most importantly, I believe Brant has revealed the unoffendable nature of Jesus Christ. This is a game changer for those who desire to let Jesus live through them. You can’t be angry and love others. It just doesn’t work. God’s way is forgiveness, and any judgment belongs to Him.
Not only that, but I’ve found that one important, distinguishing factor in Christ-like maturity is the ability to overlook an offense and choose love.
Good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense. (Proverbs 19:11 ESV)
Here are some quotes directly from the book. I highlighted a ton of this book, so it was hard to choose only a few quotes!
It’s true that sometimes people try to offend us, and they’re intentionally hurtful and spiteful. And yet, there Jesus is, on the cross, saying, “Father, forgive them. They don’t know what they’re doing.” A fair question, then: Is that same Jesus living in and through me, still saying that?
We should forfeit our right to be offended. That means forfeiting our right to hold on to anger. When we do this, we’ll be making a sacrifice that’s very pleasing to God. It strikes at our very pride. It forces us not only to think about humility, but to actually be humble. I used to think it was incumbent upon a Christian to take offense. I now think we should be the most refreshingly unoffendable people on a planet that seems to spin on an axis of offense.
Forfeiting our right to anger makes us deny ourselves, and makes us others-centered. When we start living this way, it changes everything. Actually, it’s not even “forfeiting” a right, because the right doesn’t exist. We’re told to forgive, and that means anger has to go, whether we’ve decided our own anger is “righteous” or not.
We won’t often admit this, but we like being angry. We don’t like what caused the anger, to be sure; we just like thinking we’ve “got” something on someone. So-and-so did something wrong, sometimes horribly wrong, and anger offers us a sense of moral superiority.
But inconveniently, there’s this proverb that says, “You may believe you are doing right, but the LORD will judge your reasons” (Prov. 16:2 NCV). So it’s not just me. We all, apparently, find ourselves pretty darn convincing. Of course my anger is righteous. It’s righteous because, clearly, I’m right, and they’re wrong. My ways seem pure to me. Always.
We humans are experts at casting ourselves as victims and rewriting narratives that put us in the center of injustices. (More on this in a bit.) And we can repaint our anger or hatred of someone—say, anyone who threatens us—into a righteous-looking work of art. And yet, remarkably, in Jesus’ teaching, there is no allowance for “Okay, well, if someone really is a jerk, then yeah—you need to be offended.” We’re flat-out told to forgive, even—especially!—the very stuff that’s understandably maddening and legitimately offensive.
The thing that you think makes your anger “righteous” is the very thing you are called to forgive.
Anger is extraordinarily easy. It’s our default setting. Love is very difficult. Love is a miracle.
Upon hearing my ideas on anger, a radio listener told me, “I don’t get it. Shouldn’t we be angry at those guys in the news who beat up homeless people?” Here’s what I think, given that we’re to “get rid of all anger”: Anger will happen; we’re human. But we can’t keep it. Like the Reverend King, we can recognize injustice, grieve it, and act against it—but without rage, without malice, and without anger. We have enough motivation, I hope, to defend the defenseless and protect the vulnerable, without needing anger. Seek justice; love mercy. You don’t have to be angry to do that. People say we have to get angry to fight injustice, but I’ve noticed that the best police officers don’t do their jobs in anger. The best soldiers don’t function out of anger. Anger does not enhance judgment.
Choosing not to take offense is not about simply ignoring wrongs. If someone, say, cuts in front of you in line, you can address the situation. You don’t have to simply accept it. But you can act without contempt, anger, and bitterness.
Yet another wrinkle: when there are two “sides” to a story, we tend to think the first one we hear is the right one. I learned this, of course, by watching The People’s Court after school every day. I always thought the plaintiff had a great case . . . until I heard the other side. This bias is universal. It’s not new, either. Check out Proverbs 18:17: “The first one to plead his cause seems right, until his neighbor comes and examines him” (NKJV). Life is full of conflicts, disputes, differing perspectives . . . and in all of those, guess whose perspective I hear first? That’s easy: mine. I establish a story line, and I can get angry before I even hear the other side, which is yet another reason to be very suspicious of ourselves. So let’s have the guts—and the humility—to believe what the Bible says about us, and what the research shows us. We simply can’t trust ourselves in our judgments of others. We don’t know what they’re really thinking, or their background, or what really motivated whatever they did. And since we don’t know, let’s choose ahead of time: we’re just not going to get offended by people. If I don’t need to be right, I don’t have to reshape reality to fit “The Story of My Rightness.”
That person you find so offensive? Somehow, God sees something there. Something you don’t. Ask Him what it is. Maybe He’ll show you. I bet He wants to.
I actually sleep better when I’ve chosen to be unoffendable.
It finally occurred to me that we can’t be agents of healing in people’s lives unless we’re ready to bear their wounds for them and from them.
We decide to be unoffendable because that’s how love operates; it gives up its “status” entirely.
but the more we divest ourselves of ourselves, the better our lives get. Jesus told us as much. He said if we’d give up our lives, for His sake, we’d find real life.
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*****
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Everything draws its essence from him, and God gave him, him alone, to the assembly as the source of everything it needs. The assembly is, in fact, his body, and every individual contributes to bring his body to a state of completion.
(Ephesians 1:22-23, The Source NT, emphasis mine)
Um… wow. I have to say that these verses in this translation have just blown me away as of late.
Jesus is the essence of the church.
Jesus is the source of the church.
Everything we need is in Him.
Everything draws its essence, its value, its fragrance, from Him.
And He loves to give all of this to us.
What is true about us because of our identity in Christ is permanent. It is never untrue. (Let that sink in for a minute.) The essence, or nature, of Christ never changes.
Jesus is the real, ultimate essence of His body. We are the essence of Christ, kind of like a portrait captures the essence of a person or a landscape, but so much more.
Because Jesus is our essence and source, our identity and our real life is found in Him.
The body is the fragrance of Christ in the world.
The body can hold the essence of Christ and also express that essence as we abide in Him.
Our most significant quality is Jesus being uniquely expressed through each member of His body.
Jesus is our source. He is the origin of the River of Life that flows out from Him and in and through us. The “every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms” in Ephesians 1 originate and flow from Him. It is our union with Jesus as One New Man that gives us access to the blessings. It is all in and from Him.
Saints, how can we be selfless?
How can we not be anxious about tomorrow?
How can Jesus’ body have one mind?
How can Jesus’ body have one Spirit?
How can we love others as Christ has loved us?
How can we live mutually submitted to each other?
How can we see past each others’ flaws and sins?
How do we not keep a record of wrongs?
How can we be slow to anger and abound in love?
How can we always see the best in each other?
The reality is… we can’t!
Only with Jesus as our essence and our source, our origin, can we accomplish anything of true worth. Only in Him can we live and move in the divine.
You are the essence of Christ, and He is your Source.
We are the essence of Christ, and He is our Source.
No one else. Nothing else.
Only Jesus.
This is the key to all spiritual life.
Follow the Life!
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If you would like to expand on the theme of Jesus as our Source and abiding in Him, check out the series going on at the 3rd Race blog.
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The American “church” landscape today has had and currently has an extreme focus on preaching. Preaching is then mostly withheld to those who are considered “gifted”, and typically also those who are highly educated.
(I don’t have any issue as to the need of sound ,Christ-filled preaching and teaching, but I do see some issues with how preaching is practiced through much of Christianity today. Perhaps I’ll expand on that in another post.)
I’ve known many brothers and sisters in Christ who have shared a desire to “preach the Word”. Often times they find a small group or ministry of some kind that will agree to let them begin honing their preaching craft; however, they often find little resonance among their listeners and become discouraged.
The result is often a focus on more study, better illustrations, more humor, handing out outlines or fill-in-the-blank cards, changing the way you dress or look, and learning the latest pop-culture preaching gimmicks.
It seems to me that there is a missing, overlooked, and bypassed ingredient: it is simply to be built up into Christ with humility among other brothers and sisters as their equal, in mutually submissive community together, so that one become’s an expression of Christ’s own character as His Spirit gains free reign in one’s life.
Watchman Nee captures this thought beautifully in his book The Normal Christian Life:
Perhaps you may have been asking the Lord for a long time that he will be pleased to use you in such a way as to impart impressions of himself to others. That prayer is not exactly for the gift or preaching or teaching. It is rather that you might be able, in your touch with others, to impart God, the presence of God, the sense of God. Let me tell you, dear friends, you cannot produce such impressions of God upon others without the breaking of everything, even your most precious possessions, at the feet of the Lord Jesus.
But if once that point is reached, you may or may not seem to be much used in an outward way, but God will begin to use you to create a hunger in others. People will scent Christ in you. The most unlikely people will detect that. They will sense that here is one who has suffered, one who has not moved freely, independently, but who has known what it is to subject everything to him. That kind of life creates impressions, and impressions create hunger, and hunger provokes men to go on seeking until they are brought by divine revelation into fullness of life in Christ.
God does not set us here first of all to preach or to do work for him. The first thing for which he sets us here is to create in others a hunger for himself. That is, after all, what prepares the soil for preaching.
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It is quite understandable that in our large anonymous cities we look for people on our “wave length” to form small communities. Prayer groups, Bible-study clubs and house-churches all are ways of restoring or deepening our awareness of belonging to the people of God. But sometimes a false type of like-mindedness can narrow our sense of community. We all should have the mind of Jesus Christ, but we do not all have to have the mind of a school teacher, a carpenter, a bank director, a congressman or whatever socioeconomic or political group. There is a great wisdom hidden in the old bell tower calling people with very different backgrounds away from their homes to form one body in Jesus Christ. It is precisely by transcending the many individual differences that we can become witnesses of God who allows his light to shine upon poor and rich, healthy and sick alike. But it is also in this encounter on the way to God that we become aware of our neighbor’s needs and begin to heal each other’s wounds. During the last few years I was part of a small group of students who regularly celebrated the Eucharist together. We felt very comfortable with each other and had found “our own way.” The songs we sang, the words we used, the greetings we exchanged all seemed quite natural and spontaneous. But when a few new students joined us, we discovered that we expected them to follow our way and go along with “the way we do things here.” We had to face the fact that we had become clannish, substituting our minds for the mind of Jesus Christ. Then we found out how hard it is to give up familiar ways and create space for the strangers, to make a new common prayer possible.
– Henri Nouwen, Reaching Out
When a new person comes into an established group, there is a great opportunity. Sometimes this opportunity is explored. Many times this opportunity is lost.
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What is the opportunity? New growth. Re-creation. Re-birth.
History shows us, however, that a tendancy to cling to tradition, to “the way things have always been done”, often opposes and frustrates this newness. This is especially true in church history.
Even Israel often rejected and killed the prophets sent by God to reknew His relationship with her, including Jesus the Nazarene.
When Christ is leading a group of believers He will bring in new things that no one in a group might have experienced before. It is important then that we be open to any believer among us who presents a suggestion, even if it goes against the norm of the day. Even if it is completely different from what is considered normal or acceptable, it may be from the Lord. To be open to this is to embrace our freedom in Christ to explore Him together as He guides a group of believers through His Spirit.
Of course I’m not saying that we must do everything that is suggested. Test these things in the Spirit with graciousness towards each other. Stand on the foundation of Christ our Cornerstone, but also be open to exploring new worlds waiting for discovery in the unsearchable riches of Christ.
To function together in this way affirms the equality of each believer and demonstrates our trust in Christ to work through whomever He chooses. It also demonstrates the hospitality of Christ to “create space for the strangers” among His radically inclusive new kingdom.
New parts who are grafted into the body of Christ usher in the re-creation, re-formation, and re-birth of each community in Him. This is a work of the Spirit in our midst.
Hold tightly to Christ, but hold loosely to everything else.
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It is often said that we should “walk a mile in someone’s shoes” before we pass judgment or give advice. This is extremely sound advice. In Thomas Dubay’s excellent book on community life, Caring: A Biblical Theology of Community, he adjusts the phrase to putting yourself in someone’s skin, which I think is even more personal than temporarily inhabiting their shoes.
When does one person really care for the other – as distinguished from seeking oneself under guise of altruism? The best way I can summarize what I sense to be the New Testament concept is to use an inelegant expression: to care is to jump into the other’s skin. It is to become the other in mind and heart, to live the other’s interests. To care is to become one’s brother, one’s sister.
Caring in Christian community is expressed biblically in a number of ways. The disciple looks out for his brother’s welfare as he looks out for his own. Paul can assert that it is his heart’s desire that his Jewish compatriots be saved (Rm 10:1). The apostle’s own peace of mind is possible only upon his hearing that the Thessalonians are still strong in their faith. This living in the brother’s skin is well brought out in the translation of NEB: “It is the breath of life to us that you stand firm in the Lord” (1 Thess 3:8). Paul wants everyone to try to please his neighbor (Rm 15:2) and to look after the other’s interests rather than his own (Phil 2:4). Everything is to be done in love (1 Cor 16:14).
…
Caring implies inliving. Two who love enjoy a mutual inbeing. They live in each other through thought and love. More than once Paul tells his brothers that they dwell in his heart (2 Cor 7:3, 1 Thess 2:17, Phil 1:7) and even that they are to make room for him in their hearts (2 Cor 7:2). Spacial distance does not prevent the apostle from being spiritually present to the Corinthians (1 Cor 5:3-4). Persons in community are vibrantly present to one another. A mere formality will never do.
When it comes to dealing with each other’s issues, it can be easy to mentally, intellectually run through a person’s situation and provide an obvious answer. One might even get frustrated when the other person doesn’t suddenly jump up with excitement and run to immediately follow the sound advice.
The intellectual answer may be perfectly sound and logical, but it often lacks a connection to the heart of the situation, to the heart of the person(s) involved.
Mom has a misbehaving child? Obviously they should be grounded. But maybe she’s a single mother who doesn’t get much time with her child and doesn’t want to lose time together by sending the unruly child to their room alone.
Someone has been physically or emotionally abused? Obviously you should forgive and reconcile regardless of how you feel. Perhaps, though, they literally tremble in fear or burst into tears when near the person who hurt them. Of course, forgiveness and reconciliation is the goal, but getting there may be a long road.
If you think I’m making these things up, think again. I’ve seen this happen many times.
The problem with plain, vanilla answers and advice to issues is that most people are not plain vanilla. Each person is a complex mix of desires, hopes, ambitions, fears, feelings, and a history of good and bad and many times horrible experiences that make them who they are today.
So if pat answers aren’t really any answer at all, what are we to do with each other’s struggles?
We get inside each others’ skin. We see the world through their eyes and ears. We feel the world through their heart.
This is a key component to any relationship that goes beyond surface level.
It takes time and can be difficult to set ourselves aside, yet this is what a true friend does.
Consider Jesus. Jesus emptied Himself and fully inhabited our human experience.
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich. (2 Cor. 8:9)
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet was without sin. (Heb. 4:15)
You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross. (Phil 2:5-8)
Jesus constantly felt and showed compassion to others.
When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them … (Matt. 9:36)
When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick. (Matt. 14:14)
When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. … Jesus wept. (Jn. 11:33, 35)
But how do we embody someone else’s struggles?
The best answer I know of is to do it in relationship. Walk in their skin by walking right beside them. Get close to them. And most importantly, serve them.
Let your time together be about them, not about you.
Become their #1 fan and cheerleader.
Encourage them.
Remind them of who they are in Christ, Who is our greatest reality. He is Truth, and in Him we find the Truth of who we really are. And it is often the first thing we forget when we are struggling with something.
In Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, one of the habits is to “Seek first to understand, then to be understood.” Or in other words, no one is going to listen to you until you have listened to them first. This mutual listening best transpires in the context of living life together.
Rather than sitting down to hash out the issue at hand, just spend time with them… with no agenda. If certain issues don’t come up, let it go. Don’t force your opinions if they aren’t sought out. Trust Jesus.
Breathe the life of Christ together in their midst. Simply living through Him in the presence of others will stir the Spirit in them and open doorways that Christ may walk through.
Here’s what I’m not saying:
Ignore all issues that are uncomfortable.
Never confront anyone.
Ignore a person’s sin so you are never considered judgmental.
I’m focusing more on the method in which that confrontation takes place and is walked out.
So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. (Matt. 7:12)
Love your neighbor as yourself. (Matt. 22:39)
Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. (Gal. 6:2)
In my experience, pointing others to Christ and allowing Him to work often resolves the situation. Or, through sharing His life together, the issue comes up in a natural way and is addressed through a dialog together that is mutually beneficial.
Listening is an act of love. Or as Dubay wrote, “A caring community is a listening community.”
Get in someone’s skin today…
Follow the Life!
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I recently watched the film Divergent, the first in a trilogy series based on a popular novel series by the same name. I was intrigued after watching the movie and decided to read the book, which was also very good.
In this story, there is some kind of disaster that requires the survivors to essentially restart society. (I’ve only read the first book, so I don’t know any more detail than that. I hope it is further revealed as the books progress.) The story of Divergent picks up at what seems to be many years after the disaster in the city of Chicago. Much of the city is in ruins, and the people have organized themselves into “factions”.
Each faction emphasizes a particular quality over and above all others.
There are five factions. One emphasizes selflessness, another bravery, another peace, a fourth emphasizes knowledge, and lastly truth.
Children are raised in the faction of their families, but when they turn sixteen, they take a test (a virtual reality type hallucination) that reveals their true faction by judging their strongest trait from their decisions during the test. They are still able to choose any faction, but most follow the faction they grew up in, which is usually confirmed in the test.
The original idea of the factions, of course was to support each other and provide balance in the new society. However, the factions become jealous of each other, primarily because the selfless faction was given control of the government.
It is interesting to me how this scenario compares with our Christian landscape today. We have so many factions, each emphasizing a particular aspect of our life in Christ. Some focus on knowledge, others focus on good works for the poor and oppressed, some focus on spiritual gifts, others focus on non-violence, while yet others focus on strictly obeying the law. And then there are sub-factions to the factions.
And the lines are drawn.
Separated, we understand very little of each other. Subcultures develop that are completely foreign to each other, so much that people become too uncomfortable to reach out across the not-so-imaginary lines.
Enter the Divergent.
The Divergent have no faction.
The heroin of the Divergent series is a young girl whose faction test results are inconclusive. Her reactions to the simulation indicate multiple faction possibilities because she draws from various characteristics to respond to the test.
Being divergent is dangerous because any one faction cannot control them. Their brains simply resist the conditioning (“initiation”) that is meant to teach them the strict boundaries and role of their faction.
The Divergent are rare and are terminated when discovered because they challenge the system that controls them, and people with power do not like to be challenged.
The Apostle Paul spoke of factions in the church:
Divisions in the Church
I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.” Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one may say that you were baptized in my name. (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.) For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.
(1 Corinthians 1:10-17 ESV)
Paul reprimands the Corinthian believers who have lost their focus on Jesus Christ as the one true Head of the church and he calls them to be united together.
Surely, this is a hard road.
Getting along with folks that are wildly different from us is not easy.
Taking in other people’s viewpoints and adjusting our own is not easy.
Yielding to others is not easy.
At least, not in our own power. But when we yield to Christ in all things, His life in us is manifested, we are made new, and we are able to do new things.
We are able to be united in Him. We are able to lay down differences and seek and explore Him together, learning from each other, valuing each other, desiring each other, caring for each other, encouraging each other, and embracing and drawing strength from our divergence rather than being afraid of it.
Yes, there will still be arguments and disagreements and hurt feelings. But if you really stick it out together and hold to Christ, something new and precious will be deposited in His new city.
I have been in gatherings where the life of Christ is richly expressed through many different lenses, and the vision of Christ that results is breathtaking.
I am convinced that isolating ourselves into countless factions over countless issues is not the way of Christ.
Christ is always divergent from the flesh and towards the divine.
Perhaps it is time for the church to embrace the Divergent.
Follow the Life!
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Note: I’ve been in some professional training and have not been able to post as often as I would like. I will be out of town the next two weeks as well, and will have limited posts during that time.
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Now, on to some Friday fun!
This quote from Watchman Nee’s book, Love Not the World is of critical importance for the church today. As many Christ followers are moving away from institutional forms of church and returning to smaller, simpler formats, the issue of source is paramount.
There are many “things” that groups meeting in a simple format (typically in a home) are established around. Some of those are:
– Bible study (often focused on a particular doctrine that all in the group must accept)
– Separating from the world (often focused on home life, home school, home church)
– Doing church the “biblical way” (focused on discerning and following a NT liturgy of sorts)
– Saving souls (often focused on a particular evangelism method, and focused on the need to save many people quickly)
– Fellowship (focused on developing relationships and often avoids any formal meeting)
– Following an individual (often focused around a strong-willed person looking for followers, often unhealthy)
– Discipleship (focused on more experienced believers training younger believers)
– Social Justice (focused on helping the needy or poor in some way)
These are some of the “big ones” that I’m aware of. Some of these can be healthy for a group to pursue at the time that the Lord leads in this direction.
But by themselves they are just things.
None of these things should be the source, origin, or focus of a church.
God has not given us “things”, He has given us a “Person”, His Son Jesus Christ. And as Ephesians 1 says, all spiritual things are given to us in Him.
Here’s the quote from Watchman Nee:
All that belongs to human nature continues spontaneously; all that belongs to God continues only for as long as God’s working continues. And the world is all-inclusively that which can go on by itself without the need of specific acts of God to maintain it in freshness. The world, and all that belongs to the world, does this naturally – it is its nature – and in doing so it moves in a direction contrary to the will of God.
Any group of believers that desire to follow Christ together must then together submit themselves to His leading.
This requires a constant turning to the Lord both individually and together and asking Him for direction. It requires a strong spirit of exploration. This requires that we resist instituting rigid traditions where the Spirit is leading a group through a season of some kind.
Ultimately, this requires that Jesus is our Focus, our Life, our Goal, our Source (our Genesis), our Head, our Way.
Other “things” will not sustain the life of the church. They are dead in and of themselves.
Turning to Jesus constantly brings His freshness into our lives and life together. (This is the intended meaning of the signature line of my posts… “follow the life”.)
Follow the Life!
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