The Ideal Church Member
October 22, 2008
After searching for the ideal church-member for years, I’ve now concluded that I’ll probably start seeing ideal members as soon as I become the ideal leader! Until then, however, we can do no better than look to Jesus who teaches us about the ideal kingdom-member. (It’s safe to assume some correspondence between ideal kingdom- and church-members, I think)
In Mark’s gospel we find some negative and positive models for receiving the Kingdom as children which, Jesus says, is a (or “the” ?) mark of kingdom membership. In Mark 10 (13-16) Jesus becomes angry with his disciples when they spoke sternly to parents and rebuked them for bringing their children to him. In response, Jesus makes clear that the children offer a model for kingdom-life. Children must be brought by others. They cannot come by themselves on the strength of expertise or will or achievement. Someone else must bring them. For their part, the children receive the touch, care, and companionship of Jesus–THAT IS THE MODEL.
In the next episode (17-22) a young man runs up to Jesus with a question, and provides a negative, contrasting approach to kingdom-life. This man comes on his own initiative, confessing a desire for the kingdom and confident he can do something to satisfy his desire. Mark tells us that Jesus loved him and would have welcomed him just as he did the little children. But in the end he did not want the kingdom, not really. He balks at receiving it as Jesus offers it to him. He would rather add the kingdom to his already good life. So he departs in sorrow. He had too much to acquire everything.
The disciples then model another approach to kingdom-life when they fail to understand how hard it is for anyone to enter the kingdom, including those chosen to be disciples of Jesus (23-27)! With humans it is impossible, but not with God. The truth is that NO ONE can simply enter the kingdom. Yet any willing person may be brought, as the children were brought to Jesus.
Blind Bart offers the final, positive model (46-52). Bart is also sternly rebuked for crying out to Jesus. Mark uses the same term for rebuke (see 4:48) with respect to him as was used when the children were brought to Jesus. Bart can cry out for Jesus and for his mercy, but can do nothing on his own to acquire it. He must be brought to Jesus, as the children were.
Bart can, however, respond with reckless abandon when Jesus notices and calls and others bring him to Jesus. When this happens he casts aside his robe, his only earthly possession— relatively speaking this robe meant more to him in his poverty than the wealthy man’s riches had meant to him in his abundance. In other words, when Bart is called and brought to Jesus he spontaneously casts aside everything to respond, to be brought near to Jesus, to receive mercy, to enjoy the touch of Jesus, and to follow him wherever and join him in doing whatever.
The children and Bart offer us clear pictures of ideal responses to Jesus. Jesus welcomes them as companions and partners in his work. May their tribe increase!
Topics: Discipleship | No Comments »
Prayer and Authentic Church-Being
September 19, 2008
Prayer looms large on the horizon of people who are church. Of course such people “say their prayers,” at all the expected times. Likewise, when in trouble, they know that God is their refuge and strength, a source of timely help when needed (Ps. 46:1). So then, too, they pray. Authentic church-being suggests more, however.
In The Acts, charter document for authentic church-being, before the followers of Jesus became church as such, they “ … devoted themselves to prayer.” And, they did it “with one accord” “together” (Acts 1:14). Then after they became church on Pentecost Day, they routinely “devoted themselves to the prayers” (2:42). These before and after pictures reveal prayer as a defining quality of their life together in relation to God and one another. That is, prayer was no merely occasional devotional exercise, nor was it merely utilitarian—to get something from God when desired or needed. To be sure, they prayed devotionally and their prayers were answered awesomely. But their devotion to prayer suggests more.
First, their prayerfulness reflects that of Jesus. We recall that Jesus often withdrew to commune with the Father in prayer. In Luke’s gospel especially, to which Acts is sequel, the most important decisions or transitions of Jesus’ life and ministry flowed out of prayerful interaction with the Father. We also recall that Jesus often simply “broke into prayer.” Whatever else was happening, Jesus knew that his Father was watching, listening, and involved. Thus, sometimes in the middle of conversation with others or in the course of responding to his circumstances, Jesus explicitly turned to the Father. Devotion to prayer for Jesus and his followers means “practicing the presence of God,” cultivating a sense that God attends each moment of our lives, and living each moment as an intentional partnership with God. Wherever you find authentic church-being you find people of constant prayerful interaction with God, conscious of a perpetual open line with God.
Second, the prayerfulness of people who are church suggests radical commitment to the Lordship of Jesus. Certainly all of us would affirm the Lordship of Jesus. Such prayerfulness practices it. If Jesus is Lord, then his subjects do as he says. If he says, stay in Jerusalem until you receive the promise of power in the abiding presence of the Spirit, they stay put. If they stay put because Jesus is Lord, then they anticipate reception of this promise—even if it takes days, they continue to gather, to pray, to expect. In fact, they didn’t do anything but what Jesus told them to do until what he said came to pass. Then, as the story continues, they continue to practice the same radical Lordship of Jesus. They do what he says, only what he says. Their prayerfulness, expressing Jesus’ Lordship, keeps the line open so that the Spirit can tell them what to do, whether directly as they worship (e.g., Acts 13), or through community consensus in the course of their discussions (e.g., Acts 15), or through the insight of their leaders as they deal with the challenges of a growing church (e.g., Acts 6). In a variety of ways, authentic church-being will exhibit a corporate prayerfulness, an ongoing openness with God the Holy Spirit, so that the Spirit can give direction and the people can practice the Lordship of Jesus radically.
FMC co-laborers, don’t you long for authentic church-being to break out across the country! I can offer no sure-fire formulas or mechanical steps for accomplishing this, but here are some of the strategic responses we should make to the Scripture’s revelation of the church. Let us practice the presence of God, as pastors and together with our people. Recall his presence, seek deeper sensitivity to his movements, and do so as matters of top priority. Let us consider how, in fact, we practice the Lordship of Jesus—perhaps even whether we do. In our meetings, for worship, study, business, how can we keep an open-line with God? Let us seek to hear and know what Jesus is telling us to do here and now, through his Word and through his Spirit’s leading. Perhaps we should simply wait and seek more often, doing nothing until he tells us, and then allowing nothing to keep us from doing what he tells us. Think how wonderful it would be to have confidence that we are now doing exactly what Jesus has told us to do! Such prayerfulness is a mark of authentic church-being.
Topics: Authentic Church-Being | No Comments »
The “His-story” Making Church
July 17, 2008
A people who together are authentically church understand that history is “his-story,” that is God’s story brought to fullness in Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, what Jesus began to do and teach they continue (Acts 1:1). It’s not so much that they have a story to tell, but that they are the story that tells. Who they are (identity), what they do (vocation), and how they live (life-style) embody the Jesus-story in and to their world. They are people whose defining story is his-story-making.
Obviously, Jesus’ story makes these people ” a people.” Without Jesus there could be no church, just as without Yahweh there could have been no Israel. First with Israel and then with the church, God calls people into being, a certain kind of being, that could be by no other means. Those who were not a people God has made a people (Hos. 1:10; 1 Pet. 2:10). Authentic church-being is a kind of being that could not be apart from God. As we look at groups today–including FMC groups–it is important to ask, how is it that such a group exists? Does its existence require God? Are creation and resurrection its foundational realities?
Perhaps not so obviously, the Jesus-story creates a people who participate in the Jesus-story. Read the Acts account of how the earliest followers of Jesus interacted with and related to one another (e.g., 2:41-47) and then compare these relations with Paul’s list of fruits of the Holy Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23). Clearly the list becomes living among people of authentic church-being. They become a people whose association with Jesus explains their character and conduct, as we read of the apostles (Acts 4:13), a people who in the most extreme experiences of life replicate the responses of Jesus, as Stephen did in his martyrdom (Acts 7:59-60). It is important to set our intra-church dynamics alongside the Jesus-story and note how well they match. When we are together, as we do business, in the course of our worship, witness, and service does the list (Gal. 5:22-23) become living? In and through all we are and do, can others hear the voice of Jesus and feel his touch? Does our church-life, over the course of time, carry on the adventure of God interacting with, invading, and investing human history with holy presence?
Authentic church-being is radically counter-cultural. We refuse to accept the stories the world tells us. It’s not about the Pax Romana embracing the world through the Roman Empire. Nor is it about the American dream or Democratic ideals washing over every continent’s shores. No, it’s about Jesus who goes to Jerusalem, so that his people may go from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth and then to a new Jerusalem–carrying sufficient light to see the script of God’s story, in which every person has a role. It’s not about making your mark here and now during your brief span of life. It’s about bringing the eternal depth and dimension of God’s plans for all things into every moment of time while there is time, so that no one supposes that time is all there is. It’s inviting people to come out of the cramped smallness of merely here and now living into the vast, huge frontiers of the God-given and eternal. It’s not about scratching and clawing one’s way to the top in order to be something or someone. It’s about discovering the someone God made us to be and then becoming that someone, which is something indeed. It’s not about currying favor or attracting love, it’s about waking up to a world full of the steadfast love of the Lord that is from everlasting to everlasting, that can never fade or fail, and that can make us more than conquerors, no matter what.
In fact, authentic church-being exposes the lie of every story other than God’s story. Not so much by offering us better lines as by offering us better lives as individuals and congregations. It’s not the debate, but the demonstration that counts most.
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An Obsession
June 23, 2008
I confess: I’m obsessed with authentic church-being. Through prayer, reflection on the Scriptures, and observing what is and should be, I’ve become convinced that the Lord stands behind the obsession. For that reason, I’m eager to share it!
Perhaps you’ve heard me say it: If only we could be all God calls us to be as church, we’d be OK. More than OK, actually, but at least OK. Dare we admit that, at least from a Kingdom perspective, we have all—along with our churches—been less than OK? On many fronts (too many?) simply to be OK would signal awesome victory. Let’s go for this kind of gold and beyond, shall we?
So, everywhere I go these days I’m looking for signs of “church,” the marks of authentic church-being. Not necessarily the signs that easily grab our attention, that experts write books about, but the signs Scripture teaches us to expect when God makes us into church. As preparation for this expedition in search of church, I’m reviewing again the Acts, looking for the most important signs of church. Over the next little while I want to point out a few of them.
Here’s the first sign I see. Authentic church-being is about people—a Person and persons who together make a people.
It’s about a Person—Jesus. As you know Acts is Luke’s second volume. Volume one is the gospel, the good news story of Jesus. Clearly, Jesus is the story—who he is, what he does, why, and the glorious consequences of his life for all people. Yet, just as clearly, volume two is about Jesus as well. Since Luke says the first book related what Jesus began to do and teach, it is reasonable to think that the second book (Acts) relates what Jesus continued to do and teach through his followers (1:1). Indeed, Jesus promises that the gift of the Spirit will empower them to be “my witnesses” to the whole world (1:8).
Quite simply, church is about Jesus. “Church”: a people who know and love Jesus and whose reason for living is to show Jesus to the world. “Church”: a people who know what Jesus did and what Jesus does, and who celebrate it and share it with others. “Church”: a people so enthralled with the Person of Jesus that it seems right to call them by Jesus’, the Messiah’s, name—Christians (see 11:26). “Church”: a people so obsessed with Jesus that others explain them by saying, “they have been with Jesus” (4:13). “Church”: a people who apart from Jesus have nothing to do or to say (implied in 4:18-20).
Of course, all of this seems obvious, especially to mature and seasoned pastors and congregations. Yet, reflect on what it is we are often about—when we gather for the dinners, for the committee or board meeting, for planning, presenting, and approving budgets, even for times of instruction and worship. It’s appropriate to ask whether we are truly all about Jesus in these settings. Are we a people so in love with Jesus that it shows, like the love-interests of our teens show? Are we so dominated by the personal presence of Jesus that he shows through, especially when stress cramps our style? Do we have time for Jesus in our individual and corporate lives? Do we talk as much about Jesus as we do the weather, the professional or collegiate sports team of choice . . . ? And do we merely talk about Jesus and what Jesus would do? Or do we do what we know Jesus did and does in the world? Would others say about us, “Them? O they’re all about Jesus!”? We could never list all the questions.
The first sign of church is this: Jesus so dominates the lives of his followers that everything takes its cue from him. Everything. I suspect there’s much for most of us to think and pray about, and then to teach, preach, and model, as we look for this sign among the people we know as church.
Topics: Authentic Church-Being | No Comments »