Introducing Jesus Christ – Again (Part One)

English: the first of the Epistles to the Colossians (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Mick Turner

The contemporary church is in the midst of radical change and it is hard to predict just what the Body of Christ will look like even five years from now. Yet in recent weeks the Spirit has increasingly led me to see that no matter what shape emerges out of the current chaos in the church, one thing remains radically clear. We must return to a Christ-centered faith with the principle task and mission being to educate Christians and those outside of the faith about the true and spectacular nature of Christ.

Many sincere believers frequently say that it is time for us to “go beyond” Christ or to “go deeper” into the mysteries of the faith. While there is some truth in the point that we all need to deepen our walk of faith, we must not lose sight of the central figure of our faith. It is precisely because we have lost sight of Christ that the church finds itself in such a predicament as is seen today. Frank Viola and Leonard Sweet speak to this theme:

 The person who believes that a Christian or a church can graduate beyond Christ has never fully seen the Jesus that Paul of Tarsus preached and declared. Instead, such an individual has very small Christ, one who’s far less than the one who fills the pages of the New Testament.

Sweet and Viola go on to illustrate their point by mentioning Paul’s words to the Philippians, written in his waning years:

But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ. (Phil. 3:7-8)

Religious scholars and church historians are uncertain as to the exact nature of the erroneous teaching that was infiltrating the church at Galatia. Yet whatever the content of the teaching, Paul handled it in a very skillful way. Sweet and Viola point out:

What a unique way to combat error – drown God’s people in a revelation of the image of the invisible God, who delivered us from darkness, redeemed us, and made us part of His eternal kingdom.

This alone should cause us to pause in reflection. In times of crisis, the church doesn’t need rules established, laws passed, or wolves shot. She needs a seismic revelation of her Lord – the fullness of the Godhead in bodily form.

The Christ the Colossians knew was simply too small. That was why they became susceptible to chasing other things – including religious ones – in the first place…..

This statement by the authors really speaks to the situation the church finds itself in today. Over the past few decades people, many of them sincere, spiritually-sensitive people, have stampeded out of the church in droves. There are many reasons for this phenomenon and no one answer covers all the bases as to why people are leaving and not coming back. One factor is the reality that the spiritual marketplace is much more competitive than it was even fifty years ago. America is a veritable spiritual smorgasbord with all the world’s major religions are present in significant numbers and lesser known faith systems are thriving as well. As for cults, there are far too many to list.

My point here is this: there is a lot more competition these days and people are more spiritually astute. They are looking for deeper, more life-changing answers and the fact is the church is woefully inadequate on this front. Rather than giving people real bread and “living water,” most churches serve up rubber chicken at Wednesday’s potluck and 2-liter bottles of Pepsi with the fizz long departed. Rather than feeding the flock this tasteless pabulum, it is high time the church returned to offering the real thing, and I don’t mean Coca-Cola. Jesus said that he gave living water and people would not be thirsty ever again. Paul understood that the church at Colasse needed the real Jesus and Sweet and Viola describe his thinking in a very cogent manner:

Paul’s goal was to strip away every distraction that was being held before their eyes and leave them with nothing but Christ. He dared to displace all rules, regulations, laws, and everything else that religion offers, with a person – the Lord Jesus Himself. As far as Paul was concerned, God hadn’t sent a Ruler of rules, a Regulator of regulations, a Pontiff of pontifications, or a Principal of principals. He had sent the very embodiment of divine fullness. So, he reasoned, if the Colossians could just get a glimpse of the glories of Christ, He would be enough. The Spirit would electrify their hearts and restore them to a living relationship with the head of the body. So Paul threw down his trump card – the Lord Jesus Christ. He presented a panoramic vision of Jesus that exhausts the minds of mortal men.

As Viola and Sweet so cogently point out, Paul felt that if the Colossians could gain a true and accurate perspective on the nature and purpose of Jesus many of their issues would be resolved. This dire need that Paul discerned in the Colossian church is also relevant to today’s church. If those within the church rediscover the true magnificence of this being they claim to worship and follow, I am convinced the mass exodus would slow to a mere trickle. Further, if those outside the church come to understand just who and what Jesus was and is, as well as witness the true heart of Christian service flowing from a revitalized, kingdom oriented church, they will likely become less negative and critical toward the faith and more than a few might be drawn to join in the good work that is taking place.

To be continued…..

(c) L.D. Turner 2013 / All Rights Reserved

Radicals, Renegades, and Revolutionaries

Mick Turner

A sustained look at the spiritual landscape that constitutes Christianity at the close of the first decade of the 21^st Century reveals a broad spectrum of trends. However, one that jumps out in an unexpected way is the interesting coalition of forces that are coming together with a common agenda and purpose. Although these forces are divergent in terms of size, theology, and background, they share a common objective: to serve the world in ways great and small in the compassion that Jesus did.

 

Noted social researcher George Barna has called these passionate and socially engaged believers “Revolutionaries” and goes on to say that this divergent network of Christians, which includes liberals, conservatives, and everything in between, has the potential to transform the very fabric of Christianity as we know it.

 

Although the mainstream media only paid passing lip service to these new trends, we began to see evidence of this new force in the faith community during the run up to the 2008 Presidential Election. The fact that Pastor Rick Warren and Saddleback Church played host to a special forum featuring both Barack Obama and John McCain was a major clue to what is beginning to be a groundswell of social and political involvement of a whole new breed of Christian. Post-election statistics reveal that it was these Renegades for God that helped elect Barack Obama. Although a divergence away from the traditional Evangelical support of the Republican Party, it should also be noted that this was not an indicator of a new allegiance toward the Democrats. In fact, research shows that these Revolutionaries are mostly independent and highly progressive in their political leanings.

 

Barna continues:

 

The United States is home to an increasing number of Revolutionaries. These people are devout followers of Jesus Christ who are serious about their faith, who are constantly worshipping and interacting with God, and whose lives are centered on their belief in Christ. Some of them are aligned with a congregational church, but many of them are not. The key to understanding Revolutionaries is not what church they attend, or even if they attend. Instead, it’s their complete dedication to being thoroughly Christian by viewing every moment of life through a spiritual lens and making every decision in light of biblical principles. These are individuals who are determined to glorify God every day through every thought, word, and deed in their lives.

A most promising yet challenging aspect of these new Christian communities is that former barriers of ideology, theology, and partisanship are being transcended. Admittedly, differences do exist within these blossoming coalitions, but these dissimilarities are seen as minor when compared to the passion these believers have for the causes they espouse. Long-time Christian activist Jim Wallis observes:

 

Christians of color, younger white Christians, “new evangelical” pastors and leaders, and progressive Catholics and Protestants from many denominations are reaching across barriers to change the face of Christianity – and also to engage with allies in other faith communities. They have learned many lessons from the mistakes of the Religious Right and they aren’t about to repeat them. And they are not about to become a new “Religious Left.” When asked if they are liberal or conservative, many will answer “yes,” depending on the issue. And because they don’t easily fit the political categories of the left and right, they could become bridge-builders, bringing a divided nation together on the politically transcendent issues of poverty, human rights, climate change, energy transformation, and the urgency of peace.

These highly committed believers are what Barna calls Revolutionaries and David Foster calls “Renegades for God” or simply, “R4G.” It is a deep, incomprehensible but accessible God that issues an irresistible calling to these special believers, who to a man and to a woman have a deep, abiding hunger for the Divine, not just as a nice, cozy, image of a father in the sky, but instead, for a living, breathing, divine entity that lays claim to their lives and gives them a purpose and a calling far beyond the parameters of their egos and petty concerns.

 

Such a God is a dangerous God. He is dangerous precisely because he is unpredictable, counter-intuitive, and mostly because he cannot be mocked. Such a God can surely give us comfort; he is, in fact, called by scripture the “God of all comfort.” Jesus tells us his yoke and burden isn’t heavy or overwhelming and if we come to him he will give us rest.

 

Yet at the same time he will give us a calling, a mission, and a destiny. Yet at the same time he tells us that following him involves sacrifice, rejection, and something called “cross-bearing. Concomitantly, he supplies us a plan, a purpose, and a promise – “And be sure of this, I am with you, even until the end of the age.”

All three are needed, because the genuine path of Christ is a difficult undertaking. His yoke may indeed be easy, but his consistent demand upon us is the most arduous and threatening requirement that could ever be made of a mortal. In essence, Christ bids us to come and die. The promise of our own resurrection is there, but the prospect of facing spiritual death is a fearful commodity. What makes this whole process of dying and rising in a spiritual sense all the more ironic is the fact that we are already spiritually dead, we just don’t know it. In return for our commitment, Jesus offers more than we could possible imagine or comprehend, but above all, he offers us life. Indeed, we are resurrected from our spiritual death and brought into the light of his steadfast love. He loves us and expects that we share that same love with others. We can either accept the offer or reject it, but either way, we have to deal with it.

Remember the encounter between Master Jesus and the rich young man who was reluctant to follow Jesus’ demand that he sell his belongings and give the proceeds to the poor? The rich young ruler had no misunderstanding of what this demand would mean. He would have to give up his riches and give to the poor and that, of course, hit him where he lived – his wallet. But I think this young aristocrat understood something else after listening to Jesus, most likely on more than one occasion. He discerned the deeper message of sacrifice, suffering, and personal pain involved in following this radical teacher. No doubt he saw that look in the Lord’s eye when he spoke. He understood what Jesus was saying – that the entire order was corrupt and rotten and that something totally new, vastly sweeping, and thoroughly uncompromising was being put forth as salvation for his ailing world – something called the Kingdom of God – something requiring a price most costly for entry.

These contemporary revolutionaries we are speaking of fully understand exactly what Jesus meant in his confrontation with the wealthy young man. Whether or not these revolutionaries are rich is not the point; the point is they are willing to make the sacrifices necessary to get more of God – not more from God like the Prosperity Gospel advocates suggest – but more of God, as that gnawing spiritual hunger in their bellies demands.

These revolutionaries, these “Renegades for God,” have counted the costs and are ready to pay. These sold out believers fully understand what is going on at this critical juncture and they are willing to step up to the plate and take their swings. Watching from the bench (or the pew, for that matter) is no longer an option. These renegades have taken up their crosses….

 

Barna estimates there are already over 20 million Revolutionaries in the United States and these sincere Christ-followers have “gratefully and humbly accepted the opportunity to do what is right, simply because it is right, even if it is not original, politically correct or culturally hip.”

 

What makes Revolutionaries so startling is that they are confidently returning to a first-century lifestyle based on faith, goodness, love, generosity, kindness, simplicity, and other values deemed “quaint” by today’s frenetic and morally untethered standards. This is not the defeatist retreat of an underachieving, low-capacity mass of people. It is an intelligent and intentional embrace of a way of life that is the only viable antidote to the untenable moral standards, dysfunctional relationships, material excess, abusive power, and unfortunate misapplication of talent and knowledge that pass for life in America these days.

The new influx of Revolutionary Christ-followers seems to have surprised many people, in the church, the media, and the culture at large. In spite of the fact that the institutional church’s social importance has been on the wane for several decades, the advent of the Renegades for God should not come as such an unexpected development, especially when one considers the Master these revolutionaries claim to follow.

 

(c) L.D. Turner 2008/2012 / All Rights Reserved

The Unfolding of Sacred Potential (Part Five – Revised and Expanded)

Holy Spirit church: Cellingpainting: Assumption of Christ Locality: Heiligengeistplatz Community:Klagenfurt Deutsch: Heiligengeistkirche: Deckengemälde - Christi Himmelfahrt Ort: Heiligengeistplatz Gemeinde:Klagenfurt (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Mick Turner

Continued from Part Four…..

God has placed a unique potential within each and every one of us. The realization of that potential is part of our personal mission on this planet and exists within the context of God’s overall plan and purpose for humanity. When we marry our potential to our individual purpose, our potential is activated and we begin to move toward becoming all that we were designed to be. When our purpose is connected to a specific personal vision, our potential is further unfolded in the context of our purpose and vision. Further, this marriage of purpose and vision gives rise to passion. We become excited about bringing our vision into concrete manifestation. We arise each day with a feeling of optimistic energy and divine direction and we are enthusiastic about working toward realization of our personal vision.

As the process reaches fruition, we then realize our vision, our purpose, and our potential. In doing so, we manifest our glory. Our glory can be defined as becoming the best version of ourselves and claiming our already established identity “in Christ.” By manifesting our glory, we are able to fulfill our God-given role in the establishment of his Kingdom. The entire process is thus carried forward in the Kingdom Context. God planted his divine plan in us in the form of our unique potential. That potential, along with our subsequent purpose, personal vision, passion, and glory, had an overriding purpose and that purpose was the unfolding of God’s kingdom here on earth.

On a practical level, the kingdom context consists of the recognition that the primary reason Christ incarnated was to inaugurate the process of establishing his kingdom on earth. Our spiritual unfolding involves nothing less than having all of our actions flowing from the living awareness of our responsibility of carrying on the Lord’s kingdom mission.

The power that carries this entire process forward, from potential to glory, is faith. We accepted God’s blessing of cleansing and salvation, our justification, on faith. Now we are to go a step farther along the road of faith: we are to accept that God has given us even more grace in that he has provided, as Paul says, “every blessing in the spiritual realm.” Or, in the words of Peter:

Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, in order that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in world by lust (2 Peter 1:2-5).

In the words we often use  here at LifeBrook: God has provided for us all that we need in order to become the optimal versions of ourselves for the glory of God and the benefit of others.

In essence, what we are talking about here is the blessed reality that God, through his grace, love, and infinite wisdom, has seen to it that we have all that we will ever need to be successful in life. He has planted a divine potential in each and every one of us and tied that potential with a personal purpose or mission that we are to carry out. The specifics of that purpose or mission are found in our dreams and our vision, which is also God-given and easily discoverable.

It is upon these very principles, based upon the spiritual reality of God’s love, his character, his provision, and his faithfulness, that we can readily lay claim to spiritual optimism. Indeed, If God be for us, who can be against us?

Your Harvest of Glory

Your God-given potential began as a seed planted in you by the Creator before your birth. Further, he not only planted this great potential within you but also gave you all the talent you needed to discover this potential and, in concert with the Holy Spirit, connect your potential to a divine personal purpose – a call to a specific mission that was yours to carry forward. Once discovered, this mission hopefully gave you sufficient passion and motivation to develop and carry out a specific personal vision that allowed your talents and gifts to blossom and your personal vision to become a vital, living reality.

By realizing the manifestation of your mission you necessarily had to hone and develop your God-given talents and gifts and, in so doing, became more and more the optimal version of yourself. Now, walking in your personal excellence, creativity, and commitment, you are harvesting your personal glory.

We can see hints of this process in the Master’s great prayer in the 17^th Chapter of John’s gospel when he expresses that as he is glorified, the Father is glorified. And the reality is my friends, when we walk in our excellence – when we manifest and live as the optimal version of who we are, we glorify the Master.

Walking in Spiritual Excellence

As a result of reaping our harvest, we are now able to manifest our true potential, realize our vital vision and in the process, become the optimal version of ourselves. We consistently walk in the Spirit and not in the flesh and in so doing, we are able to become more effective servants of the Light.

As you see, we move from our seed potential to walking in our manifest glory. We do this not to glorify ourselves, but to glorify our Master, our Father in heaven, and the Holy Spirit that has dwelled within us, walked along side us, empowered us, and made all this possible. When we come to walk in our personal glory, we are then able to be of true, selfless benefit to others while bringing glory to God.

This is our true aim and our ultimate calling – to be all that we can be; to give glory to our Creator; and to serve others with love. In the final analysis, we can ask for no greater destiny than this.

to be continued…..

(c) L.D. Turner 2012/All Rights Reserved

Related articles

• The Unfolding of Sacred Potential (Part Four – Revised and Expanded) (lifebrook.wordpress.com)
• The Unfolding of Sacred Potential (Part Three – Revised and Expanded) (lifebrook.wordpress.com)
• The Unfolding of Sacred Potential (Part One – Revised and Expanded) (lifebrook.wordpress.com)
• The Unfolding of Sacred Potential (Part Two – Revised and Expanded) (lifebrook.wordpress.com)
• A Note on Unfolding Divine Potential (lifebrook.wordpress.com)

Wise Words for Today

Early Christian ichthys sign carved into marble in the ruins of Ephesus, Turkey (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Christianity is now so fundamentally associated with the formula of fall and redemption, so focused on beliefs about Jesus instead of invitations to follow Jesus, that a new Reformation is needed. It will deal not with matters of doctrine and church order but with a recovery of the concept of transformation through the imitative wisdom of discipleship. It will reject once and for all the illusion that knowledge alone is redemptive and seek to restore the ancient truth that creation is blessed, not fallen…..The new Reformation will be about the very life and death of Christianity itself. We must first recover the original message and then be willing to interpret it for a new age. It will be a return to faith as praxis, grounded in trust, not intellectual assent, grounded in doctrine. Christianity was once, and must be again, about following Jesus, not worshiping Christ.

Robin Meyers

(from Saving Jesus from the Church)

Wise Words for Today

Bota de vino Taken by myself (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

God is bringing forth new wineskins for a fresh outpouring of wine, and it does not look like anything we’ve ever seen. So we must focus on Jesus and the wine he is pouring out, and not on the wineskin. Remember, the purpose of the wineskin is to furnish the appropriate environment for the juice of the choice grapes to ferment and season at just the right time. We should be open and flexible, like new wineskins, in order to have Jesus fill our hearts and communities. This new wineskin must be very simple and able to expand and grow with the new wine….Renewal is not enough. We all need to go through a conversion something like what the apostle Peter experienced in Acts 10 and 11. Peter’s conversion from an ethnocentric Jew to an advocate for Gentile missions was one of the most significant paradigm shifts in the history of the church. Likewise today, the church must repent of any cultural tradition that hinders the movement of the gospel across cultures. The current spiritual-cultural crisis calls for nothing less than complete repentance, what the Greeks call a metatonia, a transformation of the mind, a change of heart, and a new way of living. Just as Gentiles received salvation free of Jewish tradition, so all people have a right to follow Jesus without having to become Western or institutionalized.

Jonathan Campbell

Wise Words for Today

Gospel Graffiti II (Photo credit: Peat Bakke)

The first thing for the Christian is to recover the gospel – to relearn and fall in love again with that historic, beautiful, redemptive, faithful, demanding, reconciling, all-powerful, restorative, atoning, grace-abounding, soul-quenching, spiritually fulfilling good news of God’s love………….Following Jesus in the twenty-first century demands that his disciples relearn the full meaning of the Gospel story, recovering the culminating theme of restoration that runs throughout the whole of Scripture. This begins by seeing the Gospel as the central solution to humanity’s age-old questions and self-conflict. But this story isn’t static; it dynamically continues to unfold today, displaying God’s original goodness and ultimate intention for all his creation. The good news for humankind is that we are all made in God’s image, given a path through Jesus to be reconciled from our sin, and purposed to partner with him to renew and restore the creation to its fullest potential.

Gabe Lyons

(from The Next Christians)

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Wise Words for Today

Image via Wikipedia

It’s time to commit. What are you going to do about it? In the end God works in our world one person at a time. The hungry are fed, the thirsty are refreshed, the naked are clothed, the sick are treated, the illiterate are educated, and the grieving are comforted, just one person at a time. You have the opportunity to be that one person to someone who needs what you have to offer. And what you have to offer is never small and insignificant. Again, the great picture of what God is doing in our world is incomplete without your unique puzzle piece – the one that only you possess. But you must choose to place your piece in the puzzle.

Richard Stearns

(from The Hole in Our Gospel)

Christian Service in an Age of Change

Image via Wikipedia

Mick Turner

When I take time to sit back and reflect on the times in which we live, I am often filled with awe and wonder. Although the church in Europe is gasping its last trembling breaths and our church here in America shows all the signs of following suit, the Christian faith is exploding in other parts of the world. In Africa the Body of Christ is growing at an unprecedented pace and in Asia the same thing is happening. Living and serving in China for five years, I was able to witness firsthand the phenomenal gains the faith was making despite over fifty years of Communist oppression.

Everywhere the faith is exploding we see an accompanying display of Holy Spirit fireworks – especially in Asia and Africa. Signs and wonders, much like those witnessed in the early church, are commonplace. People are being healed, demons are being sent back to their dark abodes, and countless lives, once seemingly destined for society’s slagheap, are being restored and renewed. Everywhere one looks one sees God doing a vital and mighty new work.

As the current century unfolds, I think it will become readily apparent that the West in general and America in particular will no longer be the “leader” when it comes to global Christianity. In fact, we can already see this shift taking place as numerous denominations struggle to give equal weight to the rising voice of its new global membership. Here on the home front, we are undergoing our own shake up as long-accepted, traditional forms of the faith are rapidly dying out. The problem is, new forms, although many are taking shape, have yet to find any widespread cohesion, and, as a result, many Christians find themselves in a sort of “spiritual limbo.”

In many ways I think we can liken our current situation to that of the original disciples as they found themselves in the Upper Room after Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection. As they awaited further instruction I am sure they reflected on and discussed many of the things the Master had told them over the preceding three years. Jesus had told them to expect the birth of new wineskins as the old forms could not possibly begin to hold this new wine that he was bringing. As his Ascension drew near, he commissioned them to go and make new disciples in all the earth and breathed into them the Holy Spirit.

After the coming of the Spirit in power at Pentecost, the apostles went forth to launch this new faith. Still uncertain and unaware of what the form and structure of the fledgling church would take, the early church leaders employed a proactive strategy. Rather than sitting back and waiting to see how things would unfold, they went forth into the streets and preached the gospel to anyone who would listen. In addition, they healed the sick, fed the poor, and did all manner of service work, all in the name of the Master they loved and served.

Our calling in the 21^st Century is no different. Just like the early church, we find ourselves living in an age of rapid change and cultural transition. And as our old church structures continue to crumble, we have yet to give birth to any solid, faith-sustaining alternative. This, too, is much like the situation the early followers of the Master faced.

I think we can profit greatly by looking to those first Christians as a prototype for how we should move forward in this time of transition. Although the early church structure was still very fluid and most likely varied from place to place, the first Christians understood and applied two fundamental principles. They understood that they were primarily called to two foundational activities: disciple-making and service to others.

Twenty-first century Christians would do well to emulate them.

© L.D. Turner 2012/All Rights Reserved

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Wise Words for Today

Image via Wikipedia

People are longing for connection to a deeper purpose but struggle to find it. Beleaguered by too many options, we flip-flop on everything. Whether selecting a college major, or changing jobs every few years, or relocating from city to city, or trying to find a place to call home, many people are feeling more empty. Their search for significance ends each day at a bar, or alone in their bed, when all they really wanted was to find someone to listen and help them figure life out. They wake up just as alone the next morning, feeling discouraged, no closer to finding the magic answer and weary of living the rat race. On occasion, they spot someone who seems to have it all figured out, and it makes them utterly jealous. Deep down, they want someone else’s story to be their story. They just feel stuck.

This is the story line for many young Americans, and it’s not different for Christians. God created each one of us for a unique purpose, but most people never invest the time and energy to discover it. When they do, many are scared away by the changes a new direction might bring. But sometimes the issue isn’t a lack of courage; it’s a lack of clarity. Amid all the options, we just don’t know how to discern what it is we are supposed to do.

Gabe Lyons

(from The Next Christians)

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The Dwindling Church: Can We Stop the Bleeding?

Image by The Library of Congress via Flickr

Mick Turner

For decades now, sociological research has indicated that organized Christianity in America is on the wane. Except in the non-urbanized areas of the Bible Belt, all of the old Mainline denominations like Methodists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Disciples of Christ, Episcopalians and the United Church of Christ have undergone a mass exodus resulting in empty sanctuaries and boarded up doors and windows. Now, just a few months back, the Southern Baptist Convention, long the stalwart bastion of conservative Evangelicalism, has admitted to decreased membership and a dramatic drop in baptisms.

The reasons for this decline are myriad and analysis of these etiological factors is certainly beyond the scope of this short paper. Suffice to say that the Christian faith, as it is practiced in the West, has largely gone off the tracks. Granted, independent, non-denominational churches have grown in terms of membership rolls, as have some of the non-affiliated Charismatic groups. For the most part, however, it is more than fair to assert that like some punch-drunk pugilist, organized Christianity in America is on the ropes.

Many pastors and church leaders were aware of these disheartening trends but there were at least an equal number who were in blatant denial. Convinced that the dwindling numbers were a temporary anomaly on the radar screen, these leaders put the blinders on as their congregations slipped away quietly. Beginning as a trickle but escalating into a torrent. Once forced into action, many churches tried this and tried that, but nothing seemed to stem the great exodus. Further, church leaders soon discovered that many once-solid Christians could not be lured back into the sanctuaries by any means. Rubel Shelly, in his fascinating book entitled, I Knew Jesus Before He Was a Christian and I liked Him Better Then, describes these discouraged former church-goers and offers a simple, sane method for getting them back in the pews:

Too many people have already settled the issue of church. They’re done with it. Over it. Out of there. And they aren’t interested in re-thinking , re-entering, or even re-inventing it. But you just might get their attention with this radical, engaging, challenging, life-transforming healing , rescuing person name Jesus of Nazareth. In fact, I think it is the only hope we have for communicating with a postmodern world. The best argument is not a syllogism or well-written book but a living demonstration of the kindness and acceptance, grace made incarnate, or love emptying itself for the sake of others.

Shelly is absolutely correct when he emphasizes incarnate grace and self-emptying love as providing a foundation for renewal of the Body of Christ. My take on the issue is similar: until the church returns to its kingdom calling, which is simply to continue Christ’s work of giving flesh to grace, restoring justice and fairness to the poor and marginalized, and spreading the Good News to all who would hear it, there is little hope for restoration and renewal.

I think the following passage by author and teacher Brian McLaren sums up well the current situation, its causes, and the future possibility of something positive being birthed out of it all. McLaren gives a cogent and moving testimony regarding the dwindling numbers in our once great churches and also makes the highly accurate observation that religion has indeed become a major obstacle to people truly finding Jesus:

…….the Christian religion continues to sing and preach and teach about Jesus, but in too many places (not all!) it has largely forgotten, misunderstood, or become distracted from Jesus’ secret message. When we drifted from understanding and living out his essential secret message of the kingdom, we became like flavorless salt or a blown-out lightbulb – so boring that people just walked away.  We may have talked about going to heaven after we die, but not about God’s will being done on earth before we die. We may have pressured people to be moral and good or correct and orthodox to avoid hell after death, but we didn’t inspire them with the possibility of becoming beautiful and fruitful to heal the earth in this life. We may have instructed them about how to be a good Baptist, Presbyterian, Catholic, or Methodist on Sunday, but we didn’t train, challenge, and inspire them to live out the kingdom of God in their jobs, neighborhoods, families, schools, and societies between Sundays.

No friends, we didn’t train, inspire, and equip the members of the Body of Christ to do Christ’s work here on earth. Instead, we gradually erected a religious edifice that replaced a vital, relational spirituality and to put it bluntly, turned a silk purse into a sow’s ear. What’s worse, once we had the pig’s ear we did all that we could to maintain it and in the end, transformed a dynamic spiritual path into a static status quo. McLaren continues:

We may have tried to make people “nice” – quiet citizens of their earthly kingdoms and energetic consumers of their earthly economies – but we didn’t fire them up and inspire them to invest and sacrifice their time, intelligence, money, and energy in the revolutionary cause of the kingdom of God. No, too often, Karl Marx was right: we used religion as a drug so we could tolerate the abysmal conditions of a world that was not the kingdom of God. Religion became our tranquilizer so we wouldn’t be so upset about injustice. Our religiosity thus aided and abetted people in power who wanted nothing more than to conserve and preserve the unjust status quo that was so profitable and comfortable for them.

What would happen…………it we again tasted the good news of Jesus – not as a tranquilizer but as vibrant, potent new wine that filled us with joy and hope that a better world is possible? What if, intoxicated by this new wine, we threw off our inhibitions and actually begin acting as if the hidden but real kingdom of God was at hand?

What if, indeed! Friends, I am convinced that a fresh wind is blowing and that wind is from God. For those unafraid to step out of their comfort zone, shed outworn, unproductive religious baggage, and raise their sails to catch this vital and vivifying divine wind, the future is a vibrant vista of unlimited possibility. God is moving and the Spirit is calling – calling out a cadre of consecrated, committed renegades and revolutionaries who are neither timid nor tired, but instead, are bold and on fire with a passion to know Jesus at a level far deeper than the current norm. Christ is beckoning to those willing to challenge the status quo, even if it means irritating those reluctant to jettison sacred cows that have too long created barriers to truly knowing the Master. He is, indeed, issuing his call to those with a desire to take up the kingdom agenda and work diligently to bring its sacred principles into concrete manifestation in a world that sorely needs healing.

Christ is calling – calling out those with spiritual insight into the reality that all things are interconnected and that what impacts a single person ends up impacting us all. Yes my friend, Christ is calling forth those equipped with this understanding and from that wisdom, those possessing hearts overflowing with divine compassion.

 © L.D. Turner 2011/All Rights Reserved

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