Okay. Let's go over my last blog a bit. I intentionally left out Ananias, Sapphira, Stephen, etc. to lead you to believe I was discussing someone(s) presently. I was hoping you would question either them or me or both. And then....I wanted you to realize I was discussing the first century church.
Why? I wonder if we don't realize today's church as possibly being sanitized and sterilized. How casually have we come to think that Jesus hung on a cross perfectly composed for the photograph with no sight of blood? There were no bruises, no splatters of blood, and evidently no moments of gasping for one more oxygen hit. He seems to hang there so......so clean-cut.
Does the church also seem to translate as casually? Doesn't it innuendo there were no nerds, no hyper nut-cases, no radicals in the church leadership? Sure there was Peter, but didn't he straighten up at the end? Doesn't it seem to white collar and tie us into tidy venues of community service? Didn't the early church do VBS for the kids and then have a weekend retreat for the undivorced?
My point in the Some Churches blog was to awaken us to the "play-church" mania plaguing some of our modern day efforts just hoping we will see He is still including us in the building of His church. It will not always be attended by orderly rows of pews, a pinch of cracker, a sip of juice, with the hopes that we liked at least six of the eight songs sung.
The church is a life or death issue. It is radical in that its intention is to use us as God's method to turn the world on its ear. How we go about it is up to our eyes and ears of the Spirit to discern. But it is up to us to pursue the kingdom of God with sobriety which may, in fact, be a beat of a different drum than the American church is used to marching.
4 comments:
Do you think the church can sometimes have a reaction that pushes people that are a "mess" out of our doors? That just kills me inside.
I think all churches should have some sacrilegious behavior going on in our audience. If we aren't seeing that...then I would honestly wonder who we are reaching.
A few people see the broken in our crowd and ask me if our church is about those kinds of people. I smile and say yes. Not because we condone the behavior, of course, but because we love ALL people, regardless of what they are doing through or even doing right now. And we believe in a God who can transform the very worst of us.
He did it for you right? He continues to work miracles in the lives of people today, inviting us to help Him change the world by changing us.
You keep taking back enemy territory in Tulsa, and we will keep battling here in Indy. God bless all of and your ministries.
Thanks for the comments, Terry.
I did a "Catacomb Worship" with our teens last night and was really convicted (I hope the teens were, too!) about the fact that we worship so freely, and at times, uncaringly. but others, past and present, are literally dying to worship a great and awesome God!
I hope our freedom never equals boredom or apathy or disbelief that God can do great things in our times of worship together.
Yeah. That's cool Terry. A regular reader of your blog would recognize how out of character your last entry was, which was why I was a bit confused.
So, I have a serious question. Is being transformed something we do or something God is doing to us? Maybe the answer is "yes", but that makes me crazy. I read Romans 12:2 and II Cor. 3:18 and see different answers. The practical implications can be astounding. In other words, do I move or am I moved?
I think you're on target. We try hard not to be "sanitized" but the pressure is tremendous.
I especially like the mention you made of the Spirit. Instead of being radical for the sake of being radical, or being radical due to being fed up with the status quo, early Christians were radical because they were "led by the Spirit."
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