The narrow gate is wide enough for each who travels through …
But not enough to also carry all their baggage too.
Category: Simple Discipleship
I’m often asked, “Where do I find simple, relational, participatory church?”
Why not start with hospitality …
And see what God can do?
Because it’s easier to share Christ together …
When we share life together.
So let’s open our homes and open our lives …
And be the church once again.
In Western cultures, Christianity has lost sight of God’s fierceness …
Instead wanting only His comfort and affirmation.
When we define God’s attributes by our own sensibilities, however …
We lose the ability to be effective salt and light not just to individuals, but to whole societies and nations.
May we repent, before it’s too late.
I’d routinely ask men who gave their lives to the Lord in the jail and I mentored there, why it was so hard for them to become part of a church when they got out.
I’d then follow up by asking whether, after being released, they were ever invited into someone’s home for a meal and fellowship from any church they visited.
The answer? Never.
I’ve asked this hundreds of times, not just of men trying to put their lives back together after jail, but also of others living in the woods or in homeless shelters.
The answer was always the same.
In twenty years, I saw no exceptions.
We all love arms-length “ministries” and “programs” that make us feel good about helping “those people,” so long as it’s not too close and personal.
I guess most “churches” are look-alike religious social clubs for cookie-cutter “believers” …
Rather than real Christian communities where imperfect people relate and build up one another to become mature disciples.
How tragic.
In the meantime, our house remains a place of hospitality, friendship and fellowship …
And our lives continue to be enriched beyond measure as real church and community just naturally happens because of it.
Authentic faith …
Treats grace and repentance as inseparable.
Few want to confess and let God forgive them …
Fewer still to repent and let Him define them.
I tire of all the fads constantly being peddled to Christians in some new book, ministry, podcast or program.
Instead, just go and do what Jesus commands, as He’s called you to do it.
When you do, it certainly will look different than the latest hot new distractions making the rounds on social media.
So don’t be diverted by “Radical,” “Christocentric,” “Deconstruction,” “Eternal Purpose,” “Insurgence,” or whatever.
Because once someone brands God and His purposes with some new label and convinces everyone to hop on board …
It’s likely so saddled with egos and extraneous agendas that it’s already way off track.
Instead, learn to discern what’s good and eternal and leave the rest behind, because God’s into plumblines …
Not pendulums.
The greatest obstacle to faith is not doubt …
But our own comfort zones.
We need fewer “preachers” on podiums above us …
And more elders living shared lives among us.
Unfortunately, few are willing to give up the recognition of the former …
For the humility of the latter.
Existentialism is a philosophy which claims that our own perceptions are the ultimate criteria for determining what is true, real and right.
As such, it rejects external, transcendent standards of truth, reality and morality in lieu of individual subjectivity.
Thus, for example, so-called existential “Christians” dismiss God’s plenary authority of Scripture as His authentic, external written Word.
For them, how they feel or react when reading Scripture is higher revelation – and ultimately more authoritative – than Scripture itself.
But they are crafty folk.
They call their subjective perceptions a revelation of “Christ,” or otherwise try to recreate Him in their own image, then proclaim that “Christ is All.”
In reality, their “Christ” is simply all about them.
For them, when you cut through the rhetoric, Christ and His written Word are at odds and stand divided.
As such, their muddled philosophy dares to judge God and filter Scripture through their own individualistic sensibilities …
Which leaves them stuck with themselves.
They are, in a word, fools …
Peddling deception to other fools who pay them heed.
God doesn’t define sin to condemn us …
But to warn us, because He loves us, about what can harm and destroy us.
Those who reject that …
Condemn themselves.
Faith versus works is a false dichotomy.
Real faith is trust, expressed not by what we feel …
But what we do.
Too often, “Church” is about expecting others to fit our own molds …
Based on our own cultural biases, traditions and perspectives.
In contrast, I have learned to allow “church” to emerge in all its splendid diversity …
By letting the life of Christ take root in the rich soil of different cultures and communities.
Could that be why the Great Commission says “go” make disciples of all “nations” (i.e., cultures)…
Rather than “come” attend my “church”?
God’s authoritative Word is not some fleeting inspiration you feel when reading the Bible …
But the Bible itself, as originally given by God Himself as His external standard for what is true, real and right.
It takes great hubris to claim otherwise …
By those who elevate their own subjective perceptions over the eternal, God breathed words of Scripture.
False prophets will tickle your ear …
While true prophets speak what you don’t want to hear.
The great lie of our times is that we should follow our heart.
All it has produced, among God’s people, are carnal Christians.
God never said that what we feel is the standard for what is true, real and right.
In fact, God says that the heart is deceitful, foolish and exceedingly wicked …
But His Word endures forever.
Which is why God seeks to redeem our heart …
But never puts it on par with Scripture as our standard for life, doctrine and maturity.
The opposite of Godly faith is not lack of faith …
Because everyone has faith in something.
The question is, in what or whom?
What about those who peddle an appealing Christ of their own perception through enticing books, blogs, seminars and posts …
While dismissing His plenary authority of Scripture as His written Word?
It’s not that they’re always wrong.
After all, even broken clocks are right twice a day …
But only fools would try to use ’em to tell time.
The worst deceptions …
Start with affirmation.
Slowly but surely, God is shifting the paradigm of church and leadership.
It is becoming genuinely organic, simple and participatory, with healthy fellowships beginning to emerge.
All I can say is forget the buzz words and existential agendas of past advocates like Viola and Dale – along with their fellow “itinerant” buddies like Zens, Rodriguez, Giles and Rohde.
They tried to peddle their own cookie-cutter, trans-Biblical perceptions of Christ and the Church on God’s people …
Through books and blogs that they never sustainably made work in their own lives, home towns or anywhere else.
As a result, they have left behind a legacy of ruined lives and failed churches.
Instead, build on the sure foundation already apostolically laid through Scripture as God’s authoritative written Word, in the unique context of diverse communities …
Where He still sends us today to make disciples and redeem nations.
That, my friends, is real “organic” church and leadership.
In the Old Testament, God let a jackass speak …
Not to affirm the jackass, but to affirm His Word.
Some today would do well to remember that distinction.
The greatest struggle for many is letting go of our hurts.
Often, we let our hurts define us by holding onto the familiarity of our pain …
Rather than chancing the unfamiliarity of a truly new life in Christ.
Even among Christians, few risk the ongoing redemption of confession, forgiveness and repentance to become whole and complete in Him.
Really, it’s not that difficult …
But it does take trust.
In Hebrews 13:17, some English Bibles tell us to “obey” those who “rule over” us in the church. These are very unfortunate translations.
In the original Greek, the verb translated “obey” is in the middle voice and means to “be persuaded.” Yet it is often wrongly translated in the active voice as “obey,” which has an entirely different meaning.
The verb phrase “rule over” also is a misleading translation.
In the original Greek, it is not referring to anyone with hierarchical authority “over” others.
Rather, it is simply talking about those who have earned your esteem by having given thought to and walked farther along the same path.
If they can’t persuade or earn your respect by having actually thought through and lived what they’re saying, then we are under no obligation to accord them any influence in our lives.
Bottom line:
There is NO command in the New Testament to blindly obey or follow anyone – and no mandate for authoritarianism, “covering” or control over others – in the church.
Church leadership in the New Testament is straightforward:
Be persuaded by those who thoughtfully walk the walk and are further along in their faith and life experience, yielding to their example as we submit one to another.
Nothing more, nothing less.
Longstanding hurts, disappointments and emotional wounds can become so ingrained into our sense of identity …
That they begin to define us.
When that happens, we often aren’t willing to transparently expose and turn them over to Jesus …
But tightly hold onto them like a child clinging to a security blanket.
Instead of finding liberation and wholeness through new life in Christ …
We then become our past.
Healthy civilizations and societies are a Christian virtue …
Promoted by those who heed Christ’s Lordship in all spheres of life and human endeavor.
Using civil government to compel personal faith and piety, however, is a Christian vice …
Promoted by those who don’t understand Christ’s different jurisdictional limitations for particular spheres of life and human endeavor.
Plumbline Faith 