the answer
So what is the answer? If everything is so messed up, how do we fix it? I don’t know if people ask me this stuff to try and prove that it is easy to expose problems, but difficult to provide solutions. Maybe they honestly want to know what I think. I doubt that. It doesn’t matter why anyone asks these types of questions, the important thing is to recognize that this is the obvious next step after burning down the system in the way that I have over the last few months.
There is a problem with this natural progression of thought: there is no answer. If the way we do it doesn’t work, then how should we do it so that it does work? The answer is that we can’t make it work. There is nothing we can do, no system, no approach, no program, no book, no conference. There is nothing we can do to make this thing work.
That sounds really shitty, but I don’t think it is. It is contrary to everything that we understand as modern day consumer christians, but it is actually pretty awesome. It is pretty freeing. i feel like I have brought up freedom before on the blog. I think it’s really important. It enables us to grow in different and powerful ways. It exchanges the heavy burden of guilt and shame with the light load of following Christ. I feel like he spent some time talking about this stuff too. But, I don’t have a quiet time, so I’m probably just remembering stuff wrong.
Christ died to set us free from the Law, from the hierarchy of religious leaders that stood between us and God, from the burdens and pains of guilt and shame, from the incredibly destructive need to make ourselves good enough and holy enough and pretty enough and fancy enough for God to recognize us. That crap kills, literally, I know that is somewhere in the bible.
So we’re free from all that junk. How do we celebrate this? We set up new hierarchies and new holy places and new holy books and holy days. That doesn’t make any sense! How do we miss that? Maybe we should simply recognize that we are all one in Christ, that Christ is head of the body, that Christ is our High Priest, that Christ is the firstborn, that Christ is the bridegroom. I think you get the picture. We recognize one, and only one, spiritual authority, Christ. We do this because it is freeing to us and glorifying to Him.
I don’t know what God wants you to do. I don’t know what God wants me to do. I’m fairly sure that I fail at that on a regular basis. Who doesn’t? We’re all in this together. God gave every single one of us His Holy Spirit and the scripture. He makes the blind see and those with sight he makes blind. The people who think they know have no idea, they’re the only one’s who don’t get that. The people who realize that we’re all dysfunctional and serious failures, well, maybe we’ll see God do some awesome stuff.
I get that occasionally as well. I think the assumption is that if you don’t have a perfect answer you have no business pointing out the serious issues. For me, I am not sure what the right answer completely is but I do know that institutionalization of the church is certainly wrong.
I feel like most of the time, the question is not asked genuinely. It is meant to discredit my argument. Obviously, that is a ridiculous red herring, but it happens all the time. As long as we wait to know the answer, before we expose the problem, we will never even move toward the answer or away from the problem.
The million dollar question: how does one “do” church? As you’ve pointed out, one doesn’t “do” church. There is no right way. All of man’s best intentioned efforts will fall short, if we are trying to build what only Jesus can build. Yes, He calls us to work and labor in His Kingdom, and yes He expects us to build within our sphere on the foundation of Christ. But the enemy has craftily built a replica of truth that is so close in so many ways that it deceives a lot of people, but so far from the truth that one can’t get from replica to truth without going all the way around. Envision a glass wall, with the counterfeit and the real object on opposite sides. The two are awful close together, and you might think you could move across the glass to get from the counterfeit to the real object, but in reality you have to go 360 degrees all the way around the circle to get to the real object. This is how organized church is to truth. Here’s examples:
1. Leadership – The word is clear about Godly leadership in the NT. Paul talks about his authority in the body, and there is mention of elders, etc. In our current mindset, you begin talking about leadership and you automatically go to a worldly model of hierarchical dominance. This happens in the body as well. In reality, the Holy Spirit does set leadership in the body, but leadership is never by coercion or power, it is by service. It is not power over another, it is “power under” another. This is how Jesus led, with selfless intentions, by example, to His own harm (short term). This is the model for Godly leaders today, that they sacrifice themselves and their own best interests. To get people to do what they want, to follow after their vision and dream? No, to help people find what it’s all about: Christ, as you’ve already stated, Dan. In my own life, the brother that I would call my elder in Christ, and a true apostle in the faith, is a dear friend of mine. I have known him many years, and the Lord has knit us together in the Kingdom, to where there is such a degree of brotherhood and intimacy between his family and mine that it brings tremendous life to all involved. He speaks into our lives, but he serves, he expends himself, and we reciprocate. He receives from us, and we support him. Not because he expects us to, but because the natural flow of grace in our relationship causes an ebb and flow of giving and receiving that is natural.
2. Faith – This is a hot topic, but one that is so important. The charismatic churches teach a lot about faith and promises, and at the base the teaching is not necessarily wrong, per se. It is definitely misguided, but it is true that He has purchased healing on the cross. It is true that He promised to supply all our needs. Where the counterfeit fails, however, is in placing the emphasis ON THE PROMISES, instead of ON THE PROMISOR. I have found in my life that my faith grows when I seek Christ first, then out of that I identify the things He has promised that are pertinent to my current walk and work in the Kingdom, and then stand on those truths, all the while seeking Christ. Matthew 6:26 is instructive (paraphrased): “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things (material supply) will be added unto you”, as a byproduct, so to speak. The establishment makes faith something you have to earn and achieve, and brings guilt when you don’t achieve it. The truth is that faith is simply taking God at His word, and believing that the truth of scripture holds more water than what I perceive with my 5 senses. This is hard at first, as we are not accustomed to ignoring our natural thoughts and instincts and judgments, but with practice it becomes easier, and our faith grows. I have seen this process progress in my own life, and I can speak to these truths personally.
Bunny trail, I apologize.
So, one does’t build church. As you’ve stated, one seeks Christ, and corporately we seek Christ, and as we do He will build His church, just as He promised.
And you are so right. I have been so impressed in my heart lately about the importance of grasping our freedom in Christ, the grace in which we walk, the absolute and total absence of obligation in our flesh, as the Holy Spirit leads us internally, changing us from the inside out. Freedom: it’s a wonderful thing!
Mark
Mark. I think you make some great points in this comment. Something I read recently really hit me. One of the few times that Jesus specifically instructs his disciples on leading is when he is washing there feet. Obviously his death on the cross was the ultimate act of service to his followers, but the foot washing thing really brings it down to reality. At least for me. Somehow it seems that the modern church has it twisted. Instead of seeing service as leadership, they see leadership as a service. It is unfortunate that they do not follow the example of Christ, but then again, if they did, we wouldn’t be in this mess, would we?
How about no system but life? No chain of command but submission to one another? No obligations but to love? No Shepherd but Jesus? No rules, just grace that works by love? Where is the gospel that is radical, dangerous and real? Time for God’s people to wake up and realize they are naked, destitute and blind. Naked with the rags of human works.
Destitute of a rich, experiential knowledge of Christ.
Blind because they look only on the outward.
The answer all ready lives in us, if we would just listen.
Bob. Submission to one another is a great point to bring up. I have largely focused on our submission to the leadership of Christ, but we are most certainly called to submit, in love, to one another. I think love and grace are scary for people, because they cannot control those things in people, but embracing those crucial concepts of Christianity would be incredibly freeing for us, and glorifying to God.
Very interesting… Great points !