Given the present state of our global economy, one must consider how these shakings will affect the Body of Christ. The church in America has been known for its power and influence, largely due to the financial base that they have access to. In times where jobs are scarce and tax-exempt charitable giving are dwindling, what will the impact be to the institutional church?
“A new study from the Barna Group found that during the past three months, one out of every five households had cut its faith-based giving. As a result, churches could see donations decline by as much as $5 billion and revenue by as much as 6 percent during the fourth quarter of the year. “The enemy of charitable giving is insecurity,” said Paul G. Schervish, professor of sociology and director of the Center on Wealth and Philanthropy at Boston College. “Right now, we can’t even project the end of the recession, like we did other recessions.”“The number of religious groups in trouble is growing. Focus on the Family, a faith-based organization in Colorado with a $5 million deficit, laid off more than two hundred workers in November, while Seventh Day Adventist Church leaders have instituted a wage freeze and a 20 percent reduction in travel. Elsewhere, falling donations recently forced the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh to hold a “special collection” for Catholic Charities in response to a 40 percent increase in calls to the agency’s emergency assistance program.”“During the last year, most churches have reported 5 percent to 10 percent reductions in giving. I’m also aware of some churches that are experiencing up to a 20 percent reduction from last year’s collections. Because we have not seen such a drop in general giving in recent decades, this loss of revenue has caught many churches by surprise.
“I also believe that what goes on in them [support groups] is far closer to what Christ meant his Church to be, and what it originally was, than much of what goes on in most churches I know. These groups have no
buildings or official leadership or money. They have no rummage sales, no altar guilds, no every-member canvases. They have no preachers, no choirs, no liturgy, no real estate. They have no creeds. They have no program. They make you wonder if the best thing that could happen to many a church might not be to have its building burned down and to lose all its money. Then all the people would have left is God and each other.”
Source: Milt Rodriguez, Milt Rodriguez’s Blog
“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free; stand fast therefore, and do not be entangled with the yoke of slavery again.” Galatians 5:1
A friend of mine recently told me about a conservation group in Zimbabwe that is taking captive lions and rehabilitating them back into the wild.
This is a difficult, four phase process, but they are having success with it. The rehabilitation process has many snags involved because of the effects of captivity on an African lion. When lions are bred and raised out of their natural habitat, some very abnormal patterns begin to develop. In short, they become domesticated. Yet lions were born to be wild.
In captivity, the lions basically forget that they are lions. The forget how to hunt. They forget how to live in the wild. And they forget how to live in a pride. The “pride” is the name for a community of lions. Lions are by and large social creatures and do not do well as loners.
The Effects of Captivity
You and I were born (again) to be spiritual lions. That’s who we are, but we have forgotten our true nature because of our captivity in the religious system. Captivity has conditioned us to believe things that are just not true. We have become something less than our true calling and destiny because of this conditioning. We have become domesticated.
We have become isolated pew warmers; a mutated race that sits and listens instead of participating and functioning. The clergy/laity system has made us passive and spiritually lazy. In other words, we have sold out our birthrights. Just like Esau we have sold out for the comfort of a bowl of lentil stew, that is, our warm and comfy pews. We no longer wanted to bother with functioning as members of the Body of Christ, so we sold out and instituted the clergy/laity system.
We Have Forgotten How to Hunt
This is definitely one of the most important aspects of a lion’s life. Without the act of hunting, how will you eat?
How will the pride eat?
We have forgotten how to hunt for our own food. Part of our conditioning has been that everyday (or every Sunday!) someone opens our cage and throws us a piece of meat. This bypasses the whole hunting process.
Who is this person that throws in that piece of meat? Where did he get it? Apparently, he went and hunted for it himself. But that is not my prey! And I never had to hunt for it myself.
Hunting is much more than just killing an animal and then eating it. There is the encounter of the hunt itself: finding the right place and time; having the right equipment; getting very quiet; smelling the prey; stalking the prey; taking aim, etc. Sometimes you come up empty handed, but the actual engagement is the thrilling part.
As believers, our food is Jesus Christ Himself! Not just teaching and doctrine about Christ, but the very Person and experience of Christ. You need to hunt for this “food” yourself. Sharing someone else’s food is alright at times. But there is nothing like you going out on your own “hunt” and capturing some new revelation or insight into your Lord. This is exciting. This is discovery. This is how you were born to live!
But then what? What do lions do after they have captured the prey?
They bring it home and share it with the pride.
As I said before, lions are very social creatures and they live in a pride. But in captivity there is no hunt and there is no pride. Lions are thrown their food everyday and they do not live as a pride. They are just individual lions living a mutant life of individualism.
A lion in captivity never has to hunt for his own food. He becomes lazy and complacent. He actually believes that this is normal. He believes that someone else is responsible.
We Have Forgotten How to Live in the Wild
“Because we do not regard the things which are seen but the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” II Cor. 4:18
There are two kinds of realms that exist. There is the unseen realm (or the eternals) and there is the seen realm (or the physicals). Both of these reams exist together at the same time.
One realm is spiritual and unseen. That is, it has no physical substance or what we would call matter. It has no size or dimension, and it exists without time or space. You could say that this spiritual realm is totally “other than” the seen, physical realm.
Of course, we know that the seen physical realm does have matter, energy, space, time, and dimension. Science tells us all about electrons, protons, neutrons, atoms, and molecules. We seem to know a lot about the seen realm. But the scriptures tell us that this realm is only temporary.
It is the unseen realm which is eternal, and yet, we really don’t know much about that realm at all. How do we live in that realm? How do we live in spirit?
The Creature of Two Realms
As lions, we are called to live in two realms at the same time. But we should live mostly in the unseen realm. This is the “wild” for us. And it is mostly unexplored. It really is the “wild.” It is our natural habitat. And we can never be fulfilled with anything less. And yet, because we have forgotten who we are, we have become comfortable in captivity. We have become comfortable in the seen realm. We actually start believing that the physical realm is everything and then we start investing our lives into it.
Yet we have a Lord who is both Lion and Lamb. He is definitely gentle. But make no mistake about it, He is not tame! He is as wild as they come and the wild realm that is our home is inside of Him (Eph. 1:3).
But our natural habitat is not lived alone. This is a place of community. This is the place of the pride.
We Have Forgotten How to Live as a Pride
The “pride” is the social unit for the wild lion. They do not live alone. They interact in small groups know as prides.
Dear believer, a very important part of your natural habitat is the spiritual “pride.” This has been lost to us as well. Lions in captivity don’t live in prides. That is a special feature only found in the wild. When you discover that you are already free and begin living in the other realm, you will see the need of community life. This wild life is a shared life. Shared with your Lord and shared with His people.
But we are not used to sharing our lives with others. We have been isolated (held captive) for so long that we have forgotten that this is just the normal life for wild lions. In a true pride, you all share your food, share your joys, share your sorrows, and share everything in life with one another.
The big question is: how do we get to this place of freedom? How do we remember how to hunt? How do we remember how to live in the wild? How do we remember how to live in a pride?
Our great God has already provided a solution to this situation. And this solution was in force as early as the first century.
God’s Solution: Walking with Lions
As I told you in the beginning of this article, there is a conservationist group in Zimbabwe that is successfully rehabilitating lions back into the wild. But how do they do it?
They take the young cubs for walks everyday in the wild. An experienced lion “handler” (not trainer) will take a cub on long walks everyday to introduce the young lion to life in the wild. Eventually, the lion’s natural instincts will begin to kick in. They will begin to respond to their natural prey and eventually begin to stalk them. Then, one day, they will learn to hunt for themselves. The lion handlers will also introduce them to a pride in the wild so they can be socially integrated.
God does the same thing with His people. He re-introduces His “lions” back into the wild by the use of “handlers.” These are men and women who are called, prepared, and sent by Him for this difficult task. They do not become caretakers of the believers, but their job is to be re-introducers. Then the believers re-discover their spiritual instincts and habitat that has been long forgotten in captivity.
We can see these people at work in the first century. They were sent out by God as itinerant apostolic workers (or church planters) to lay a foundation of Christ for the assemblies of believers. Their job was to work themselves out of a job. Peter, John, Paul, Barnabas, Titus, Silas, Timothy, and others did this work or re-introducing God’s people to the wild. Then they would leave them on their own to live as wild lions! Every one of these workers had already experienced true “pride life” for themselves and knew about the hunt, the wild, and the pride by personal experience.
In the Zimbabwe program, the handlers have less and less contact with the lions. The goal is to completely release them to the wild, not to control them and keep them domesticated.
Christians are leaving the religious institutions in droves. They are seeking more reality, a deeper spirituality, and freedom. They are being set free from the captivity of the religious system and it is a beautiful thing to see. But that creates an altogether different problem.
Now that all of these believers are being set free from captivity, what will happen next? How will they now be re-introduced to the wild? How will they remember how to hunt? How will they be introduced to the “pride” life?
God’s own rehabilitation program must be the answer. We need to pray that God will raise up many “handlers” who have been called, prepared, and sent to walk with the lions.
You are a lion and you have a divine right to be free in the wild with His pride!
On my way to work last Thursday, I noticed a new billboard on Highway 494. In the 5:00 o’clock pre-dawn darkness the orange and blues shouted a message to passersby: “Windows – Life Without Walls.”
I am a Mac enthusiast. Therefore, I’m naturally pre-disposed to a critical attitude when it comes to Microsoft Windows. However, the advertising slogan that Microsoft used is worthy of some honest criticism.
“Windows – Life Without Walls.” Think about the windows in your home or office. They provide light from the outside world, protection from cold Minnesota winters, and mild entertainment when the occasional bird flies into it. Windows themselves are actually very useful.
However, a window by itself won’t do. A garage-full of windows does not benefit anyone. In order to take an otherwise useless piece of glass and metal and put it to use it must be installed in a wall. Only once it is hung on a structure does it fulfill its role. Structure is a necessity.
When I talk to people about my experience leaving the institutional church, most people falsely assume that it involves a religious-flavored version of anarchy. Images of wandering individuals and purposeless gatherings flicker through my mind. They assume that I am living “life without walls.”
Why is it that leaving the four walls of tradition conjure up visions of reckless free-for-all’s?
Truth be told, leaving the institutional church does not require a departure from order. I’m still on my journey into the realm of organic Christianity, but here are some key points that I understand thus far.
Structure is Vital to a Healthy Life
I like the word “organic” because it implies something that is living. The trees outside my window have life within themselves. The Canadian geese waddling around the frozen lake have life within themselves. Anything that is living is organic in nature.
The human body is comprised of 50-75 trillion cells. These cells are organized in varying patterns and functions that result in arms, lungs, eyes, etc. That means I am an extremely complex, organic creature!
The human body also has 206 bones. These bones provide a framework that supports my organic body. If these bones were missing, I would be nothing more than a blob of tissue. Not having a framework to hold my brain, heart, or lungs in place would result in death.
Structure sustains and protects life. Participating in an organic church setting requires structure in order to promote healthy function.
For instance, we had a handful of people over to our home last Friday night. We shared a meal, drank coffee, and talked about our experiences with God. It was unscripted and life flowed naturally from our conversations. However, it required someone to organize the gathering by inviting people, cooking food, and making the guests feel welcomed. (Shameless plug here: My wife is excellent at this!) My wife provided a context for people to gather together and share life.
We’ll look at the concept of organic leadership in a future post. However, it is important to know that it does exist. Structure can actually be very beneficial when it operates in a healthy way.
Organic Structure Is Not Predictable
During my brother’s generation, they had this novelty called a pet rock. The first Pet Rocks were ordinary gray stones bought at a builder’s supply store and marketed as if they were live pets. The fad lasted about six months, ending with the Christmas season in December 1975.
If I took a pet rock and set it on my office table, I can reasonably guarantee it would be there the next day. It would be predictable.
However, if I had a pet dog and I put him on my office table, I could make no guarantee that he would be in that same spot the next day. He may have wandered into the bathroom only to be caught drinking water from the toilet bowl. His demeanor may have changed. His energy level may be different. His living, organic nature, makes him an unpredictable companion to the pet rock still sitting on my office table.
In an institutional church format, one could reasonably predict a gathering of believers. Any given church building would probably be occupied on Sunday morning, between the hours of 9AM and 12PM. There would most likely be a service led by professional clergy, introduced with a musical number. Towards the end of the event, there would probably be a single person delivering a speech that was religious in nature. Chances are, that speech would have three points, and be followed by a congregational prayer. One week later, the entire process would most likely reoccur like clockwork.
Organic church, on the other hand, is spontaneous and unpredictable. Last night, when we met with other believers, we ate dinner and spent most of the time sharing about how we encountered Jesus in the past few weeks. The next time we gather, however, it may be on a different day, at a different time, and at another home. Instead of talking the entire time, we may pray or worship. We might decide to take a trip to the grocery store and buy a cartload of groceries for the family in need next door. Each meeting has a mystery to it.
If something has life within it, that life will constantly take on different forms.
Organic Structures Grow Naturally
Staying with the illustration of the human body, notice how the skeleton structure changes over time. A newly conceived baby, still in its embryonic stage, has no pronounced skeletal system. At five weeks, the neural tube begins to develop, which will one day become the baby’s brain, spinal cord, nerves, and backbone. The structure is simple and accommodates the present needs of that child.
Twenty years later, that child has been born and matured. He is now a fully developed human being. Instead of one neural tube, he has 206 carefully fashioned bones, each contributing to the overall support his body requires. Structure naturally formed within this human being. As he grew in maturity, the structure also grew and conformed.
If you are interested in launching out into organic Christianity don’t get bogged down with trying to figure everything out immediately before you begin. Start small with what organic elements you have. Let the organic structure naturally grow over time. You do not need to designate “elders” and “deacons” right away, if at all. You do not need to set agendas to the meetings. Seek Father together, in your group, for what His agenda is. Since you’re seeking a vibrant, organic experience things may look different every time. The important thing is to gather, love one another, and focus on Jesus.
Avoid the tendency to name the group, establish roles, and set rules. Seek to make your gatherings as simple as possible. Follow the method Jesus used. The method is incredibly simple, highly relational, easy to duplicate, and centered on God. The method is found in John 5:19 - “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son also does.”
Here’s a good example to get started. Invite your friends over to your house for a meal. Either provide the food or have each person bring a dish. Sit down around a big table and, as you eat, ask one another, “How have you encountered Jesus this week?” You can also ask them, “Where are you on your journey with Jesus?” Follow the ageless slogan that I’m beginning to appreciate, the KISS method (Keep It Simple, Stupid!).
Source: CMA Resources, Article written by Neil Cole
In our quest to be part of a powerful move of God’s kingdom, we often are tempted to think the solution will come from a complex composite of things that produce the results we so desperately long for. We cry out to the heavens for a solution that will finally change the church forever. Many travel every year to new seminars and conferences, buying the latest books and binders full of new methods in our search for the answer. The primal scream of our hearts is a search for spiritual success that will ultimately change the world. To our query of the universe, Albert Einstein once commented, “When the solution is simple, God is answering.” In this article, we will describe the practical ways our team—Church Multiplication Associates—has used to multiply and network house churches that saturate neighborhoods and nations with the message of Jesus Christ. Why Are Simple Things Better?
The Power of Simplicity
There is something special about the power of simplicity. Many of the most profound things in life are indeed simple. Simple, however, does not mean simplistic. We tend to overlook simple things thinking that anything of value and substance will be complex, require professional oversight and will be very expensive. A valuable lesson that we have integrated into all we do as a church multiplication movement is that “less is more.”
Simplicity is a step beyond complexity. It takes great skill and effort to make something simple. It is easy to create something that is complex. But, to design something that is simple and yet profound, however, is a creative challenge. It takes great skill to know what is absolutely essential and what can be discarded.
Jesus said, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My load is light.”(1) For most, discipleship has become so complicated that it is no longer an easy burden and a light load. But Jesus intends for the Christian life to be easy and light and to bring rest to our souls. Fulfillment of the Great Commission is meant to be restful, not stressful!
Simple Things Last, while Complex Things Breaks Down
When we approach disciple making—wanting to pass the baton on to succeeding generations—we must refine the process so that it is simple and transferable. Simplicity is the key to the fulfillment of the Great Commission in this generation. If the process is complex, it will breakdown early in the transference to the next generation of disciples. The more complex the process, the greater the giftedness needed to keep it going. The simpler the process, the more available it is to the broader Christian populace.
Perhaps the reason that we do not see multiplication of disciples more often is that we are trying to do too much too soon in the process. We fail to grasp the fact that discipleship—following Christ in simple obedience—is a life-long pursuit. We, unfortunately, attempt to teach our disciples so much in the first year that we unintentionally sabotage the rest of the years by intimidating them into thinking it is way too hard for common people to do. We tend to over estimate what we can do in a year and underestimate what we can do in three years.
Simple Things are “Sticky” and Transferable to Others
In the best selling book The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell says any epidemic type of expansion requires a “stickiness factor.”(2) In other words, the pattern must stick with people in such a way that it is unforgettable and easily passed on to others. It is not enough that it is easy, but it also must capture the imagination and affection of those who will pass it on.
Paul passed on to Timothy truths that were so profound that he would not forget them. They gripped his life and never left him. At the same time, however, the things Paul passed on were simple enough that Timothy could in turn pass them on to others who could then pass them on to others.(3) The gospel itself is the most profound truth mankind has ever received, yet it is simple enough for a child to understand and pass on to others! It is not enough that people can pass it on, it is necessary that they will want to pass it on. The gospel is good news, and like a profound secret, it should be something that we all want to tell others.
What we need are systems that are practical and profound. They must be both simple and significant! A system that is significant enough to tap into the Christian’s internal motivation, yet simple enough that it can be easily passed on from disciple to disciple, such a system will strengthen the church and produce growth that is qualitative and quantitative.
Our team of house church planters uses the following criteria to evaluate the ways we function as a movement in order to see multiplication to the ends of the earth:
- Received personally. It has a profound implication. It must be internalized and must transform the soul of the follower.
- Repeated easily. It has a simple application. It must be able to be passed on after only a brief encounter.
- Reproduced strategically. It has universal communication. It must pass on globally by being translated into a variety of cultural contexts and languages.
Simple Things Keep the Focus on What is Important
Another reason why simple methods are better is that they do not take away the glory from Christ himself. There are many times, unfortunately, that methods can be so impressive that people cease to notice Christ. Yet, Christ chooses to put his glory in weak vessels so that all the glory is retained by him. If people are so impressed with our wineskins (i.e. systems and strategies) that they stop noticing the wine (i.e. the message and person of Christ), then there is a big problem. Simple strategies keep it focused on Christ, not the plans or the people dreaming up the plans.
Jesus spoke of wine and wineskins.(4) Wineskins are important because they carry the wine, but without the wine, the skins are useless. It is good to give some thought to ministry systems, but the systems should not be the main thing. In fact, if done right, they should hardly be noticed at all because the living water has captivated our attention and affection. Simple systems are more likely to allow for this.
Simple Things Can Reproduce Easily
One final reason why simple methods are important is that multiplication becomes much more feasible. Reproduction comes from a natural desire and ability inherent in all healthy living things. Similarly, reproduction of churches should not be hard. It should be natural and even pleasurable. The fact that reproduction is thought to be so hard and painful for churches is evidence of how far removed we are from being healthy and natural. Reproduction is the product of intimacy, and we are created to enjoy intimacy. Even among churches, reproduction is the product of intimacy—with Christ, his mission, his spiritual family, and the lost world.
All reproduction begins at the molecular level and develops from the micro to the macro, from the simple to the complex. It is the same in the kingdom of God. We each began life as a zygote. A zygote is a cell formed by the union of a male seed and a female egg. Life multiplies from there. The moment that conception occurs, all the DNA necessary for the formation, growth, and development of a mature person is intact. The DNA never changes—it just leads the multiplication process within every tiny cell into forming the complete body. The same can be said for the body of Christ.
(1) Matt 11:28-30 (NASB)
(2) Malcolm Gladwell (2002), The Tipping Point: How Little Things can Make a Big Difference, First Back Bay, pp. 24-25.
(3) 2 Tim 2:2
(4) Luke 5:36-39
Source: Frank Viola, Present Testimony Ministries
I’m looking forward to 2009. I believe it’s going to be an important year for the church of Jesus Christ.
In August, I was privileged to be one of the speakers at a conference for Christians who gather outside the institutional church. Some of the other speakers were Tony & Felicity Dale, Paul Young, Wolfgang Simpson, John White, and Jon Zens.
In one of the leadership sessions, I gave a very short talk in which I stated that I’m not someone who goes around saying that there’s a new move of God happening in our day. In fact, for the last two years I’ve heard many others say this, but I’ve suspended judgment. I then announced that I’m now forced to say that I am convinced that we are in the beginnings of a new move of God.
Please note that I believe that God is up to many things. And He’s using all sorts of movements, “conversations,” etc. in various ways to bring His people to His final and ultimate goal.
In this article, however, I’ll be focusing on one particular move of God that has taken place in two different phases, or currents, thus far. Both of these currents have occurred outside the organized church in the West.
- The first current occurred in the late 60s and early 70s. By 1979, it had all but died.
- The second current began in the late 80s and early 90s.
This brings me to the reason why I’m excited about 2009.
It’s because we are just now beginning to see a third current of God’s move in the United States (and other Western countries) where Christians are leaving the institutional church structure (in record numbers) and discovering the living, breathing, headship of Jesus Christ in an organic, collective way without a clergy.
The landscape is changing rapidly. God is raising up new voices and new expressions of the church which look very different from the traditional expression.
According to my travels, my observations, and my correspondence, eight main features appear to be marking this third current. They are as follows:
1. A genuine revelation and experience of an indwelling Lord.
Many Christians are being awakened to the fact that Jesus Christ dwells inside of them, and that He seeks to be everything to them. Some movements today emphasis the historical Jesus and seek to provoke Christians to try to imitate the Jesus of history. But in this third current, God’s people are discovering that the historical Jesus has taken up residence within them. He is resurrected, glorified, enthroned and has become a life-giving Spirit. Consequently, we can actually live by His indwelling life. Not as a theory, a doctrine, a positional truth, but as a reality.
2. A recapturing of a spiritual vocabulary to reflect a unique experience.
Ephesians Chapters 1-3 are littered with a vocabulary that few Christians use today. This vocabulary emanates from a mind. And that mind is characterized by the capacity to see the unseen and to declare as present fact heavenly realities that exist outside the constraints of created time. Realities that are not just doctrinal or theological, but experiential. This vocabulary is being restored in this third current.
3. Meeting together for a very high and noble purpose.
That purpose is to display the living Christ who indwells the church. The third current is being marked by church gatherings— not as services, not as platforms for sermonizing, not as pastor-led or priest-led orders of worship, not as Bible studies, and not as liturgies— but to make visible a living Christ by His every-member functioning Body where principalities and powers are put to shame. This aspect of church meetings, where every member is participating under the headship of Christ, is little understood today. But it’s beginning to gain traction in this new current.
4. An incredible Christ-centeredness in the thinking, life and vocabulary of God’s people.
This new current is marked by the centrality of Christ. Jesus Christ is being put in His place. He is being given His rightful position of centrality, supremacy, and preeminence.
This Christ-centeredness is being reflected in conversation. (That’s how the first believers got the name “Christian,” by the way. They were always speaking about Christ. ) This Christ-centeredness is being reflected in songs. This Christ-centeredness is being reflected in ministry.
Our message is Christ. It’s not about how to be a better person, how to serve God more, how to do better and be good. It’s instead marked by a revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ along with practical help on how to know Him deeply. Out of that flows everything else, including the church’s mission.
5. An experience of close-knit community.
This is becoming an experience, rather than a buzzword. Believers who know church as community do not think merely as individuals. They do not think in terms of “me” or “I.” Instead, they think and live in terms of “we” and “us.” To their minds, there is no disconnect between getting saved and being part of the community of believers. This element is a restoration of the New Testament Christian mindset.
If you were a pagan in the first century, you knew that becoming a Christian meant being initiated into a shared-life community. It meant losing your raw individualism and your rugged independence. It meant becoming part of the people of God. Not as an abstract doctrine, but as a way of life. You became part of something larger than yourself—a new culture in which you lived your life. For that reason, the early Christian movement was called “the Way” (Acts 19:9, 23; 24:14, 22). It wasn’t a belief system; it was a way of life.
Let’s face it. Western Christians have inherited an individualistic Christianity with an individualistic salvation and an individualistic walk with God. A Christian publisher recently told me that there are about 45,000 evangelical Christian titles in print and about 5,000 that are published every year. 95% or more of those books are addressed to you as an individual Christian. And the underlining point of those books is what you must do as an individual to be a better Christian.
But there is no such concept in the mind of God. Christianity has always been a corporate experience and a corporate reality. The individual Christian mind was born during the Reformation, driven into the ground during the Enlightenment, and set in concrete for the last several hundred years. But the New Testament knows no such mindset. This, I believe, is an important recovery.
6. An understanding of the reality of being “in Christ.”
Like the early Christians, those in this third current are being pulled loose from a “works” mentality, liberated from a guilt complex, and set free from a sense of religious duty.
If you open up the New Testament letters, you will find that Paul always addresses the churches he planted (despite what they were going through) with the arresting phrase “holy ones.” He saw them holy “in Christ.” And the recipients of Paul’s letters clearly understood what Paul was saying, because he didn’t give much explanation for it.
I want to give you a testimony of how this mindset is being recaptured in this new current. Not long ago, a sister in a Christ-centered organic church stood up in a meeting and gave a testimony. She said,
“I have been raised a Christian since I was a child. I’ve been meeting with you all for about a year now. I was listening to the Christian radio, as I sometimes do, and a song came on. The singer was singing about how unworthy she was and how she needed to try harder to please God. She sang that her righteousness was as filthy rags, and she needed to improve her spiritual walk. I paused and suddenly realized that I couldn’t relate to that song anymore. I couldn’t relate to it because I’ve been given new eyes to see myself in Christ. For many years I struggled with a sense of unworthiness, guilt, and condemnation. But that’s all gone now. I don’t have it anymore, and I feel so free in the Lord’s love.”
When she shared this testimony, the room erupted and others began to testify along the same lines. It was an awesome experience. I believe this sister had laid hold of the same spiritual reality that the first Christians had laid hold of.
To add another illustration, a few years ago one organic church did an interesting experiment. They broke up into pairs and visited the various institutional churches in town for two solid weeks. And they decided to analyze the sermons they heard.
When they came back to report, they made this striking observation: every sermon they heard had the same essential message. It was this: “What you are doing isn’t enough to please God. You need to do more than you’re doing. You need to read your Bible more, pray more, help people more, come to church more, etc. You need to do better than the best you can do.”
This is the script upon which most contemporary sermons are built. It is a gospel of duty—pure and simple.
Interestingly, it was observed that these same churches give a very different message to the non-Christian. It sounds like this: “God loves you the way you are. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done, His love is unconditional. Jesus died for you because He loves you without condition. You can’t please God. Your good works are as filthy rags. But God will receive you as perfect if you come to Christ. So receive Him today.”
Ah . . . but once those same people receive Christ and “get saved,” the “bait and switch” gospel kicks in with a passion. Here’s what it sounds like:
“Now that you’re a Christian, here’s what you must do to please God. You must try harder, you must do more, you must work harder, God won’t be pleased with you if you don’t do such and such, etc.”
A question that every Christian should ask when listening to a sermon or a message is this: “Am I hearing about the glories of Jesus Christ or am I being told what to do to be a better Christian?” The latter is a duty-based gospel – it’s legalism in one form or another. It’s eating from the wrong tree. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil is the luring counterfeit for the tree of life. Note that the forbidden tree contains the knowledge of good.
According to the New Testament, good works are like fruit that falls off of a tree spontaneously as the result of life. In the same way, Christians naturally walk in good works with others as they learn to live by God’s life.
In this connection, I have lost count of the letters I’ve received from pastors (some of whom are part of “cutting edge” movements) who confessed, “My gospel isn’t working. For so long I have been serving the god of serving God, and I admit now that I really don’t know Him nor do I know His love and acceptance in a genuine way.”
A large number of these men have also expressed the fact that burned out with respect to ministry and confessed that they had come to the shocking realization that they were serving God in their own strength instead of by His life.
You and I cannot live the Christian life by ourselves. You can I cannot serve God in ourselves. Theological knowledge, doctrinal precision, and the intent to do good and help others is no substitute for living by Jesus Christ. Being a Christian is territory staked out only by Divinity. Only Christ lives the Christian life (John 15:5; Gal. 2:20). We learn to live by Christ and we learn to serve God together in community, not as an isolated Christian. This experience is beginning to take root among a growing number of Christians today.
7. A rediscovery of God’s eternal purpose.
It appears that the eternal purpose of God is the governing vision of this third current. I won’t unravel that statement here (as I’ve spoken on it extensively elsewhere), except to say that this is probably one of the most exciting aspects of what’s beginning today, for me at least. The eternal purpose is deeply bound up with an experiential understanding of the Trinity (the fellowship of the Godhead) and its relationship to the Christian life, the expression of the church, church planting and mission.
8. An inclusive, open spirit to all of God’s people.
Unlike so many past movements, this third current is marked by an open attitude toward all of God’s people. It rejects and even hates an exclusive, sectarian, elitist attitude and posture. While it has its own unique distinctiveness, it embraces and receives all whom God has received. Neither is this movement built around a human personality. While God is using a number of people to influence it, no human being is taking the center of attention. Those who are influencing it the most are pointing to the Lord Jesus Christ rather than to themselves.
In conclusion, we are only in the beginning stages of this third current. So there’s not a whole lot that’s established yet. The baby is breaking open the womb. But through her birth, we are seeing a recovery of what’s been lost and a discarding of what’s been picked up over the centuries.
As we approach 2009, pray with me that the Lord will gain much more for Himself with respect to these eight characteristics—all of which tell us something about one of the ways in which the Spirit is blowing today.
