Surrender

The gospel doesn’t really make sense until we give up. Our efforts, thoughts, plans, and actions are all ultimately futile.

I have a really hard time with this, as I’m sure others do. I’ve been in control of my life for more or less all of it, and – at the time – thought I was doing pretty well. These days it’s really sinking in that I can’t do all the worthwhile things I want to do for my God until I surrender.

The gospel says Jesus reconciles us to God as adopted children, and Jesus sends his Spirit to cleanse and guide us. It’s a striking picture of love to me, to be adopted. As children our place is one of growth and learning, learning from and obeying our Father who loves us. It’s hard to swallow that level of humility.

Maybe that’s why Jesus called God Abba - effectively “Daddy” – to show us how childlike we need to be.

What’s It About Again?

It’s about the gospel, right? So what’s that? Seriously, tell me.

The point is, it’s good to back up once in a while and reiterate the point. It’s easy to lose sight of the fundamentals, so take a minute and make the gospel make sense. I’ll write my answer later.

Why Grow?

A large majority of search traffic that comes here finds my How to Grow Your Church post.  I love that there’s so much interest in looking outside the church instead of in.  If you came here by such a search I’d really like to know: why do you want your church to grow?

The question may sound stupid on the face, so I’ll explain.  I believe there’s two broad “camps” to possible answers – wanting your church to grow for your church’s sake, or wanting it to grow for the strangers’ sakes.  Inside each of those are countless other answers.

For your church’s sake: What will your church gain?  What will it miss out on without growth?  How does this reflect the mission of Jesus Christ in the gospels?  What are the reasons a stranger might share your vision of your church?

For the strangers’ sakes: What will strangers gain?  What will they miss out on without your church?  How does this reflect the mission of Jesus Christ in the gospels?  What are the reasons a stranger might come, and reasons they might stay?

It’s my humble belief that those in the first camp – for the church’s sake – will find all those questions hard to answer.  The reason is, Christ regularly tore down institutionalism in favor of horizontal organization – groups of equals with direct access to God.  His heart constantly went to the stranger, the “lost sheep.”  Parables often highlight the greater compassion for those on the fringe.

It’s easy to get caught up in growing a church for the sake of Christianity instead of the sake of Christ.  Attendance is down, volunteers are slim, committees are populated by the same handful of overworked people and the median age is rising.  That doesn’t mean you shift the burden of your church’s welfare onto newcomers.  Change your outreach mission to sharing your experience of Jesus Christ, help people find their Spirit-given callings, and don’t ask for anything in return.  I’d bet you anything you’ll grow as a side-effect.

Spiritual Depth and Spiritual Death

Too much depth in the ocean and the pressure kills you.  The same is true for the depth of your relationship with God.  This is a good thing, I promise.

In Mark 8:35 Jesus says, “Those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.”

Again, in Romans 6:3-4 Paul says, “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.”

The Christian walk is one of giving your life away, so that it may be replaced by the will of God.  We are to be instruments of his gospel.

Is your church a “family friendly,” safe place for people?  Maybe it’s time to get dangerous.

Asleep at the Stern

The gospel of Mark is where I first met Jesus two years ago. I haven’t read it since, so I picked it up recently. I just got through chapter 4, with the venerable story of Jesus calming the sea. It hit me that it perfectly described the plight of the modern church. Check out the first part (Mark 4:35-38):

On that day, when evening had come, Jesus said to his disciples, “Let us go across to the other side.” And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”

Here is what it means. The other side is the new mission field of the suburb that cropped up in post-war America about 50-some-odd years ago. The boat of disciples is a new church plant, and it wasn’t a lonely affair since other boats went along, too. The windstorm is the surge of un-Christian spiritual views, ranging from athiesm to Buddhism to Wicca, and even a slew of brand new spiritualities (compare to the violent wind of Pentecost). Now the church is swamped with the worldly waters it was supposed to be separated from, a mish-mash of competing doctrines.

The crowning moment is the next piece though, Jesus was asleep on the cushion. Our churches are drowning in conflict, judgmentalism, ingrowth and spiritual malaise. Where’s God? Why do we feel so alone and forsaken? Why do people have an easier time finding spirituality on their porch or in a bar? Is it possible our Lord Jesus Christ is asleep?

Yes, I believe it is possible.

So what do you do? Well, the disciples chose to wake him up (Mark 4:39):

He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” Then the wind ceased and there was a dead calm.

Whew! All’s well if we bang hard enough on God’s door to wake him up. Right? Check out verse 40:

He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?”

Rebuked. Jesus commands us to go to the other side, and sometimes halfway through everything goes straight to hell, and no matter how we plead we can’t seem to feel God’s presence. We feel abandoned.

God cares that you are perishing, and he won’t let that happen. Sometimes though, following Jesus means going through the hardest places on earth. There’s no telling what will happen in that storm if you let go of your fear and ride it, but I believe after the storm you’ll make it to the other side Christ called you to, more ready than ever to meet his mission.