nobrokenreed

The Personality Driven Church

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But Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a seed; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life will lose it, but whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.…”

In the past year, I have been introduced to some disciple makers whose accomplishments are quite breathtaking. Hundreds of thousands of churches, with millions of baptised believers across many, many countries – some Western, some not.

If I mentioned any of their names it is doubtful you would have heard of them, something I think they would prefer. Even from those inside these movements, there would be many, a majority, who would not know the catalyst. That is because simply there is only one name that is important, only one name that people have signed up for. King Jesus.

As I have prayed and reflected on this, I get the feeling that this is very, very significant. Jesus founded a movement, one centred around him, and we have shifted that to many smaller movements centred around ourselves. It is alarming that believers around me constantly cite names they are following in Christendom; Francis Chan, Phil Pringle, Joyce Meyer, Torben Sondergaard, Rick Warren, Joel Osteen and the list goes on. Much closer to home, there is the same issue on a smaller scale, with many striving for regional recognition.

It would be easy to backtrack on this wouldn’t it – to say that all these were well meaning and important for the leadership of the church. But surely to deny it is by far the easier option, given that most of Christendom pursues personality. Are they really important? Would Jesus church fail if we didn’t have these personalities, do we not think Jesus capable of running or growing his own church without us?

At the core of this is our need for both recognition and control and it seems we now have a choice before us. If we truly want movement, the type Jesus founded and desires, a church that is wild and free, a church governed and led by him alone – potentially though, with doctrinal error, inconsistent with fallen, failing people then we must die to ourselves and release control. We must point people to Jesus, have them filled with the Holy Spirit, teaching them to multiply and then back away working to build the church away from us towards God. We must accept and even rejoice, as Jesus did, that some will do ‘even greater things than us.’

If we don’t, if we insist that it be done our way, that our stamp must be on the work, that control must be centralised – in short that the local church be run along similar lines as the institutions of this world, then any movement will be limited by our reach. At times, it may be big in our eyes and even in the worlds, but incomparable to what Jesus envisaged when he looked out over the world and commanded believers to ‘baptise the nations’. It will be too small by his standards, and when we go the movement is likely to stop dead. More than that, it will lack the freedom, the interdependence, the ability to move between borders and geographies. In short, it will not be a movement free to run as the Spirit dictates. It will be an institution.

We are at a pivotal point in church history right now. As I look around globally, I see the Spirit moving forward at an even faster pace than the world seems to crumble. Contrary to what we read, hundreds of thousands of Muslims are discovering Christ, and in turn help his movement accelerate towards others. Christ is always the head, always the main event.

In other places though, predominantly the West, I see known names trying to build even bigger followings for themselves. Leaders – humans, gathering people around them in smaller kingdoms.

If we are to see movement, then we must get out of the way, we must die to one who is greater. We must rid ourselves of the cult of the personality. God will share his Glory with nobody, not even the most well-meaning of people.

Distracted

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 “little children, stay away from idols” – 1 John

A man walked back into our lives recently. He has always been a ‘sort of follower’ of Jesus. He goes to church every week, is devoted to his business, but never had the time to really stop and spend time exploring the Gospel or working out what it meant to follow Jesus. That is until now.

This week, Chris walked into our lives a different man. I guess lung, liver and pancreatic cancer will do that to a person. The conversation was sobering. Before us stood a man who to all intents, looked well enough. But now the conversation had urgency. Those things in his life that he had all along known he shouldn’t have had – an obsession with his business, toying with new age, excessive drinking and simply ignoring the call of Christ in his life, they are now gone. They have been replaced by a desire, in the final days, to prioritise all in life that is important. Jesus has moved into his rightful place as Lord, and we look forward to baptising him in the coming days. We also pray for healing.

In a parallel scenario, I am reading of great movements that are happening around the world, where many are seeing fruit even more than a hundredfold, but never without cost. I am convinced the Lord sent this man into my life to confront me.

You see, while some may consider me a slow learner, it has really dawned on me that it is simply impossible for the Lord to achieve great things through us, when we have a multitude of distractions in our life. The best we can hope for, is to “play” at Christianity, but we delude ourselves. God will do immeasurably more than we can imagine, when we remove all the distractions in our life that hinder the work. Distractions really, are idols. As we have switched the word ‘death’ with ‘passing’ today, so we prefer the word ‘distractions’ to ‘idols’. Idolatry sounds terrible, sinful even.

I have sadly had to face up to there being quite a few in my life. Even food has become an idol. I realise not a day goes by without me wondering what we can cook that evening. Our family living in Uganda however, don’t have such distractions. Work is simple, food even simpler and a believer’s entire energy can be devoted without hindrance to the work of the Lord. Sounds silly doesn’t it, over the top.

Make not mistake though, it is deadly and our constantly distracted lifestyle in the West prevents us from being effective servants of Christ. Most will get to the end of their lives and wonder what it was all for – that includes believers too. Friends, this world is so fleeting and we indulge ourselves by thinking we are immortal. Then one day, with a snap of the fingers our lives change.

Firstly, I don’t believe there has been another time in history when society has been so blinded to the consequences of what is coming. In Romans 3, we are told that the ‘wrath and fury’ of God is coming to individuals who are unrighteous, not covered by Jesus. Yet the world is arrogantly blind.

Secondly, Jesus is commanding his church to be far more effective. We have all the power in the universe available, but we are fat, complacent, even useless. Our King is Lord of the Universe, yet we ignore his call as if it were optional. You and I must take this seriously for everyone’s sake – those around us who are perishing, and ourselves who risk coming under the judgement of Christ. Would a solider in an army not be severely punished for slacking off on their duty? Do we expect anything less?

For goodness sake, let’s start calling our distractions what they are – idols, the thing God hates above everything in his chosen people. We must repent, and in his mercy ask him to use us.

Ordinary

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“Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus.” Acts

I had a Zoom this week with two men. If I mentioned their names, you wouldn’t know them which is how they prefer things. Over a lifetime of commitment to follow Jesus, they have catalysed the planting of some 75,000 churches, involving several million new believers across over 50 countries, spanning 11 major people groups. Their vision, they felt, still wasn’t able to match the breadth of God’s and in every instance, they claimed the work solely as ‘the Lord’s’.

Why I was on the call is bewildering, but it was fascinating and clearly there are lessons to be learned from people who are in the harvest, doing the work with staggering success. For example, there are still 6 billion unreached people in the world (incl a billion who attend church but still don’t follow Jesus) most of whom are sitting across from our desks, doorways, streets and shopping centres. Such people cover every people group in the world and sit in every country. None are harder to reach than the others, because we don’t do the transforming, God does.

What is patently clear though, is that if we continue with the current model we simply have no chance of reaching these people and fulfilling God’s task for mission. Something has to change.

Firstly, we need to recognise that it is the ordinary every day believers, who are the key to the success of the spread of the Gospel. Few believe that they either have any obligation, or can be useful to Christ in fulfilling the singularly important task in his agenda of rescuing people. That needs to change on a massive scale. Every believer must realise the essential nature of who they are in Christ, what we are all called to be, and what it means to follow him.

The current clergy of every description should abdicate their thrones, and lead the people out into the harvest, firstly by example. They above all, have been responsible for building their own kingdoms and stifling their ‘flock’ into thinking that every task has to be completed by a ‘professional Christian’. For too long, Protestants especially have criticised their Catholic neighbours over the need for a ‘mediator’ when they are as guilty themselves. All we have done is changed the title. If we don’t change, then expect Christ to change us, which is ominous.

We need to unbrand our Faith; the world is terribly confused about Hillsong, C3, Cornerstone, Lighthouse, the Church of the Good Shepherd, the Chapel of St Katherine…do you get the picture? Try saying “church” to the unchurched and watch closely their response. Church is about paedophile priests, a life of “thou shalt nots” and a culture that is alien to all but the finger wagging fundamentalists. However, brand Jesus fills people with awe and questions, interest and curiosity. There is only one brand we should be proclaiming, and his name is above ours.

For far too long, Christendom has been star-struck with big names, great speakers, wealthy healers or those who are at the front of the stage. We are no different from the world. But are these people really as effective as they proclaim.?

As I rounded out my conversation with these men, a thought struck that God is still doing his work in unknown places with unknown people. That has been the case from the beginning, personified in Jesus of Nazareth, with Peter James and John the fishermen right through to now. Their legacy came long after they were gone, yet they changed the world more than any other.

Around the world, almost unaware, there is a movement of the ordinary the unnamed and the unbranded. Simple people with little education or not much to their name, are in their neighbourhood proclaiming a name that is higher than all others, enjoining others to join the party. The sick are being healed, the blind are seeing and the lame leaping for joy.

Make no mistake friends, God is passing over those who want his Glory, for those who know they are not good enough, with nothing to offer but themselves but who’s resolute obedience is towards the Majesty of one who is to come.

Here’s to the King, who above everyone made himself ordinary.  Let’s take a leaf out of his book, let us follow all of Him.

Is He Worth It?

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Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. – Jesus, John’s Gospel

In The Kingdom Unleashed, Jerry Trousdale tells a story of several years ago, when he was working with a missionary who was disciple making inside a very dangerous country. Jerry warned him of the extreme risk he was taking, by continuing to bring the Gospel of Jesus to a hostile people. The young missionary turned to Jerry with a big smile and said this; “when we were learning Arabic and preparing to come here, my wife and I decided back then, that we had already died to this world, and would only live for Christ. It’s okay, we belong only to him, to do his will.” It was the last Jerry would see of him, as just a few weeks after that encounter, he was martyred for his faith.

Out of the hundreds of stories in TKU, that one has remained with me since. What is it, that sees a staggering, stuttering Faith in the West, up against a Faith moving so quickly that it cannot be contained in the East. Why does the Spirit move with such force in the one, yet is invisible in the other? Surely there must be an answer.

It would seem above all else, that the contrast is found in a single word – sacrifice. In those parts of the world where the church is multiplying at breathtaking speed, believers seemingly live only for Christ. Prayer is constant and relentless, fasting is regularly practiced, and the devil is taken seriously. Jesus’ mandate to move into the world and make disciples is taken as if the follower was in the army, and the order was issued by a 5-star General. While life carries on, nothing gets in the way of devotion to Jesus, and dedication to the cause.

Compare that to you, and me. Work takes up an enormous amount of our time and energy – even within that confine though, few believers are willing to count themselves as followers of Jesus and take a stand for fear of reprisals. Most have few non-believing friends, and if so (if we’re honest) even less of our non-believing friends would be able to identify us as followers of Christ. Some would be astonished if they found out we were. Evenings are spent entertaining or relaxing, and weekends are full of activity as we enjoy the great lifestyle given to us. Our relationship with God is generally squeezed into a few hours on a Sunday, after which we are free to live pretty much for ourselves.

Further our conversion in the West generally lacks force, baptism is optional, and a simple prayer suffices to “get Jesus into our hearts.” We are taught, from the outset, that teaching and doctrine are paramount in our growth, and slowly we are absorbed into the local church’s culture. We believe what they believe, usually without question. We are taught Jesus is our Saviour (although we often have a mediator).

Compare that to a conversion in the East, where baptism is immediate (see Acts) often demons are cast out, hands are laid on for the Spirit to come on in power and a believer is told in no uncertain terms, that obedience and total allegiance to Jesus is what we are signing up for. If that conversion happens in a country where Christianity is outlawed or prohibited, we will find out soon enough the cost involved. Jesus is not only our Saviour, he is also our Lord.

So, is it any wonder we see so little of the move of the Spirit in our Western world? With our distractions, a faith that demands so little, sacrifice and obedience as options – is it any wonder that Jesus’ attention is maybe elsewhere. Where would our attention be, in fact where is it? We need to, have to, take stock of the situation. Around us, our Western world is falling apart, brokenness is all round us and people are in need of Jesus more than ever. Hell hasn’t gone away.

We must take Jesus at his word. Only if we die to ourselves, will we see fruit. But he also mentions that we must hate this world and all that it stands for. Similarly, we must take him at his word when he reminds us that on a day coming soon, many will tell him that they “knew him” at which, he will deny ever having met us before. How terrifying.

If we want to see the Kingdom Unleashed, then death to ourselves and utter Lordship of Christ amongst us, is the only way. Is he worth it in your life, in mine?

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