God's Vision of Discipleship--Just Sharing Life

I promised last month that I would discuss my vision of our congregation as we move forward into the beautiful future God has for us.
If you have never read The Shack, by William Paul Young you really owe it to yourself to do so. It a repository of profound and beautiful reflections on God in a very creative format. Here is one such moment, a discussion about God’s vision for the church. Mack, the main character, is talking to Jesus.

(Mack has just complained that the church he attends does not reflect the beautiful bride that Jesus has been describing)
“Mack, that’s because you’re seeing only the institution, a man-made system. That’s not what I came to build. What I see are people and their lives, a living, breathing community of all those who love me, not buildings and programs,” Jesus replied.
… “So how do I become part of that church?” Mack asked. “This woman you seem to be so gaga over.”
“It’s simple, Mack. It’s all about relationships and simply sharing life. What we are doing right now—just doing this—and being open and available to others around us. My church is all about people, and life is all about relationships. You can’t build it. It’s my job, and I’m actually pretty good at it,” Jesus said with a chuckle.
For Mack these words were like a breath of fresh air! Simple. Not a bunch of exhausting work and a long list of demands, and not sitting in endless meetings staring at the backs of people’s heads, people he really didn’t even know. Just sharing life (emphasis mine). [p. 180]

When Jesus modeled the life of discipleship, what did it look like? It looked like a bunch of dissimilar men and women who shared a love for God and a love for Jesus who were doing life together. They ate together, shared their hopes and dreams, shouldered each other’s burdens, fought like siblings, and grew to maturity in Christ. The church, as God modeled it, was about His children sharing their lives together in His presence.
It was not primarily about Sunday morning worship, serving on a committee, creating a new program, or any of the exhausting things we undertake in the name of Christ, as important as those things can be. It was about people walking together where Jesus was leading and doing the things He asked them to do when they got where they were going.
If we are doing all of those other things that we think of as church activity, without living daily in community with disciples in Jesus’ presence, then we are not being the church Jesus envisioned.
Now please hear me correctly. I am not proposing that we scrap everything into which we have been putting so much effort of late. Programs have an important place. Sunday morning has an important place. Committees have an important place. However, none of them is the main thing. The sum of them is not the main thing. The main thing is living life together as disciples of Christ. Gathering in communities where dissimilar men and women (and children) can eat together, share their hopes and dreams, shoulder each other’s burdens, fight like siblings, and grow to maturity in Christ.
This is the sense of belonging most people are truly looking for in their lives. They often come to the church and don’t find it because we have lost the main thing in the minutia of ministry. My vision for Risen Christ is to make the main thing the main thing. Discipleship is the priority. Living life together. Read Acts 2: 42-47 again and ask yourself one question. Would you want to join a church like that? Then why not do everything we can to be that church for each other, and those God is calling into our midst.

The Power of Vision

Proverbs 29: 18a (KJV)
18 Where there is no vision, the people perish.
This has never been driven home for me as it has in watching other congregations go through the renewal process. One church I work with in Cincinnati found itself in an economically changing community. They had a thriving school that went through Jr. High. The school was their outreach, their purpose, their identity. Because of changes in the community, and a season of strife in the congregation, they were forced to close the school. They found themselves adrift in a community they no longer knew, without a purpose apart from Sunday morning worship.
As I worked with the church, I discovered a dynamic and passionate leadership team who were eager to be about God’s mission. They began to examine their community, congregational assets, and leadership passions in detail. What they discovered is that God had a vision for them. They were being called to meet the educational needs of children and parents in the community in new and powerful ways.
They are just beginning to talk about their new dream. They have yet to implement, or even flesh out the plan in its entirety, and yet the energy is becoming electric. One member approached the pastor after a recent Sunday service, with tongue firmly planted in cheek, said, “I have a complaint, pastor. I had to park in the back of the parking lot for the first time in four years!” That is the power of vision. A church was perishing because it lacked vision. With a vision of God’s plan for their church, they are already beginning to thrive.
What is the vision of God’s purpose at Risen Christ? Take a moment before you read on and think about it. If your neighbor asked you that question, would you have a response?
While the leadership team is wrestling with this question in a holistic way, the first part of our answer is as follows. “Risen Christ Lutheran Church exists to bring spiritually barren people into a fruitful relationship with Jesus Christ.” Read it again. What does it say to you? Where can spiritually barren people be found? In our neighborhoods? In our places of employment? In unhealthy churches? In our midst? (Did I just hear an “ouch”?)
What does it mean for someone to be in a “fruitful relationship” with Jesus Christ? What would that look like? What would the marks of that be? How could you tell someone who is in a fruitful relationship with Jesus, from someone who is just playing church?
It is not enough for me to tell you what I think the answers are, you must wrestle with this yourself if you are to own the vision in your own discipleship journey. I will give you some of my thoughts next month.

A Troublesome Tension

What an incredible challenge a building project is!! Everyone has in their own minds an image of what the finished product should look like, which is greatly incongruous with what everyone else is thinking. While it is exciting to be discussing furnishings, carpet, color pallets, etc. When I hear someone express a vision or opinion which is different from the one in my head I have to constantly stop myself from reacting and ask, "Is this something I really care about and am willing to fight for my vision, or is this really non-essential?" For I keep catching myself preparing to debate (think argue) with folks over things that I could give either way on. For example, pew chairs or removable pews in the first two rows. I have been envisioning pew chairs, because that is what is on the drawings, then someone suggests short, removable pews to give a greater continuity to the space. While my first reaction is to reject the pews out of hand (it's not my vision) it really does make a lot of sense. There are an ever increasing number of these minor issues for which I have an opinion, but am not willing to go to the wall over.

I wonder how much this actually applies to my life in other areas? With my family? What to watch on TV? How to do this or that around the house? I had better stop thinking about it!!

Trial and Error

Many things in life are trial and error efforts. I think that many things are never tried because the perceived cost of the error is too high, when in reality the cost of not trying was much higher. We are trying a new discipleship program at Risen Christ that is designed to put people on similar subject matter at age appropriate levels. It is rather risky in many respects: teachers may rebel, the adults may find it unengaging, the youth may struggle to make it relevant, and so on. The problem is that we need to be intentional about our development process. I think one of the outcomes of this type of program is that we will have to create several classes that meet during the week for people to help them move through our larger discipleship program, since Sunday morning will be consumed with this Big Idea programming.
But what is the cost of not trying something, anything. As the saying goes, "If you always do what you always did, you'll always get what you always got." With the new sanctuary going into place we need something new, innovative, challenging, in order to engage the people whom God will inevitably send. I pray that this is a step in the right direction. It is, a very least, a step off dead center. And as I like to tell my people, God can direct a moving car onto the proper path much easier than He can a parked car.