There are loads of people who acknowledge God to varying degrees. Some are happy to pay a weekly homage in church but others follow the Bible and try to have God become their all. I believe the latter is part of the fulfilling life we can lead in Christ - to find God as our source. You don't need qualifications or a special insight to have God become your source. You simply need to know that God loves you and wants to be the one that becomes your dependence. God wants this because he thinks you are amazing despite the flaws and failures we all have and experience. I meet so many Christians who know what I have written above but find it difficult to make it a reality day to day. Read on to explore how to make God your source every day of your life.
I have worked with young people for many years and I observe how they grow as young adults into a world that tells them what I call the 'ten acquired laws of western living.' These are acquired attitudes that present a problem for some young people. These laws also plague some adults:
1. Others will only think well of you if you present an acceptable image to them
2. What others think is the key to feeling accepted.
3. Because my life is boring, it must be a mistake.
4. You need to accumulate self worth by talent, gifts and ability.
5. How I feel about myself is the indicator of truth about me.
6. I must be lame to have low self esteem.
7. My aim is to be like a person who is respected, even famous!
8. Everything in this world tells me I should be a someone, but I'm not!
9. Others seem to be happy about who they are.
10. I feel frustrated, even angry, about not being happy with me.
We are assessed by this world
The key to all 10 of these laws is to have God become your source for all the issues described. Every one of the laws have a common thread that connects them all. This connection is that the person who feels like this is recognising that this world, society, other people are stakeholders in your life. Simply put, they aren't unless you allow them to be! It is true that we have to live in and interact with our communities but we need to take charge of them, not them take charge of us. If you assess your life by anything that lies in this world you will at some point become utterly miserable. Young people are trained to assess themselves against others by the exam system for example. You are graded at an early age. Many become unstuck as this accepted system of education tells us that we are part of a structured labelling system. This can become a yardstick to tell us what we can and can't become.
We are valued by this world
Our language has examples of how we buy into the assessment of fellow human beings. Some people dont 'measure up.' Measure up to what? The second we answer that question is the moment we have graded a human being. Grading is a short step from valuing. "Listen to your superiors!" This is what I was told about adults and teachers in school. A superior directly infers that in some way I am inferior! This world we live in has systems of value, worth and grading and if we listen to it we will have to accept the pigeon holes and labels it dishes out. Ever been told about the 'career ladder? It exists because the perception is that someone on a higher rung is higher, therefore better than you! I know people who recognise the folly of the above but only a Christian can re-source their value system.
God accepts us in this world
God shows us through the Bible initially that his love for you is not based on performance or status. He loves the intrinsic you! So if we are going to begin to depend on God you can stop looking to your own gifts, talent and ability as a measure of how you fit in this world. "So you have riches, fame and attention.... God, who made this world loves me with nothing added, just me, as I am!" Many who acknowledge that God loves them still struggle with the fact that they feel useless. The church doesn't help! The majority of western churches are geared around 'task.' Churches should be working in social action in communities and many do an amazing job. Within the congregations however, the people are generally urged to find their gifts and abilities and serve God there. There's nothing wrong with this IF the basic principles of Christianity are present. In the first century the Apostles taught that church was about brothers and sisters being together in Christ. This is the primary reason for church existing and the New Testament contains chapter after chapter of of this 'being' in Christ. So many Christians know God loves them but concentrate on what they have to do for God rather than 'being.' A 'doing' philosophy takes us into the area of grading and measuring. Pastors are seen as 'superiors' and many sermons are how we fail to 'measure up' in our service to God.
Shifting your perspective
Our lives in Christ have no directive to do anything that lies outside of who we are already. In other words, you already are all you will do in Christ. The gifts are all spiritual gifts and spiritual gifts cannot be enhanced, customised or upgraded by anything from this world. So on a church level you are already equipped for what you can do for Christ. In churches that have the worldly system of measuring and grading you simply are not able to be yourself. It is the needs and requirements of the leadership of the church that decide how you fit and function. One ministry couple told me they 'release' people for ministry. Whose holding the people that need releasing? Often those who are leading churches do so because they have experienced the need to feel valued and some because they want to feel superior. The drive to fill the feeling of emptiness brought on by low self esteem is worth being involved in the 'people business.' It is a difficult job but the pay-off is worth it. Feeling fulfilled doing 'God's work' hits the spot, but would you feel fulfilled NOT doing anything? This is an indication of how dependant you are on 'doing' when the whole point of Christian life is 'being.'
In Christ we are equal
What I have described in church is also true of this world. ALL your formative years will be based on your pending career. The higher up the ladder you go, the more you will service the list of 'laws' above. Fitting and functioning will be your grading and measuring tools. Money and notoriety are pay-offs here. Status, profile and fame are also carrots on the road to filling the gaps. Christians have no need to engage the way this works. It isn't just opting out either! God made all people spiritually equal so to have measurement, superior/inferior mindsets and grading structures is nonsense. Ill address the 10 'laws' above from a Christian perspective:
1. It matters what God thinks of you and he thinks you're ace!
2. God accepts you the way you are.
3. You are friends with the Lord of the Universe. Is that boring?
4. God values who you are, not what you can or cant do
5. The truth about you is God loves and cares for you. Does that feel good?
6. Facts are indicators of truth. Fact: God thinks you're ace!
7. You are related to God Almighty. Fame at last!
8. The Lord of the Universe knows your name. Now are you a someone?
9. Who you are is a child of God.
10. See 9.
The church was designed by God to be based in a family environment around a meal with open and equal sharing. Leadership was nothing to do with presiding over people and service was something people did naturally rather than a platform for superior/inferior placing. It was the Roman Catholics that produced the worst kind of abuses where religious class was concerned. Today's Protestant church still suffers from the structural anomalies that Roman Catholicism still adheres to. They structured the church in such a way that places man in charge of the comings and goings of the things of God. Not fully free from the mindset and structure of the Roman Catholics, the church tends to make 'calling' a reason to remain in the God-rejecting system. Some Christians need to be in charge to fill the gap of low self esteem and occupy a position that makes them feel important. Because they don't acknowledge the observations above, they become people who grade, assess and value people based on their own lack. They call this their anointing. Out from the church go people with a message that is not outworked in their own life:
God loves and accepts me! (but my value system still subject to the opinions, systems and rules of man).
Lost people see this and are happy to remain untouched by the 'Good news.' Some ministers have told me that the way people meet doesn't matter and what they do God tells them to do it. Increasingly though, the case for reform of church practice is becoming more and more urgent. Whilst wanting to build up the body of Christ and make people whole, the church adheres to the worldly value system that comes directly from structure. People exist within an environment of expectation but cannot meet the expectations. The reason is because making God your source requires a person to withdraw from all the things trying to be sources. By being in the church that is in the New Testament, God takes away the temptation for man to fill the gaps with status, position and profile. Of course, any gathering of people can become manipulated by people but it is easier to identify someone not free from their own need to be superior to others. Any one who needs to gain value and self esteem from their own position and status would most likely run from an environment where everyone is equal. With no outlet for being in charge and feed the monster, the only place to find value, worth and self esteem is in God!
Monday 28 December 2009
Saturday 5 December 2009
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of modern day church
The Good.
Having hung around 'church' in the UK for 20 years or so, its interesting to reflect from time to time. There's a lot of good happening in Christianity today and its always amazing to see people just living to please God and getting busy doing things to be his witnesses in this dark world. Projects that get loads of people focussed on Jesus can only be good, and when they become Christians it is fantastic news. My own journey is day to day educating the hard to reach in communities in the UK for TLG a Christian Charity. I share the desire to see people repent and follow Jesus. I also take my hat off to anyone who steps up to the plate and gets involved in God's work.
The Bad
Most church leaders are not at all aware of the following information: The practise of meeting in a hall with a central leadership directing the meeting is not what God intended for Church. The model where leaders preside under or over the congregation is anti-scriptural and leads to a separation amongst equals. This in turn leads to people following people instead of following Christ... the whole point of being a disciple. Paul the apostle meets these issues head on in 1 Corinthians and goes on to underline the practise all the apostles taught and agreed upon - a fellowship meal - a family environment - leadership but no hierarchy - open and equal sharing. Historically the church can be seen, starting with the early church fathers, to stray from what the apostles taught about meeting together. Having great social action programs is Good but if the hub of the activity is not biblical, this creates a problem for good people who want to genuinely out-pour their lives for God. Our example of rejecting God for some human-leader is 1 Sam 8 and the first 4 chapters of 1 Corinthians.
The Ugly
Some church leaders are aware of the above and do nothing about it. And that is ugly. Knowing scripture warns of mixing 'the done thing' with 'my agenda' should be enough. However this isn't enough. If you aren't doing God's thing then you are just doing what Man does. Didn't we see all that before? Didn't we repent and turn from wicked ways? Yet many live in two worlds, the world of wanting to please God and the world of ugly self promotion. The separation among leaders and the congregation is allowed to become the springboard to polish the narcissism which all humans are plagued by. If we understood what it took to have all authority, power and dominion handed to Jesus so he could be our leader and head of the church, we would be on our face with our crowns offered to him. But alas... so many get caught up in the 'self,' missing that 'Bless' has 'less' as the main point. Some church leaders need to study the one thing Jesus hated - the practices of the Nicolatians. The word means 'suppression of the people.' So many leaders are presiding over the people and this makes them subject to that leader, especially in this institutional society we live in. If you are reading this and feel it strikes a chord then do get in touch.
Yours in the fight for truth.
Gary Ward
Having hung around 'church' in the UK for 20 years or so, its interesting to reflect from time to time. There's a lot of good happening in Christianity today and its always amazing to see people just living to please God and getting busy doing things to be his witnesses in this dark world. Projects that get loads of people focussed on Jesus can only be good, and when they become Christians it is fantastic news. My own journey is day to day educating the hard to reach in communities in the UK for TLG a Christian Charity. I share the desire to see people repent and follow Jesus. I also take my hat off to anyone who steps up to the plate and gets involved in God's work.
The Bad
Most church leaders are not at all aware of the following information: The practise of meeting in a hall with a central leadership directing the meeting is not what God intended for Church. The model where leaders preside under or over the congregation is anti-scriptural and leads to a separation amongst equals. This in turn leads to people following people instead of following Christ... the whole point of being a disciple. Paul the apostle meets these issues head on in 1 Corinthians and goes on to underline the practise all the apostles taught and agreed upon - a fellowship meal - a family environment - leadership but no hierarchy - open and equal sharing. Historically the church can be seen, starting with the early church fathers, to stray from what the apostles taught about meeting together. Having great social action programs is Good but if the hub of the activity is not biblical, this creates a problem for good people who want to genuinely out-pour their lives for God. Our example of rejecting God for some human-leader is 1 Sam 8 and the first 4 chapters of 1 Corinthians.
The Ugly
Some church leaders are aware of the above and do nothing about it. And that is ugly. Knowing scripture warns of mixing 'the done thing' with 'my agenda' should be enough. However this isn't enough. If you aren't doing God's thing then you are just doing what Man does. Didn't we see all that before? Didn't we repent and turn from wicked ways? Yet many live in two worlds, the world of wanting to please God and the world of ugly self promotion. The separation among leaders and the congregation is allowed to become the springboard to polish the narcissism which all humans are plagued by. If we understood what it took to have all authority, power and dominion handed to Jesus so he could be our leader and head of the church, we would be on our face with our crowns offered to him. But alas... so many get caught up in the 'self,' missing that 'Bless' has 'less' as the main point. Some church leaders need to study the one thing Jesus hated - the practices of the Nicolatians. The word means 'suppression of the people.' So many leaders are presiding over the people and this makes them subject to that leader, especially in this institutional society we live in. If you are reading this and feel it strikes a chord then do get in touch.
Yours in the fight for truth.
Gary Ward
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