' Core investment' and the church 2

In the first part of this blog I outlined the biblical position that Paul the Apostle (and all the Apostles taught the same) and Jesus both stated that the old thing, the done thing and just anything (ODA) leads to wrong practice.  And what we do in this world always leads to processes and conclusions.  God wants us to grow, transform and thrive and thus be different in this dark world.  Now here is a problem to this plan:-

Many churches today have leaders who are core invested into the done thing rather than God's plan for his people. It is difficult for Christians who feel they must lead because like the first century Christians, they asses the environment they are born into and repeat the generalities around 'church.'  However, the practices constitute part of a change that is taking place over hundreds of years. The Reformation was a change in Theology and the last hundred years rise in the work of the Spirit is a restoration despite the outrageous excesses and abuses we see. What was never reformed from the Roman Catholic Church was their practices.  Good people with good theology are enjoying the working of the Spirit but in a context that was of the old ways (thanks to Constantine's standardising Christianity to the old practices).

So people experience a measure of 'blessing' because some elements of God's will and purpose are in situ. However, it's a little like Manchester United turning up with Chelsea at a cinema. The players run around the seats trying to score yet it is a nonsense.  The teams are there, the football is played, much is in place and we can say for sure, 'A football match is in play.' But while this is outworked in a cinema, we all know it does not lead to the purpose, a competitive game of football.   In the same way, God's people meet together, God is praised, the wine and bread are there, the word is preached.... it has all the elements of Church!  However, it isn't effectively outworking the purposes of God.  It can't, because while we are doing things to outwork our faith, we are not 'being'  who we are.  We keep doing church when we are, intrinsically, church! So if we are the genuine article, why do we set about doing things that underline, qualify, re-iterate, complicate this fact?

So many are core invested in doing church and this hinders being church. God wants his people to be core invested in their brothers and sisters because we are all in Christ.  It is my challenge to today's Christians communities to examine this reasonable call to reform church practice.  There are no badges, profiles, status or hall of fame.  It's about being who you are, and just that.  You can't just start a biblical house group either.  We all need to let all the 'doing' blee out of us.  It's hard but God will lead you in this.  'Being' is freedom, joy, peace, love... much more rooted in Christ that some of the things we do to produce these things.  If you conclude that this can't be right because 'what's in it for me?' That is exactly what 'doing' church does! It makes you invest in IT instead of investing in HIM. Many hold these two in tension.  Being what you are makes you invest in HIM then, by default you invest in HIS... your brothers and sisters!  There nothing more beautiful and amazing on the planet than people prioritising the 'inchrist-ness' of each other and valuing, celebrating 'family.'  Place a 'doing' mentality in the middle of this and we revert to 'task.'  Let me be clear, there is 'task,' 'function' and 'works' in our faith.  But without being the church together and being met by our brothers and sisters, works are done by people who are not contrasting the world.

 "Hey Christian, I can hear your words and see your good works but YOU are not changed!"

BEING changed is what changes this world.

Most of us defaulted into doing church and there's nothing wrong with the smaller biblical home groups meeting monthly, say, to have the big praise parties, communal prayer or an event.  Having practised what God wants for ekklesia, we can enjoy a life together doing all sorts of things to celebrate our faith, but lets not define these things as church/ekklesia.

I challenge the communities of Christians in the UK to meet to fully debate this issue in brotherly love and unity in Christ.  Just please be prayerful that your objections to part 1 and 2 of this article are because of my error in scripture / outlook  and not because you feel offended.  My motives for bringing this to your notice is not to question motives or cast aspersions.  It is mainly to appeal to the reasonable conclusions that when the church do what the word of God says, God's power can explode through this foolish, weak and pathetic vision of 'church.'  Let us not forget that a naked, bleeding, battered body nailed to a tree looks foolish, weak and pathetic yet Salvation itself lies here.

feel free to pass this on and explore these observations which are rooted in the New Testament.

Blessings,

Gary Ward
Brother.

The church and 'Core investment' 1

Our core investment is a way of describing what you are committing your time, resource, finance etc to.  Obviously you wouldn't be doing this if you were not somehow utterly convinced (to the core) that it is a valid pursuit. For many Christians their core investment comes from a clear leading from the Lord and most are happy to say it is their 'calling.'

Lets park the core investment of the individual for a moment. Most Christians believe that the meet in a prepared hall, have leaders to preside over the meeting and preach the word of God after singing songs, taking an offering and sharing bread and wine,  is generally church. (give or take a few testimonies, drama, psalm reading etc etc).  However contemporary or not defines how progressive you are but essentially the same basic elements. The form of church then, seems a constant.  We must also include the Roman Catholics here because however skewed their Theology, add the smells, bells and extra sacrament around 'church pie,'  it's still the same elements of practice. We are going to see why this matters shortly.

In the Old Testament God wanted people to core invested into the practice of meeting together to symbolically because all that was tangible about God was symbolic.  That means while people could experience their Lord, the mechanism where he would really save them and really live within to outwork his purposes was impossible until Jesus completed his work at Calvary. So faith and practice was being core invested in meeting in special places, observing the priesthood, singing, listening to the leaders, carrying out prescribed acts etc.  This would have created a shared sense of community, a shared sense of purpose, a oneness like much of the church experiences(and in doing so feels blessed). However, this is not God's purpose for the church age.

Jesus' death, resurrection and ascension meant the Holy Spirit could come and live in us.  Previously there was no way of having our sin-state dealt with. Now we can live a life of repentance and God really lives in us.  With this in view, there is no need to symbolise or ritualise God in any way.  Paul the Apostle warns the Galatians about doing the 'old thing' and 1 Corinthians warns about doing 'the done thing' and it is just common sense that you cant just do anything. But in some ways, we can't blame the first Christians for defaulting to what they knew, or doing the thing they saw around them.  The Jews were in error for thinking they needed to distinctify their origins but mostly the first Christians looked around them and did what they had learned from an early age.  Their culture was full of Greek wisdom in practice.  This was man's reasoning and conclusions from the thoughts of men.  It led to a logic in leadership and practices that honoured the celebrity of the age - the orator, philosopher, the sage.  So they defaulted to that and Paul corrected them, clearly pointing out in the first 4 chapters why they do this.

So what do you do when your entire background and upbringing is based on the plan of man's reasoning and wisdom?  Perhaps it would be good to find what God's plan is?  In order to both avoid the old thing, the done thing and just plain anything (Old/Done/Any), the Apostles all taught to meet as described in 1 Corinthians.  The net result of this is meeting in a non-O/D/A environment with the basics of what would foster 'family.'  So the bare bones of the New Testament church practice of meeting in homes with a meal, leaders but not hierarchy and open and equal sharing was taught by all the Apostles.  But when all said and done, the point of this more what would come of interacting as brothers and sisters rather than the form in which the meet.  Because of the completed work of Christ, it was more about not doing the O/D/A and facilitating our spirit filled life.  A cursory view of the scriptures will show that our purpose of being saved is to do with the Spirit's work and leading within us as we interact with our brothers and sisters. if you like, the only contract we have as Christians is to outwork our common 'inchristness' as brothers and sisters.

It is  matter of fact that whichever way up this lands, Jesus did tell his disciples at the Last Supper that whenever you meet together , THIS DO in remembrance of me.  So no surprise that Jesus puts forward the idea to the Apostles that meeting as discussed is the way church should be done.

In terms of 'core investment'  I wanted to outline my reasoning for part 2, which is the next post on this blog.