If we are following Jesus rather than cloning other Christians, this may take some churches and Christians in directions that look nothing like church.
If so, who are we to object?
There must be one focus, and one focus only: following Jesus in expanding the Kingdom of God in any and every direction, no matter where Jesus leads, and no matter how the mission looks.
Though the following quite from Jacques Ellul is quite long, it is also quote appropriate. Here is what he says about the formation of the church:
[Christianity] cannot be organized. We can have neither stability, routine, collective permanence, association, nor group cohesion if we want to live by revelation, if we put [Christianity] at the center as the sole truth. It cannot be lived out socially.
When we are told that the Holy Spirit constituted the church at Pentecost, we like that. But when we learn that the Holy Spirit is like the wind that blows when and where it will and we do not know where it comes from or where it is going, we do not like it. The church may say that it has the Holy Spirit, but if it does it betrays the truth and its legitimacy.
When we are told that the church consists of those whom God calls, we applaud, but who are they? Who can trace the boundaries? We must say that the church has a center, Jesus Christ, but it has no circumference. We can give assurance to none and exclude none. We may believe that we have found a solution in baptism. Church members get baptized, and the baptized are the church. Well and good. But unfortunately the New Testament clearly distinguishes between the baptism of water and the baptism of the Spirit. The two do not coincide (except when the church falsely declares that they do!). We are thus back at the same difficulty.
When we are told that the church has ministers, and its life is organized around them, well and good. But at once we have to remember that these ministries are a gift of the Holy Spirit and not a permanent or organized thing. This leads us to benefices with rectors and bishops, etc. We then fill these posts with people we think are suitable. But this is the opposite of the movement presented in the Epistles, in which the Holy Spirit gives to the church people who have the gifts of love or of the word or teaching, and the church has to find a place for them even if it had not anticipated doing so. If, after a while, the Holy Spirit does not give someone who has the spirit of prophecy but gives someone who has the gift of miracles, then the church must change its form and habits!
No doubt some will reply that God is not a God of disorder, incoherence, or arbitrariness, but a God of order. Of course he is. Unfortunately the whole Old Testament shows us that God’s order is not that which we conceive and desire. God’s order is not organization and institution (cf. the difference between Judges and Kings). It is not the same in every time and place. It is not a matter of repetition and habit. On the contrary, it resides in the fact that it constantly posits something new, a new beginning. Our God is a God of beginnings. There is no redundancy or circularity.
Thus, if his church wants to be faithful to his revelation, it will be completely mobile, fluid, renascent, bubbling, creative, inventive, adventurous, and imaginative. It will never be perennial, and can never be organized or institutionalized (The Subversion of Christianity
156-157).
Ellul is exactly right.
Faithfulness to following Jesus does not result in emulation and imitation, but in vibrant creativity, graceful flexibility, joyful diversity, and visionary imagination.
Yet most of our churches are not known for such things. Why not?
Because although they use the traditional forms of guidance, such as Scripture, prayer, the Holy Spirit, and the wise counsel of other Christians, they have placed boundaries around the grand narrative of the Bible, have made prayer a passive monologue toward God, have tied down the Holy Spirit into a freak sideshow, and limited the counsel of Christians to cloning the most “successful” among us.
Hopefully, some of the suggestions above will liberate and free the church to use these traditional sources of guidance to their full potential.
In the past several posts, I have written about several forms of guidance that are available to Christians as we seek to follow Jesus into the world. I have written about Scripture, prayer, the Holy Spirit, and the wise counsel of other Christians. I have one more to write about later, but what do you think? Are there other forms of guidance on how to follow Jesus into the world?
“There must be one focus, and one focus only: following Jesus in expanding the Kingdom of God in any and every direction, no matter where Jesus leads, and no matter how the mission looks.”
Yep, exactly. This posting actually hit a hot topic. I really wonder why no one commented before…?
Hi Jeremy,
I have been browsing your site today, have read some posts including comments, and I must say that you are a blogger who is not only an experienced theologian but also a very thoughtful and compassionate writer. I am very impressed.
But back on topic. 😉
I wholeheartedly agree with Jacques Ellul here. From the very beginning after Pentecost believers always tried to organize Christianity. And they succeeded. Look, how many countless different churches and denominations settled over the centuries! All of them together ought to be the Body of Christ, however, are they?
I read your linked entry on prayer and I love the wording of your series “Fixing Our Eyes on Jesus”. Putting those two things together would mean, for me, prayer without ceasing, or in other words, beholding Him 24/7 (also referred to as worshipping God in spirit and truth). Of course, such a prayer is a gift from God. Who would ever be able to pray more than, say, one or two hours daily?
Ellul rightly pointed to the fact that two contradicting statements cannot be true at the same time: the Church as a fixed organisation with rules, traditions, and more, cannot be indwelt by the Holy Spirit who leads Christians how He wills (thus the wind analogy). We rarely find extraordinary spiritual gifts inside the Church today because the Holy Spirit cannot be shut up in a box. We may never forget that He is God and we are only His creatures. His will and choice how to build His spiritual house ought to be preeminent compared with our small self-willed programs (cf. Ps 127:1; 1 Pt 2:5).
From my own experience I can say that I NEVER know what God wants me to do in the next minute or even second. Although I might think this or that would be good, He ALWAYS leads me differently. He is an ingenious Creator whose thoughts and ways are beyond our imagination.
That in turn leads me to the question of how could a new kind of church today look like? Where is a place/location where many people who are searching for God could “meet” without further ado?
What would you think about Internet or email fellowships? Let’s also imagine “congregations” of commenters in cyber churches (Christian blogs/fora).
Could it even be possible that God prophesied such things before? For it is written,
“Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” (Is 43:18-19 ESV)
Have we not been observing that the mainline churches have become deserts because they are falling apart due to more and more revealed scandals? Is that not a sign that many churches – not all, of course – have not been focused on Jesus Christ but merely on this-worldly things?
Jeremy, I hope my comments were not too challenging. 😉 Nonetheless, all the best and God’s blessings to you and your – very beautiful (!) – wife.
Susanne from Bavaria
Susanne,
Thank you for the very kind comment. Bavaria. I have always dreamed of visiting Bavaria. It is very beautiful there, right?
Thank you also for the comment about my wife. She is very beautiful, and not only that, she knows the heart of God better than anyone I know.
It sounds that you know the heart of God as well.
There are, I think, some people experimenting with online spiritual communities. For the most part, these seem to just be mega church pastors who put their sermon videos online for people to watch at home, and then they ask the people who watch them to tithe to their church and get involved in a local small group.
I think very possibly that God wants to use the internet to connect people around the world with each other who would have no other way of connecting in person. I mean, your comment to me, and my response! You encouraged me, and I hope that I can encourage you! That is the Body of Christ at work!
Thank you for reading, for commenting, and for the challenging and encouraging ideas!
Your reply indeed was very encouraging, too. Thanks a lot, Jeremy!
And yep, Bavaria is a beautiful country although it is very (Roman) Catholic. 😉
Nonetheless, I like those quaint villages which with their old Catholic churches [I love esp. their onion-domed towers] and with those huge monasteries, the snow-covered Alps all around, the brown and white speckled cows with their ding-a-ling bells, the sleepy cozy marmots, blue gentian and edelweiss, and so on and so on.
You wrote, “There are, I think, some people experimenting with online spiritual communities. For the most part, these seem to just be mega church pastors who put their sermon videos online for people to watch at home, and then they ask the people who watch them to tithe to their church and get involved in a local small group.”
Hmm… Not really that kind of fellowship I would have thought of…
Then you wrote, “I mean, your comment to me, and my response!”
Exactly. That’s it (for example)! 🙂
Love,
Susanne
Yeah! I didn’t mean those sorts of “online communities” at all! I think they are just the same-old way of doing things…
Yes to what Jacques Ellul is saying!
Yes to what Jeremy Myers is saying!
Yes to what Susanne Schuberth is saying!
Yes to what the Holy Spirit is saying through them and through others!
Thanks so much for your touching, encouraging words, Mike. Much appreciated. 🙂
Love,
Susanne
And Yes to what you are saying!
@ Jeremy
You wrote, “I didn’t mean those sorts of “online communities” at all!”
Yes, I know and I knew it before as well. Sorry, if you misunderstood my “Hmm…” 😉
I want you all to know how I have really enjoyed reading this thread of comments here. I think that Susanne has nailed it dead on when she equated that passage in Isaiah to how Father is providing spiritual food via the internet fellowships for those of us who are either still in the dead church systems of men or have found our way out as we follow the Son.
Jeremy, thanks for being part of the flow of that stream in the wilderness. I know the wilderness well and it has forced me to dig deeper and find HIS wells of salvation. God bless you as you point the way to the Source.
Thanks, Michael. I am glad you have found some encouragement in the comments here. Thank you for being a voice of your own in the wilderness.
Yes to all of the above!
Here’s something else to consider:
The Holy Spirit leads not only Christians, but all of God’s people. Gandhi and the Dalai Lama are just two recent examples.