Formless: You cannot defeat an enemy you cannot see (part II of II)
The truth is not authenticated by consensus.
The fact that a lot of people believe something or act in a certain way does not mean that belief or action is right. So, I simply hope that people will be stirred up to review their understanding of the Church, that glorious subset of God’s eternal Kingdom. So, the question really is, what’s the advantage of the model Jesus left behind in comparison to many of the popular organization-styled systems of Church that we have today?
In the first part of this article, I had highlighted 6 points and I will briefly elaborate on these areas, condensing these into 5 areas:
1. Creation and replication of ambassadors loyal to The Kingdom alone: The system Jesus left behind had ‘single-eyed’, focused loyalty to God as its core foundation. The individual understood his citizenry had changed and he was a part of a new government. In order to be effective in this country, he had to understand his role in that country – and the function(s) to be carried out by the individual was conferred on that person by The King alone because The King alone saw the overall plan and how everyone was to fit into that plan. These days we have a band of people who are loyal to men, institutions, and the personal brands and ambitions of the men who head these institutions. These days, a person who accepts Christ is often not shown The Kingdom but a system. It is for this reason that your average saint can easily explain what a church service is, but falters when asked to explain The Kingdom that he/she claims to be a part of.
2. The elimination of lack: Scripture says that the disciples did not lack because they had all things in common. Somehow, many still want to believe they were paying tithes though scripture clarifies there were offerings and collections, not the continuation of an obsolete tithe system. (You can read my article ‘Why I do not pay tithe here: http://christmeditations.blogspot.com/2013/04/why-i-do-not-pay-tithe.html ). The living organism Jesus left behind thrived on love-driven symbiosis. Each man was encouraged to work so he could give to his neighbor – and as people quickly find, when a community decides to give, there is no lack because everyone has something to give. Some have money but have no time, some have time but no food, some have food but lack certain skill sets, some have skill sets but have no business acumen, some have business acumen but no project skills, some have project skills, but have no child-raising skills… Don’t forget these were people who were loyal to The Kingdom and realized that The Church is made of people.
I always feel irritated when people say, if I have only my tithe and someone is in need, what should I do? I think to myself, this person does not understand what the Lord’s body is.
Like Israel, the early church was relationship-driven. The function of taking care of the less privileged wasn’t given to a few in other to insulate people from directly engaging with people who had lack. The resource we have comes from God to us – and we will give account of how we spent it, not pass the buck by saying we gave money to a religious institution and trusted that they spent it well. These days we mirror secular organisations and economics and the result is painfully secular; 20% live in opulence, fat on the resources of the 80% who live in lack and poverty – just like the decayed worldly system we copy.
3. The improvement of family ties: People often wonder why Pastor’s kids turn out rebellious. Being a minister’s kid, I know firsthand that the reason for this rebellion is that the current model of “church” worship does more to fragment the family than bring it together, with the institution forcing individuals to choose between allegiance to their families or to it. It also tends to encourage varying degrees of hypocrisy as people, especially ministers, are forced to put on their smiley ‘church-face’ and ‘church attitudes’ and go through with a service even when the relationship at home is totally decaying. Jesus spoke about giving priority to reconciliation with your brother over going through the motions of a religious activity. Paul spoke talks about extending greetings to ‘the Church in a home”. Micah talks about an Elijah coming to turn fathers to their children and vice versa, but somehow people can’t tell the difference between allegiance to God and allegiance to ‘Church’ – or even realize that the success of their family is a greater responsibility for them than the success of the Church! The family is a core system by which God replicates his Church and government on earth, and passes his ways and purpose(s) from generation to generation. When was the last time you saw a man kiss his wife in the “church” premise or sat down with his wife and all kids, who willingly sat with him to listen to a sermon?
4. Staying resistant to persecution: Initially, I was going to write about this point alone, but thinking more about the model Jesus left behind, a lot of other advantages of HIS (living) system became more evident. We live in times when many countries have a great degree of religious tolerance; you can worship anywhere, build structures for the sake of religious reasons and have no problems. However, like I said earlier, the Church was birth in the middle of fire. The founder of the Church, Christ, was killed before his followers – and got right back up. His followers were slaughtered. Peter, Jude, Barthelomew, Andrew and Phillip were crucified, Stephen was stoned, Matthias stoned and beheaded, Paul and James were beheaded – so, unlike today, it was not very normal to wear your best clothes and go for a service with jazz drums banging, 6 keyboards playing, stained glass windows glistening and the congregation screaming “ride on, Pastor” in unison. That would have been a recipe for suicide.
Somehow, we assume that was always how it had been – and somehow, we assume that we will not have to live with these events (persecution) in our lifetime. To survive and extend The Kingdom, gatherings were in secret, in small groups and fellowships of friends and brothers who were loyal to The King alone. There were no grand buildings, no robes, no altars…there was no need for these. Why? When two or three friends are gathered in the King’s name, in an eatery, or a home, or in the park, or on the go, it is hard to arrest them for their religious affiliation because they are not in a religious building. The model He left behind could expand, could thrive, was in plain sight – and yet was hidden and persecution-resistant.
5. Increasing godly influence by networks and expanding the spheres of The Kingdom: How do you expand a Kingdom you do not even think about? How do you deliberately increase its spheres of influence if the very notion of a Kingdom seems strange to you? In leaving, Jesus had said, make disciples of all nations, teaching them to observe what I command you. (Matt 28: 19 – 20 paraphrased) What we need to ask is what did He teach them and How did he teach these disciples? He preached at the multitude, but with the disciples it was different. He ate with them, played with them, lived with them, gave them time, gave them resources, gave them confidence – gave them his life…and then he sent them out!
The purpose for the resource he invested into their lives was not so they could remain members of his congregation.It was so they could replicate what they had learnt from LIVING and BEING with him. This way, they would also commit to giving others they had DELIBERATELY selected their time, their resources, their abilities – and their lives, in addition to just preaching to the multitude. This is the pattern of The Kingdom that grows BEST on earth through DELIBERATE discipleship – and then releasing people to serve The King because you have taught them to be loyal to The King over anyone, including yourself, and not just in words!
So for those who may say they are of The Kingdoms, but may know nothing about The Kingdom, or may be stuck in seemingly good activity, do not forget your highest purpose is to “Seek FIRST The Kingdom of God and his righteousness”. What is The Kingdom? It is simply any heart, home, person, business, sphere, space or realm that is loyal to The King and where his will, above all else, is sought – and DONE.
Maranatha!
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