Enchanted Community

BLOG 9/22/14. COLONIES OF GOD’S NEW HUMANITY: NOT AN ESCAPE

From the beginning of the New Testament documents there is the inescapable conclusion that Jesus came to inaugurate a New Creation, and that those who follow him are to be dynamic agents in that “all things new” reality. It is also inescapable that such followers are not to be rugged individualists, but those who become part of a whole recreated community that is corporately engaged in the drama of incarnating Christ’s eschatological design by demonstrating reconciled relationships … but also by its very nature spontaneously reaching out to the community until “this gospel of the kingdom is proclaimed through out the whole world.” … But then Jesus never gives any plan for this other than his command to make disciples from all nations.

He doesn’t give a plan, but it emerges unexpectedly in Paul’s writings. We have been looking at that fascinating Ephesians 4 passage where the ascended Lord gives gifts to his church/colonies (not to individuals but to the community) for the purpose of equipping all of God’s people for their participation in this ministry. This equipping task in not given to ‘church professionals’ (which we have invented later) but to the more mature practitioners within the colonies. The more mature make it their purpose to model and mentor the newer folk so that they are equipped to be part of the missionary role (apostle), to be discerning and alert to the cultural setting in which they live (prophet), to be spontaneous, authentic, and knowledgeable communicators of the thrilling news of Christ (evangelists), and, of course, this requires that they be formed by and discipled into the life and teachings of Christ so that they too can engage in this ministry (teaching shepherd). Paul doesn’t leave it there. What follows is something of an algorithm for the well-equipped follower of Christ.

It is no accident that at the dramatic conclusion of this letter is the sobering word that this world is not at all neutral, but is inhabited by a prince of darkness who will in every way seek to distort and to derail this New Creation enterprise of Christ. Paul, therefore, gives a seven-fold set of garments, modeled after the armor of Roman soldiers who would be familiar to all of those of that day. ‘Heads up’ then, as I attempt to spell out these seven critical and necessary parts of the Christian’s whole armor—sort of a handy guide to equipping/survival.

1.) It begins with a passion for and focus, and transformational engagement with the truth, who is Christ: “I, even I, am the … truth,” Jesus said. “The truth shall set you free … the Son sets you free”—this identification of the truth and Jesus the Son (John 8:31ff.). 2.) Then there is the ‘breastplate of righteousness” and that in scripture always has the sense of our behavior that in conformity with the design of God—what some call ortho-praxis—the daily ‘walk’ that others see. 3. Followers of Christ have on their feet “the readiness of the gospel of peace,” i.e., every follower is an eager and ‘ready’ messenger of the message of peace with God through Christ. 4.) Because the devil has a way of hurling all kinds of destructive stuff their way, Christ’s followers have the large body shield of faith (the term used refers to such large shield carried by Roman solders) of: “I believe, I have cast my lot with my faithful Savior. Get hence, Satan.” 5. Christ’s followers are not mindless, but they have disciplined minds, and so: the helmet of Salvation—their minds are formed by the gospel of the Kingdom. 6.) Their aggressive weapon is the sword of the Spirit which is the preaching/communication of Christ—every believer is a joyous communicator. 7.) Finally, the seventh piece is: “Praying always in the Spirit for all …” i.e., this is not a humanly achievable calling, but requires the perennial engagement with the power of God through prayer. Is that fascinating, or what?

BLOG 9/17/14. COLONIES OF NEW HUMANITY REQUIRE ‘NEW HUMANS’

The reason I am adopting the term: colonies of God’s New Humanity here in order to speak of Christ’s church for the very basic reason that far too many of the institutions of ‘religious Christianity’ (Bonhoeffer’s description) tend thoughtlessly to designate ‘Christians’ as those who are identified as members of their particular congregations. This has resulted in multitudes of ‘church members’ who have never made any intelligent and moral decision to embrace the person of Jesus Christ in all that he came to be and to do and to teach, i.e., they have never had any transformational encounter with the Person of Jesus Christ.

Yet the New Testament consistently identifies those who are Christ’s disciples as those who have embraced Jesus in all that he came to be and to do–all he commanded–and who have welcomed him into their lives, so that Paul can say: “If anyone is in Christ he is a new creation. The old has passed away, behold, the new has come” (II Corinthians 5:17). This indicates that when one comes to Christ, that a radical change of status before God, of purpose, and of motivations takes place, i.e., new creation—or, for our purposes here, one becomes a ‘new human’ and participant in a ‘new humanity.’

Who Christ is, we become. What Christ was incarnated to be, we share with him. He died to reconcile us to God, and we, likewise, die to a former way of life. The late Dick Halverson always concluded his benediction by saying something like: “Where you go, Christ goes. Where you are, Christ is. What you say, Christ says.” Yes, precisely. Paul, again, articulated this reality when he described himself as being in anguish “until Christ is formed in you.” He never, never spoke of passive ‘church membership” but he was unequivocal in saying: “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4).

Jesus used the metaphor of himself being the True Vine and we being the branches, who as we abide in the Vine, become recipients of the Vine’s life, and so become those who bear the fruit of such abiding, such identification. This is not something that happens casually, or unconsciously, or without consequences. It is for this purpose that I want to insist that God’s design is to create colonies of such new humanity/new creation persons to unmistakably demonstrate the communal expression of God’s new humanity.

That is also why, one of the four gifts the ascended Lord gave to the church for their equipping (Ephesians 4) is that of a teaching-shepherd—someone(s) to form Christ’s followers into conformity to his life and teachings—to teach and model and coach those who become participants in Christ’s mission, and the contagious witnesses to the incredible new humanity he came to create. It only follows: that if Christ is dwelling in you and me and we in him, then we will have a burning desire to be and to do what he had a burning desire to be and do. This is not tame church membership.

It also means that the basic colonies of God’s new humanity must be small enough so that every person participating has a name and a face and a story—and is formed into the image of Christ–no anonymous sightseers, no one lost in the crowd of anonymous religious folk. Colonies of God’s New Humanity are composed of new humans, new because Christ is in them and they are in Christ. Got it?

BLOG 9/14/14. COLONIES MADE UP OF PROPHETS (WHAT?)

In these current Blogs I am seeking to reconceive ‘the church’ as being colonies of God’s New Humanity, i.e., a whole different genre of human community, that is the product of the Holy Spirit, and is not humanly explainable. ‘Church members’ can be religious sightseers, who think Jesus is a nice guy, … but true colonies of God’s New Humanity are made up of disciples. ‘Church members’ can tip their hats to Jesus, and sing songs about him, … but disciples have encountered Jesus as the very transforming Word of God made flesh and blood, welcomed him, embraced him into their lives, and have chosen a life of faith in him and obedience to his New Creation agenda.

The Apostle John says right away, that: “to those who received him, to them he gives the power to become the sons and daughters of God.” But there is another not-so-subtle factor, which we dare not skip over. To use Eugene Peterson’s unforgettable paraphrase of John 1:14: “The Word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood” … which brings us to the necessity of our own prophetic calling. To come into any neighborhood is to come into a particular culture that has traditions, prejudices, blind-spots, patterns of communication, laws, human relationships often broken and destructive, but sometimes quite commendable, and with many beautiful expressions. You get the picture.

But, for us, this means that when we embrace Jesus and are given the his own life and power, and so become what true humanity is meant to be … we know that this takes place in our own specific and real neighborhoods, which are equally very real cultures, or mini-cultures—sometimes hostile, sometimes cynical, sometime seeking meaning, and producing marvelous expressions of human-kindness and creativity. We are never called to move into religious clubs, which isolate themselves from the very real cultures of their neighborhoods.

This is a clue to the incredibly insightful passage about the four necessary dimensions of our equipping for the calling, which is ours in Christ, found in Ephesians 4. Too many expositors skip over the four necessary gifts Paul mentions there, if (all) the people of God are to be equipped for their own incarnational ministry. And one of those four necessary gifts is that of prophet. Why would that be a necessary gift? Stop and think about it. If we are all to be effective in our incarnation, in our participation in the mission of God, then we must absolutely be tuned-in to the culture in which we live and operate. This is termed (by students of the missionary task of the church): cultural exegesis. This is where the church/colony comes to understand and confront its cultural setting.

We live our New Humanity lives in particular and specific cultures. In Jesus’ case, or the early church, one can identify at least four different cultural forces: Jewish, Greek, Roman, and probably a strong Arabic component. Every believer came into these cultural realities. We, likewise, here in the West, come into a very real post-Christian culture that has built up considerable anti-bodies against much of its Christian past. We come into a culture with competitive religions: new age, Islam, materialism, hedonism, Facebook relationships, digital age stuff (where folk are over-informed and still lonely), etc. … New Humanity folk must be continually honing their prophetic skills, their on-going cultural exegesis, so that our incarnation is authentic and is in continual missionary confrontation with the real people Jesus came to seek and to save. So true colonies of God’s New Humanity absolutely must equip each to be prophets, and to relate the incredible love and grace of God in Christ to the realities of each culture.

BLOG 9/10/14. COLONIES OF GOD’S NEW HUMANITY: EQUIPPED TO GIVE ANSWER

Pursuing my concept of the church as composed of those colonies of God’s New Humanity in Christ, we come to the inevitable question of: who equips such persons who compose such colonies into New Humanity living? After all, Peter will write to the folks in the new humanity colonies of Asia Minor (I Peter 3:13-17) that they should, first of all, live such excellent New Humanity lives so that when others ask of them the reason for such lives, such hope, that they can respond to theirs inquirers with a thoughtful answer, and do it with gentleness and sensitivity.

That says two things to us: 1) that someone has formed mentored those folk in (what our Latin American sisters and brothers call) orthopraxis, or the behavior and demeanor of those who have encountered Jesus Christ and had their lives transformed by him; and 2) a working grasp of the life and teachings of Jesus Christ: what he came to be and do, and consequently, what he calls upon us to be and do. After all, Jesus has instructed us: “As the Father has sent me, even so do I send you.” All of our lives should flow out of our oneness with Jesus Christ. It should be a natural flow. But someone has to equip us for such. Who? How?

Or there is the word of rebuke by the author of the Letter to the Hebrews: “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again” (Hebrews 5:11). Or Paul’s wonderful description of the gatherings of the colonies: “Let the word of Christ dwell among you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts” (Colossians 3:16). Or, for another, Peter’s breath-taking introduction to his second letter: “May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence” (II Peter 1:2-3).

Do you see that these all speak of an essential dynamic within the colonies of God’s New Humanity people by which all–everyone– are formed and equipped to be living, breathing, eager practitioners of the new life that is theirs by virtue of their embrace of Jesus Christ. This simply does not happen in most of the venerable and traditional churches that focus on clergy, on high liturgy and high sacramentalism. It also does not ordinarily happen well, even in the exciting mega-churches with their colorful and gifted preachers and their rock concert popularity among younger participants. Such expressions of the Christian community undoubtedly have their place, but it is quite to easy to become a passive spectator, and never be formed to be working and eager part of God’s calling to be contagious with the good news of his reconciling, recreating love in Jesus Christ.

What if … every believer were so discipled that he/she had a healthy working grasp of the gospel message of Jesus’ life and teachings? If every believer were totally at ease and eager to engage those god-seekers whom they meet in daily life in significant conversation? If every believer had a keen and knowledgeable sense of the cultural influences that form this present scene? If every believer saw himself/herself as a missionary church-planter wherever they sojourned? According to Ephesians 4, that is the plan. I hope to come back an unpack this. Stay tuned ….

BLOG 9/7/14. A REMINDER: COLONIES OF GOD’S NEW HUMANITY ALWAYS IN PROCESS—NEVER PERFECT.

On this Sunday afternoon, I think I need to engage in my usual redundancy and remind myself, and the readers of these Blogs, that the colonies of God’s New Humanity are never perfect. How could they be? They are made up of those whom Jesus came “to seek and save,” i.e., not the religious (or righteous), but very real broken, confused, mistaken, ‘lost’ folk. These colonies are really a weird bunch. That’s because Jesus meets us where we are. He doesn’t ever intend to leave us there, but he meets us in the realities of: who we are and where we are. Folk in his colonies come with their idols, their lurking agnosticism, their screw-ups, their arrogance and pride, their tribal or family traditions, the habits we acquire that reflect the darkness, our hormones, our broken relationships—yes, and our commendable accomplishments, and ethical sensibilities, and awareness of our communal responsibilities. God’s colonies of his New Humanity are those  who come not making excuses, but as self-confessed very real sinners. Got it?

But there will always be those, also, who are troubled personalities, those who are blind and deaf to so much that Jesus has come to do in the creation of this New Humanity (i.e., his mission to make us truly human). You will always find those in the colonies who are perfectly content to be ‘religious’, to attend worship services, to go through the motions of ‘churchy’ stuff because these seem to meet some need for ‘spirituality’—and yet who have no passion for Jesus or his mission, and who feel no particular responsibility for those still walking in darkness. There are those who have no interest in the true freedom for which Christ sets us free–to be his new humanity.

Some who inhabit church institutions seem to understand this least of all. Some who pertain to be “church professionals” likewise miss the point (an academic Master of Divinity degree does not guarantee that one even understands the gospel!). So many churches have drifted away, and in a very real sense have become something far less than those passionate communities of discipleship. Some churches have, in reality, ceased to be churches at all. They may inhabit handsome sanctuaries and be engaged in some commendable practices, but they miss the point of creating dynamic and contagious colonies of those who herald Jesus as the Word of the Father to his rebellious creation, heralding God’s grace and truth in his Son.

Colonies of God’s New Humanity in Christ are very intentional in faithfully incarnating, or demonstrating God’s New Creation/Kingdom … and these colonies are deliberate in seeking to equip every participant to be an active agent in the mission of God to the world, his “plan for the fullness of time to unite again all things in him, in heaven and on earth.”

Just a reminder. We are called with a purpose. It is not a humanly achievable goal, but absolutely irresistible as the Holy Spirit inhabits the colonies.

BLOG. 9/3/14. COLONIES OF GOD’S NEW HUMANITY: THE BATTLE FOR INTEGRITY.

I had an interesting response to my last Blog (about these Colonies of God’s New Humanity being only possible by the Holy Spirit) from a friend, whose unfulfilled desire was to find such a colony/church and pastor. Yes, wouldn’t we all? But the creation of such colonies and maintaining them with integrity is no walk in the park. It’s not all that easy. Even when a community begins well, and has every intention of maintaining that integrity, as soon as it becomes fruitful, and known, it seems to attract along-for-the-ride folk, … or dissidents from other communities, or sightseer members, who want the blessings but have no intentions toward the costly discipleship which Jesus called for.

New church plants have the best shot at incarnating such colonies, such communities of God’s new humanity in Christ, but give them a couple of fruitful years, and subtle pathologies begin to set in, usually they come with ‘success’ and good reputation. There are always those who come making their (sometimes not so subtle) demands upon the congregation—demands for orthodoxy, demands for evangelistic fervor, demands for liturgical practices, etc.—and seeking to be the influence makers (sometimes of a pathological sort), rather than those who come as servants, and with the grace of gentleness, Christian maturity, and true humility.

When I was part of the leadership team of a Presbyterian Church that was to become quite vibrant and fruitful, our team realized this problem by making this following paragraph a part of its required Covenant of Membership:

“I come accepting the responsibility of being a part of this congregation as God’s gift to me and the community of people where He is at work redemptively. I do not come making demands of it, but rather giving myself to its unity, its peace, and its purity. I covenant with God and this congregation to encourage, to love, to bear the infirmities of, to pray for, to minister to, to be reconciled with, to forgive, and to be forgiven by my Christian brothers and sisters here in accordance with scriptures that the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace be maintained among us. ‘Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ’ (Eph. 5:20).”

That covenant has been in place now for over a half-century, and the church remains strong and fruitful, but the battle for its integrity has continually emerged. The subtle temptations, to subversion away from Kingdom integrity, always lurk in the shadows.

I currently participate in an unusually fruitful church, whose pastors and elders are good friends, and we discuss this this problem, and they struggle with it. But the church is on a roll, and there are those whom I described above who have become part of such a church, but with expectations and subtle demands that indicate that costly discipleship to Jesus may not be at the top of their priority list.

The problem is not new. Read, for instance, Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Life Together in which he spells out some these challenges even for that faithful witnessing church in Nazi Germany. I highly recommend that book, even if its context is light-years away from our own.

BLOG 8/31/14. COLONIES OF GOD’S NEW HUMANITY: ONLY POSSIBLE BY THE SPIRIT.

One of my respondents asked the question: if this concept of churches being alternatively called colonies of God’s New Humanity was something I had invented? I don’t have an answer to that, but I do know that to listen-in to the self-promotion of all too many churches is like listening to an advertisement for some kind of Christian self-help society. But this misses a very critical piece of the New Testament teachings about that community which Jesus Christ is building. He’s not talking about some patched up, and improved community. He’s talking about a human community that is being radically transformed into his own likeness—and is unequivocal in his insistence that we are totally incapable of accomplishing on our own.

Jesus came into our human darkness as a realist. The problem was a cosmic rebellion in which humankind sought to become, in essence, their own gods. This, however, is a ‘dry well’. Such an attempt at self-sufficiency leaves one captive to all of the uncertainties of meaninglessness, hopelessness, loneliness, lack of a creative source or any authority outside of themselves. It is not that we cannot achieve some pretty remarkable inventions and survival techniques, but it pretty much leaves us without a final goal, or any confidence in what we are ultimately about.

Jesus says this, flat-out: “Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper/Spirit will not come to you. But if I go I will send him to you …” (John 16:7). Or again: “ … for apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). Or: “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth …” (John 16: 12).

We are so prone to downplay the seriousness our natural condition. In New Testament terms we are dead in our own God-rejecting attempts. We are blind to true truth. We are captives to an alien dominion that we are not even aware of. Our self-focused, self-destructive ways, our attempts to design our own gods … are so vain. We watch all of the crap of human violence, tribal strife, inhumanity, greed, indifference to others, escape into cyberspace and all of the unrealities which that encompasses, and seldom slow down to ask: ‘why?’. This is the “normal” human condition that Jesus came to rescue us from. He came to set us free, and to create us new and purposeful and to be a humankind in intimacy with himself/God-self … and with each other.

But such radical recreation is humanly impossible. “Without me you can do nothing.” It is why the church is called: the dwelling place of God by the Holy Spirit (Eph.2:22). We are capable of creating comfortable enclaves of ‘religious Christianity’ with merely human resources, but we are not capable of opening blind eyes and creating receptive hearts, and self-denying love, and deliverance from deep-seated dissonances in our psyches.

So, on this Labor Day weekend, and before I proceed with these Blogs lifting up different dimensions of the colonies of God’s New Humanity, I want to record that Jesus didn’t leave us on our own with this humanly impossible enterprise, but has given us his own Creator Spirit to make the humanly impossible, possible! And so the church’s classic prayer: Come Holy Spirit!

2. COLONIES OF GOD’S NEW CREATION:  A BETTER WAY.

My use of the term colonies to designate those communities of God’s New Humanity, God’s Kingdom, is intentional, because ‘colonies’ are those who are moving into some new challenge, some new geographical area, some new purpose in a previously unoccupied scene. Jesus calls out a people to be his sons and daughters of the dominion of the Light (“the dominion of God’s Son”) in the midst of the dominion of darkness (Satan’s dominion). Peter elucidates this calling when he speaks of God’s people in Christ as: “sojourners and exiles,” while at the same time being “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you” (I Peter 2:8).

This is so altogether so other than the all-too-frequent images of ‘church’ that are summoned up in our thinking, like: rows of folk sitting passively in pews, or endless church activities, or of huge mega-churches with glamorous professionals advocating whatever, or vested clergy in pulpits, or of the College of Cardinals in Rome, or congregations struggling to maintain decaying buildings, and seeking to survive in a new culture … you catch my drift.

Colonies denote folk who are all on the same page, and engaged in a common goal with a common authority and a common creative source. Colonies can be as small as two or three, or considerably larger, but there is always a bond of mutuality and interdependence among them.

And colonies have the capacity of incarnating those dimensions of God’s New Humanity that Jesus mandates: 1.) Relationships of true love and mutual caring: “ … that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another” (John 13:34). Note that this is not some impersonal membership in a religious institution, but a whole new and alternative kind of human community that is costly and beautiful and intimate and visible. 2) Colonies incarnate the behavior of the New Humanity that incarnate the radical new ethics of God’s New Creation: “ … so that they [the sometimes hostile outsiders] see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation” (I Peter 2:12, also Matthew 5:16).

Hey! We’re talking an alternative breed of humanity here. This is not tame religion, but colonies penetrating alien territory under the authority of Jesus who has called them to such. This requires that we have support and mutual encouragement. It requires that we be equipped for such a daily encounters. It eschews passivity in the calling by Christ. These are “boots on the ground” colonies of those who have encountered the Living Lord Jesus Christ, and through him are in communion with the Trinitarian community, and being formed into that likeness (holiness).

Paul lifts up an ascription of praise when he says: “ … to him [God] be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus …” These colonies of God’s new humanity are to be the radiant display of the divine nature, just as was true of the Son of God. Such cannot be realized in large religious convocations, or institutions where one can easily become anonymous and disengaged in the essence of Christ’s calling.

This is why I choose the term: colonies of God’s New Humanity, because such colonies must maintain their integrity to survive, and be committed to mutuality in their real, and often hostile, contexts. It is where the omnipresent New Testament exhortations of our responsibilities to “one another” take on flesh and blood reality. It is where and how God’s New Creation (Kingdom) engages in the mission of God.

I readily confess that I am being redundant with this focus in the Blogs, but it is because so much of the church is so captive to fruitless ecclesiastical activities that go nowhere.

[If you find these Blogs provocative and helpful—recommend them to your friends.]

BLOG 8/24/14: COLONIES OF GOD’S NEW HUMANITY BEGIN WITH THE ESSENTIAL FOCUS ON JESUS CHRIST.

With all of the confusion, all the counterfeits, and all the aberrations that go under the use of the designation of ‘church’, I want to intentionally, here, define the church as composed of those colonies of God’s New Humanity. God’s New Humanity is the communal dimension of God’s intent to “make all things new” in and through Jesus Christ. That sounds orthodox enough, but let me unpack it a bit, because the focus gets lost so easily, especially on those of us who are the most involved.

The tragic estrangement of the human community from each other, and from the Creator emerges graphically in the colorful Garden of Eden story early in scripture. Between that third chapter of Genesis and the twenty-first chapter of Revelation (in which it is stated that: “the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people”) is the fascinating picture of God who loves this fractured and contentious human community, and loves it unconditionally—so much so, that he provides in his own Son as the the reconciler, who reconciles us to God by his blood (cross), and makes us to be a community of reconcilers.

Humankind—that’s us—is designed to live in intimate relationship with each other and with our Creator-God. This is what was lost in the rebellion recorded in those first chapters of Genesis. Alienation replaced shalom. The temptation to “be as gods” was insane. It all “went south” from that point, i.e., mutual accusation, jealousy, murder, separation, false gods, darkness …

But God immediately began to unfold the design of his infinite love, and the record of how that began to emerge over generations is all made plain in the coming of Jesus—“the mystery hidden for the ages” (Colossian 1:26) now unfolded in Jesus, has an awesome communal dimension, which is: that we are to love one another as God loves his Son, and loves us—unconditionally. This is a radically new kind of humanity and a radical new kind of love. At infinite costs to himself, God reconciles us to himself by the gift of his Son, and then makes us to be in this world a community of reconcilers. There are to be no anonymous others, or nameless faces in his communities.

As we are called to put our trust in Jesus Christ, we are also called to become the incarnation of his new humanity right in the midst of this human brokenness and suspicion, injustice and lack of mercy.

But do you know what? Before you and I even begin to look into this, we must realize that the individuals who are to compose this New Humanity must first of all are a radical new breed who have had a transformational encounter with Jesus Christ, which encounter of faith begins with a radical conversion, a deliberate turning away from our autonomy, and an entering into the radical new life that Jesus calls us to. There is no sweet “church membership” here. Not at all. Repentance and faith are at the threshold. Jesus himself is the Door. He is the Way unto God … and the New Humanity is only what it is intended to be as it abides deeply in him, and is formed by his life, death, resurrection, and teachings. To “seek first the Kingdom of God” begins with seeking first the glory of Jesus.

This is where the ostensible ‘church’ so often drifts. It becomes focused on its inner life and activities, and in doing so, marginalized Jesus … and for our purposes here, is his command that we actually love one another as he loves us: unconditionally. The human community that he is making new is not isolated piety. It is his love and reconciling grace to real others: the most difficult, broken, confused of this human scene. It is only possible (as he taught us) by the gift of his Spirit. But it begins with Jesus—Jesus is the Architect and Builder of his church, his New Humanity, and it is to be the radiant display of his own life, and love and teachings. That’s our starting point.

BLOG 8/20/14. MY ATTEMPT TO CLARIFY THE TERMS: DISCIPLESHIP & DISCIPLE MAKING

The other evening at a congregational gathering, one chap asked the presenter why we didn’t have a congregational program on disciple making. The answers given were necessarily a bit abbreviated, given the context of a large gathering. In his ensuing attempt to answer the questioner, I realized that I use the terms frequently and that in the minds of many (most?) they are fuzzy designations that lack strong Biblical substance. More likely, they are severely trivialized.

The term: disciple, comes to us as a translation of a Greek word that, in simplest definition, means: a learner. It emerges into the life and vocabulary of the Christian church with great importance since it is how Jesus designates those who are truly his followers. It is the one thing that he bequeaths to his followers at the end of his earthly life, namely, that they are to go into every nation and make disciples.

So … what are his followers to be ‘making’? And, why, maybe, is it a discipline that is so easily marginalized? The answer to that is: It is probably too strong and demanding and all-consuming concept for those who are more spiritually timid, and inclined to some kind of religious experience that rather allows them to retain their autonomy, even while being somewhat religious. But to such folk, Jesus gives the parable of the house built on the sand, and interprets it as those who use all of the orthodox (evangelical?) words, and engage in good works in the name of Jesus, but just don’t get it (cf. Matthew 7:21 in loc.). He gives to them the horrifying response: “I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.”

Or maybe his word: “So, therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciples” (Luke 14:13). The broad way that leads to destruction is so much more congenial to us than the narrow gate that leads to eternal life. Yet, the calling of Jesus is precisely that: to be delivered out of our captivity to the dominion of darkness, and into the dominion of God’s dear Son (Colossians 1:13). Paul always speaks of our calling by Jesus as one in which we die to our self-entered, autonomous existence, and rise to a whole new life by the Spirit, and as servants of righteousness. (You don’t recruit many ‘church members’ with this kind of requirement).

Dietrich Bonhoeffer made the classic statement: “When Jesus calls a man, he bids him come and die.” Am I getting your intention? OK, so disciple making is not something you can learn in a class, or read about in a book. It is a living and life-giving and transformational encounter with the living Lord Jesus Christ, who has come to inaugurate a whole New Creation. Bonhoeffer’s alternative to this authentic discipleship is: “Cheap grace”, i.e., faith without repentance. (But true freedom and joy come as we die to self and live into Christ.)

I am fascinated by a more ultimate description of what discipleship entails, and it is found in one of the most misquoted and out-of-context quoted passages in the New Testament: “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, …” (Romans 8 28-29). Ah! but this is a radical calling and demanding.

A disciple is one who is being literally conformed to the image of God’s Son in all that he came to do, to teach, and to inaugurate as they live in communion with him. This is his thrilling mission and message. And any who is going to be identified with him is going to be contagious with that calling. Such are disciples. Every disciple of Jesus is to be a disciple maker. We become disciples by knowing, practicing, and deliberately engaging in the stuff of daily life and so being practitioners of Christ’s New Humanity among our colleagues. This is not learned in a church class, but in the 24/7 realities of this broken and spiritually confused society.