NO FORMULA OR CONTRACT APPLIES
28/12/24 11:14
A pastor came to a church confident that he would apply with success the formulae for Church Growth identified in his Ph.D. For the first year he never stopped reciting these points. Sadly, church life decayed under his leadership, and he eventually stopped bleating the formulae. This kind of institutional perspective will never raise the church out of its institutionalism. The ploy should be recognised for what it is – a sophisticated form of legalism. This is not to say Psychology and sociology have nothing to say about our life together as the church. They are particularly relevant when subordinated to the Christ in a lived, life in the Spirit. The premier theologian on the incarnation/mediation of Christ was Thomas Torrance. Writers well informed by this non-dualistic effect of being the branches of Christ’s Vine are Leanne Payne and Richard Rohr.
JESUS LENS
According to Douglas Campbell, foundationalism is the use of an assumed superior frame of reference to interpret and promote the Kingdom of God. An example of this is the use of social science as the undergirding principle informing church growth. I have served with pastors who believed adopting a set of externalities will grow a church. Sadly, none of their prescriptions worked because Jesus Christ, the One Paul called ‘Christ in you’ is not an externality. He is an incarnation. Jesus Christ is the lens and the frame to understand and advance the Kingdom of God.
OUR INCARNATED LIFE
ALREADY OURS
Christ is woven into the being of the Believer. But God is not absent from the non-believer. George Hunsinger puts it this way, “When God comes to humanity in the history of Jesus Christ, humanity at the same time is brought to God in that history objectively. It is not faith which incorporates humanity into Jesus Christ. Faith is rather the acknowledgement of a mysterious incorporation already objectively accomplished on humanity’s behalf.
God has made a home for us in Him and God has made Himself at home in us.
‘One had died for all; therefore all have died’ (2 Cor 5:14). That all have died in Christ (and been raised with him) is the hidden truth of humanity as revealed to faith. Our true humanity is to be found not in ourselves but objectively in him.” (1)
FERTILE FAITH
Real faith of the kind based on the reality Jesus has achieved for us, is found in agreement with God about our mysterious incorporation into the Communion that is God.
This truth is often hidden because Christianity is so often made to be ‘jumping through hoops’, a moral agenda along with assorted means of ‘earning Christ,’ as embodied in the oft used but misguided words, ‘Keeping close to Jesus.’ Our mindset determines whether our Christianity is a joy or a pain. Since we create our reality out or our mindset, it is always a wonderful advantage to possess the mind of Christ rather than mistaken narratives about salvation.
WE ARE RECEIVED
There is a sense in which we ‘receive Christ’ to participate in the abundant life on offer. Nevertheless, our life in God is less about our ‘receiving Christ’ and more about the fact that we have been received into Christ’s life by the enterprise of the trinity.
I have only flown Business Class once and then by courtesy of the steward. I am not a business executive or wealthy, so flying with the masses is my lot as one of the mass. Years ago, flying Sydney to Melbourne the crew invited us up to a Business Class seat so it would be easier to manage our toddler in the larger space.
A HIGHER STATE OF BEING YOU
The point I make now is that when we live incarnation which is Christ our life we travel Business Class instead of Economy. Our soul undergoes healing, our spirit is aligned with God and the spirit and life that is God imbues our being. Thus we grow in becoming truly human and sons of God in spirit and truth rather than notional sons. The spirit and life that can ignite our being is there for us if we are astute enough not to seek what we are looking for in sex, alcohol, drugs, religion, career achievement and any other substitute for Christ our life.
YOUR FRUIT
The cool thing about Christ our life is that we are holy and fruitful in being ourselves. This is ‘we are us’ in the coolest possible way. As individuals we can love ourselves, be ourselves and be fruitful without succumbing to the ideas of those who are making a career out of promoting churchianity. A church made up of these kinds of people is a Kingdom Force to be reckoned with. Kriston Couchey writes on Facebook, “A major awakening [is happening] with people encountering God outside the walls or contact with church. People being healed from addictions and having heart changes and relationships restored and being delivered from unforgiveness and depression. many meeting Jesus, some having personal encounters with a love that came and transformed them from selfish depressed people to loving hope filled people.” Jesus is not captured by religious spaces, institutions, or formulae. He is in you and with us by the Spirit of Sonship. Heaven come to earth when the incarnated Christ is alive in us in the Everyday.