By Pastor Jon
<+> RELOVUTIONARY is an invitation into an intentionally-arranged Christianity, in light of our real cultural challenges in the Post-Christian West, and because of the church’s increasingly anaemic Missional witness <+>
That was the line, and it has not been rehearsed like a Funeral parlour.
This is now the commentary.
For too many, and I include myself, we are going through the motions, and we too often, don’t even know it. The life has become far too normal, and not in the ordinary sense, but in the, this is just the way things must be, conception.
We are in a rut.
We know this, because we have lost our Gospel voice.
When we do converse with outsiders, we are not sure what to say; how to say it; or when to say it. Therefore, we become mostly silent.
Ask yourself when was the last time you shared the Gospel; so that it was coherently understood, and not just as some soundbyte confession at the end of a sentence, such as, God bless? When was the last time someone was saved from your witness? Yes, I believe this is a work of God, but how will they hear if someone is not sent (Romans 10:14-15)? And you have been in the Gospel!
Are you content to live the rest of your days with this same broad level of engagement? I don’t want to rock your boat, for rocking your boat’s sake, but it is time we got repentantly naked about our state. And I am talking to myself.
I am not asking as your judge; the dreaded expert, or the teacher’s pet. I am asking as a fellow traveler who desperately wants His time to count in God’s mission because I believe the Bible is clear about the consequences being real; because the Gospel is the place of true human flourishing in a world of brokenness, and because God’s glory is the place of satisfaction and rest like the home that we hunger for in all our hectic-ness.
The definition of insanity is to continue doing the same things expecting different results, and why that does not entirely apply is because our process can be good, and our times may be more like Jeremiah’s. But, it does apply if we rarely plant, and never water (1 Corinthians 3:6-9).
I am increasingly convinced these dynamics can change. If you think that only applies to another person; you have your eyes locked on the wrong person. This is about every you! And to flip this, when you see that life is not about you, but what the God of Galatians 2:20 wants to do through you, you see that the limitations are not so readily apparent, because He is able. The spiritual mirth of our moment can then more definitively materialise. I believe we can still witness the Gospel transform greater numbers of people in the whatever locales of our specific locations. They say too many opponents are already beaten by the All Black jersey inside their own heads, before they take the field. Therefore, winning starts with an ability to see what is not yet visible, while not being blinded by the past, so that it automatically becomes the future. This is the recent rise of Ireland under Kiwi Joe. They finally knocked the behemoth off. And this is now more than once!
Times can change.
This should underscore the need for intentional change. It is safe to stay where we are. We default to the path of least resistance. We tend to interpret according to group-think. We all like to be normal. We like to fit in. We are aware of the tall poppy. And life is challenging. This means risk is probably presently more like right and now.
I get this. I have lived this. I didn’t plant this church because my health had positively turned. I am no hero. I simply got to the point where that never became about now. It is now time you jumped. I am no prophet, and this includes money, but if you are waiting until the ideal conditions arrive, I believe Jesus would be saying something like let the dead bury themselves. You come follow me (Matthew 8:18-22)!
In light, I invite you to prayerfully consider joining this Life Movement, as we more definitively seek to release the righteously redeemed beast, and mark our times like we have been marked in the Gospel.
While we rightly reject the Jesus is a fairytale at an ideas-debating-level, we must see that our argument must rise through our lives, which are now positively changed, and very much living differently, in light.
If post-modernism has substantiated anything, it is that there is no real concrete hope in this world. The door has been locked from the inside. Therefore, these conditions can be ideal for those who truly believe, and trust the Spirit of our Sending God, to powerfully empower in His service.
We launch February 24th!
Why not come and take a nosy?
This may just be your earthly catalyst. I believe it can be so!
For the Fame of His Name