Change is inevitable, because as we all know, or claim to know, the only thing that doesn't change is who God is. (Notice I didn't say, 'what God does'...)
We have to expect change. We're foolish if we don't.
Just as Moses didn't bring the Law down from the mountain and live forever to see it walked out; just like Abraham only lived long enough to see God's promise to him lived out; just like Joseph who lived long enough to walk in his purposes, none of the forefathers of our faith remained in the same place that they started.
Jesus didn't tell his disciples to "stay where we first met, build a building, stay there, and fight against everything different that I throw your way"...
No, Jesus told them that they ARE the church, wherever they went!
He told them to follow Him.
When someone uses the word "follow", it's pretty much implied that there's some sort of movement involved.
That tells me, especially in this geographic area, where one of the largest military installations in the east coast is at our back door, that we need to keep following God, because He's always moving.
Maybe our focus as a church has been wrong - we think (arrogantly) that our job is to minister to people in the military who are stationed here.
What if we got it all wrong??
What if we're to use the world system we've been placed smack dab in the middle of to our advantage, or even as an example?
For those who are unfamiliar with the military lifestyle, it's completely mission-focused. Training, learning, moving, outreach, moving on... Very similar to the church.
The end results may be drastically different compared to the church, but what if we followed the model that almost surrounds us?
I'll compare some of the processes for those who don't know anything about the military.
-Someone makes a decision to join the military.
-Someone makes the decision to follow Christ.
-That person leaves their home, their familiarity, and goes to basic training.
-A new believer starts pursuing God, going to church, in whatever form that takes.
- In basic training, the trainee's identity changes as they learn the basic skills needed in order to perform the task they signed up to do, all while surrounded by others who have made the same decisions.
- The new believer begins to learn and understand who God is, and who they are in Christ, strengthened and supported by the community of believers around them.
- The soldier then moves on to whichever base he's been assigned to. He'll be trained further there, more specifically for the mission he's to perform. If he's a medic, he'll be trained how to be a medic. If he's an infantryman, he'll learn how to be an infantryman. The process is the same, whether he's to be a sniper, a medic, infantry, airborne, or clerical.
- It's the same for believers. We find the group of people who are equipped to train us for who it is we're called to be (not DO). We'll be discipled by those who've been called to train us, to disciple us. The missionary will be drawn to those who lead a missionary lifestyle; intercessors will be drawn to those who share the same passions, as well as vision casters, servants, teachers, etc.
- While the soldier is at his base, he is continuously ready for deployment; in a constant state of readiness. After all, the call to "go" could come at any moment...
- While we're being discipled, we're learning to always be available for God to move wherever we're at. We're learning how to live, we're growing spiritually, always ready for God to move us on to our mission. After all, the word from God to "go" could come at any moment...
- The deployment order comes down, time to roll. Training and efficiency kick in, and it's time to fully step into the mission the soldier has been trained for.
- God says "go"; whether it's a job change; a move into a new city, town or neighborhood; a change in our life circumstances; or new relationships, this is where we get to share our love with others, and expose them to the grander perspective offered by the God we serve.
For both the soldier and the follower of Christ, the mission may seem to be accomplished. But as we see so much today, the mission is never really fully accomplished. At least not in our lifetime...
Just like Abraham, just like Moses, just like Jesus' disciples.
Keep all that in mind, because I'm fixin' to switch gears.
In the context of our lives, what is the one thing we can't ever get more of?
TIME.
Even the military example I just laid out is very dependent on time.
Time for training, time for preparedness, time for mission, time for moving, and time for rest/recovery.
I recently read a brilliant article that broke down Jesus' life into increments of time; distinguished by the activity that filled that time.
Jesus lived about 33 years.
He spent about 30 of those years being with people. Living life.
He spent about 3 years working with people. Training, discipling, modeling, sending...
And the spent 1 week working for humanity, doing something we couldn't do ourselves: our redemption.
Jesus spent approximately one-tenth of his life doing Kingdom stuff. What was the other 90% of his time consumed by?
Being with people. Living with them. Learning their stories, learning their culture, learning and performing a skilled trade, eating with people.
In our military example, we've seen the increments of time spent on "military" stuff. But in the grand scheme of a lifetime, 10 - 15% of their time is spent doing the mission itself.
So what fills the rest of that time?
LIFE.
Marriage, children, hobbies, food, friends, errands, school, etc.
If you'll notice, that's what Jesus spent most of his life doing. He learned how to be a man, he learned the culture of the day in which he lived, he ate meals with his family and neighbors, he learned how to be a carpenter. Now, Jesus knew he wasn't going to "grow up and be a carpenter", but he did it, because that's what his father, Joseph did; and that's what the culture expected.
Jesus also knew who he was really going to be when he grew up. He loved, and he gave, and he forgave, because that's what his heavenly father did.
So, church, what do we do with that?
Do you think Jesus would have been as effective and influential in his ministry years, his "doing" years, if he hadn't spent so much time being with the people he ministered to; if he didn't know what it was like to experience life with these people?
Do we honestly think that Jesus would've been able to change people's lives from the old way to the new way, if he didn't know the old way?
(I know what you're thinking... the argument comes up that Jesus is God, so he knew, yada yada yada. Yes, and I'll throw this at you. Could Jesus teach us, model for us, how to be human, if he didn't fully experience life as a human? Every part of life. Birth, childhood, teen years, young adulthood, knowing your death is imminent, and even death.)
We're so quick to "follow Jesus' example", or "do what Jesus did", that we never quite get the full picture of his life. We equate his "life" to his "ministry", as if God just dropped him from heaven onto Earth, with no history, no background, and no intimate knowledge of the culture around him.
If we focus too much on doing, doing, doing, we're missing out on what I think is the most beautiful part of Jesus' time on earth.
Living Life.
We, as the church, focus all our time, energy, and resources on doing Kingdom work. If we don't pay attention to the time that Jesus spent being with people, (not to mention the time spent learning how to be himself - at that time, fully human) then we're missing out on life itself!
Did you catch that?
Life teaches us how to be ourselves.
By living life with Jesus, the disciples learned who they were, themselves. They learned how who they were fit into this new thing God was doing, this "way" that Jesus was teaching them.
And they did it together, not just one-on-one with their teacher. Just like when we were in school, class is in session, and whoever was in your class, you were stuck with.
If you look at the disciples, they were a ragtag bunch of guys, all from different careers, different backgrounds, and different esteems in society; brought together for God's purposes.
(Sounds kinda like church, doesn't it?)
I'm sure there were disagreements between them, in fact, the argument as to who is greater among them in front of Jesus (Matthew 20:20-27) was probably a tame one. Chronologically, that argument didn't happen early in "the ministry years". Our human-ness keeps shining through, doesn't it...
Just as Jesus corrected their way of thinking that brought about the argument, grace allows us to have our disagreements, yet still treat one another respectfully, with dignity; allowing us the time together to understand why each other feels the way they do, and the space for each of us to process that understanding.
Humility gives us the strength to communicate with one another; communication being the basis for understanding one another, not just to make sure "our" side of the discussion is made known.
I'll give an example.
A couple of months ago at a Wednesday night meeting, the topic of worship was brought up when the announcement was made that the worship band was leaving. It was surprising news, yes, but just as with any unexpected change, the atmosphere tensed as people fought to hold on to what they knew.
It became apparent in this meeting, the people weren't trying to hold on to the vehicle that delivered the music, they were trying to hold on the "how" of their worship.
We ended up going around the table, each person explaining how they worship, and what it is about the way they worship that moves them. For some, it's the words that demonstrate the intensity and immensity of God, and for others, it's the fast and upbeat rhythms that bring hope to lives that are struggling.
Now that we knew this about one another, it should be easier to sit through a worship service with all kinds of worship music, because we know that we are involved in something that is based off our mutual admiration of God.
I would think that now, based off this newly acquired information, that we could worship God through something that we normally wouldn't worship to, because (through communication with our brothers and sisters) now we know why each particular style of music is appreciated by each person. And that moves me, knowing that God has drawn us together.
If we don't take the time to learn this about our brothers and sisters, we'll never know.
Besides, if worship is all about how I worship, or what I want in a worship service, then it's not God I'm worshiping; it's me.
How do we learn these things about one another?
By doing what Jesus spent the biggest portion of his life doing: spending time with people.
He learned the culture of the world around him.
He learned the rhythms of the people's lives.
He built relationships.
Spend time together. Share your lives. Tell one another your stories, so you can understand one another, so you know what makes each other happy, scared, or hurt. Encourage one another in your dreams, your goals, and your daily lives. Make yourselves available for one another, and be there for each other in your struggles... we all have them.
By doing these things, we'll be living in the community that God has called us to be, not just another congregation on Sunday morning.
It's when we're together that we're the strongest. When we're together, we're learning; about each other, more about how to be together, and we learn more about ourselves.
I'll tell you a story.
My husband and I have had the pleasure of opening our home to people who've needed a place to stay for almost the entire time we've been married. Friends and family going through divorces; young adults we worked with in the military who were transitioning from life under their parents' roof, to dorm life, then on to life out on their own.
Earlier this spring, we had the opportunity to have a friend's teenage daughter move in with us for a short time.
She was dealing with what most people would think was an unbelievable amount of life's garbage: divorce; the first year in high school & the drama that goes along with it; societal pressures from every angle to look a certain way, dress a certain way, act a certain way; talk a certain way; and think (or not think) a certain way.
(I don't know if I could hack it as a teenager today. There's an incredible about of work that goes into trying to just be left alone & not get caught up in the drama people create.)
While all this is bombarding her, there's this little voice inside her telling her to just be herself.
(There's an intimacy that develops when people live together, without trying to force our own agendas on one another. When the goal is mutual understanding, in an environment that gives us the freedom to be ourselves, that's when our lives lived together becomes the teacher, where every person we interact with is the vessel used to drive home the lesson.)
This young lady was able to witness my faith and my life very intimately. Not by structured bible studies, or carefully planned sermons, but through our daily conversations where we'd open up to one another about our struggles, or the things that we each dealt with, and sharing how we handled them.
She saw my ugly; believe me. But she also saw me seeking God in every situation, and she saw my reactions to what God was doing. (Sometimes looking like obedience, other times looking like a ravaging battle, hence my "ugly")
She saw my interactions with people who frustrate me, and because she felt safe enough to ask questions, she then learned how I love others.
She has learned more of her worth; not because of how she looks, or what she does or says, but because she is exactly who she was created to be, and that she is loved by God & lots of other people for who she is today, and the amazing woman she will be in the future.
When this young woman moved in, my only goal was to develop a strong relationship with her.
By developing this relationship, we learned each other's standards and expectations. Because of our relationship, she knew she needed to clean her room, so I didn't need to establish a set of rules for her to follow. The mutual respect in our relationship, & the love we have for one another is what dictated our actions for and toward one another.
Because I know her, I know that she dislikes touching dirty dishes. So I don't make her do anything with dirty dishes. Because she sees me doing all the dirty dishes, she gladly puts them all away when they're clean, so I don't have to. (Seems trivial, but it's those little things that add depth to a relationship.)
Relationship before rules.
Live your lives together, focusing on your relationships with one another. It's a complete mindset change, but put one another first - which means that we'll have to step into that "faith" thing, letting God take care of us, as we remove ourselves from the center of our own lives.
