Programmes- Sterile services and Flamboyant events

By Brett Jacobsen

This says the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm [zerowa- strength], and whose heart departs from the LORD. For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good comes; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited. Blessed is the man that trusts in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreads out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat comes, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit. (Jer 17:5-8)  

One of the carnal traps that holds many of God’s people captive is the human driven “Christian” programmes which lean heavily on man’s meagre might.

Jesus and His first century apostles left us a wonderful blueprint for spiritual community. They were all about real spirituality in everyday life and they had a major focus on perpetual Spirit-led existence. Living at home, going to work, to school and doing other normal activities while being led by His Spirit and sharing His love in community, was the picture of the Kingdom of God they portrayed.

Even their gathering together was far different than what many would call a bona-fide church meeting. They would gather around the presence of the Lord while breaking bread, eating a meal and drinking of the fruit of the vine (Luke 22:14-20, Acts 2:42-46, Acts 20:7-12, Acts 27:34-36, 1 Cor 10:16-17). There was participation from anyone who felt inspired by the Spirit to contribute to the community. Various Spiritual gifts were manifest as the believers would have love fellowship with the Father and with one another. 

This type of gathering was not held together by man, but the Holy Spirit was active throughout His body, breathing life into it by many different means and through all the believers. This type of community “trusts in the Lord” and has the Lord as their “hope”. It doesn’t “trust in man” and “make flesh [its] arm [strength]” and therefore cause people to have a heart that “departs from the Lord”. 

It is a sad historical fact that towards the end of the first century the church began to lose sight of the Kingdom of God as they began to establish man’s kingdoms (in the name of God). One of the terrible losses in the second, third, and subsequent centuries of church history was the everyday, fluid spirituality of the believers in favour of more event based religion. With the past help of Plato and co and their humanistic, erroneous philosophies which undergirded most of society, the church leaders led the saints out of Spiritual life and into special holy meetings. Since then the church has been widely given to the dualistic, carnal kingdom and its programmes of Christian religiosity.

The saints put the majority of their attention into church services and other special events, hoping to grow in spirit through their vibrant activity. Sadly the opposite is true. They are taught by their own endeavours how to be, or appear, spiritual at events of Christianity, but they lack the modelling of a Spiritual life. They end up being caught in the carnal commotion of trying to please God in their own strength, therefore, many a “heart departs from the LORD”… albeit oftentimes unwittingly and usually unknowingly.

Through a vast lack of trust in the Lord, most modern church leaders continue to corral the saints together into these human heavy programmes. Although there are still many true, God fearing believers wrapped up in these human agendas, causing a glimmer of God’s glory to be manifest, it is becoming more Ichabod (no glory) by the day (1 Sam 4:21). Church meetings for the most part are now either sterile services- which only keep the true saints by coerced commitment, or they are flamboyant events- tricking even the elect into believing that the meeting hype is God’s glory.  

You will not see a church service in the New Testament; neither will you see a big flashy crusade (sorry Billy). What you will see is every believer being equipped to be Spiritual every day and every where. Even the gatherings of the church that you will see are mostly small, mostly in homes, usually over a meal, very relational, very family like, always participative, never headed by a man (except Jesus) and always reliant on the Holy Spirit.

If we, the modern church, are going to be heavenly effective on earth then we must mortify this aspect of the arm of the flesh. We must allow the church to be the church. We must trust the Lord to make Spiritual people who live Spiritual lives all the time. We must flee from meeting minded Christianity and embrace Spirit-led life in the Kingdom of Christ.   

For more reading on New Testament community and leadership as well as other reformational insights, see the author’s book Heaven’s Underground Blueprint here- http://www.christisall.org/hub-book for a copy or a free PDF version.    

 
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This entry was posted on Friday, April 18th, 2008 at 11:16 am and is filed under Brett Jacobsen's teachings, Church Structure, House to house community, Living Christianity, Reformation/ Revival. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.