Do "Reformed Folk" have what it takes to be "Missional"?

Ask a child to do something.  Tell him if you must... then threaten and punish if necessary. 

Generally speaking, that's the way adults deal with children who are too immature to just naturally do chores on their own.

But is that how our Lord deals with His churches?

IMAGE FROM: 1487 original woodcut, Mark 5 - author's collection

Based upon letters to seven representative congregations (Revelation 2-3), Jesus seems pretty comfortable with the above approach, at least when immature churches start drifting off focus.

Ask.  Tell.  Remind.  If necessary, threaten and punish.

(Well, actually Jesus FIRST makes a love connection and offers encouragement... then come the prompts and threats where they are needed.)

Today the RCA wonders: "What does it mean to be Reformed and Missional?" 

Implied is an assumption that Christians SHOULD be "missional," as well as a hint of concern that maybe we're falling a bit short in that department.

Jesus says, in John 7:38:

"Whoever believes in me, streams of life-giving water will pour out from his heart."

Missional can be defined different ways, but it's hard to beat Christ's metaphor:

You know you're being missional when streams of life-giving water are flowing from your heart.

To be missional is to produce streams of life.  To be missional is to move down from the hills and out into the desert with a presence and power that brings hope, life, and transformation.

If a congregation is failing to water a community --let alone is withering itself-- something is probably pretty messed up.

Sticking with the life-giving water metaphor, maybe we need to work our way upstream and try to figure out what's choking off the waters.  Perhaps there is something in our structures or traditions that is restricting the flow.

Or, heaven forbid, perhaps the hills themselves are dry.  If it's a matter of drought, perhaps what is called for is some serious prayer for rain.

A third possibility is found in Revelation 2:2.  Jesus walked among the Christians of Ephesus and noticed lots of water.  "I know," said Jesus, "how hard you have worked."  The Ministry Team was hard at it and doing all the right stuff.  And the elders never let down their guard: "I know you cannot tolerate evil men and that you have tested those who say they are apostles but are not."

"But this," said Jesus, "I have against you: you do not love me now as you did at first."

The water was flowing at Ephesus, but something was missing.  There was no life, no love, no Holy Spirit power in it.

In Mark 5, Jesus flows into a lifeless place-- a place of tombs.  He confronts that evil and unholy presence with love, authority and holy power that flowed naturally from the reservoir within his very heart.  Missional streams of life-giving water were released that day, and a village outcast was himself transformed into an anointed man with a mission.

In the same way, apostles and disciples went forth after Pentecost filled with love, authority and holy power for missions.  They engaged in spiritual warfare and shared the good news backed with tangible demonstrations of love and power.

"Missional" folk throughout history have done the same.  They have flowed into dry, dead, and suffering places with waters energized by love and holy power.

It's great that the RCA is talking about what it means to be Reformed and Missional.  But three harder questions might be:

1.  Is something choking greater flow?

2.  Are the hills a little dry?

3.  Is there enough holy power in the water?

These are fair questions.  These are questions and issues that Jesus himself addressed to congregations that were younger than most of our RCA fellowships.

It may be comforting to know that churches that were planted by the apostles themselves were dealing with these same questions within such a short time after getting organized.

Of less comfort are the words of Revelation 2:5 to the church at Ephesus, a body of believers that was filled with orthodox doctrine and overflowing with good works:

"If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place."

As a footnote in history, First Reformed of Ephesus... is no more.

Such are the mysteries of the Kingdom. 

                                                                  -- Dave Cheadle

FYI: In case you were curious about the illustration at the top of this blog, below is a full page reproduction of that 1487 page ("leaf") printed on vellum that depicts Jesus engaging in spiritual warfare as recounted in Mark 5.  This leaf was printed on one of the earliest presses in Europe, and the gothic lettering of the period should look familiar to some readers -- the text is Dutch.

Guarding "God-With-Us" at Christmas

We all know that Satan was out to kill the Christ child. But 2,000 years later, the devil is still prowling, and he's still thrusting swords in the direction of our Lord.

IMAGE FROM: 1857 reproduction of illuminated manuscript page - author's collection

When King Herod gave orders to kill all the little boys in Bethlehem, he was acting on directives from God's enemy and fulfilling prophecies. We read, "In this way, what the prophet Jeremiah had said came true." (Matt. 2:17)

But it didn't end there. God's enemy continued, and continues, to stab at the Child.

"She was soon to give birth," we read in John's Revelation, but a great dragon "stood in front of the woman, in order to eat her child as soon as it was born." (Rev. 12:1, 4).

This has been an on-going strategy of God's enemy, Satan, the Devil, Apollyon, the dragon.  Our enemy wants to crash those holy-days where our Lord seeks to show up as "God-With-Us," or as we like to sing this time of year, Emanuel. Satan looks for those moments of mystery, then slips between us and God to do what he can to devour the miracle. Thank God, literally, that for the sake of His Kingdom, at key points our Lord has outwitted (and out-muscled) the enemy.

The Bible tells us that God was alert to Satan's ploy. God countered. He acted to save the holy baby: "An angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph and said, '...take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you to leave.'"

Or, again, in John's Revelation, "But the child was snatched away and taken to God and his throne. The woman fled to the desert, to a place God had prepared for her, where she will be taken care of for 1,260 days." (Rev. 12:6)

All mysteries and controversies about interpreting "days" in the book Revelation aside, John is clear about a couple things: 1. God is up to good -- He's pro-active in Kingdom history, and 2. God's enemy is active in thwarting Kingdom plans -- he's Anti-Christ and Anti-God's people. And the tense shiftings throughout Revelation are always interesting, constantly suggesting action that continues from the past into the present and on to the future.

We're talking on-going spiritual battles.

Too weird? Too abstract?  Too frightening?

IMAGE FROM: Pilgrim's Progress, an 1897 illustrated edition - author's collection

Try this. Peter, who knew both Christ and Satan firsthand, put it bluntly:
"Be alert, be on watch! Your enemy, the Devil, roams around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. Be firm in your faith and resist him, because you know that your fellow believers in all the world are going through the same kind of sufferings."

Believers. Peter is talking to us, and he says it's not just the "unsaved" who are hunted and harassed by the Anti-Christ. Satan stalks "believers in all the world."

Yikes.

Now, for those who are wondering if we should take this roaring lion stuff at face value, "the Devil" is NOT code for Freud's "id," or even for shame issues that a person needs to work through with a therapist. At least not in the minds of Peter, James, John, Paul, Matthew... well, actually, in the minds of every writer in the N.T.

Every single writer in the N.T. understood "Satan" to be real.

But --in fairness to Satan-- not all the dirty work can be attributed directly to him. The World and the Flesh are at the root of much that is going badly, and Satan has a whole army of helpers more than willing to do his dirty work when he's being tied up in bigger spiritual warfare matters.

So while I might say, "the Devil made me do it," it is probably more true that I did it myself. Yet it is also true that I may have been urged on by the coaxing of one of Satan's nasty helpers.

Satan himself is probably too busy for most of us. Most of our demonic harassments probably can be attributed to some low-ranking un-holy spirit who just happens to hate us almost as much as it hates our Saviour.

Fallen angels --demons-- are under the authority of Satan and are still trying to take stabs and swings at God-With-Us. If they think they can thwart the coming of the Kingdom and inflict a wound on Jesus by working on us, they'll give it a shot.

Back to Christmas.

Demons and Enemy #1 don't mind a happy secular holiday... it's "God-With-Us" that drives them crazy.

Evil spirits will let us have our seasonal eggnog, late-night parties and credit card binges. But when our thoughts turn to "God-With-Us," they'll begin to prowl in a little closer. They'll begin to meddle, lull, distract and even pounce to destroy what is holy.

Most of us have at least a vague sense of all of this, and we respond by just trying a little harder to "put the Christ back into X-mas." We respond. We try.

Here's the thing. If it actually IS the devil --or a fallen spirit-- who is sometimes trying to snatch an experience of Jesus from us, then we're talking about spiritual warfare stuff.

Not to get spooky with pentecostal shouting or superstitious rituals, but all the biggie saints and most of the greatest missionaries, evangelists and reformers (including John Calvin), probably took spiritual warfare more seriously than 9-out-of-10 Christians in the RCA today.

The "biggies" of the past knew enough to practice disciples to help them stay alert against the enemy. And they were intentional about ways to resist and fight back against our demonic harassers, just as Jesus and the N.T. teaches us to.

IMAGE FROM: Pilgrim's Progress, an 1897 illustrated edition - author's collection

Within the Reformed tradition, spiritual warfare classics like Bunyon's Pilgrim's Progress and Gurnall's The Christian in Complete Armour: A Treatise of the Saints War against the Devil were once all but required reading. But hardly any Reformed folks today read the modern equivalents of those works, let alone the originals.

(If you'd like a nice "safe" introduction to this topic, I suggest a CRC publication available through our own Faith Alive resource center: Straight Talk About Spiritual Warfare: What the Bible Teaches and What You Need to Know.)

Scripture teaches many ways to resist and fight back when spirits try to devour our "God-With-Us" moments. This Christmas, I mention but two of the most basic:

1. Be alert.
2. Pray.

First, don't assume every distraction from Christ this season comes from the World or the Flesh. Be on watch! Be willing to believe what the Bible teaches. We have an enemy who will distract and destroy "God-With-Us" moments whenever we allow.

Second, when you catch yourself wondering where Jesus went, stop and pray.

Seriously.

Stop... and pray.

IMAGE FROM: Pilgrim's Progress, an 1897 illustrated edition - author's collection

Pray: "Jesus, you're the reason for the season. I want to remember you. Right now. I want to WORSHIP you. Right now. Our enemy seems to be messing with our intimacy, trying to thwart this 'God-With-Me' moment in my life. But it's YOU, Jesus, that I want to feel close to. It's you that I love, that I serve, and you're the one I want to turn to for love."

Pray: "Jesus, please come to me now. Let us be close. I rebuke anything that is within me, the world, the flesh... and I rebuke any agent of the enemy who is messing with my head or heart. Jesus... I want the door to open. I want to be with you, to experience your love and presence. In your name and by your power, may it be so."

Some people who have been Christians for many years have still never developed a willingness to deal with the enemy. Their lives have been a lot of one-sided battles. They just "give it all to Jesus," while ignoring that at times Jesus "gave it all to us." Jesus sent his people out to engage the enemy themselves, and taught them how to do it.

Many of us have never practiced how to be alert, nor how to respond when we know that the lion is lurking nearby.

Anger, television, worry, greed, gadgets, sports, lust, fear, shame, distractions of the world, gossip, hobbies, work, pride... the assaults against us and "God-With-Us" encounters are nearly endless.

Unless we know how to respond and have the courage to engage, many "God-With-Us" moments are easily lost, easily devoured.

You want to experience Christ back in your Christmas?

Then take on "the dragon" who would devour the Baby. Get as serous about his intentions as the Father did. Get pro-active.

Be alert. Resist the enemy. Engage in spiritual warfare as needed. Pray.

Do your part... Jesus did his.

"God-With-Us" is for those who seek with all their heart, soul, mind and strength to be with Him.

Satan is doing his thing... if you're not doing yours, "God-With-Us" might not happen for you.

Such are the Mysteries of the Kingdom. -- Dave Cheadle

IMAGE FROM: Pilgrim's Progress, an 1892 illustrated edition - author's collection

Accounting Failures

Accounting Failures -- and "The Measure of Success"

-- Rev. Tim Vander Baan spilled the beans in his provocative Nov. '08 Church Herald piece, "The Measure of Success."

On page 22 he raises the question, "The two-talent pastor has something to offer, but does it merit being on the payroll?"

Bean counters lord it over the kingdom of commerce -- but who manages the Kingdom of Heaven? How do we measure yield from the field? Who decides which ministries get funded, which ministers (we are ALL ministers) get paid (and how much), and when to cash out investments that show little "measurable" returns?

If there's one thing we've just learned from the meltdown on Wall Street, it's that just keeping bean counters on the payroll is not enough.  Dollars and holdings can be looked at from many angles, and then it takes integrity, wisdom and interpretation to figure out what is actually going on with an investment.

I applaud Tim's painfully honest confessions. His journey is a gut-wrencher of lurches, twists, mountains and dips ending with his declaration that despite (or because of) his "failures," God's grace gets the final word:

"I'm free."

Perhaps our measuring devices for success should be occasionally flipped upside down ... kinda like a great Teacher from long ago used to do from time to time. Maybe once in a while we set a 12 inch ruler up alongside a ministry and measure from the sky down, instead of from the bottom up.

Jesus might have looked at a can full of beans and observed: "Not much room for God in there."

Then he might have pointed to a can with only a few beans in the bottom and said: "Hey, you just wait and see what's coming! Great reversals! Surprises, mercies, wonders, miracles and fillings that will bring glory to heaven like you've never seen!"

The truth is, as Tim accurately spilled it, measuring success can drive us to despair... and then beyond despair, it can drive us to God.

Bottom Line: God has special blessings for the poor in spirit... those living on beans, those who are hungry, hurting and crying up for more.

Accounting for such parodoxes requires mind-bending math that sometimes leaves us shaking our heads.

Such are the Mysteries of the Kingdom. ---Dave Cheadle