Estimated reading time: 14 minute(s)
Last night we were leading worship at a local church and had a great time! The band were all good friends, and good musicians. The songs were fun. The mood was pretty light. The room was full of people we love. It was great!
After our song set, we went out around back to sneak in and listen to the message, stopping in the lobby along the way for dinner of course. 🙂 That is always a hit-or-miss kind of thing, so we did get delayed a bit as we conversed with the various folks in the lobby over food and a leisurely stroll back to the main meeting room.
Once we finally made it, we caught up with the speaker in the middle of his message, and as always, it was great! Packed full of truth from scriptures, and good insights into those. A major theme of the portion we were able to hear was that God is so for us… the infinite God of the universe… is not only for us, but he is with us. The fact that such a being would think of us at all, let alone favorably, is a life-changing truth. A truth that God has taught me over the past several years, and that I try and share with every opportunity I have.
What struck me about all of this is that in the middle of a setting that burdens my heart greatly (the polished presentation of all these things)… in the middle of that, there was deep life changing truth. There always is. Though I am saddened often with how much effort we put into the actual presentation of the knowledge of God… at its core, there is life giving hope… an exhortation to drink deeply of the daily life with our Creator… who no longer calls us servants, but calls us friends.
So what I realized last night again (I touched on this in a blog long ago and far away) was that we just have this thing with efficiency. We figure this stuff is so good, we want to reach as many as possible. And so, with all our might, we plan and organize, and schedule and rehearse, and build and build and build these elaborate structures (edifices and programs) to attract as many as possible. We encourage all who attend to invite more people. We plan various outreach events to draw even more people. We tailor the events (including worship services) to be “accessible” to everyone, especially those who might just be “kicking the tires, checking under the hood” of this whole “church” thing. We work so hard to reach the masses, so as to tell as many people as possible in as little time as possible.
It’s not all about the first moment of hearing and understanding the truth. The structures go deeper than that. The goal is to get people connected on a regular basis. To disseminate truth through the vehicle of large group gatherings. Giving the most people the best chance to hear what God is saying to them.
All seems to make sense. Even as I type it, I think, “Yeah. What’s wrong with that?” But last night, I heard a line or had a thought or something that reminded me that Jesus did not try hard to build a structure from within which he could reach the most people. He did not primarily hold public gatherings where he could speak to the most people at once. Jesus’ plan seemed to revolve around close friendships. Make disciples he told us. I have been told that a disciple is one who learns whatever they are learning, and then in turn they “learn” that to someone else. 🙂
Where I think we have missed a nugget of greatness intended for us by God is in this sharing of Kingdom things with our closest friends. This ownership by each member of God’s kingdom of the truth – the life-changing truth that we have experienced and that we know. Not by passing along a sermon tape (or CD, or even MP3 as the case may be…), or even by bringing someone to a large group gathering. Just by sharing life over a cup of coffee. Over a lunch meeting. At the park while your kids play. On an afternoon walk. In the comfort of your homes. Out at a bowling alley. At the local McDonald’s®. Not only do we miss the joy of those situations when we pour all of our effort into the structures for the masses… I think we even limit our effectiveness? I don’t like to use that word, but perhaps it’s true? Might God be able to work more mightily through 3 friends who care about each other, who in turn each have 3 other friends, who each have 3 other friends, who each have 3 other friends… on down the line till each person has a vital connection with someone vitally connected to the Life Giver?
Perhaps.
I wish that we would not focus on the end result so much. On the apparent successes of mass production. While good does come of it, I think we are missing the most important piece of being friends with God… sharing that friendship with his other friends. Directly. Not like watching a movie together, where we sit in the same row next to each other, as we learn about God. But directly sharing our lives, the daily learnings from God, the struggles, the successes, the hum drum and the magnificent.
That is the goal of our structures, but to me at least seems to be missing as so much of our life and energy is poured into feeding the structure. Making it bigger and better so as to reach more people.
Just some thoughts from this wandering head… 🙂 I welcome your comments.
I agree that we tend to be focused on efficiency, and that the end result is probably something we shouldn’t focus on – because it’s not something we are able to effect, God’s the one who does the actual work, we just are tools.
On the other hand, I was wondering about what you said about how Jesus works primarily through close relationships. I agree, to some extent, because I see in scripture that Jesus works a lot through his relationships with his disciples – as a group – and I like that, that’s cool. But what about all the other times that Jesus does all those miracles and talks to really big crowds full of people? What about the time he yelled at a fig tree and it died? I just think there’s more than friendship in this whole equation. If you always focus on “Jesus is my friend” you could get hung up and stop respecting him as a King, or maybe forget about the fact that we’re in a war and he’s the General. I think Jesus was way more than just some friendly guy who happens to be God.
Yes, God is FOR us, and who can be against us? But are we FOR God or are we still for ourselves? I think maybe that’s what you’re saying at the end, right?
That is a caution oft thrown at those who pull us back the other way – away from a fear of the unknowable King and to an understanding of a loving Father. Religion tends to swing us toward the King, and a slightly cold, formal, distant relationship with God… while I have not seen any evidence that remembering that HE calls us friends (John 15:15, Rom 5:11).
I don’t mean this to be at all combative… can you tell me where it says Jesus is our General? I don’t remember anything like that. Is that revelation?
And, just for clarification… in what way was the fig tree thing for the masses? That was also done for his close group of friends?
My point in that section was that Jesus primarily seemed to believe in sharing the truths of the kingdom in more intimate settings. Not always in a teacher/student setting… but as they were walking along together, and eating together and so on. He did the public things as well, but as far as the recorded record shows, he was much more often in a smaller setting. What happens then is those whom he influenced, will influence others in a similar way. But we often take the “influencing” to a more effecient level… creating our aforementioned structures. 🙂