Who's Flying the Plane?

"There is perhaps nothing worse than reaching the top of the ladder and discovering that you're on the wrong wall."           

                  - Joseph Campbell, 20th century American writer 

We are living in the midst of a silent revolution of faith. Millions of Christians throughout the world are leaving the old, accepted ways of "doing church" for even older approaches. Those older approaches are rooted in the Holy Scriptures and the eternal principles of the living God. Consequently, the motivation for this transition from the old to the older is not simply to get us in touch with our history or to reclaim our roots. It is borne out of a desire to return to our Lord with authenticity and fullness. It is a thrust to bond with Him through the Word of God, the Kingdom of God, and the Spirit of God.

       These revolutionaries are tired of the institutions, denominations, and routines getting in the way of a resonant connection with Him. They're worn out on the endless programs that failed to facilitate transformation. They are weary of being sent off to complete assignments, memorize facts and passages, and engage in simplistic practices that do not draw them into God's presence.  These are people who have experienced the initial realities of a genuine connection with God. They can no longer endure the spiritual teasing offered by churches and other well-intentioned ministries.

       But this revolution of faith is challenged. Those involved know what they are shifting from - lifeless, institutional forms of faith to breakthrough. But what are they shifting to? House churches, marketplace ministries, cyber-churches, independent community-wide worship gatherings, intentional communities. These forms of church are all intriguing, but do they really represent a meaningful step toward God's highest purpose? Or are they just the same stuff presented in a different setting? Are they developing the same roles, but attaching new titles adopted by different role-players? Are we living in a culture that is so infatuated with change that we have forgotten that the church is about transformation, not merely change?

       But what do modern and postmodern Christians know about the history of the church that would help to shape present-day attempts at honoring God and "being" the church? Very little, it turns out. And therein lies a significant problem. Historians have long held that if we do not remember the past, we are doomed to repeat it. There is ample evidence to support that warning. Yet we often persist in our well-intentioned but ignorant efforts to refine life.

       The recent history of the Christian church in America is a great example of this. The major changes in spiritual practice over the past half-century have been largely window dressings. Pick a trend - mega churches, seeker churches, satellite campuses, vacation Bible School, children's church, affinity group ministries, contemporary worship music, big screen projection systems, EFT giving, cell groups, downloadable sermons, sermon outlines in bulletins. All of the above have simply been attempts to rely on marketing strategies to perform the same activities in different ways or places, or with particular segments of the population.

       I hope that this will challenge you to consider making more significant changes in the way you practice your faith. Altering the ways in which we worship is no simple task. When people suggest significant changes in some of the hallowed practices, cries of "heretic" can be heard coming from all directions. Such protest is common, largely because people have little knowledge of the true foundations of their faith.

       If we go further and spend time tracing the history of these practices, you will soon discover that most of our religious habits are man-made choices. In fact, you're likely to discern a pattern about the way that "we do" church these days. If we do it, it's probably not in the Bible as one of the practices of the early church!

       Does it surprise you that most of what we do in religious circles has no precedent in Scripture? This includes many of the activities within church services, the education and ordination of clergy, the routines commonly used in youth ministry, the methods of raising funds for ministry, the ways in which music is used in churches, even the presence and nature of church buildings. There were three historical periods when a bevy of changes were made in common Christian practices: the era of Constantine, the decades surrounding the Protestant Reformation, and the Revivalists of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The believers during those periods simply went along for the ride, which resulted in new perspectives and practices that church has held onto for many years. So many years, in fact, that you probably think of those routines as biblical in origin.

        Not surprisingly, having changed the biblical model of the church, we have become adept at building support for our approaches through proof-texting. Proof-texting is the practice of taking disparate, unrelated verses of scripture, often out of context, to "prove" that our position squares with the Bible. As we go on, you may be stunned to discover how many of our esteemed practices are way off the mark biblically.

       Does that mean we must go back to the Bible and do everything exactly as the disciples did between AD 30 and 60? No. Social and cultural shifts over the last two thousand years have made it impossible to imitate some of the lifestyles and religious efforts of the early church. Therefore, adhering to the principles of the New Testament does not mean reenacting the events of the first-century church.  Also, just because a practice is picked up from culture does not make it wrong in and of itself, though we must be discerning. As author Frank Senn notes, "We cannot avoid bringing our culture to church with us;  it is a part of our very being. But in the light of tradition we need to sort out those cultural influences that contribute to the integrity of Christian worship from those that detract from it."

       So, be prepared for a rude awakening as you find out how off track our current religious practices are. You probably know that today's airplanes use very sophisticated computer systems to constantly reorient a plane as a travels on its path. During the course of a trip from Los Angeles to New York, literally thousands of course corrections are made to ensure that the plane sets down on the appropriate landing strip. Without those course corrections, even a tiny one percent deviation from the original flight plan will land that plane in a different county! The contemporary church is like an airplane that has no capacity for in-flight course corrections. A little change here, a minor deviation there, a slight alteration of this, a barely perceptible tweaking of that and before you know it, the whole enterprise has been redefined.

        This matters! Your life is a gift from God and is to be lived for God. Furthermore, the church is one of God's deepest passions. He cares about her well-being, as well as how she expresses herself on the earth. So understanding how we got from the early church to the contemporary church, and figuring out what we will do about it, is very important. 

#reformation #church #jesus #christ #jesuschrist #god #change #revolution #revival #spiritual #masturbation #unity #faith #religion #prayer #sinners #savior #tithing #error #pharisees #hypocrisy #bride #repentance #awakening #fractured #foundations #love #truth #bible #biblical #christian #indulgence #baptism #peace #pray #life #wisdom #hope #grace #compassion #religious