SimpleChurch Journal:

Sometimes I need to remind myself... it's not about big churches, little churches, mega-church, house church, or even having the "right" definition or understanding of church. It's all about Jesus.

It's not about how we worship, who we worship with, what kind of service we have or don't have, or who is qualified to lead what. It's just all about Jesus.

Really, this is more than a cliche. I really think we have difficulty understanding clearly a "Scriptural" definition of church... because it really is not that important--from a Scriptural point of view. The early church was just a gang of people living all-out for Jesus. Period. Nothing more. Church gatherings happened secondarily as a simple outcome of these Jesus-followers gathering to support and encourage each other. The logistics and structure that developed (i.e. servants to help serve widows) were simply practical accommodations to the needs of this gang of Jesus-followers.

Yes, I know, there were apostles... sent ones... who were often given the task of taking the church into new territories. But guess what? Early on (Acts 8) the church was spread out all over the world without any apostles. Why? Apostles weren't the point. Having the right people in a service was not the point. Who gathered where with whom just wasn't that important in God's economy. Jesus is the important One--people living the Jesus life is the point--the rest was expected to take care of itself. The "set up" of church was simply not that critical.

Oh, but, didn't Paul appoint elders? So, now, we can begin to grasp exactly how church is to be organized. Yes, he did appoint elders... later on... when mature believers could be identified... in order to provide fathers and mothers in the faith. But, again, guess what? The churches were going along just fine being the church before Paul appointed elders. The elders were not the essential! They were a natural and helpful support to encourage mature followers to care for those who are less mature.

The point is, Jesus was the point. It was and is all about Jesus. Everything about how we "do" church or how the church is defined really must be placed in a less-important category. It just is not that big of a deal. In other words, love Jesus, serve Jesus, live for Jesus, give your life for Jesus, live in Jesus, live with Jesus, follow Jesus... and then wherever you, and others that believe, go and gather... the "church" is going and gathering. That part will happen just fine (and will take place quite naturally in homes, in cities, in wherever) when we get the first part truly in place. If city elders are needed, God will raise up people who will fill that role (not position) and they will communicate a vision that others will see and follow. If a small community elder/shepherd is needed, God will give that community a mature person who will serve and love them. When we realize that we are meant to be interdependent with other Christians and live in community and learn from those who are more mature, then we will do just that because we are putting Jesus first and following Him. We just don't need to be all that concerned about how it's all going to be put together. If putting it all together just right was so critical, wouldn't Scripture put a little more emphasis on it?

Jesus is the emphasis. Living in Jesus is the focus. Following and walking with Jesus, our Beloved, is what most, if not all, of our instruction is about. It seems to me that if we really, truly get first things first, that secondary things will take care of themselves (i.e God will take care of them) as we follow the primary love of our life.

No, I mean really. We give lip-service to putting Jesus first as though it's obvious and therefore obviously something we are already doing. The reality is, we don't do it and end up, instead, trying to wrangle our minds around things like how church is supposed to look or what's the best way to do this or that or a thousand other things that are truly, truly secondary to the point.

He really is the point! Can we just get back (I'm preaching here to myself) to simply, utterly, completely, only Jesus?

Every week I receive emails from people who are leaving behind traditional churches and launching out into simple forms of church gatherings and a desire to live kingdom-lives 24/7. Something is drawing us out of our traditional church backgrounds into unchartered waters. Something is compelling us to leave the familiar for the unknown.

Skeptics might suggest that people are leaving traditional structures because of hurts that have not been resolved. While I do see many people hurt by hierarchical church systems, and while this may be a good reason to seek something different, I don't sense that most people I speak to are nursing old wounds and refusing to receive God's healing.

So, what's motivating this uprising?

The more "spiritual" answer is that it's the Spirit of God Who is moving people out of old wineskins into the new. While I'm sure this is true, the Spirit works through our human hearts and emotions to move us. He causes us to become dissatisfied, to see new possibilities, to be no longer content with where we have been. So, in a sense, when I ask the question "What's motivating us?" I'm asking to understand more thoroughly just what the Holy Spirit is doing in the hearts of so many.

"What is motivating us?"

I'm interested in responses to this.

Initially, I became grossly frustrated with a system of church that devastated me personally as I experienced a significant, personal burnout and as I became painfully disappointed with the lack of transformation in the lives of people. I saw the dysfunction of the CEO-type pastor, the control and personal agendas that are inherent in a power-centered structure, and the pain caused by an organization that valued some above others. I saw the lack of real relationship and therefore honest love within a group of people who truly wanted both but were too busy keeping the system going to experience either. I wondered how any of this church-activity-stuff fit into what Scripture described as "church." But this frustration was only the initiation. It produced the longing that got me moving.

I suspect that these types of frustrations and/or painful realizations are the starting point for many people searching for something more. But I'm also wondering if we need to transcend these initial negative motivations into something more constructive?

I am hoping that I have other motivations that are now stirring me to keep moving toward organic Christian living. I want to live in spiritual reality 24/7. I want to be the church-- the living, breathing, organic movement of God's people who are living in the leading and power of the Spirit. I want raw reality-of-God living, not a mediated experience in which I follow rote activities in order to feel good about having done some spiritual "duty-thing."

I want to hang out with a community of people who are charged up about this type of kingdom living and who also know me, stand with me, support me... and for whom I feel challenged to lay down my life in order to do the same for them. I want to see the Body of Christ, wherever it gathers, loving one another, healing one another, pouring into one another until "the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love."

I want to see God's people unleashed. Is that too big of a dream or what? As idealistic as it may sound, this motivates me. I want to see His glory cover the earth through His people who are lovers of God, lovers of each other, and living compassionate, power-enhanced lives. These are people who go through the same problems and strains as anyone else, but they do it openly, vulnerably, and their dependence on God and His grace poured out in their lives shines through them. They are weak, but Oh he is strong! They engage their spiritual gifts and their compassion in everyday life. Through thick and thin, they live for Him, give for Him, and ultimately truly, really desire only the One Thing--more of Him.

I am motivated by the desire to see "the church" get out of the way so that the church can become what it really is: the living, breathing presence of Christ in a world that so desperately needs Him. I want to see a little more of Jesus expressed through His collective Body so that we reflect, in a greater way, His glory, His wonder, His love, His grace, His purity, and His transcendent beauty. I long to see just a bit more of Him shining through!

What's motivating you?

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