The Tryanny of Inconsistency

As a disillusioned disciple my struggle has been with inconsistency, my own and in the church. As I consider the current state of Christianity in America, I see this as a root problem. Things look good from the outside with performance oriented big events, but that has nothing to do with day-in-day-out consistency in the walk of a disciple. It is easy to get excited and fired up to make a commitment at an event, but it is the long haul that counts. The church has become enamored with specialist who come in and do their program, get "commitments" and leave...wham, bam thank-you ma'am! Then on to the next event, a "one-night stand" approach to ministry!

What is needed is guidance into long term consistency. The church needs help into developing a core group of Jesus followers who live consistently in faith, and can pass it on to others. This is not a short-term fix, it is not a program, not a church growth strategy; what it is, is a commitment to personal growth, to Kingdom growth...to New Testament discipleship. What we need is gatherings where there are small groups of people who can interact, ask questions, be asked questions, focus on application, on the personal!

A culture has been created that simply lives for the next big mountain top experience. This has bled into our worship services where an experience is sought after with all the bright lights and snappy music; or through creating a service with a huge, majestic organ music and a sense of over the top grandeur. This is not what will help people grow or will deepen their walk or move them toward discipleship. Out of this come church members who move from place to place looking for the slickest Sunday morning production; whether it be traditional, contemporary or "old-fashioned gospel music"...the outcome is the same, superficial Christians who can't walk for the long haul.

The long term is what matters (Col. 1:22-23). This call to continue comes implicit with the idea of growing and deepening the faith. It is focused on becoming more and more intimate with Christ, growing both in knowledge and love. A growing consistency is the guide to see this happen; it can't happen with the performance or one-night-stand mindset!

This will require a fundamental change in how the church operates...it really is simply a return to discipleship as outlined in the New Testament. We don't need "Christian superstars" coming for one night only, what we need is people who are willing to invest their lives in the lives of others (2 Tim. 2:2). Only then can we transfer what is being learned and mastered, to what is being lived consistently in the lives of those who would be followers of Jesus. It does not matter if it is in a high school classroom or a corporate boardroom, the ethics of the life of a disciple of Jesus must be lived out! Right now, it is not happening and our country is slipping farther and farther into godlessness. This is the only hope to stop the slide...God help us!

Making a Living vs. Living

While driving to my substitute teaching job on Monday morning, I was meditating on the verses I've been memorizing in Ephesians 1. I was thinking about how it applies to my life right now, as well as how it applies to where I have been. This thought came to mind, "how you make a living is not near important as how you live." I know this is not an original thought to me and I am sure I have heard it or read a form of it in other places, but this day it spoke deeply to me!

For most of my life I have stresses over what to do to make a living (especially now that I am unemployed), dealing with how I am going to support my family and myself. Now granted it is important that I support both my family and myself, in fact it is a biblical mandate (1 Timothy 5:8). In my case spending 25 plus years as a minister, the issue was I spent too much time making a living as a minister and not enough of my life living as a disciple of Jesus! The part of this saga that hurts the most is that I knew better, yet continued to do it!

I spent too much time trying to grow the church and not enough time growing people. There were times I did some discipleship, but by and large I focused on doing things that sought to grow the organization of the church as if I was growing a business. All of this was justified with the rationale, "that is how the system works"; always knowing in my heart that the system was broken and I was wrong! Yet I continued doing the same thing and getting the same results, moderate success and lots of frustration. It has been attributed to Albert Einstein that "doing the same thing over and over and then expecting different results is insanity"...and it was driving me crazy!

The Christian philosopher and minister, Francis Schaefer asked the question, "How then shall we live?" This is my question, and I choose to live as a disciple! Will my life be based in the core principals of discipleship and spiritual reproduction or will it be consumed with simply making a living? The difficult path is to live, for it is in living that making a living finds purpose beyond itself! To truly live will be costly (Luke 9:23). Focusing life on making a living is focused on self, to live is focused on Christ (Ephesians 1:112-12)! Paul says in Romans 12:2, "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind....". The pattern of the church that focuses on marketing, growing numbers and offerings (I can almost hear Martin Luther responding with his theses on indulgences here) must be rejected.

It is evident that what we are doing is not working; as we increase the numbers in churches (and buildings and budgets and staff and productions, etc.), we sink deeper and deeper away from biblical principals and personal discipleship. The church is becoming like our government, thinking it can spend its way out of a problem and the more it does not work, the more that is spent. Getting back to the simplicity of the personal responsibility of personal discipleship is, I believe, the answer.

This begins with me, and that is the scary part. It is easy to talk about personal responsibility, until I begin to apply it to my life. Each of us will have to make that decision, no matter the cost, if there is going to be change. Thus begins the journey!

Where do I begin?

A journey has a beginning, as a disillusioned disciple begins the journey into "illusionment" (I think I've invented a new word), where is the starting point? Where are the first steps taken to grasp not only the call, but the action of becoming a disciple of Jesus, a maker of disciples, and a maker of disciplemakers? Quiet simply it begins with Lordship, with Jesus Christ becoming the center of life.

There are two key verses for this action in becoming a disciple of Jesus, Galatians 2:20 and 2 Corinthians 5:17. There are many other passages to use, but these two give a stepping off point for the journey and it is imperative that the truths here be grasped and applied. The power, the engine for a disciple's life is found in this truth and the rest will be futile and lead to disillusionment without this fact driving the disciple's life.

"I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. " Galatians 2:20 (ESV) This verse needs to be thought about long and hard. The truth behind this passage is devastating! Listen..."I have been crucified with Christ..." that means only one thing, death! The disciple's first move is to die voluntarily just as Jesus did. A dead person owns nothing, has no claims on possessions, power or positions...self dies on the cross with Jesus. The issue for those who examine the call to discipleship today is the unwillingness to die to self.

This is not self-denial or some sort of self flagellation to prove one's spirituality, it is the moving of the locus of control of life from self to Christ. The total identification of life with Christ, so literally..."I no longer live, but Christ lives in me." The western church has an issue with this because it has become soft and is unwilling to give up self. Yet, if one is to live as a disciple of Jesus and not merely a church-member, this is the key issue.

The daily living of the Christ life, as a result of what Christ has done, is the result of Lordship. It is not perfection, but it is the daily journey; it is living in awareness of how I live, of my identification with Christ in all areas of life. It is here where the separation of secular and spiritual dies, for it is in Lordship where all of life becomes sacred, holy and dedicated to Christ.

This comes to the place where the disciple sees their self "in Christ." (2 Corinthians 5:17) Being in Christ is being a new creation, it is putting the old self, not just away but according to Galatians 2:20, to death! Becoming a new creation is not being a rebuild, but a new production...that is what it means to be born again! Not a religious act, not the joining of an organization or an institution, but nothing less than making Jesus Lord!

The place the church lives now is "costless Christianity", the focus on saying the right prayer and becoming a part of the social institution. Religious duties are performed, but there is no call to Lordship; therefore, there is no Biblical discipleship. Bonhoeffer would say, "cheap grace."

With the Apostle Paul, I say, "not that I have already attained, but pressing on...." All of the goals in my life hinge on this one issue, will I make Jesus Lord of my life...daily! The journey from disillusionment to fruitfulness begins right here. The spiritual disciplines of devotional life, prayer, Bible study, memorization and meditation are the beginnings of this journey into Lordship. Accountability is the compass to keep true north, true north and not allowing the tyranny of the urgent or what is good to override what is the best.

Your Servant forJesus' sake,

Keith