Looking For the City

What a blessing it was for my friend, John, and I to go and spend a couple of hours with Jack Gray last week. Wayne Jacobsen had introduced us to Jack when he was with us last month. As soon as I met Jack I new that I wanted to spend some more time with him, I loved his spirit and the evident walk and relationship that he has with the Father.

Jack is a doctor who came to New Zealand with his wife and family in 1965 after many years serving as a medical missionary in the Congo. The other main passion of Jack's life has been his walk with God, and his pursuit of the Church "the City which Has Foundations, Whose Builder and Maker is God".

As John and I shared a little of our journey with Jack, we were amazed at the number of people that we all new and had walked with in years past. The interesting thing however was that when Jack started seriously seeking God, in the mid 1980's, about what church should look like, his connection with those people ceased as he pursued another path. However, for John and I, it was "church business" as usual, for the next 15 years. As I have reflected, over the last couple of days, on those mutual relationships that we had with Jack, all of them, pretty much without exception, have ended in split churches, broken relationships or that particular expression of the "local church" no longer existing.

We, John and I,  fell into the later category, when the church that we were a part of imploded some 11 years ago. As painful as it was for all of us at the time, we are now very grateful to God, as it has put us back on the same path that Jack decided to go down, twenty seven years ago. It blew us away to see the evidence of the hand of God in our lives as we shared a little of our journey's together,  and the fact that Father had enabled our paths to cross after almost 30 years.

I have today read Jack's "Search for the Church" on his website at The Pilgrim Path, that you may like to read. I have taken some excerpts from his story as a "little appetizer", and set them out below.

Church Membership

No longer am I a member of any religious organisation. My name is on no church roll here on earth. I do not "go to church." I have no Minister or Pastor in the official sense, and church services, for me, are a thing of the past. How then, you may well ask, can I profess a longing for the Church? What is my relationship to the Church? My answer would be that I believe I am now more in the Church than I have ever been, and for this position I have sound New Testament confirmation. (see Jack's website for the "sound confirmation").

What about Fellowship ?

We have seen that Jesus, when we trust Him to, does exactly what He said, builds His Church. As we have surrendered ourselves into His hands as "living stones" he has joined us spirit to spirit with many others in a network of love. And all this in the total absence of any human organisation or institution! At this point I must mention another saying of the Lord Jesus, which has taken on new meaning for us. "Where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of them".

So now, when people ask me the inevitable question, "Where do you fellowship?" I answer with joy, "Wherever and whenever two or three are gathered together in His name." That may be any day of the week, any hour of the day, as the Lord plans, and not in some regular slot of time humanly organised. 

The Centrality and Supremacy of the Lord Jesus Christ

Jack quotes twice here from A .W. Tozer in an article entitled, - The Waning Authority of Christ in the Churches.

"May it not be that one of the reasons for which God is calling people by His Spirit to leave organised churches and come out to Him is to restore that supremacy and centrality which the Lord Jesus had in the New Testament Church? I believe it to be so. He is training us to listen for, to hear and attend to His voice and to obey Him. He is restoring His absolute "shepherdship", if a word can be coined. If, as we have before maintained, He is building His Church, our whole responsibility is just to follow Him and let Him do it. Outside of organised church those who do not have a vital living growing relationship with the Lord Jesus quickly fall away. Inside the organisation the stimulation of being part of a crowd, the emotional uplift of congregational singing and other group activities may be sufficient to make good church members, but if the props are pulled out only a genuine relationship with Jesus will ensure survival. So, as I see it, the Lord is training people in that absolute dependence on Him. He is wanting to teach us that He and He alone is appointed "Head over all things for the Church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all." 

"What are we to do? Each one of us must decide, and there are at least three possible choices. One is to rise up in shocked indignation and accuse me of irresponsible reporting. Another is to nod general agreement with what is written here, but take comfort in the fact that there are exceptions, and we are among the exceptions. The other is to go down in meek humility and confess that we have grieved the Spirit and dishonoured our Lord in failing to give Him the place His Father has given Him as Head and Lord of the Church. Either the first or the second will but confirm the wrong. The third, if carried out to its conclusion can remove the curse. The decision lies with us."

Every Day Living

Another thing that God seems to be doing with those of us whom He has called out of organised churches is to restore every day Christian lifestyle. In the church system Christians are so often graded on their performance levels in the "service" situation. Are they frequent attenders, never missing a meeting? Do they enthusiastically participate in the worship? Do they willingly submit to the leaders? There are a hundred and one such church-performance based criteria. But that is not where the New Testament emphasis lies, as William Law points out so graphically. There, the emphasis is on every day life and relationships in the family and community. 

God is weaning us off that performance thing into daily Christian lifestyle in the home, the workplace and the playing field. We are to be, as Paul says, "letters of Christ, known and read by all men." That call is both liberating and challenging. It frees Christian living from the confines of church buildings, services and organisations, releasing it into the common stream of life, and it demands a humble self-crucifying walk in the Spirit. "In the past", as someone has said, "We used to live in the world and go to church. Now we live in the Church and go to the world."

In conclusion, having shared these things; what lies ahead? I do not profess to know how the Lord's purpose will be worked out "until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." But, I do know that, for me, there is to be no turning back to the old way. God has given us glimpses of a glory yet to be revealed in the Church, and so, like Paul, "forgetting what lies behind (in our experience of traditional church) and straining forward to what lies ahead, we press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."

You can listen to two interviews that Wayne did with Jack by clicking on the following links The life of a Pilgrim - Part One and Part Two

Thriving Outside the Box

I came came across an article the other day written by Wayne Jacobsen back in 2003. It really blessed me.. So....., with a little licence, I have set out below the points that impacted the most.

The box that imprisons God's people is not religious institutions per se, but the system of religious obligation that many of them use to preserve the institution or to advance its program. 

No matter how we gather with other believers, God wants all of us liberated from the box of religious obligation, because it is mostly based on human effort for spiritual growth and community life. This box is lined with guilt that you're never doing enough to earn God's favor and it is laced with the fear that your spiritual security lies in conforming to the doctrine and program of the group. It often focuses on an institutional program or someone's personal vision, rewarding those who conform while abusing those who do not.

Many of us who gave ourselves wholeheartedly to that system were shocked to find out that it could only deliver an illusion of God's life but never the reality. It exploited our most noble intentions and imprisoned us with our basest desires. It offered temporal security, spoon-fed nourishment and even some emotionally satisfying moments, but it could not let us soar to the heights. This system only wore us out with its programs, exhausting our efforts while bearing little fruit. While it could conform our external behavior, it could not transform our inner thoughts and motives. So sin still undermined, guilt consumed and emptiness hounded us. We were often left with the inescapable conclusion that it wasn't working because we weren't trying hard enough.

To thrive in freedom outside of the box we'll need to learn a new way of living. Here are some of the lessons I see God teaching people who are learning to live free:

Learn to Relax - Religious obligation says that it is all up to you. If God isn't doing the things you want, you have to work harder, stand firmer and pray longer. The focus is on your performance, your obedience, your righteousness. Outside that box, you will quickly recognize that your best efforts will not accomplish God's work, it depends on him not you. Instead of trying to manipulate God he will teach you rest in his work through you. You will find yourself making better decisions when you trust his love for you than when you're anxiety-ridden about trying to earn it.

You will learn to rely on him alone and recognize that any time you give up responsibility for your spiritual nourishment to another person - whether friend, pastor or author, you've already traded away a bit of your freedom, for life in a box.

Give Up Your Illusion of Control - You can only try to give up control if you're still under the illusion that you have it. Our actions and decisions have profound consequences in our journey, but ultimately God is in control. Has any amount of scheming or manipulation ever truly produced the results you seek? When God shows you that you are not in control, then you will truly be free to live in his purposes instead of your own.

Live for His Approval - The craving for approval devours our spiritual passions by putting our focus on what people think of us rather than what God does. As you get free from the box, expect others to play this approval card for all its worth. Even close friends may suddenly hold you at arm's length or say unkind things about you, all in the hope of drawing you back into the box they think holds the keys to life..... It does not.

Let Guilt Die - Guilt is that deep, nagging drumbeat in your gut trying to convince you that you're a really bad person and God is upset with you. Even when you rationally know you made the right decision, guilt can be relentless. Guilt is the easiest way to motivate people who do not know who they are in Christ.

How do you deal with it? Let it die. Though you can't stop its drumbeat you can refuse to dance to it. In time it will fade away. You will also discover that those who help you most grow in God will never pile on the condemnation when you disappoint them, but they will always help peel it away. Like Jesus with the woman caught in adultery, they know that guilt rather than freeing people from sin only drives it into darker closets where it only becomes more destructive.

Savor the Story - In his amazing grace God gave us the story of how he made himself known to men and women just like us. He wanted us to know exactly what he is like and how he thinks so that we could know him as he is. The Bible is not an owner's manual with rules to be followed,  it is the story of God making his reality known in the brokenness of our world. If you're used to others spoon-feeding it to you, now is the time to take it on yourself. Start with the Gospels. As you savor God's story, you will find yourself better able to see and appreciate how he continues to write that story into your own life. You will see Jesus more clearly and recognize his voice more simply.

Cultivate Relationships - You never know how God might use you to touch someone who works near you, lives near you or just passes by you during the day. You'll be surprised at the people he will put you in touch with and how his presence in you will be a blessing to them. As you find yourself blessing others near you, you will also come across others who are on a similar journey. 

Live Life - Real community is a gift God gives out of growing friendships, not what we produce by any methods or programs. Instead of creating it, we have only to recognize it as God builds it around us. The best gatherings of body life emerge out of relationships where people are learning to share the Jesus journey together. If you know people who want to be intentional about sharing this kind of community, by all means join them. But if you don't, don't give into the lie that God has forgotten you. There are many ways God can relate you to people who are also living the journey, even if it is just a conversation here and there for a time. I suspect that when people have a hard time finding fellowship with others its because God wants to draw them closer to himself first.

Don't Despise the Struggle - it isn't easy learning to live outside the false security of religious obligation, but the freedom is so worth it. Scientists say if you help a butterfly escape its chrysalis, you actually kill it. God designed the process so that the struggle itself actually strengthens the butterfly so she will be able to fly away when she is finally free. It can be scary when all the props that made you comfortable are no longer there, and it is easy to coast through life and miss out on the incredible friendship God wants with you and to soar in the life of Jesus. Our struggles accomplish the same thing. They are part of what God uses to invite us deeper into him.

To read the original article click on this link