The Curse of the word 'Should'

Our Kingdom Vision is big: we know that in God's Kingdom there is release, healing, transformation ... and we can see an ocean of need around us. This means there are many possibilities for good Kingdom activity around us.

Yet we have limited capacity, and thus churches (collections of people) have limited capacity. Now of course God can supernaturally extend our capacity - He can do 'immeasurably more' (Ephesians 3:20)! But discernment of what God is calling an individual (or a group) to do is needed - God has Kingdom plans and wants us to join in. However we tend to bring our own priorities and agendas to this dynamic, and often we let this stand as higher importance than genuine discernment. This is often betrayed by sentences based on the word 'should'!

"The church should be doing ministry X", said Y to a membership of the church leadership team.

The 'should' implies mandatory. It suggests that if we are not doing it, then we are somehow defective, not meeting the grade, falling short of what God wants for us.

But in many many cases, it is based on opinion rather than discernment!

Personally I have come to see the presence of the word 'should' in our language as a kind of curse ... because it so often represents a projection of someone's opinions or self-determined priorities onto another (or onto a group).

So I am doing my best to avoid using the word 'should'. That doesn't mean we can't suggest or recommend things though, we just have to find alternatives ...

• If we as church were able to do ministry X, it could bring benefits A, B and C
• There is a gap that potentially makes ministry X relevant for us
• Giving attention (or capacity) to X has its merits
• God seems to be laying on my heart the whole idea of ministry X
  

The above presents the possibilities, be they well informed & reasoned possibilities, just hunches, or random thinking. They do not project requirement onto anyone, leaving the space open for individuals, groups or even the whole church to seek God to discern His wisdom and call: where might God wish us to allocate our capacity, where might God extend our capacity supernaturally? The word 'should' projects requirement, alternatives invite us to seek God!

Let's not be slaves beaten into submission by the word 'should', and instead constantly return to Him for discernment, and encourage others to do similarly.

Field Number One - Meet People

Now we are settling in on the new housing estate, we are starting to meet people. This fits our current missional task: to simply meet people, get to know them, and work out who is who.

This represents 'Field number 1' in the 'Four Fields' discipleship making model. Field one is all about entry to a new area, getting to know it and discovering the people, organisations and networks that already exist within it. Conceptually it is an empty wide open space - a liberating space in which Jesus can direct us: because we no pre-conditions or pre-fixed ideas! Within that space we are free to meet people: this phase might seem random, but the process of meeting people is for us purposeful and intentional - it is exploring the first field.

In the conversations we might have we can talk about who we are, and therefore potentially talk about our faith in Jesus. In our intentionality we will follow up at least by praying for those we have met by name, but at this stage we are not setting out to quickly win people over for Jesus or win any potential argument. We don't need to do that because we are still in the first field. Time will come later to more directly point people to Jesus, engage in apologetics and so on (these are tasks for fields two and three!). For now, it is enough to just meet people, learn about them, and begin the seed scattering process as we go.

This is a process that will take time. We can deliberately involve ourselves in activities that afford opportunity to meet people, and we can put ourselves out there ... but either way it will take time, maybe many weeks. We should not rush this stage, resisting the temptation to feel frustrated and want to push on prematurely: faith, patience and discernment are required before considering ourselves to be entering the next field!

Open Heaven

In Acts chapter 7 Stephen has given his major speech in the face of opposition. He is resolutely following Jesus, but his opposers cannot accept any reference to Jesus as Lord - their hearts are hard towards God and His purposes. The exchange gets towards its climax when Stephen has a real-time in-the-moment vision of the glory of God and Jesus standing at God's right hand.

He relays what he sees to the crowd:

"I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God."

This was too much for the antagonisers and precipitates Stephen's mob execution, but the vision still stands, because it sits in the purposes of God. It echoes Jacob's dream (see Genesis 28:12) of an open heaven with a 'ladder' or 'staircase' on which angels could freely descend and ascend. Stephen could see that Jesus had opened the way for that 'open heaven' and flowing connection between heaven & earth through which blessings to all peoples could flow.

As we live and work on an emerging new housing estate, we now strategically and persistently pray for that same sense of 'open heaven' to over all the estate. May each new dwelling, cul de sac and road be within a zone that has a flowing connection between heaven & earth, that people might be open to and receive His blessings.