Continually Burn

'A church exists by mission as a fire exists by burning', a modern theologian once wrote. From the New Testament it is also clear that a Christian continues in that mission by the continual fire of the Spirit at work in their lives (e.g. Rom 12:11).

That fire of the Spirit, the ongoing experience of God keeping us ablaze, infectiously affects those around us. It drives us out to the last, the least the lost against the odds. That fire of the Spirit enables lives to be touched and transformed, to join in too when likewise on fire for the Lord.

We must never let flame of God's work sizzle out, or worse replace it by institution. Yes we will build structures to attempt to manage the various people in discipleship, worship and mission ... but the real ongoing force will be the work of the Spirit individual by individual.

Wesley wrote of the Methodist movement: 'My fear is not that our great movement will eventually cease to exist, but that our people will become content to live without the fire (of the Spirit)'.

Let us continually burn ... keeping in mind that institutions must ultimately come second place to that need for the ongoing work of the Spirit in each of us. No fire, no mission, no church!

Slow Burn

Everything in society now wants to be a super speed, with no waiting or latency. It affects our own life and expectations, it affects the way we do church, it affects our understanding of God's mission.

Yet leadership is best done through relationship and shared values ... and this needs time. There is rarely a high speed download option for this kind of stuff - it is typically learnt through the ongoing university of life. Of course there are different universities to choose from - we need to repeated choose the University of Spirit-filled life, founded by God, where Jesus Christ is the Principal.

The Godly influence we have is therefore generally a slow burn process, permeating what we do, how we structure, and what we attempt. I was struck by the leadership book 'The Tortoise Usually Wins' by Harris who covers this subject more thoroughly.

Bible commentators reckon Jesus took about three years to prepare the way for Kingdom/Spirit age that he inaugurated, yet technically he could have covered the journeys/events recorded in the gospels in just a matter of weeks. In those three years he forged relationships; characters that could then carry the scripture-understanding download that he gave late on, and the Pentecost experience that would follow.

21st Century Mission needs to be open to God's high speed download for when He chooses to give it, but must also realise the appropriate place of slow burn too.

Reliant Calling

Paul takes a counter-intuitive approach to weakness - he celebrates it! 2 Corinthians 13 verse 9 gives an example of this: if it comes down to a Christian 'them and us' style comparison, he would rather be found as the weaker one ...

For Paul knows deeply two things in his own life and ministry:

1. That he is called by God to minister God's good news for the world
2. That he is to be, and can be, reliant on God at all times.

Weakness, in Paul's self-understanding, reminds him and connects him with his reliance on God. He does not need to worry or doubt, because he knows he is called (thing 1) ... so he is free to trust and rely, with weaknesses highlighting or amplifying that need to trust (thing 2).

Paul therefore lives a reliant calling: assured by God's calling, able to be glad in weakness since that simply throws himself back on God all the more.

We need to get a handle on this approach, since it is all too easy for us to look for things or measurements that act as signs of strength. Whether it is size of church, amount of activities, or a host of other parameters, it is possible that we can lose our true reliance, and drift from our original calling.

We might forget that Jesus doesn't actually call us to build His church. In fact he doesn't even call us to build His Kingdom! Rather he calls us to faithfully bear the good news, creating conditions in which people can experience His Kingdom, and so be drawn to it that they might receive/inherit it themselves.

And through this process, Jesus will build the church.

So let us get back to our calling, rely on Him, and see what He does through us. Jesus summed it up, when He said 'Seek first the Kingdom, and all these things will be given to you as well".

Yikes - there's a moo cow in my path

Ever walked in a field or along a footpath to discover some cows standing in your way? What do you do? Give up, take a massive detour, get worried? Where I live they have a knack of standing right in front of the gate, so you have to go through them to get past!

But of course these cows are actually quite timid, and not that fussed if you just look straight ahead and walk among them to get through to the gate and on to the next stage.

How often in our Christian faith do we see things that we perceive as big or intimidating obstacles - ones that we think will force us to turn back, take a huge detour, or worry us endlessly?

Maybe many of these obstacles are really just like these cows - we can walk straight through them. Yes we will want to walk carefully, yes we will want to respect their presence (they do weigh a tonne or so after all!), but we press on nonetheless!