Let me give you some thoughts from the book, "The Simple Church," by Thom Rainer.
If anyone knows simple, it is Jesus.
If anyone is a revolutionary, it is Jesus. I don't think in our modern 21st century world, we realize our radical Jesus was and is.
Jesus is the original simple revolutionary. He stepped into a complicated and polluted religious scene. It was cluttered with Sadducees, Pharisees, Herodians, Zealots, and Essenes.
Jesus didn't play by their rules.
He couldn't stand their hypocrisy. He preferred spending times with tax collectors and sinners.
He took the complex and made it simple.
In one scene in the New Testament, a guy walks up to Jesus, actually a Pharisee, a lawyer, and asks Jesus which is the greatest commandment in the Law.
Of all the 613 commandments, he is asking Jesus for the greatest. Jesus basically says, "love God and love people."
Think about that for a moment. Jesus sums up the 613 commandments in the religious system of that day with one phrase. He takes the complexity and the advancement of the law and makes is very simple.
He says, "my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
Most of our churches have become cluttered...so cluttered that people have a difficult time encountering the simple and powerful message of Christ. So cluttered that many people are busy doing church instead of being church.
The clutter can often make things look ok, even good. But busyness can be a great disguise for the lack of life. Complexity can be a cover-up.
Here's something that we must continually ask ourselves - is what we do promoting change in the lives of our church family? Or are we simply busy?
Now, please don't think that this is an excuse to bail on what you are doing in the church. But simply a plea to all of us to evaluate what we are doing, and slowly weaning ourselves off of what is cluttering up our church family life.
Perhaps it would help if we would evaluate our church family, not simply by the numbers on Sunday morning, or the love God stage (worship service), but by the love others stage (small groups) and the serve the world stage (ministry teams).
My goal is that we continue to grow in all three areas. How many are involved in small groups? How many are involved in some type of ministry in our community? Anyone can come and sit in the big room on a Sunday morning.
More on this next week.
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2 comments:
Good words, George. Jesus took 613 laws (some from God, some from man) and turned it into a very simple thing...love. Love God, love people. Love God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind. Love others as you love yourself. Simple stuff. If we do these two things (love God, love people) we will never have to worry about breaking any of the other laws, or hurting others either. If we are concerned more for others than for ourselves, we are starting to be more like Jesus, which is our ultimate goal. We are co-heirs to the kingdom of heaven and we should be like the primary heir (Jesus) when we get there...this is our practice ground, our test area. Now, as we all learned in school, tests can be hard but not if you've studied (read the Bible), memorized the answers (Scripture), practiced the hands-on stuff (ministry), and are in sync with the teacher's intent (prayer and obedience). Then you are successful in taking the test. The test prepares you for the next phase of the course (HEAVEN!) that you are taking. By loving God and loving people, caring more about that than about yourself, you are well on your way to maxing the final, but oh so simple, exam.
Love God, love people. Simple, easy stuff!
Practice today!
Jon
Here! Here !
Bravo ! Bravo !
Some of the most freeing stuff I've ever read !
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