Tuesday, March 4, 2008

God: How about death, and then resurrection. I'll go first.

I’ve been thinking about a convergence of forces lately. The debt crisis, obesity, divorce rates. I’m concerned that when it comes to these issues the church looks no different than the American Culture; in fact some argue they are worse.

I've said before that I think the problem we have presenting an Americanized version of the gospel is that it is not radical enough. How is it relevant if it is just another product for us to add to our list of consumables.

In school we are taught a little, and then we practice a little. We learn about adverbs, and then write sentences with adverbs. We learn a little algebra, and then we solve equations. But when it comes to church and bible studies, we learn a little theology, a little philosphy and then close our books and reflect on it for the week. Now I'm not against reflection, but I am for action. I want to be someone who says lets read the words of Jesus, and then see if we can do what he did, this next week.

It's curious how Jesus doesn't say go and convert, he says go and make disciples. Discipleship is basically the same as an apprenticeship. How can someone be an apprentice, by being taught with words only. My dad taught me a lot of wrestling. He could say do this or that, and unless he showed me, and we walked through it together, I never got it. But then I had to practice it. I had to make mistakes and screw it up, but eventually I would get to a point where I didn't even need to think about what I was doing because it became instinct.

Our instincts should be the work of Christ, because that is what we are practicing.

No comments: