How CAN WE HELP EACH OTHER FOLLOW JESUS?

Beautiful Diversity
In my immediate Inter-generational household, (which consists of 1 Senior Citizen, 2 Gen Xers, and 4 Millennials) we have been learning to appreciate the different ways we come at our "faith", or journey with God. You see, each of us has made a personal decision to follow Jesus, but relate to God and participate in the life of the Christian community in diverse ways. Why? We are an eclectic household where serving, thinking, cooking, making music, creating art, organizing, joking, and sharing all play a part. 

Our experience is also supported by the work of authors like Gary Thomas, whose book "Sacred Pathways" (Zondervan Publishing, 2010) helps us appreciate the diversity within any Christian community, and gives us some good cues for how we might help one another. Thanks to Northpoint Church, there is a free online assessment that anyone may use, which can be accessed here. As is true within our household, the central question for the Christian community is this: "How can we help each other follow Jesus?"

Draw to Church or Draw to Jesus?
As I interact with followers of Jesus, a number of them feel anxiety about how to get neighbours and former church attenders to "come to church”. Many keep church-hopping until they find a church that they feel super-happy about, to help them be more confident to invite others to church with them. "Ahh... THIS is church!", they say. But what if there's a more fundamental role? What if this invitation is out of order? Shouldn't the first priority be how we might draw others closer to Jesus? That is, to ask people that we actually know, “Hey Ajit! Hey Annelise! Is there anything I can do today to help or enable you on your journey with Jesus?” You may be surprised that “taking them to church” is not at the top of everyone's list. But it's ok. Jesus knows all about it. How can I come to this conclusion with any confidence?

Consider that the early church didn’t grow because of activities similar to ours. The story of the Gospels and Acts is about the life of Jesus lived out, modelled for us, and then, in the power of the Holy Spirit (the DNA of Jesus, if you will), played out in the everyday lives of Jesus's followers. In Acts chapter 2 and 4, we get snapshots of this vibrant community that includes gathering together, hearing the apostles' eye-witness accounts of Jesus and His teachings, eating together, sharing things with others, praying, and hanging out in the "Temple courts" (public piazza of the day).  “Going to the synagogue” was a part of this new community's rhythms, but only a small part (Acts 2:42-47). If we do not see a heavy emphasis on going to church and on being primarily developed through listening to preaching, how will we give it the perspective it deserves, and nothing more? In fact, when it was Jesus’ turn to “take the scrolls and deliver a lesson in the synagogue (Luke 4:16-30), the tradition of the Rabbis at the time was to present a 3-5 minute lesson. That's it! Of course, there is a story of the Apostle Paul teaching where he kept going "on and on" until a guy named Eutychus fell out a window (Acts 20:7), but this was because Paul intended to leave town the next morning. It was an exception, not the norm.

How did the early Christian movement explode? It was through the new life that Jesus's followers were living by the power of the Holy Spirt out in the world. Their “neighbours" were amazed, and many of them came to know and follow Jesus too. This is why the New Testament letters are written to address so many social and theological problems. The Apostles delivered “Just in time” teaching to address the issues, because the growth of the movement was out of control. The community of followers of Jesus grew rapidly, reaching around 500,000 by the year 100 AD (cited by Dr. George Linn Kieffer in Time Magazine). This did not happen simply by holding church meetings, but rather, by new, transformed followers of Jesus living radically different than the people around them, in the power of the Holy Spirit. The community of Jesus modelled a better way to be human. Jesus is bigger than our "church meeting life”. This is the point of embracing an 'incarnational call' to live on mission everyday with Jesus. Your daily life matters. Remembering this allows us to keep our traditions (Like the way we "do church") in perspective.

What is the Substance of My Community's Traditions?
So then, what about all our traditions? Aren't they an important part of our Christian heritage? Of course they are. But traditions are methodologies, not values, and as such, they keep changing. God is bigger than “my preferences or your preferences”. In days gone by, as some of you may recall, there were “worship wars” in some churches over type and style of music.  Now, there are more and more followers of Jesus joining the "nones" (No longer committed to participating in a worshipping community), who are in essence voting with their feet that the traditions aren't helping them. We must recognize that this has more to do with the substance of our particular traditions, not the values of worship or being a learner. Think illustratively for a moment about music, if you will. I'm a musician, and I love it when people are engaged in a song together, whether in a house party, a concert, a street festival, or a worship gathering. For worship, there are songs about God’s mission in the world, and songs about the values Jesus has modelled for us, songs about our conviction and repentance for the things we have done against God and others, and songs of assurance in the work of Christ on the cross, sufficient to cover the debt for the sins of the whole world. There are songs of the Lord’s leading, and of our love for God, songs of love for fellow Christians, and songs of love and service outward to the world. You can probably think of more. And that's just music! The same diversity can be applied to how we forms groups, what pedagogy (method of teaching) we use, and what language we use to convey the timeless good news of Jesus. What is our message, and in what ways might the Spirit of God be asking us to change? Are we holistic, representative of the whole counsel of God, or merely focussed on a few key traditions that we (or even narrow it to total selfishness - that "I") prefer? 

Many streams.
The picture above is one of many streams connected to one river. When I listen to many Millennials, some seem not to resonate with the way we do “church” - as more than one Millennial has said to me, I don’t connect with this "sing, respond, listen to preaching, sip a coffee, have surface conversations with 2-3 people, and go home” thing. It isn’t that God is not there, but rather that they are more action-oriented, or ascetic, or activistic… Refer to my earlier reference to Gary L. Thomas, and follow the link for more info. 

My challenge is 2-fold. First, for all followers of Jesus, don't give up meeting together with other Christians! Even if some forms of worship with God's people don't connect with you, value worship. Connect with God and God's people with a right heart wherever Jesus is forming community, and develop new traditions together. Take others' traditions at face value, remembering that they are precious to some people, who equally matter to God and the community. But to all of us, it is time to celebrate the diversity of streams in the River of God. Talk to other people, and simply ask them how they best connect with God. And help them to do so.

What am I modelling?
In closing, I invite you to join me in asking a self-reflective question: If people become what I model (as a follower of Jesus) not just what traditions I uphold, what kind of disciplers will be formed? If I only model a small part of the Christian life (going to meetings), what will be missing from my own spiritual life and development as an effective disciple and discipler? And if I am rejecting all Christian traditions, simply because I'm arrogant and think I know everything, how will I humble myself and seek to keep first things first, doing everything I can to help and enable others to follow Jesus, both in the Christian community, and beyond? If, above all, I forget to love, I won't be much help to anyone. The community of followers is, in fact, a river of many streams. The river is full of life. It's time for us all to make the most of it, remembering that all the streams, including the smallest trickle, water the earth.