The Church...SIMPLIFIED

“The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.” – Mk 10:45

Jesus came to the earth to reconcile man to his creator. To restore a right relationship between the Father and his children. His goal was to get to the cross, where he willingly gave his life as a payment for our sins. He gave his life as a ransom for many.

But he also came to serve. Every day he served. He served people everywhere he went. He served them in their homes. He served them in the synagogue, in the neighborhood, at dinner parties, in the street, at the seashore, in the mountains. He served them wherever they were. In addition to the cross, his purpose was to serve.

He called his disciples to follow him - to do what he did. To be servants that serve everywhere they went. He didn’t charge them to start a new religion, or to somehow improve on the religions that were already available. In fact, he was quite anti-religion. He simply called his followers to be like him - to serve people. He called them to love each other, and to show that love to others by serving them. He called them to love their neighbors as themselves. He called them to love their enemies.

He also said that mixing new wine with old wine skins was a fruitless effort (no pun intended). In other words, trying to take his new teachings and mixing them in with the old “religious” way of relating to God and people would not work. Instead, he said “a new command I give you. Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another”. This is the new wine. But taking something that is relational in nature and trying to fit it into a system or institution does not mix any more than mixing new wine with old wine skins. No, Jesus did not “move into the neighborhood”(John 1:16 MSG) just to create a new group of “church goers”. Instead, he came to help us be “church be-ers”.

And in the early years of the church, that’s exactly what the disciples did. They lived together, loved each other, served their neighbors … and the number of disciples continued to grow. They were not organized institutionally as a religious group, but as small organic groups of fellow disciples who were connected relationally and who saw each other as members of the same family, rather than the same organization.

Jesus didn't create or implement a schedule of exclusively religious activities that had nothing to do with real life or that were separate from the people or culture where he lived. Unfortunately, in many cases, this is what “church” has become - a series of religious rituals and traditions that people view as their primary “Christian” duty. We have created a set of “sacred” activities and separated them from “secular” activities. This was not Jesus’ way. Jesus looked at every activity in human experience as sacred. Touching lepers was sacred. Healing on the Sabbath was sacred. Making 150 gallons of wine for people who had already had too much to drink was sacred. Dining with tax collectors and other social outcasts was sacred. BBQing on the beach was sacred. Foot washings from prostitutes were sacred. Jesus brought God to every event and every interaction. To follow Jesus is to bring God to every event and interaction – not just in “church”.

Jesus liked to simplify things. To Martha who was distracted by all the details of “serving God”, Jesus said “only one thing is needed”. To the Samaritan woman, who wanted to discuss the right place to worship, Jesus explained there is no specific place anymore. To the Pharisees who wanted to trap Jesus with theological chicanery, Jesus said ‘Love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself’ – this sums up all the theology in the entire scripture. To reveal the deepest truths of the divine he told simple children's stories about birds and sheep and pots of gold. Has the church become too sophisticated for it’s founder and king? Perhaps things could be SIMPLIFIED:

Spirit-led
Incarnational
Missional (& Multiplying)
Participatory
Loving
Intimate
Family–patterned
Interdependent
Empowering
Discovery-minded

Check future posts for more on each of these principles - and please, join with me in the conversation by clicking on the "comments" link below.