As I mentioned in the last post I’m on a most intimate and incredible journey. In the past two years God has been cleaning my canvas. What He has begun to paint is an incredible portrait of His Bride. There is great beauty and freedom to be found in the church Christ builds. This blog has reflected many of my thoughts along the way as the fellowship I pastor has changed and continues to. In reading this morning on Shapevine, which I recently joined to share my thoughts and hear from others on this journey, I came across this post from David Mills I would encourage you to read it – it’s real short and thought provoking.
What would happen if we relinquished the need to control the church and actually let Jesus build it? Are we willing to risk years, decades and centuries of man’s tradition to find what Jesus desires? As I have been finding, we as leaders will need to be willing to lose everything to gain everything God desires. Our history bears witness to the power of free forms. God has worked in mighty ways where the focus and pursuit is Jesus (Christology) and the form of Church (Ecclesiology) flows out of Jesus’ mission (missiology). This requires us to be willing to adjust our forms as needed for our mission. The problem comes when the form needs to change and we find we are in bondage to it or worse worship the form rather than the creator.
If you have any thought or comments along these lines, I would appreciate you leaving them.
Yea God! It is awesome to be part of the incredible journey and being knit together, see how the Master Artist is reworking our canvas’ of life into His unchanging, eternal image. Love you, John