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Correcting the malfunction of the local church

written by Michael McBane

I confess that presently I may be partially in conflict with my words I am writing here.  But only because of the lack of true relational extension on a local level. But I am living out a very purposeful part of what I propose here. That would be in the context of family and our three generational functioning household. (I live among a gift of grace.) And also taking our resources though limited and seeking to reproduce life. I have desired to be what I proclaim. My passion is grand for this subject and so is my history. You may be guessing that I again am going to drive the plow into relational purpose and community function and you would be right.

My subject is what I will call the local church. I will take church completely out of the container of a particular identity and push it towards a relational community of determined like minded believers.

Community has many contexts one being marriage and family. Others are the extension of such in the longevity of function and family identity. We then create a larger collective context by the inclusion of other families and this must include those who are single and the widow and those who have been dislodged from any type of belonging. These all can be set under an umbrella which includes the economics of community, the creativity of and the communal aspect of the provision generated by such. But if we are merely attempting as Christ centered Christians to create a moral nucleus we are creating only a philosophical expression.  

What then is the disfunction among us? What is the weakness that disintegrates the objective of tangible life or the fruitfulness among us that allows the greater community to partake of His life?

Primarily we have lost the vision of extended purpose concerning the local church because we are so geared to be a transient society. The drive to thrive as self made, self proclaimed, self fulfilled individuals is dominant. It divides relationship, marriage, children and even can crash a business and then a community even a nation over night all for the sake of selfish attainment. It weakens the content of commitment. It has little to no room for loyalty. Narcissistic seasoning permeates all of living today. It governs how most view and transfer the essentials of life. Even our giving can be centered around being fulfilled. Our government structures social programs around the core of narcissistic thought. We have been plundered!

We also are governed by a sign that we unconsciously place over our person, some place this deliberately which says do not disturb. We have a set of boundaries that prohibit intrusion. This sign can be the most illusive sign for we can place it over particular areas of our life, such as who we are or over our heart we learn to insulate to isolate well. There are so many different things that contribute to this, time is one. Fear is another. Time has slipped away it seems to be a commodity that is almost elusive. This is why there is an urgency to step forward and ask the Lord to correct all that prohibits the true glory He deserves. Let us not create a glory and call it His. Are we willing to adjust our priorities? 

I understand life is increasingly full of freaks that thrive on disorder. The disorder is described as, ‘well thats just the way it is’ or ‘we have evolved’ because society has no answers as man declines. They accept and reject the common right and wrong because as the disfunction comes closer to each family they must justify it so they accept it. This is becoming an epidemic attitude in the mindset of many Christians as the community has lost its ability to bring strength and support. Most refuse to see these eruptions as spiritually induced. They go to the demonic to be healed replacing one stronghold for another. People have little to no relation to the common things that everyone once took for granted. Some who come from what we would call good families have no every day life skills so there are no safe zones. The media has created a medium that has captured the populace. Christianity has even secured a place  in this dominating media frenzy there as we can create the illusion of a great move of God with bells and whistles on the net and we might actually think we are moving in faith by projecting such. I call this disfunction. When this all breaks down and I fear it might we will not be prepared for what might emerge. If we are not following the Lord we will be caught with no power and if we are marginal in who we are in Christ as individuals and as an extended community we will be in trouble. God have mercy.

My friends there is an urgency that has been surging within me and others I have fellowshipped with. We have a window of time to prepare so that we can be the vessels that God can use fully. It is time to take our heads out of the sand and let go of that which  has secured us but destroyed us.

A key to turning away from our malfunction is I believe found in communion. If we begin to dwell in the consistent daily taking of bread and wine before the Lord and allow that to overflow into our community we will be challenged with a sustained conviction and because we have set our hearts first towards Him the hardness of much we hold sacred will soften and the shift will come as God rearranges the impossible.

To change this will be miraculous to say the least. Can it change quickly? I don’t know for in many ways we have no context that reveals the core of a biblical local church extending into community.There is little true desire among the Christian community to press towards what I speak of. We are habitual in pattern and I know that strongholds have taken root. Strongholds that many are willing to live with. So to mobilize in human effort would be mere fluffy philosophy, even so we must be deliberate and ask the Lord to permeate our purpose as we step forward because it is His will. In a real way we must see in some regard that what has disappeared has done so because of sin or the fruit of. But to see this only is sorrowful. At the core are mindsets that the enemy of God has deliberately seeded among us for generations. As success and ambition has set the bench mark of life in our Christianity we have failed.

Because there is little present context that has a word and spirit foundation this can present us great opportunity to humbly empty what we have determined to be the way. Here then we allow the Lord to lead us. We can voluntarily become weak or become weakened in a shaking that will lack the characteristic of human comfort.

Perhaps at the center of our disfunction is what we have drifted towards in the presentation of our faith. Our extension of life to the world and among each other is largely misguided but correctable. My intent here is seen in the Biblical example that is set by Peter in Acts, when he was asked for money what did he give? He said, Silver and gold I have not but what I do have is Jesus Christ be healed. In sharing this I say that our priorities have shifted. We largely have the means to give everything but Jesus. Has prosperity demented our understanding of who God is? Has it crippled us? We have given the practical and at times never given Christ as He is. Because we have either not known Him as He is or do not know how to offer Him or we are very diluted. Our collective faith is weak and does not proclaim with authority. But proclamation does not demand a boisterous voice it simply demands one that has a context that is formed in relationship to Christ not to the principals that surround Him. God’s power may be thunderous but it can be dismantling in Holy tones. We have ceased to proclaim Him as He is and therefore we have lost a collective expression of His life and His love among us. It is there but highly traumatized. 

We will be know by our fruits and it will be evident if we have been with Him. We can actually be set among the principals that speak of God, we can understand the theology that discerns doctrine and not be with Him. 

I suggest amongst the chagrin of some that the need for discipling communities is large, the need for spiritual and practical fathers and mothers is equally large. We have not been reproducing life among each other but we have not seen the lost converted. We must ask why? I suggest strongly that it is not because we have used the wrong buzz words or that we are not relevant. That thought alone is inexcusable, think about it irrelevant? Is God ever irrelevant? How can He be? The quest to be relevant and to spend money on marketing the fresh relevance of God is somewhat narcissistic. So it comes down to this. We are not relating to Christ as we could or as we must, we have not been with Him as we may think. So we must be revealing a God who is not relevant but who’s fault is that. We have everything we need pertaining to life and Godliness given to us what have we done with it? So again I suggest that we have not followed God as we might think for if we had we would be changing much simply because our shadow has been cast over them. Honestly this shakes me up and I pray that those who might read these words are shaken with a determination to allow the Lord to rearrange us all, and may we not return to what He delivers us from. 

Thus far the discipleship need has been demonized by the misstep of such in the 70’s and 80’s. It is time to get over this and see that there was and is a purpose that was ignited there. It was a war zone of sorts because of false and diluting control spirits that lorded over the hearts and minds of men and women. I tell you though that God had intent there that was aborted. Can we walk in such a way that we ask God to recover His purpose and redeem the ground lost? For His names sake we must. 

Because I have a friend who is a missionary, he is actually the head of an organization with a very large contingent of followers in five different countries. This man carries no tittles for honor he is driven with an urgency to follow and reproduce the life he was given by the Lord. He has no one in his ministry who does not reproduce life in others. All is done to extend the Kingdom through relational formation not ideas about theology or religious life. The people he connects with have usually given up everything to know Jesus, everything. Families abandon them for converting, they can have their homes burnt down but they see beyond. The know beyond the immediate. Joy is upon them regardless. My friend has no context of what happened in this tragic misstep I therefore can speak with purpose of the redemptive power of Godly discipling. He has been fruitful in this regard for decades and has proven methods that constantly reproduce life. He is fruitful in the spirit and there in practically as well. He understands the mandate of discipleship as few I have know because God imparted to him more then principals.

Equally demonized has been the need for the emergence of fathers and mothers in the faith. Why? First because so many called to be such are bogged down with some sort of tragic church history that has entrapped them. Second, the celebrity culture in the church misleads by singling out a few and calling them the fathers of our present faith. It may give us an example but this also has derailed the common men and women from being honored in the local body. Therefore we have weakened the body by such inaccurate exalting of some that do not contribute to the daily life of faith among us. Do not misunderstand me many who are honored are deserving of some respect but those who turn the soil have been as laborious if not more so. These are the watchers among the body. The culture that has not had much of a frame work for what a father or mother is or should be has no need for such. Though many express the need and desire for such in their life but do not have the ability to embrace such. They have been formed with an independent mindset that has not allowed for spiritual brokenness. They lack a teachable spirit. They often are broken but there is a resilience that has fostered the narcissistic core that takes on multiple identities. We must ask the Lord to converge the hearts of all concerned for the life of the community of any local church to be fruitful.

Clearly we do not need to simply identify older believers and designate them as fathers and mothers in the faith. But I have met older men and women who I would not readily say have walked with God only because they have not used the language and told the stories of my experience. But I dare not tread carelessly on how they relate to the Lord and He to them for they carry gems that I have learned to gather. I sense we have been in a season of preparation that has dismantled our objections to the way the younger generation may approach us. We are in need of a wisdom woven with discernment and patience with an urgent discipline that we understand how to offer and apply. We must be equipped to love as He loves us.

With all that I have shared we should see that the migratory nature of our society prevents much that I have written. To allow such life to emerge requires consistent life among our relationships. We must return to the table together. We must open our homes and live life together  by breaking bread together. Drop all the thoughts that prevent such and just do it. And be consistent with out excuse. We have always done this as a family and were we have lived presently has brought such a battle concerning this. But we press in and extend life to those we know and don’t know consistently. 

I think the following words are meant to be the reality of God among us. We are a body that lives because we are loved by the triune God and the expression of this Trinity of life is revealed among us as our reality, our hope is tangible. We are a community that thrives in health and in sickness, in prosperity and in want because He is among us but more so that we as individuals are ever drawing towards Him with an unquenchable love. We have no one in need. We communicate life, thus we build each other up in a holy faith, we pray as one because we have desire to be one with HIm. The substance is Christ in and among us. The provision is found in Him and the obedience that His love releases as we love Him. We hold all things of this earth lightly because we have found a lasting treasure in Him that is more real then anything we have here. So what we produce among us is heaven on earth. The Kingdom of God among us. Sounds simple but we must start somewhere.