Growing Together: The Organic Church

Now doesn’t that sound a bit Boulder-ish. I think if we publicized the church as “organically grown” we’d really attract the “green” segment of the population. But that’s exactly how Scripture describes the church.  In 1 Cor 12 Paul compares the church to an organic body.  Theologian Thomas Oden uses the metaphor of a vine to describe the biblical model of the church:

“The church is like a vine sending forth fresh shoots, pushing down roots, reaching for sunlight, hungering for righteousness, thirsting for refreshment, being fed from above.” {Thomas Oden, Systematic Theology: Life in the Spirit, vol 3, (Massachusettes: Hendickson Publishers, 2008) p. 287.}

Grape growers in vineyards tend to the roots of the vine more than anything else. If the roots are well-tended and planted in healthy soil the fruit will take care of itself. I think we often struggle more with trying to produce good fruits in our lives than nurturing our spiritual roots.

But as our roots deepen we grow together into the body of Christ. The church will then take its shape from the organic growing together of its individual members. This is different from the organizations that we find out in the general society which are structured by committees or planning groups or by tradition. They then go looking for people to plug into their pre-formed slots. In this scenario it is largely the organization that forms the people.

Scripture does not so describe the body of Christ; for the image of Christ is not fundamentally expressed by an organization but by the living souls which form the body. We grow toward the fullness of Christ through a gradual process of transformation; through afflictions, through dark nights and through our surrender to the work of the Spirit within us. But it is not just for ourselves that we grow. God designed us to grow together into a community rooted in Christ. This is the church. It is how Scripture says the community of Christ takes shape. It is not so much a mechanical structure artificially contrived by planning committees but a living organism growing into the very divine nature of Christ. More than anything else this is how the church will reach out to a lost world.

Are we there? No, but we can work at it.

The Church as the Body of Christ: Growing Together.

I had a vision of the church; an epiphany, if you will. It was of a pastor leading a flock of sheep. Not unusual for a pastor. But what struck me was how he was leading. He was not leading from several paces out in front of the sheep but from right in the middle of the flock. He was surrounded by the sheep, attending to each one, learning who they are and how they each have a unique place in the flock. This is a picture of how Scripture says the church is supposed to be.

We find this picture in Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12 but I think Ephesians 4:12-13 really captures it. The gifts that God gave to us in Christ are “…to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ (NRS).”

Now picture this. Who we truly are, the person that God created us to be and is bringing out into a new creation is really a gift to the church. You see, it is not so much that we have gifts as that we are a gift. Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life (NRS).” By our giftedness we nourish and build up the giftedness of each other. Is this not a beautiful picture? That is, to understand that my giftedness works to bring out the person that God made you to be because your giftedness further nourishes and brings out the person that God made me to be.

Ephesians 4:12-13 has three parts:

    To equip the saints for the work of ministry.

         For the building up of the body of Christ.

         Until we all grow into the full stature of Christ.

This is such a beautiful picture because it shows the church growing organically. As we each grow into the unique person that God created us to be by our mutual nourishment of each other the church as a whole grows into the true picture of Christ. This is how the church is to shine out into the world. It is with a knowledge of Christ growing internally that reaches deep into the heart.

Are we there? I don’t think so. But we can work at it.

Reaching Deeper: Nurturing Inner Spiritual Growth

New Class Begins at First Presbyterian Church, Boulder  - Sun, Sep 16 at 11:00 in Room G250.

This is a class for those seeking a deeper walk with Christ. I have posted the class schedule below. As we go along I will be posting some of the things that we discuss in the class. I hope you can attend, but if not please watch for here for reflections on what God is teaching us.

Class Leaders:
Christine Brockett @ Gene Culbertson
 

 

 

 

 

 

Class Schedule

Sep 16: Dynamics of the Spiritual Journey (Gene).

Understanding the Christian life as a journey helps us to move through its stages.

 

Sep 23  Principles of Spiritual Transformation (Gene).

How does God work to change us into the person He designed us to be?

 

Sep 30  Developing Sacred Space (Gene).

              Making a place for God to work.

 

Oct 07  Teaching and Practice of Listening Prayer (Christine).

Does God speak to us today and how can we discern His voice?

 

Oct 14   Role of Spiritual Disciplines (Gene).

               The spiritual disciplines create the vehicle that   moves us through the process of transformation.

 

Oct 21   Role of Intention in Spiritual Exercises (Gene).

               Our will is a primary tool that we have to work with.

 

Oct 28   Teaching and Practice of Centering Prayer (Christine).

               Practicing the presence of God.

 

Nov 04   Spiritual Direction (Gene).

               What? Why? How? Companioning along the      spiritual path. You don’t have to walk alone.

 

Nov 11   Teaching and Practice of Lectio Divina    (Christine).

               Connecting with and resting in God through prayerful meditation on Scripture.

 

Nov 18   Healing Prayer (Christine)

                  Allowing God into places where we need healing;        emotional, physical or spiritual.

Murmuring vs. Crying Out

I'm in a trust crisis these days. I won't go into the details but I’m finding out that I have developed my complaining skills to a truly fine point. My trust in God, on the other hand, has some huge gaps in it. Confession is a wonderful thing. It helps me make place for God to give some clarity. If life is an onerous burden then complaining groans underneath the burden. Trust in God, on the other hand, rides on top.

Let's go to Egypt to get some light on this. The Hebrew slaves groaned under the oppression of their slavery (Ex 2:23). The Hebrew word for “groaning” describes a reaction to being weighed down by the burdens of life; to sigh. Now the Hebrew slaves didn’t just groan, they also cried out. It is likely that the Hebrews didn’t even know who they were crying out to, yet it was an act of communication. So when God called Moses up onto Mt. Horeb He told Moses that He had heard the cries of the Hebrews and so began the process of their deliverance.

Groaning in and of itself is a simple reaction to the strain of life. We all groan. It’s where we go with our groaning that makes the difference. In their wilderness wanderings the Hebrews all too often went into murmuring; the biblical equivalent of complaining. Curiously, this word has the connotation of obstinacy; of digging your heals in and refusing to be moved. Murmuring was the primary downfall of those Hebrews that left Egypt. They refused to let go of their slave mentality. They were constantly dissatisfied with how God was leading them and wanted to return to Egypt.

Obstinacy is really the basis of our own murmurings. God is working to transform us into His very likeness (2 Cor 3:18). Yet we dig our heals into our own false self and resist the journey into the promised land of our true being. Here’s what God is just now teaching me: There is a difference between murmuring and crying out. We murmur against. We cry out to. The lesson is this; to learn how to turn murmuring into crying out. What God does not ask us to do is to put a smile on our faces and just “stuff it.”

So here’s the picture. We groan under the burden of life. Our tendency is to murmur and complain. But because we know complaining to be not very becoming most likely we’ll “just stuff it.” But it didn’t go away. It’s still there festering beneath the surface. What can we do? I believe God wants us to go before Him and cry out. Let it come. The trick is to keep it in the “crying out” category and not let it drift into murmuring. So how can we tell which is which?

Crying out has the quality of opening ourselves to help. It is an outward expression of our helplessness to God. In a way, it is a form of surrender. We express a desire to cooperate with God as He works to transform us but we don’t have to deny that we don’t understand it; that it really hurts and we don’t particularly like it. It has within it an expression of pain but with a willingness to endure. Crying out is upward-bound.

Murmuring, on the other hand, has the quality of closing off and resisting what God is doing in us. We want God to do things our way and we’re not happy when that doesn’t happen. We can detect murmuring by a sense of wrapping ourselves up within ourselves clinging to what little ground we think we’ve gained in life. When we sense a constriction within us like we are protecting our own agendas against what God might be trying to do – when we want to go back to Egypt – then we are probably in a place of murmuring. Murmuring is selfward-bound.

Murmuring is our natural human response in our fallen state. The trick is to turn murmuring into crying out. We don’t have to do this “nicely.” It’s a sort of throwing ourselves open against every inclination to stay closed and protective. It has the quality of, “O. K., O. K. Fine! Have it your way! I give it to You. After all, I’m just sheep for the slaughter.” It is, finally, an act of raw will. It is will against unwillingness and thus holds a quality of fighting against inner resistance. It is a surrender but not in the sense of a pious, folded-hands religious pretense. Rather it feels more like an act of violence against self. This is what makes it a crying out.

But here’s the good part. Though the battle still rages, once we break through murmuring into crying out we’re above the battlefield. We’re on top of Mt Horeb and in contact with God. We sense that He hears us. Our deliverance is in progress and we are flowing with it.


.

The Lord Will Fight For Us

Not all places are the same along the spiritual journey. There are battles and there are times of rest. There are dark nights and times of consolation. The Lord brings us through the fire and through the water, and He leads us into green pastures. Let us not fight with the path but simply be where the Lord has brought us. For in a sense, all is rest.

Why am I fighting with this spiritual path? Did the Hebrew people have to swim across the Red Sea to flee the Egyptian army? No! God opened the waters before them. So why do I put the Lord behind me while I try to face the enemy head on? Has not God said, “The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be still (Ex 14:14)?” As I let the Lord go before me He Himself blazes the path. I simply travel along, step by step.

God Reaches Deeper into Us

As I was preparing for last week’s “Reaching Deeper” class it occurred to me that perhaps reaching deeper into God isn’t quite the right way to put it. It is more like God wants to reach deeper into us. That puts a bit of a different spin on it. Sometimes when we think about drawing closer to God we get a bit nervous. God know us – really. There’s no place to hide. God will see us as we really are.

Let’s be honest. We like to hide in the dark (Scripture says this). We try to put a good Christian face on our lives; one that perhaps God will approve of as well as other people. If we think in terms of reaching deeper into God – which means drawing closer to Him – perhaps He’ll demand that we really look at ourselves. Then we’ll have to do all that work of cleaning up our lives.

If, on the other hand, we think of God going deeper into us our job then is to get out of His way. God will still see us as we are but if He really wants to go deeper into us, which He does, then He’ll work with us to get the blocks out of His way.

Still this is not an easy thing to do. God carries His lantern with Him as He reaches into us. He lights up His surroundings and we see what is there. But He works with us to let go of that which is keeping Him at a distance. That’s different than asking us to clean up our act. It’s a matter of letting go (which may actually be the harder task) more than trying to put on a Christian persona or live up to a set of values. He shows us what to let go of and gently helps us to pry our fingers loose. This allows the Holy Spirit to penetrate ever deeper into us and step by step He transforms us into what He means for us to be.