My friend, Brady Traywick, has just returned from a week long trip to India to encourage the church there as it blossoms and grows. His email tonight to prayer partners and supporters both encouraged and educated me on what was going on there.
His five words for the American church also humbled me and made me think just what is necessary for "church" to be church". I share them here:
Several words frame my recent experience......Simplicity, Suffering, Passion, Urgency, Suck-it-up (okay, so not a word but phrase).
So, if I were to ask you today "What is absolutely necessary for the church to exist in America today?--what would it be? A building? Programs? Missions? Just what is absolutely necessary? Have we so adorned "the church" with our expectations that she can't function the way she is suppose too?
- Simplicity......the Indian church is rapidly reproducing itself and seeing the fruit we only dream about here......why? perhaps - because all of the trappings of materialism are cut away and they simply obey the Scripture. They tell their story, they tell His story, and they give account. Then they repeat the process.
- Suffering......it seems shallow, empty, very hallow to even type about this: We have no clue, better yet - I have no clue of the real meaning of suffering. Truly their suffering is not 'theoretical', it is not a suffering of words....it is real, it is visible, it is brutal.
- Passion......not the charismatic, I am so happy, I lift my hands to the Lord kind of passion - but real depth, breadth, kind of.....quiet strength that comes only after real suffering. You can see it in their eyes, hear it in their voices.....it is authentic, validated by first hand experience - not possibilities.
- Urgency......every trip to the "ends of the earth" only stirs my passion for my Jerusalem. My first inclination is to sell the farm and move the whole family tomorrow. I am confident that this will happen before God checks me out, Lord willing. Yet for now.....I am stirred with renewed passion that my Jerusalem needs the 'grace and mercy' of JC.
- Suck It Up......we (I) need to quit whining! Christians need to get off of the couch and start telling their story, start telling His story, and then give an account. How much more 'equipping' do we need before we implode? We, (I) need to die to the American Dream and live with full abandon toward an eternal perspective. We need to engage people with the gospel at all costs and with all measures. Time is short!
Food for thought--let me hear from you!
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3 comments:
Jim,
Great post.
I really get what you are saying. Leaving the American lifestyle bubble, can change your attitude.
I get really turned off by a lot of peoples attitudes of “feed me”.
That’s why my personal mission statement is: “Entice the skeptics, challenge the lukewarm and spark passion in the believers to reach out to skeptics…”
And I try to work it out each and every day.
Dorothy
I like your mission statement. That may have to be the subject of another post!
have a good day
what she said...AND yes, i have been so tired of the whole 'equipping' business in the church for a while, what more does it take than merely a TRUE relationship with Christ to know him and make him known?
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