Why it is that very capable people do not take more initiative when it comes to things of the Kingdom? Check out this brief video.
Within simple/organic church we can be like those fleas. If we are from a traditional church background, we may have become accustomed to passivity. We have become conditioned not to rock the status quo, not to color outside the lines. We have been trained to follow the lead of someone else, to let others take the risks. It's not just church that has trained us this way. Life has trained us that way. In school we are expected to conform. If we are employees, we have parameters around which we have to perform.
[Please note this is not meant as a criticism of legacy church. Most of us came from this kind of background, and it was how the Lord was leading us to do things at that time.]
Even though within simple/organic church we all now have complete freedom to do whatever it is that God is calling us to, it's often hard to break free from that training. But if we will learn to hear and trust the Holy Spirit, he has all kinds of creative ideas and initiatives for us to involve in. We can all participate actively when we get together, taking a lead as the Holy Spirit directs. We can reach out in missional ways. We can dare to live a 24/7 Kingdom lifestyle in the workplace.
Let's leave the flea circus behind!
3 replies on “Why be like a jar of fleas?”
I like the flea idea but coming from a traditional denomination, Baptist, which began as a radical movement and in many ways still is I find your comment “we all now have complete freedom to do whatever it is that God is calling us to” is quite touchingly naive. Would you like to reflect more on this and post again?
Hi Peter,
If I came from a traditional denomination, my comments, as you say, would be “touchingly naive.” Within the simple/organic church context though, I don’t believe this is so. Within the simple church movement, anyone can (obviously within Biblical constraints) do whatever the Lord is calling them to.
For example, within the legacy church, the church usually follows the vision of the main pastor. Their resources and gifts go towards the fulfilling of his vision. Within simple church, the job of Ephesians 4 leadership is to equip the saints for the work of ministry. So someone has an idea they believe is from the Lord and they want to pursue. The purpose of the leadership is to equip and support them in their vision (Eph 4:11-13).
Let me give you an example. Early within the small network of churches we started here in Austin we had four Christian ministries that were national in scope, House2House was one of them. (The others included a ministry to prostitutes and exotic dancers, a website that looked at matters of intimacy within Christian marriage (and that now has in the region of 100,000 visitors per month) and a fourth that worked with mothers and daughters.) This was only possible because everyone saw other people’s vision as important and did what they could to support it.
At the risk of being argumentative, I find Peter’s comment naive. Not touchingly so, however.