ReFocused or not, here I come. . .

After a day spent listening to Dwight Smith, that is the overwhelming sentiment one feels.

 And, yet, unlike the words of those who speak to impress, Dwight’s sentences are made of the steel of convicting truth. In your gut you know the man is dead on.

 The European church is dead. (Don’t be distracted by the vestiges of the past like state-affliated churches that are ubiquitous but empty and have no influence in the culture.)

The American church is dead. (Don’t be confused by the glut of TV preachers or the presence of church buildings on every street corner; we have lost our voice, lost our witness, lost our place at the table in the discussion of society’s most vital issues.) No more than 18.7% of the USA is in church on any given Sunday. . .and shrinking fast.

We are blind to our missionfield, deaf to their cries, and have nothing to say of interest or importance to them.

We are still operating under the impression that if we run a better steamboat, we can own the river. (There’s a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier bearing down on our “six” that will change everything.)

In truth, Dwight is only calling us back to the words of Scripture. Calling us back to the life of the earnest disciple of Jesus Christ. For me, as a Wesleyan, this has great significance. Mr. Wesley, himself, once said that the Wesleyan way was only “Christianity in earnest.” In earnest about letting “every man, woman, and child” see, hear, and live among a vibrant witness to the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

But everything we know is wrong. People are not waiting to have that encounter inside the four walls of a church. They want to see it in the living, three-dimensional theater of life on the street where they live, on the job where they work.

They are not waiting for “the right verse” of ‘Just As I Am’ to touch their hearts. They are waiting for Christians to demonstrate the reality of what we have spent our lives talking about. For sure, they’re not interested in the petty power plays of small-minded people who attempt to use the church as a stage for acting out their particular form of mental illness in endless arguments and control issues.

Jesus said it first: “I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” (John 17:22, 23 NIV)

John Wesley said it, too:

‘Ye diff’rent sects, who all declare:
‘Lo, Here is Christ!’ or ‘Christ is there!’
Your stronger proofs divinely give
And show me where the Christians live!
Alas! Your claim you cannot prove.
You want [i.e. "lack"] the genuine mark of love.’

Here’s what it may mean for us to become effective, biblical, missional, people of God:

A de-emphasis on personal agendas, denominations, and extraneous dogmas.

A re-emphasis on being One Body together on mission for Christ in our particular towns and regions.
[We're late-comers here. Chinese Christian leader, Witness Lee, strongly held this view. see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witness_Lee#One_in_Christ ]

A willingness to be bi-vocational laborers.

A surrender of “our” properties (churches, Family Life Centers, etc.) to the use of the broader Kingdom of God.

A commitment to partner with all who subscribe to orthodox, biblical Christian beliefs in an environment of passionate dedication to spreading the Good News.

Living the Gospel first and foremost, Teaching and preaching it when we’ve earned a hearing. (“Street cred.”)

An iron-clad heart-attitude of support for everyone engaged in this work. (Mark 3:33-35)

Lord, shape me like that!