Disinherited

Many a young pastor/church leader begins their vocation with strong convictions and good intentions. Shortly after beginning their training or ministry they are absorbed into that which they have sought to correct. We attend institutions that supply us with their legacy, and inherit battles that we did not know were in existence, and forms which we could see were ineffective yet we had not the voice to articulate why.

The solution to the dilemma is seemingly impossible for those who have been fully absorbed into the statues quo. But if we can take a step back and look at the absurdity of our practices a change may not be impossible.
Some examples: 

• We often say that the church consists of people not buildings: yet we spend 10's and 100's of thousands, even millions of dollars to try and keep our buildings from becoming dilapidated.

While I love aesthetics as much if not more than most people, if a building is costing thousands of dollars just to keep open for use one day a week, then I say tear down that building and do something useful with it. It's like one of my close friends said (I won't mention his name, I don't want him to get in any trouble), "I wish they would just tare my church down and build a parking lot. At least that way the community could have that space for something useful. At least that way they would have a spot to park their cars."

This is just a portion of the divide between what we value as Christians. It communicates to our communities that we value our Sunday morning gatherings far more than we do the community itself. This is of course not to diminish the time of worship that Christians do have, but I just have to wonder how acceptable that worship is to God when all of that money going into the collection plate gets fed right back into a building that sits empty six days a week; instead of (as my same friend mentioned earlier pointed out to me) to the poor and those in need. This just seems so bizarre to me.

Secondly:

• That which is sacred to many is the same inflexibility of the previous generation, in that we exchange one system or one way of doing things for another.

Much of what I am communicating on this blog is sacred to me. Much of what  I write and express is all very important to me. One day, a generation will come that no longer has a need for my convictions. One day, a generation will come that will not understand (nor need to understand) what it is that I, and people like me, are now communicating. When that day comes, I hope that I will be able to hear and learn from the prophetic voice of a younger generation who sees the holes in my gospel and biblical understanding.

But it's so interesting. I can already see an insistence in those who are just a bit older than I am, who have inherited the battle or the form of their traditions or institutions, who are not willing to see nor deviate from that inheritance no matter how compelling the realities are that surround them. At one time, their convictions were fresh and needed and sacred to them... it will not be long before those convictions, having been cemented in our minds, will soon become stumbling blocks and battle grounds to the subsequent generations.

We must continuously live with our eyes and ears open as to the ways in which God is communicating and interacting with his world. In so doing we grow wiser, and open our eyes instead of closing them.

I believe this is an inheritance and a legacy: to be honest, I'm not sure that I fully understand the wars that we wage with other Christians across denominational lines (I mean, I understand them historically... I just do not understand them as one who follows Christ), but somehow I learned to continue those wars as a part of my inheritance.

Perhaps the divisions were necessary for a time, but we have an opportunity to demonstrate the greatest defense for our faith... that by the love we share for one another, we show the world the love of God. In so doing we, with the help of God, could restore what has been broken for centuries and mellennia. That could be our legacy... and this is a legacy that can and should be universally applied throughout the generations.

A Prayer of our Lord, Jesus Christ:
     “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 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—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me."