For the Good of the World

For the Good of the World

As I have finished reading Brian D. McLaren’s book, The Church on the other side,
I was struck by Chapter 2.
I know I have been blinded too often of the effect we have, not just at our immediate
World around us, but even more as we have this blindness multiplied 1000’s of times over…meaning all Christians going blindly about missing what effect they have on others around them.
To me it is no wonder the Church - who should be an earthly reflection of Christ – is viewed as the enemy or even something evil to the world. We are a bit like the time of the Roman Church as it viewed itself a political Nation, flexing it's muscle, except now we are an “economic power”. Yet, with all this so called “economic power” we still miss the greater power, or lack it…in reaching the world with the message of the Kingdom of God.
When our individual actions show no love on the peripherals (me included) we have individuals whose lives are not touched but in fact tossed out – because of our sin (Blind Modernism). Yet, to see that individual actions impact collectively on a national and global level we must first see the devistations of not just individuals, but also of nations.
Personally, I have yet to discover the ramifications of all this. But it does bring to my mind a thought...
Have we in our focus on individual worship and freedoms lost sight of the “Universal Church”, even worse lost sight of the Kingdom of God?
So many Churches are programmed to say they are “the” Church”.
As one friend of mine pointed out as an example, the word “Baptist”. The definition of Baptist has for the most part lost it’s meaning to most people thus lost it’s impact.
You have Free Will Baptists, Calvinist Baptists, Liberal, Fundamentalist and on and on. Yet, many hang on to the title "Baptist" as if it were their savior. Just as “Bible believing” used to say “Bible centered teaching” now seems to say “ How we read and interpret the Bible is right here” implying “and no where else”.
As we cling to the many outdated and outmoded or “programmed” thinking often the world gets more confused and thus blurs what being a Church or worse being a Christian really means.
We must be willing to lose some of the “old baggage” of the old world church so we can move onto and into the new paradigm.
We need to decide what is more important, our little kingdoms or the Kingdom of God. What is more important to “get them to church”? or to receive more of God’s Children into the Kingdom.
It has become my prayer we lose the baggage we have created. The “us against them” mentality and focus on what makes and defines us as “Christians” Then those who once we would never fellowship would be brothers and Christ would be center of His Kingdom as we let our kingdoms fall.
Blessings,
iggy