Why "Church" Doesn't Change Lives

     I spoke last week at the "brick and mortar" church I am part of about why people who attend meetings for years can remain so unchanged. Not everyone remains unchanged, of course, but many of them do. Otherwise "church people" would be unquestioningly known as the healthiest, kindest, most generous, etc., people in the world. That simply isn't the case, and all of us church people know it!

     Last week when I spoke I put the answers to that question in terms of lack (failure to practice biblical discipleship, confusing agreement with obedience, et al.), but today I am realizing that it is better to put this in positive terms by answering a more positive question: "What are the common factors that we see in people who really do live a life that is loving, kind, relationally healthy, powerful in God's Spirit, etc.?"

     I found much of my answer to this question in my musings in my journal this morning. I was reflecting on the calling/purpose that I believe God has for Charlie and me. I described it as "helping people blend an intimate, graced-filled walk with Jesus with the raw, world-changing power of the Kingdom of God in the context of healthy community." Let me elaborate a wee bit on some of the parts of this, and yes, most of it I have said before in one context or another, but I wanted to collect it all in one place, and you are the victims (actually, beneficiaries, I hope) of my attempt to do this.

     People who live lives that are being transformed...

• Really, really grasp grace. I wrote about grace last week (and many times before), but I want to reiterate again that the indispensable requirement for true transformation is a heart-impacting, paradigm-shifting grasp of the scandal of God's grace. Until we "get" how outrageous God's grace really is--that it is His very nature to express it continually, that it means we as believers are always and continually eligible for everything, that we are unconditionally and specifically loved, etc.--we cannot possibly lay hold of the power of grace to change us. If you really don't get grace, please consider doing whatever it takes (including finding a grace-based community like Bo's Cafe) to "get it."
• Live in increasing intimacy with God. I have written so much about this that I mention it only in passing here, but as you know, it is in my mind the key to everything else. Living loved and listening, drawn ever more deeply into a constant love-infused awareness of Father's Presence is the heart of everything else.
• Live in open, transparent, safety-giving community. Yes, these kinds of relational jewels exist, but they are not often found in the things that "church," house church or TC, typically offer. Rather they are found among those who may be part of church but who hunger for more than pretend relationships. You get the picture, I trust. 
• Understand and experience life-on-life discipleship. Sigh...too much to write here, but I have written about making disciples before. Search for the term "disciple" on my blog and you will find most of it. For now, I remind you that transformation requires relationship with other believers who are willing to sacrifice in order to pour life into another. When Jesus told His disciples, "As you go, make disciples..." they thought of what they had experienced. That experience, translated into today's culture, still changes lives as deeply as it did the Eleven.
• Understand that agreeing with Scriptural truth changes nothing whereas Holy Spirit-led and empowered response to Scriptural truth changes everything.
• Do whatever it takes to get healed up! Christians who are walking wounded and "packing critters" cannot possibly mature as they long to until at least the major life wounds are healed up and the critters are evicted.
• Live "being filled with the Spirit." Most western churches, no matter what their form, fail to provide New Testament levels of the power of God. Unless we are saturated, marinated, permeated, inundated by God's Spirit, we cannot possibly really know what it means to live a life that is "led by the Spirit." It is no accident, of course, that Jesus told the Apostles to wait until they were "clothed with power from on high" before starting their mission (Luke 24:49). Living "clothed with power" makes for radical transformation both personally and "environmentally." :-)
• Live lives in giving mode rather than consumer mode. I wish I could write more about this one, but for now consider the fact that most of our approach to ministry encourages people to act like consumers rather than transmitters of grace. For example, when the early church gathered, "each one" brought something to give away (see 1 Corinthians 14:26 for just one example of this). I wonder how a return to this thinking would change "church as we know it"!
• Recognize that transformation is a journey, not a repair project. Deep change, even in the context of all of the above, doesn't happen overnight. I wonder if some of the immaturity we see among believers isn't simply due to their giving up at some point. Yet the Bible is noticeably consistent in its stories in terms of the importance of not giving up. Joseph waited 13 years for his purpose to begin to reveal itself, the Apostle Paul waited about 15 years, even the first apostles required 3 years of intensive care with Jesus Himself for them to be changed enough to be trusted with their mission. You get the point, I trust. Fruit (Galatians 5:22-23, John 15, etc.) grows--it cannot be manufactured in a moment.

     Okay, for good or ill, I have put it out there. I am certain that I could write much more about each one of these, but at least I got the beginning pieces all in one place for now. More will come later, I am sure.

Living loved, listening, saturated and surrendered in a wonderful community,

Tom, one of Abba's children