Building Lives and Communities That Will Fall Apart
The necessity to subvert the culture of self-reliance
Recently I’ve been quite challenged by pondering this scenario: “If God withdrew himself from my life, how much it would change?
I came up with a simple conclusion. It probably wouldn’t.
The inheritance of modern thought has left us with culture that has replaced God as one who creates and sustains with ourselves. We look to science and technology to provide the daily bread to a booming world population. We look to the (supposedly) self-regulating markets to provide us with finance. We look to the philosophical and political ramblings of men to give us guidance on how to live our lives.
The problem with this hangover from modernity is that it is such a successful challenge to God because it actually works. It is an inescapable cell that we’re trapped inside, a culture so pervasive that it has been argued to be the hardest atmosphere in which to live as a disciple of Jesus since Pentecost and the early church.
If it’s true as it says in 1 Peter that Christ is the chosen and precious cornerstone then the life of the Christian should be adversely impacted by its removal, rather than remain unchanging. In fact it should literally come away at the seams and fall apart.
Yet this for the most of us is probably not true. Most of us have a job or help from the government that provides us money to buy goods to sustain us. Those goods efficiently produced on mass by technological and scientific innovations that are always relentlessly looking to create them better, quicker, more efficient. Our health is sustained by modern medicine where every health problem has a solution, where academic research is looking to halt ageing, conquering death itself. Even the Christian’s view of relationships can remove God from the equation, indoctrinated by Hollywood’s romance stories that delude people to look for ‘the one’ who will lift them out of their current situation, bringing them infinite happiness. Incidentally, that ‘one’ person is said not to be a messiah named Jesus of Nazareth.
Contemporary approaches to extend the truth of the gospel, and remediate this culture of self-reliance often fall ill to the disease it tries to cure. The objective of evangelism can often be completely undermined by the medium it takes to achieve it. In the desire to bring God back to a godless, self-sufficient, modern world, programmes of techniques and methods are often employed to win as many people for Christ as possible. The neat package of evangelistic tools, often dressed up with advertising, all coming together to fuel the culture of autonomous individuality.
The means by which the end is achieved have become methods and structure rather than God. Church ministries to serve the homeless, crisis pregnancies, debt, and prayer groups for healing often have the organisational machinery in place to keep the motor running even if God withdrew. These structures and programmes might even be said to be anti-God by the way they compete with God, and in most cases uproot God as sustainer.
Today the world, and the churches within that world are reliant on a cornerstone of social order dictated by gods of economics, politics and technology. In a hyper-individualistic world perhaps now community is more important than ever, an intentional community that leans on a divine cornerstone who is vital to its very existence. Community that is founded on divine government, where a withdrawal of that cornerstone results in the collapse of the community and the individual believer. This type community presents a blunt challenge to self-reliance, having a people gathered around God who bring about change not church programmes, strategies and organisation. Christian communities need to demonstrate the gospel in the public sphere rather than just talk about it in private.
We need to build lives and our communities that will fall apart if God withdrew, keeping them as close to falling apart as they can be. No back up plan, no alternative route, and no disaster management plans. We need Jesus Christ and nothing else, and we need to demonstrate that it works.
Tags: Community
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Comments
Very good article Josh. Brilliant.
By Tim. Posted on Tuesday 14th Dec 2010 at 19:21
Fabulous article.
By Kevin. Posted on Wednesday 15th Dec 2010 at 08:22
great stuff mate ..... again.
By David Capener. Posted on Wednesday 15th Dec 2010 at 10:31
I once heard a very wise woman say that “what we do in his absence depends on what we have learned in his presence”. The Father has promised to never leave us or forsake us, and we should live our lives confident of that truth. But there are times when God will withdraw from us, perhaps to teach us, allow us to step out in faith - though he is never far away. If we have learned appropriately from him in the times when he is near, then we will be able to stand firm when he steps back. You referred to church ministries with structures in place that could continue if God withdrew - perhaps that is not always a negative thing, and could be because they have learned what it is to live out the Father’s heart, even when they are not conscious of his presence and his nearness.
By Anonymous. Posted on Wednesday 15th Dec 2010 at 22:07
Hey comment above,
The scenario was more of a hypothetical one, and more about myself than wider applications.
However I do agree with you that we can quench the Spirit or even sleepwalk away from having God central to our lives. What I was trying to get at was the starting point of our reliance. For example do I face situations with assurance that Christ has done everything for me, knowing that his grace is more than sufficient? Or do I try and attempt to go through difficulties with my own methods of coping whilst thinking that God’s grace is just a nice idea and not a reality?
For myself, it can be easy just to think nothing of it, and kid myself that God is the cornerstone to my being because I confess with my mouth that God is my everything, but my doing shows otherwise when I engineer situations and don’t ask God for help or peace.
With ministries I am not saying that there shouldn’t be any structure! Otherwise it would be chaos. I mean situations like “we need donations to get this going” but instead of praying to God for finance and then asking your church community for support, a situation can often arise where ‘fund-raising campaigns’ are created without even asking or considering the one who really sustains us.
By Joshua Thompson. Posted on Saturday 18th Dec 2010 at 16:27
Joshua! this is so great!
i don’t think many people would own up to the fact that we could get on with life if we take God out of it.
i know i used to live like that, it was a sad existence mind you, but recently God’s been showing me how much i cannot live without Him.
i can’t work. i have rent and bills and need to feed myself, but i have no steady income. everytime i get low on cash, and don’t know how i’m ever going to make life work God gives me money. somehow - and it’s awesome.
it’s been kind of exciting to live within God’s financial mercy. He always takes care! i couldn’t live here if He didn’t provide for me.
i want this to spread to the rest of my life. in love and in friendship, and in the everyday i want to live like it would all fall apart if God wasn’t in it. if i’m not glorifying God in the everyday then what am i here for.
my other thought is in regards to structure and organized things/ministries i think there needs to be method to the madness or we’d never get anything done, or we wouldn’t be able to serve properly. it’s when the focus is lost that they become self-run Godless programs. if you can’t see straight away that God is the focus, then stop doing them, cos there’s no point in doing them.
well done sir.
By Leah Gallant. Posted on Saturday 18th Dec 2010 at 23:52
Another great article Josh! I can relate to this one alot - theres been so many occasions when I’ve had some really well laid plans, pragmatic and sensible choices made and yet im still filled with a feeling of panic.
Why do these plans still feel shakey even though I could live this way no problem? Where is God?!
OF COURSE, he hasnt gone anywhere - but I have. I’m the one who has made plans without living everything out of him, without allowing myself to be led by the Spirit.
Asking your hypothetical question is great - by postulating that we examine our hearts position and our willingness to step out in faith and be reliant on Him.
Every time I make the choice to do that the panic disappears - God’s been there all along, always so lovingly waiting for me to come spend time with Him and and get in line with HIS plan.
By Hannah Wilson. Posted on Monday 20th Dec 2010 at 12:34
I think you need to re-read everything you just wrote, and then say the words “it is finished” and understand the true value of the unconditional love that God in his grace pours onto the world.
...And yeah…
My life completely falls apart when Jesus isn’t a part of it. I cry out of my need for a relationship with him. Then he reminds me that he is in others, he is in all of us.
By Ex-Air Raid Shelter Member. Posted on Tuesday 14th Dec 2010 at 17:25