Yeshua Explored
20th June 2022
Ordinary Christians?
What is your true calling?
(This series of articles was written a year after the first lockdown in March/April 2021)
Previous articles are still available on the Premier Christian radio website – https://www.premierchristianradio.com/Blogs2/Yeshua-Explored – (until they finally pull the plug!)
Our current Church structure encourages us to follow others, either directly or indirectly. It’s the insidious germ of Platonism that has infected our Church for centuries, putting us under control or in thrall to those who claim to be the ‘spiritual ones’, self-proclaimed prophets, apostles, teachers, preachers, leaders and ministers. They are increasingly being exposed these days and, even when they show tongues of silver, many have been shown to have feet of clay. The biggest damage is from those who retain followings despite their failures and misdemeanours, as if God excuses ‘those He has anointed’. Please be wise. This passage has never been more charged with meaning than now:
But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. In their greed these teachers will exploit you with fabricated stories. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping. (2 Peter 2:1-3)
Flockdown could have exposed these things. Perhaps it still can. It has to start with us, you and I, the grass roots, the ‘army of the unwashed’, mistakenly termed ‘the laity’. Ordinary Christians, pew fillers, followers, angels … we have been described in many ways. The fact is that we have God’s ear on equal terms with those who preach at us from the professional pulpits, the ecclesiastical ivory towers, secure in their (usually honorary) ‘doctorates’ and ‘diplomas’ and smug in their ‘offices’ of ‘pastor’, ‘prophet’ or ‘apostle’. We are all priests, missionaries and saints and don’t need titles to broadcast our callings. We all need to be stripped clean of affectations and descend to our knees in true humility.
Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. (Philippians 2:1-4)
Flockdown could have been the great leveller. Perhaps it may have sown some seeds, it will take time for the structures to be disrupted. What a wonderful strategy it was to disrupt the chain of command and control, by physically distancing the ‘clergy’ from the ‘laity’. It could have led to a re-evaluation and a realisation and I believe it has to some of us. Many people I know will not be returning to their churches, now that their horizons have been broadened. Others have started questioning and are realising that, if answers are not forthcoming, then alternatives abound.
The fact is that we go where we are sent. It may be that many have forgotten or have never known this. They had been religiously attending their Sunday church for decades out of habit and familiarity and the fact that spiritual hungers have not been satiated has not before seemed to be an issue. Perhaps it is now? I think that there is a change in the landscape beckoning and the only people who can stop it or slow it down are those currently in power and control who don’t wish to let go, particularly those who have created structures based on secular models. If this is so I think we can safely assume that, in these situations, there will be a further shaking until everyone realises what’s at stake and Who is really in control.
Ekklesia, ‘the called out ones’ is you and I. It is certainly not a building but neither is it an organisation or denomination or any kind of religious corporation. We have been called according to His purpose in our lives.
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, whohave been called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28) This is an extract from the book, Flockdown Church: Back to the drawing board?, available for £5 at https://www.sppublishing.com/flockdown-church-278-p.asp
