Virtually Paul

Should Christians be looking for danger?

February 16, 2007 on 11:32 pm | In Friends, Theology |

Before that post title takes the discussion that I’m planning too far out of context, have a read at the first blog post attempt by Paul from my church. He’s a smart guy with a lot of good things to say, so keep your eye on him.

Here’s the paragraph I read over a couple of times:

God does not wish for us to take the easy way out or avoid tough issues and struggles. He wants us to tackle these challenges head on with unflinching loyalty and faith out of love for him. Not only does he want us to take on the challenges that present themselves to us he wants us to seek out the battlefield on which he needs us to fight. He will support us and give us the strength we need to succeed and achieve our life’s mission but this does not mean he will keep us safe.

What I took away from his post, was this question:

To what extent should Christians go looking for a battlefield?

You could play with those words in a number of different ways and end up with very different results, mostly based on how you defined “go looking” and how you defined “battlefield”. In weighing up the alternatives and extremes, I have the following observations to make:

1. It’s really important that we don’t make ourselves the hero.
It’s the same old story that’s been playing itself out in human history since Adam played at centre-half-forward for the Eden footy club - people trying to put themselves in God’s rightful role. If we go looking for the battlefield, we can’t let our own ego, or our own identity get caught up and defined by the task. I have seen this happen to people in ‘professional’ ministry and I’ve done it myself. If we’re on the battlefield, if we’re struggling, or if we’re serving, we have to keep the goal of making disciples in focus. It shouldn’t be about how nice a guy your church’s pastor is. It shouldn’t be about how phenomenal your youth music team can sound if they practise really hard. In Western-world suburban church life, it’s so easy for secular doctrines of excellence and performance to creep in. It’s far easier to make ourselves or our activities the champion in the battle. They’re not. If Jesus isn’t the hero, then whatever you’re doing has nothing to do with him.

2. It’s really important that we measure progress properly.
God wants us to live out our faith. In doing that, there are most definitely, obviously going to be sacrifices that have to be made. Sometimes we might need to do things that are uncomfortable or stretching. The unfortunate reality is that we still live in a world where some churches measure progress in terms of numerical growth. I struggle to define what progress for Christian mission and ministry really is? How can you determine what the measures should be when you don’t fully understand God’s plans? So, with that in mind, it has to come back to obedience. We need to know what God wants us to do. We need to seek Him to find out. And then we can give it a go. The second we start making up our own ideas of what it means to “risk enough”, we start to try to earn our worth. There is no point in trying to earn your way towards God. That’s just a guilt-ridden spiritual desert waiting to happen. In that sense, we don’t ‘make progress. We simply grow in a spirit-based knowledge. (Reminds me of the second half of 1 Cor 13.)

3. It’s important that we aren’t hyped up to the point of being unrealistic.
To see a sense of allegiance to something that’s so important and real to me, is something that I really love to see forming in others. So that’s great. But at the same time part of me feels a sense of loss, or grief, or something, when I see a bunch of people at a loud, concert-style event with a big band, responding to messages that encourage passionate expressions of promises that “I will live for the cause”. I’d like to be able to promise God something like that. Under my own steam though I’m never going to be able to make good on it. If we’re too easily swept up emotionally by the prospect of surrendering to something greater than ourselves, there are risks. We risk forgetting to think critically and logically about the things that we’re choosing to believe. We risk committing to something before we fully understand it. And, when the experience fades, when the great book about fighting battles is gathering dust, when the youth rally is over, when it’s time to come home from the campsite and go back to the daily grind… will the cracks start to appear, or will we stay 100% true to our word?

One day I hope I’ll find the balance, somewhere in the middle of all three.