In God In A Box (part 1), I stated that God has been requiring of me to release my desire to understand and explain who He is and why and what He does. I also focused in on two man-made religions, Mormon and Muslim, that are obvious in their heretical teachings of who Jesus is (at least to most Protestant Evangelical Christians who believe in the Bible). But I have also been observing, experiencing, reading, and listening about another man-made religion. It is similar to the Mormon and Muslim faith in that it teaches a different Jesus. However, in my opinion, there is one major difference that makes this third religion more dangerous than the two former. The danger is that those who teach about and follow the Jesus of this religion are unaware that they are NOT teaching and worshiping the Jesus of Nazareth. So what is this other religion?......Some call it Christianity. And the Jesus they teach? He appears to be the same Jesus, but if you look deeper, into scripture you start to see that he is a far cry from the Jesus of Nazareth. The Jesus of true Christianity.
It is interesting to listen to different church leaders describe their vision for ministry, programs, creativity, outreach, programs, growth plans, missions, processes, programs, etc. It is equally interesting to read their blogs, church websites, books, articles and listen to their sermons about their vision, programs, creativity, outreach, growth, processes, missions, etc. What is so interesting is that I am always wondering which Jesus do they follow? What Jesus are they promoting? While all of these "things" can lead to good if they are followed through, my guess is that they have very little to do with the mission of the the church. All of these things seem to be more focused on developing form in which to strain the process of spiritual formation through than actually life transformation through and personal encounter with the one true living God and his son the Lord Jesus Christ.
It's no wonder that I have an emptiness at the end of the day, when I have ran all the bases, taken all the classes, and have been strained through the process. My attendance record and tests would tell me that I am spiritually formed. However there seems to be an element that is missing in all of this busy work of the church. I'm not sure exactly what it is, but it seems to me that it is as simple as function. I can put all the form I want around spiritual formation and not guarantee any growth from anybody.
From my own experiences I have never grown in my Christian faith through Form, but I have always grown in by leaps and bounds in the Function of living my life (through the good and the bad). Some may argue that Function is a characteristic of the Form. And to that I would agree because Function usually does follow Form. But what if the Form isn't working? What if the Form was leading people to a false Function? What if the From was actually what was being worshiped? Could we conclude then, that if this Broken Form is producing a False Function in the church - that it would then lead us to a False Jesus?
Mike Erre, Teaching Pastor at Rock Harbor Church in Costa Mesa, CA describes this Broken Form and False Jesus in his book, The Jesus of Suburbia:
"The Suburban Jesus would never be so offensive as to demand that we do what he says: he is more interested in the security, comfort, and prosperity of his followers. In short, much of the message of American Christianity presents Jesus as the purveyor of the American Dream.
Such a counterfeit can never stand against the real thing. Perhaps the church has been lulled into complacency by years of the very things we point to as proofs of God's blessing upon America: religious freedom and material abundance."
So in other words, if we can create a Jesus that fits into our lifestyle, our mold, our schedule, our understanding then we have found a jesus that works for us. But is he really Jesus? And are we really living the lives that He called us to?
Now, I cannot speak to every Pastor's heart out there, nor do I want to, that is not what I am getting at here. I do trust that the majority of Pastors that are in ministry believe in the Jesus of Nazareth and are truly trying to figure out how to arrive at the correct Function of following Him. In fact if I am really honest about my belief in this False Jesus......I followed him, I taught about him, I prayed to him. While I was right in the middle of doing the very things to bring others close to him, I missed Him.
Why did I do this? Why do a lot of us do this? Because most of us try to live our lives Neat. Tidy. Organized. Predictable. Understandable. We don't like surprise. We work hard not to have them. We schedule the hell out of (or in to) our day. We try really, really hard to control every aspect of our lives.
As Christians, we have this fervent desire to understand God, so we remove all of the Paradox, Mystery and Tension of following Him. We cannot understand anything that is mysterious. So, we put God in this nice little box that we can take down off the shelf when ever we need him, we turn the handle while saying our prayers and wait for him to pop up as we predict. Then, we when we are finished we can put him back on the shelf for next time.
What we need in our churches is more mystery and reverence for God, not less. The problem beauty is, like those before us, we cannot fully understand Him. He is far to mysterious for us to fully comprehend. The Jesus of Nazareth is bigger than any program, or spiritual formation class, or outreach event that we may plan and then ask God to bless.
My opinion is that Function must come before Form. If we individually take responsibility and dare to follow the true Jesus of Nazareth. If we dare die to our self-centered nature. If we dare take up our cross and follow Him. If we dare to love others more than ourselves. If we dare to live a missional life within our communities. If we dare to love and not judge those outside the church. If we dare to worship through our actions and not through our words. If we DARE to allow our FUCNTION to dictate our FORM. Then we may dare to have a chance to see the real Jesus delighting in who we are and what we are doing.
I know for me, this is a sobering thought. The life of the false Jesus that I have followed for years is like having a tick that has clasped on and dug into my scalp. It is not easy to remove and it can be painful to do so. But if I don't, it will continue to suck the life out of me.
What about you? Do you need to get back to the Function of following Jesus instead of going through the Form? Which Jesus do you serve? And is he in a box or out of a box?
