Incarnation is better than intervention

Posted by: Len
Church: Metro Community Kelowna, BC
Date: March 12th, 2012

IN the first Reformation, the split between clergy and laity remained nearly intact. The functions of priesthood were still restricted to a special class of people.

But as Anabaptists, we stand in a different tradition. We recognize only one Priest – Jesus the Christ. We are all brothers, and all priests. We are all filled with the Spirit: men, women, and even children – manservants and maidservants (Acts 2), and can all stand in God’s Presence with NO OTHER MEDIATOR.

Paul Maconochie writes,

“Incarnation is better than intervention.

Intervention says “I really want God to touch my life and make it better. But God is a little scary; I think I need a Pastor to stand between him and me.” Of course we never actually come out and say this; we just act as if it is true. Instead of going to Jesus directly we expect our Pastor to go to Him, praying, fasting and reading the Bible and then to instruct us in what he has learned at the worship service. In return, we pay out tithes and turn up on a Sunday morning before going back to our lives, and to be honest, not changing too terribly much.

Intervention also operates the same way with other people. We want to help others who are poor or struggling or who do not know Jesus, but we want to do it from a distance. So we give money to overseas missionaries (not a bad thing in itself!) and maybe occasionally even take blankets or soup to folks living on the streets before going back to our nice warm comfortable homes.

These things are all good and I am sure that God likes it when we intervene to help people, but I believe that God actually has a preference for incarnation. He does not want to help us from a distance, through our Pastor. He wants to be in every part of our lives. I love Eugene Peterson’s translation of John 1:14; he writes:

The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighbourhood.

God wants us to access His presence and His Word for ourselves. He wants to deal with us directly, and He wants us to do the same with the Last, the Least and the Lost.”

the spiritual poverty of the Anabaptist vision

Posted by: Len
Church: Metro Community Kelowna, BC
Date: February 13th, 2012

“Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit,” says the Lord. Zech. 4:6b

In January in Chicago I taught a group of students in a five day modular class. They were a great bunch: men and women engaged in ministry, mostly pastors, ranging in age from 31 years to 58 years.

In our interaction, about half shared the experience of a supernatural call. These ones had a different expectation and level of faith in their walk with God. Their lives were characterized by divine guidance and divine interruptions. They listened for God, and expected God to surprise them. They consciously surrendered their plans to the Lord day by day and week by week. They had a more vital relationship to the chief Shepherd, and in general a richer understanding of grace as offered to them daily – a river that flowed in and through their lives.

Why does this kind of experience appear so limited among Mennonite believers? Why have so few experienced healing from the wounds they carry? And why does prayer seem so absent among us? My experience among the EMMC is that prayer is a last resort, and too often only a token characteristic of our meetings. Our level of faith in general is low, and our tendency to rely on our own gifts and abilities is high.

In 1 Corinthians 1-4 Paul describes two kinds of wisdom: human and divine. He contrasts human ability in general with the power that comes from God. He mentions church growth, the ministry of preaching and the ministry of teaching. All these things can be pursued in human strength and wisdom, or in the power of the Spirit. That power was clearly displayed at the Cross, where God raised up Jesus from the grave, defeating even death itself.

In these chapters, Paul makes some striking statements of contrast. The first occurs in chapter 2:4.

My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words,
but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power,
so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom,
but on God’s power.

If this became the standard for testing the teaching and preaching ministry in our churches, how many would pass? In how many churches do we see a demonstration of the power of the Spirit? Wesley Duewel writes, “If you rely on training, you accomplish what training can do. If you rely on skills and hard work, you obtain the results that skills and hard, faithful work can do. When you rely on committees, you get what committees can do. But when you rely on God, you get what God can do.”

In how many of our churches do we see any kind of result that MUST be attributed to God’s power, and not to human wisdom or ability? The greatest measure of the work of Christ is a transformed life, but in the New Testament we see the operation of many spiritual gifts, with miraculous results. In fact, the two are related. Transformed lives, and the power of the Spirit, seen in gifts of prophesy, healing, knowledge and more, are closely related. Where the Spirit is at work, people grow to maturity (Ephesians 4:11-16, notice that ALL FIVE equipping gifts are required, and not only pastor-teachers).

But before it seems that I am writing this to criticize our churches and their leaders, I want to take one step back. The problem is much larger than our leadership, and it is not only a current issue.

In an article written in the MB Herald in 1993, Stephen Dintaman wrote an article titled “The Spiritual Poverty of the Anabaptist Vision.” His intention is not to criticize the vision or practice of 16th century Anabaptists, but the way that vision had been taught and practiced more recently. He referenced the work of Harold Bender, who in 1942 stated that the essence of Anabaptism is summarized in three points: 1) the Christian life as discipleship; 2) the church as community; and 3) the practice of non-resistant love. Dintaman notes that for Bender himself, there was much more to the vision. He shared his vision of Anabaptism against a horizon of beliefs that were not explicitly stated.

Dintaman notes two particular assumptions behind Bender’s work. 1) He held firmly to basic evangelical doctrines about the being and work of God in Christ; and 2) he believed and taught that the living out of the vision was only possible through the indwelling presence of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit.

Dintaman writes that the next generation of “Anabaptist vision” theologians after Bender “taught passionately about Christian behaviour and deepened the concept of discipleship. But they gave only passing attention to the work of Christ and the work of the Spirit in the inner transformation of the person.”

This approach to the Anabaptist vision resulted in generations of Mennonites learning obedience to Christ, without learning equally that discipleship is only possible because Christ empowers us to follow Him, and without always personally experiencing the reality of the Spirit in their lives.

Furthermore, each of us needs to understand and know ourselves as beloved. Dintaman points out that we are Jesus friends, and not only his servants. “Until we get as passionate about praise and prayer as we do about social-political analysis, we will remain spiritually impoverished.”

This is a significant analysis for a number of reasons, but two are critical issues as we think about our impact in our communities TODAY. We want to reach our neighbours – un-churched Mennonites as well as our neighbours who may have never been exposed to the Gospel. Dintaman raises a number of issues, but in light of our practice of discipleship, these two are critical for us.

1. There is no point in sending people out on mission who have not personally experienced both the forgiveness of Christ, and the inner work of the Spirit. These ones may attempt to follow Christ on mission, but they will do it with heavy hearts and not joy, because they have not personally experienced the inner healing that an encounter with Christ should bring.

2. People who have learned self-reliance often have shallow prayer lives. They do not experience the leading of the Spirit and do not exercise His gifts. They are handicapped as Christian workers, and even more handicapped as missionaries.

As Dintaman puts it, Anabaptist churches often fail to grow not because we don’t have good plans or because we fail to make efforts at outreach, but because self-reliant people have little patience with human weakness (including our own). Moreover, we don’t know how to rely on the Spirit, who is the one Paul notes in 1 Corinthians 3, who “gives the growth.”

In short, a strong theology of discipleship without a strong theology of the Spirit creates burdened people who carry too much baggage to be effective in helping others find God. We first need our own people both saved and set free — knowing more than a form of godliness, but also its power. Then we have a chance to establish a dynamic local mission movement.

Find Dintaman’s short article HERE.

pilgrim in process

Posted by: Len
Church: Metro Community Kelowna, BC
Date: February 9th, 2012

Walter Unger writes at the MB Herald,

“How long does it take to “get saved” (1 Corinthians 1:18)? Many years ago at a revival meeting, I went to the altar, said a prayer, and went home rejoicing. The work is done, I thought. I’m saved.

“To top it off, my father gave me a verse from Philippians 1:6, which said I could be confident that the one who began the good work of salvation within me would carry it on to completion “until the day of Christ Jesus.”

“Great, I thought. I’m all set….”
More…