Whole bible christianity (Part 1)

Jul 27, 2009


Creation, Redemption, Mission and Consummation form a beautiful set of “chapters”, reflecting Genesis to Revelation, and ultimately, reflecting the fullness of God.
The beauty of it is how easy it becomes to see which facets of God we’re neglecting. Some love God Creator, others love the Lord of salvation, yet others see the thrills of God’s mission on every page of the bible or the urgency of the coming end of all things. All of these are good and none needs to be neglected. However, we seem to have a natural “bent” to one or two of these, which limits our representation of God’s fullness. What we see of God, we celebrate and become. What we neglect in seeing God, we live in the lack of.

Churches that get chapter one, love the fact that God is the great Artist and Creator. They know how to make sense of the physical world, because they see how all of creation was God’s idea and handiwork. They dream and innovate, create and initiate, because they behold God in this way. Artistry, romantic living, spontaneity, beginnings and dreaming is important here.
Churches that get chapter two, love the gospel. They preach it. They live at peace with God. They know what God is like, what man is like and marvel at God’s grace. This chapter is the literal crux of what makes us Christian. Gospel, preaching, doctrine and believing right is important here.
Churches that get chapter three, join God in His mission. They take the gospel beyond their own sphere. They love church planting and raising up leaders. They embrace strategy and live for a great inheritance by laying their lives down, so others can be reached. Masculinity, adventure, action and outreach is important here.
Churches that get chapter four, love urgency. They dream of weighted prophetic living and getting the bride ready for her Groom. Holiness, prophecy, urgency and intimacy are important here.

So, churches that neglect chapter one, often lack creativity, entrepreneurial thinking, the celebration of innovation, which usually reflects itself in a critical nature about others’ models/methods of ministry. This is because they don’t value failure as part of innovation, but only value “doing things right”, or according to patterns that has proven themselves. They usually borrow the best ideas from credible ministries.
Churches that neglect chapter two, quite frankly, are maybe not even really churches. If we lack or assume the gospel, what is the reason for hope? Without the gospel or true doctrine, we become vulnerable to the forces of our time, whether that be self-preservation, individualism, therapy, ecumenicalism or any idols of our time and location.
Churches that neglect chapter three, often try to shrink themselves to greatness. They have lost the incarnational impulse to penetrate their world with the gospel, and often withdraws into pastoral havens, finding ways to fill up time with sympathy and problems.
Churches that neglect chapter four, often lack wild-eyed prophets that burst into the lounge like Seinfeld’s friend Kramer, directly from God’s presence. These churches either redefined their eschatology to a non-event or they simply ignore it, but the result is a very casual approach to ministry. Everyone acts as if time will never run out and urgency becomes an embarrassing trait of the unintellectual “brothers”.

Oh, how the God of Creation AND Redemption AND Mission AND Consummation can be known, seen, celebrated and reflected by us! May it be Lord.