"The writing of many books is endless, and much study wearies the body." Ecclesiastes 12:12.
I haven’t written a blog in quite a while, so I’m using an out of context proof-text to defend my lazy actions.
So, what follows is my ‘starter for three’ (ready, set, go!), three musings that probably need further expansion, yet for the sake of an online blog, I’ll keep it to the headlines – or at least try. [spoiler alert, I fail miserably, and pretty much only do two of my three thoughts.]
Within my personal devotions, I read, I pray, I wait, I mediate, I reflect; and from within the relative quiet, three phrases kept coming to mind. Are they Prophetic? You decide. Biblical? I do hope so, I really do.
1. Language shapes culture
The development and use of language is a massive subject. Words change meanings, or just gain alternative definitions. I love it when identical words have opposing meanings. To cleave, to split or divide, though also, to adhere closely together. To dust, in the context of cleaning to remove. But when decorating a cake with sprinkles, to add.
I once foolishly said in a small midweek church group meeting, I can detect a person’s theology by hearing them pray. I love it when people pray out loud in small gatherings. But my ill-thought through comment made people very hesitant to open their mouths! Oops.
I arrived in the city of York (UK) in 2009. I attended a gathering of city ministers and other Christians, who would meet every week to pray for the city. On my second visit, I prayed out loud. At the end of the meeting a man approached me and invited me out for a coffee – right there and then. I accepted and over our beverages he explained, that when he heard me pray, he knew I was a kindred-spirit and wanted to get to know me more. My prayer language gave away my theology. Or more simply, my words had revealed my spiritual passions and perspectives.
The evangelist and Bible teacher, Ed Silvoso, once said, “If you want to see God do something you’ve never seen Him do before, then pray in a way you’ve never prayed before.”
Do you have a vision? A desire for your local church and its developing ministries? If you’re a church leader – I hope you do! So, is that vision and your spiritual expectations present in your public language Sunday by Sunday? Language shapes culture. If you’re not talking about it, or praying into it, or prioritizing it amid so much other routine stuff – it ain’t going to happen! Effective discipleship is more caught than taught. Your language and actions will steer the agenda and re-order your priorities.
I love Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 3:18,
And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
It’s been said, we become like the thing we worship. I can still remember back in 1980, when so many young women wanted a Lady Diana hairdo. In my teens, Rockers wore leather jackets and rode motorbikes, Mods wore long flowing parka coats and rode scooters. Humans seem to have a genetic disposition to be tribal; just look at all the painted faces at an international football match.
Jesus talked of little else than the Kingdom of God – read the Gospels. I’ve been blessed, in both my theological training and ministerial work, I’ve been in Kingdom-focussed environments. Often, when taking up a new pastoral position, congregants would remark upon my choice of words. I use the word prophetic a lot! Spiritual gifts are listed four times in the New Testament, once in Romans 12, twice in 1 Corinthians 12 and once in Ephesians 4. Only prophecy appears in all four lists, and it’s the singular stand out gift underlined by Paul in 1 Corinthians 14:1.
Follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy.
So, without apology, I talk a lot about the prophetic. Go deeper with the School of Prophecy.
Other deliberate words in my vocabulary. I generally change leader for facilitator. I think it carries a greater sense of inclusion and investing in others, than simply being in charge. Sadly, some people are happier to lead a group, than to attempt facilitating the gifts and abilities of others present. In regard to church leadership, I emphasize responsibility over authority. The church has often been guilty of controlling behaviour, emotional abuse and manipulation. Leadership is not primarily about exercising authority over others, it is primarily about taking responsibility for the whole. It’s about being in a position to serve and not to be served.
If you’re in a church that would love to see growth, new converts and lives miraculously transformed by God’s power, grace and love - then, are these the things being talked about, taught about, prayed about, and sung about?
Oh drat! I feel a massive tangent coming on. I said in the last sentence ‘sung about’, because this is an ongoing campaign of mine to transition corporate worship, and in particular corporate praise, into something that more closely models biblical expressions praise. For example, if a plumber came to your house to fix a problem, you would expect them to have the relevant tools for the job. Yes? Of course. But having those tools alone, does not make them a plumber or an effective plumber. They need to diagnose the issue and resolve the problem. In the process they’ll probably use two or three tools from their extensive toolbox. Can you see the metaphorical parallels? Most musicians on a Sunday morning have plenty of songs. Too many!! But are they trained and gifted in their task? Do they know why we sing songs? Why we repeat simple songs? (and obviously, the congregation needs to know these things too. A hymn-prayer sandwich is no longer a satisfying diet.) Read my previous blogs, especially those relating to Led Zeppelin, I’m hoping that in using their name in the context of worship leading will make you curious – very curious. In my example, our songs are like the plumber’s tools. Can you join the dots? We don’t need to use ALL the tools, but we do need to know why and how to use the right tools. Certain songs lend themselves to transforming ministry. The words of our songs, and more importantly, the way we choose to use them, can also be language that shapes our church culture.
Language shapes culture. Your church will already have a culture. It will have a list of unwritten rules and behavioural expectations. Perhaps you need to sit down and air these perceived regulations, along with sharing your hearts for mission and spiritual transformation.
Change the language.
Change the focus.
Change the culture.
When the returning exiles started to rebuild their lives (the account is in the Book of Haggai), their dreams came to nothing. They invested much with little return. It was as if their pockets had holes in them, and all they thought they were gaining just fell away. The prophet, the governor and the chief priest called the people to rebuild God’s ruined temple. Though this was in part a physical exercise in bricks and mortar, it represents to us (living temples of God’s Spirit, 1 Corinthians 6:19) the need to order our tasks correctly, to give priority to the worship of God. Seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness and all these other things will follow (Matthew 6:33 paraphrased).
Language shapes culture. A Kingdom-focussed, Jesus-centred, Spirit-led church needs the appropriate language, otherwise no one will realise your goals or values, and it will be religious business as usual.
2. Don’t let the enemy set the agenda
We live in an increasingly pagan environment. But don’t think that post-Christian paganism is the same as pre-Christian paganism. True, the demons behind the new idols and ideologies are the same, but 2000 years of Christendom (in the West at least) has left its mark. We live in a far more ethically minded world. Though those ethics are clearly cherry-picked from God’s original plans. We seem to have a bias to the poor, or at least a hatred of anyone rich, and we are increasingly concerned about the state of the planet.
Across medieval Europe, the growth of schools and hospitals was almost exclusively the work of Christians through the various monastic movements. Access to free public schools for all didn’t come into being until 1757, through the pioneering work of Christian philanthropist, Robert Raikes; who is often seen as the founder of Sunday Schools, i.e. a school that working children could attend in the afternoon of their only day off! Most of our civil law, employment guidelines and general sense of charity is rooted in our Christian heritage and in particular the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7).
However, in this post-Christian pagan environment, it is as if we have the Kingdom without the King. We moralise on the excesses of capitalism, we desire equality and tolerance for all. Admirable, but only to a point, and amidst this modern socially connected world, the whole realm of sexual morality is ignored in pursuit of our insatiable appetite for individualism, and a misplaced understanding of freedom.
Historical sociology suggests that totalitarian states develop subtly through the change of language (I told you language shapes culture!), in such cases, some definitions become the opposite of their original meaning. An emphasis on tolerance, unavoidably gives way to intolerance from the very same revolutionaries. Acceptance and inclusion, leads the same baying crowd to cancel and demonise those who fall short of the mark. Ironically, the archaic and uncomfortable word sin means, to fall short. Yet the true King of God’s Kingdom brought a solution to such short fallings, in the horrific shape of personal and costly sacrifice. The King talked of love, yet also change – tolerance is not a fruit of the Spirit. The King talked of rejecting harmful behaviour, but in the context of forgiveness, healing, and restoration. And all this whilst discerning and expelling the work of the true enemy, who had successfully held captive (physically, emotionally and spiritually) lives plagued with dissatisfaction, anger, weariness, unforgiveness, moral ambiguity, and unfulfilled expectations. There are examples of all these people in the Gospel accounts, and they still exist today. Perhaps we are living with slightly different ideology, but the same, eventual, idolatry.
Don’t let the tail wag the dog. Don’t let the enemy’s tactics set the agenda. Our calling is clear, and unchanged, we are to honour the holy name of our Father in Heaven, and from that position of worship and submission, to cry out for His Kingdom and His will to be done here on Earth. It's called the Lord's Prayer.
We are not to be ignorant of the schemes of satan – deliberate use of small-case letter, for it’s not his name, it’s a biblical description of his tactics, to accuse, to obstruct, to oppose. But the full context of this phrase is about forgiveness.
Anyone you forgive, I also forgive. And what I have forgiven – if there was anything to forgive – I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake, 11 in order that satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes. 2 Corinthians 2:10-11.
Take note, there is little evidence of forgiveness in this new ‘kingdom without a king’. Yet, at the heart of Christ’s Kingdom there is forgiveness, costly forgiveness and powerful healings and restorations. Therefore, don’t be unequally yoked to incompatible values, but rather, in your righteous struggle, yoke to Jesus, ‘for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.’ Matthew 11:29-30.
I’m mixing up two concepts here. I apologise. And I’m also using a lot of words to do so. So much for a brief overdue blog to ease my conscience. Oops, overshare.
Don’t let the enemy set the agenda. Keep looking unto Jesus the author and perfector of your lives. True revelation and its accompanying relevant strategy come out of praise and intercession. Good ideas are no longer valid currency in the Kingdom of God! We’re called to be a kingdom of priests (Revelation 1:6, 5:10, and with alternative language in, 1 Peter 2:9 & 2 Corinthians 5:20). Our ministry is to make a Kingdom difference, but through the priority of our priestly role before God. Just as Haggai (long ago) encouraged the disobedient and dissatisfied returning exiles. And just as those early monastic movements sought to do – radical social change, with a personal and corporate priority on prayer and worship.
When we're lost in wonder, love and praise, it becomes far harder for the devil to set the agenda. So, please my friends, as 'Genesis-1-Image-Carriers' of the Triune God, may we become proactive for His glory, rather than reactive to the enemy's misshaped caricatures, counterfeit spiritualities and harmful deceptions.
When was the last time you genuinely and earnestly and relevantly prayed the Lord’s Prayer? If it wasn’t today, or yesterday or the day before… that’s way too long! Jesus gave it to us for a reason. To keep us focussed on His Father's vision, will and purpose.
Oh well, times gone. I’ve worded myself out of this blog.
3. Compassion attracts the anointing
The third point was going to be the importance of compassion for all Christian ministry. It’s a word we find in the Gospel narratives, often liked to Christ’s miracles and healings. I believe it's present in Christ's baptism narrative. Why was Jesus baptised? When we understand the answer to that question, unpacking the phrase, ‘to fulfil all righteousness’, we’ll see why both the Spirit anointed, and the Father affirmed Jesus. The Father used language that communicated His love and how pleased He was with Jesus.
Hang on! The Father was pleased with Him? With what? His ministry hadn’t even begun. He’d only got baptised.
Aha!! Now you're seeing it.
And in a nice round fashion, like a circular blog, the Father’s affirming words may help us to remember, language shapes culture.
And as a sort of postscript, interestingly, if we continue to read the Jesus narrative, the Temptations come next, where we would clearly see that Jesus refused to let the enemy set the agenda!
Nice. I didn't even see that myself when I started this blog-ramble. Anyway, all's well that ends well, something Jesus never said, but perhaps could have, in certain specific and limited contexts. Discuss.
Want to know more about biblical praise? Read the Led Zeppelin blogs for some autobiographical insights, or better still read the un-'Leded' version - School of Praise.
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