Author: Wick

“What is perhaps the largest obstacle that keeps you from being a church that reflects the concepts in Deuteronomy 6 of the home being the primary vehicle for developing disciples?”

And so began many of the thoughts, discussions, and internal dialogues with previous mind/hearts as we were literally “being made New” in regard to foundations of our ministries.  I speak mainly for myself, but the D6 Conference (based on the concepts of Deuteronomy 6:4-9), even though it was not presenting something theologically radical, was definitely presenting an approach to discipleship that goes against the grain.

Several at our table summed up our “one main obstacle” in concepts like that of “Inertia”.  That even if we are a church that decides “wait a minute, let’s hold still a sec and figure out what is going on”, in order to begin moving in the other direction, we’ll have to take “baby steps” and overall focus on changing the climate rather than simply beginning/launching new programming.

I’ve been both in ministry, and a parent long enough to know – this is not something that comes naturally.  Whether on behalf of the church leadership, or as a parent, it is so much easier to go along with the flow of what we naturally do on a weekly basis.

As a church, it’s easier and back-pattingly worthwhile for us as a church to say, either verbally or in how our church is wired, “step back parent/family, and allow us to do it…after all, we want to show you our degree and years of training are worthwhile…ish.”

As parents, I’ve seen it over and over again that a parent is “at the end of their rope” in one way or another, and decides that being more faithful at dropping the kids off for a couple hours on Wednesday night will solve whatever has been ailing.  Or possibly even, gasp, becoming more regular attenders on Sunday mornings…as long as it meets certain “worth my time investment/effort” criteria…..it should fix the few blemishes on our homefront….right?

But all of the research and experience point to no.  No, an increased effort to ensure that our families participate in services on Sundays and Wednesdays does not automatically yield an overall improvement in our home reflecting God and bringing about His Kingdom.  What we truly seek for our homes, families, and ultimately for our churches, will come only from a deepening and purposeful rediscovery of what God desires/envisions.

And so…the next few posts will probably focus a bit on the specific words from those who have begun that journey already….we’ll see what God acccomplishes in and through us!

In Galatians chapter 5, we read a well-known passage.  It’s been memorized.  It’s been turned into more than one song for kids to remember it easily.  It’s a list many of us run through mentally to keep ourselves in check…

“By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  There is no law against such things.”

Often we are tempted casually to treat these things the same way we would the “gifts” of the Spirit found in 1 Corinthians 12:8-13.  That we may have especially gifted in one or two of these areas, and the others are meant to carry the load where we are weak.  I’m great at love and joy, so let someone else cover me in the area of generosity or gentleness.  That’s the balance of my fruit basket.

Until we look at the language used by Paul, and understand where he was coming from.  Paul says “the fruit of the Spirit is…”.  He does not say “the fruits of the Spirit are…”.  As in the Greek concept of the cardinal virtues that Paul was very familiar with, to have one – the others must be present.  Paul is saying here that a community that experiences the presence of the Spirit in their lives will have the complete “fruit” as listed.  I suppose that’s also worth noting, that Paul is speaking to a community.  This fruit of the Spirit is the gift of God’s grace, but also cultivated by an entire community, not an isolated individual.

It is also important to note the presence of “self-control” at the end.  I posted a few thoughts recently on self-control.  Often we can be lured into the false assumption that if I pray “Jesus come into my heart”, and His Spirit is presently working in our lives, this is the fruit that will naturally begin to be harvested.  If it was something that would come naturally, without effort on our part…then why add “self-control” to it all?

The truth is, much like tending an orchard, the fruit does begin to show up..often in supernatural ways.  Giving our lives to God, after all, is an infinitely compelling life change.  But it takes effort on our part as well.  Pruning away branches, cultivating the soil, keeping away birds and squirrels, etc.  Otherwise this would simply be another list talking about the “gifts” of the Spirit.

May we each seek to cultivate the Spirits’ “love-joy-peace-patience-kindness-generosity-faithfulness-gentleness-self-control” in our lives this week….