God calls us back not to limit us but to free us
Sometimes, the most radical thing the Church can do is not run ahead but kneel.
A few weeks ago I wrote about The church never standing still, and how God's people have always been in motion, I’ve reflected upon this and there is a gentle challenge, a holy balance, to all of this.
Matt
If we look to disrupt church or change too much of what makes us church we may risk not being in synergy with God.
Methodism has its Way of Life, a simple but powerful framework: prayer, worship, notice, care, learn, open, share, live, tell, challenge, flourish,serve. Other traditions have their own guides: The Church of England speak of the Rule of Life, Catholics of the Catechism, the Reformed tradition of the Confessions of Faith. Different shapes, different words, but all of them saying the same thing:
Don’t get lost. Keep coming back to God.
Why? Because if we forget to return, if we forget to be obedient to God’s word, we risk becoming 'shoppers of faith.': Picking and choosing the bits we like, leaving the rest on the shelf and in that subtle temptation, we begin, without even noticing, to make God in our image, instead of letting Him make us in His.
Now, obedience is not a fashionable word. It sounds heavy. It sounds like rules and control but John Wesley had a way of turning words like that upside down. Just as he said repentance is the doorway to freedom, Christian joy is joy in obedience.
Obedience, in the biblical sense, is not about coercion. It is about listening, really listening, to the word of God. Hearing it. Responding to it. Trusting that the One who calls us back does so in love.
This is where my dog, Riley comes in...
When we take her out for a walk, she’s perfect, until she isn’t...
