A great and encouraging read

I read a great, great article by Wayne Jacobson this morning. I don’t know anything about him but I liked what he had to say in his article The Church Jesus is Building. He hits a lot of topics but this was a great encouragement for those who have abandoned the religious institutions and are accused of being “churchless” and forsaking the assembling of the saints.

If your connection to Jesus is growing, you are not scattered at all. You are simply finding that the voices of religious performance no longer hold the same weight and you are no longer getting the same validation you became accustomed to. Your passion to live inside his affection is drawing you to a greater gathering of believers tha you cannot yet see. Don't be afraid. You are not alone. Jesus is building a people in the earth who can live as his body in these days. You won't miss out. You are simply transitioning from religious obligation to a relational reality, and no one I've met on this journey has ever regretted the cost to do so.

I don’t think I have heard of a better way of describing it, transitioning from a religious obligation to a relational reality. Many people are finding religious validation in the traditional church and not in their walk with Christ and their relationship with other believers. Here is another thing I liked, a response to the common assetion that somehow being “anti-structure” equals “anti-church” (you can also insert hierarchy, authority, clergy, etc. in place of structure)

I am often accused of being anti-structure. I'm not. I'm against structure as a substitute for relationship. I'm all for structure that facilitates whatever God asks us to do together. There is a huge difference. Over the past few years I've been part of some international efforts that have had widespread impact just because some friends cooperated together and God has continued to open some amazing doors.

That really hits it on the head. Structure is not in and of itself evil. Where the problem comes from is when the structure substitutes for relationship. I have written about this before, the idea that we use “church” as a safe substitute for community, where we put on our Sunday best and our happy faces and sit in silence watching someone else before shaking hands and going home. We don’t let anyone in and because of that we never really live as the family of God. Standing in church and singing about being the family of God in a room full of people that are basically strangers is like having a family reunion made up of people you picked at random from a phone book. We must, as the church, be willing to examine all of our assumptions, compare them to Scripture and reject anything that impedes our disciple making, our community and our witness to the world.

What a great article! Again, I don’t know a thing about Wayne Jacobson other than this article so I am not endorsing him but I found that he really seems to “get it” from this essay. Give it a read, I found it both encouraging and convicting.