Lessons from a Church Gypsy

Read: 1 peter 2:1-10 and 1 Corinthians3

Our family is a band of church gypsies.  The theological education of our children, the spiritual development (so much as it can be up to any mortal) of our individual members, and the devotion to and worship of our Lord God is always first and foremost in our thoughts and deeds.[1]  However, we do not have decades-long ties to any particular church in our area.  We have been vagabonds, moving through and among congregations as deftly as, well…gypsies through the countryside. 

I share this with you today because what troubles me, greatly, are the lines of division that have been carved among believers; lines that are meant to separate ourselves from each other.  Particularly as we speed toward an election that has been extremely divisive for our nation, I am troubled at the “us versus them” mentality within the body of Christ.  Denomination against denomination.  Conservative against liberal.  Sister against brother.  We have allowed our ideologies to taint the gospel, to mar the message of one body in Christ, to defame the unity for which Jesus expected us to strive.  When we are a house divided, we are easy to dismiss.  To ignore.  To refute.  When we cannot treat one another charitably, how can we be expected to be light in an increasingly uncharitable world?

I know that there is no perfect church, for each community is comprised of imperfect sinners.  And we each are (hopefully) doing our best to live out the gospel.  Thus, if a community other than yours, or an individual believer, is acting within the bounds of scripture, yet doing something you wouldn’t do or in a way that you wouldn’t do it, might I suggest you look upon them with “Pollyanna” eyes?  Find the good they are striving toward, before lambasting them and tearing down what their character or denomination or expression of faith.  Remember that you and your church are just as imperfect and therefore in as much need of Christ’s grace as they.           

Our family has been a part of numerous communities of believers in our eight plus years in rural Colorado; each like a particular bloom in my heart, that when I look back upon them all I see a garden.  A tapestry from which we have learned and in which we have grown   There have been none we left on poor terms; and we pray that each continues their ministry and grows in vibrancy.  We have simply been called to move on at different times; some are obvious in hind-sight, others less so.  But our fluidity through these communities has left a beautiful mark in me, each one something I would regret deeply to have missed.        

I’ve loved the liturgy of the mainline churches we’ve attended; and yearn for it on the holy days when reverence is what the heart desires.  I’ve delighted in the dancing of non-denominational settings, where being yourself before the Lord is greatly expected; and where the community knows you and accepts you and you don’t have to rehash your journey every 2 months.  I’ve relished delving deep into the Word, going verse-by-verse in other non-denominational (-but-we’re-big-enough-that-we-really-are-our-own-denomination) congregations.  And I’ve cherished breaking bread weekly with another community who sought to truly live out missional lives.  I’ve learned from the vitality of a small group gathered primarily to make a difference in their community.  And oh how I miss that one group of lifers who just got each other, cared for and supported one another through whatever life slung at them. 

To have missed what each community taught me, what they drew out of me, would be a great tragedy to my spirit.  I love that as a member of the body of Christ, I can move within these people and glean from them the beauty therein.  Each place literally lightens my heart when I think of it, of the people who welcomed us and loved us and taught us and worshiped with us.  I can’t wait for the coming, epic reunion in Heaven when we’ll all be together as one family…worshiping our Lord together.  What a party that will be!  Laughter I can’t even imagine now and warmth and love I can’t fathom here.  The smile on my face at the very thought is so wide my cheeks are starting to hurt.  That is joy. 

Thus, I want to encourage you, visit some churches in your area.  Go outside of your brand of worship.  Recognize that just as you are individually created to enjoy a particular flavor of service, so are others; and that we have so much to gain when we respectfully share our way of drawing nearer to our Lord.  Stretch yourself and meet your extended family in Christ.  See how they worship, and do not judge, but enjoy their expression of love for our Heavenly Father.  Listen to their teachings, and so long as they keep with scripture, learn from them.  Shake their hands, let them welcome you, as family you may yet not know.  Return their smiles.  Open your heart.  Be blessed by them, and in turn bless them.  For one day, those of us who believe, will all be set at the King’s table for a feast in honor of His Son, celebrating His Love and Grace for each and every one of us.  Thus, if it is to be so in the age to come, should it not also be now? 

Lord, may Your kingdom come here on earth,

as it is and shall be in Heaven.

Amen.

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[1] On that note, we’re rolling out our family motto and life plan; which I’ll be outlining in the new year. 

Through a glass clearly

Declaration 7 [part II]:  The new creation that I am will inhabit her identity.  She will not long for the adventure or husks of others.  She will give others the freedom to do the same: to be whom they were created to be. 

For the Designer is the Greatest Poet, and we are His poetry.

Tuesday was fairly straightforward, and if you’ve read much of this blog, you’re aware that it’s a personal refrain of mine:

Be the you God created you to be. 

So why a part II for this declaration?  Because after years of toiling under the impression that I have to fit into a particular mold, acting in a certain way, in order to be a good Christian woman and now slowly learning that this is not, in fact, what scripture is teaching us, I have found that there is another perilous side to being who you are meant to be.  It is the dangerous place of striving to be who you’re told you’re going to be.  While we must not only beware of trying too hard to be like other people [or like a list of traits], we must also be wary of being who others want us to be.   

Mentors are wonderful gifts.  They can identify and call out in us traits of which we were unaware.  They can challenge us, encourage us, champion our growth, and even rebuke us when we’ve strayed too far from where we should be going.  They can help us find the path on which we will blossom and bring the greatest glory to the Lord.  And they can help us along this path, employing their wisdom and love to our greatest benefit. 

However, because all mentors, even the paper ones, are human, they are fallible.  Thus, sometimes they can be wrong; and they can lead us astray.  Not with malicious purpose, and not necessarily outside the bounds of God’s plan for us.  But blindly following their lead, believing solely what they’ve spoken into our lives, about who we are, can, in some instances, be detrimental to becoming and being the person who God designed us to be.  For as fallible humans, they can only see God's design through a glass darkly, and cannot fully know the plans of God.

   

Consider for a moment three men in Acts: Paul, Barnabas, and John Mark.  Barnabas was one of the first Christians in Jerusalem to accept Paul [the formerly murderous Saul], to care for him, to minister to him, to minister with him.  Barnabas and Paul were missionaries together, helming the inclusive movement to incorporate the Gentiles into the Way.[1]  What we find in the pages of Acts is a beautiful friendship and partnership.  These two men toiled long and mightily together, on behalf of the gospel and a people whom most Hebrews thought were never worthy of grace.  We can glean so much from their relationship, even 2,000 years later.  Yet there came a time when these two “had such a sharp disagreement that they parted ways” [Acts 15:39].  And this disagreement was over one man’s desertion of their work.  Eventually, Paul continued his ministry without Barnabas; and Barnabas took John Mark alongside him to do the same. 

Paul, author of almost half of the New Testament; Paul, to whom Christ appeared post-resurrection and to whom God gave an experiential vision of Heaven.  This very Paul found John Mark unfit for service; untrustworthy in matters of the gospel.  And he felt so strongly about John Mark, that he parted company with a man who had no doubt been a great comfort to him and a dear friend.  I won’t waste time projecting what each man might have felt; but I believe that it is likely in each of our lives we have experienced something similar.  Perhaps you were the one who was absolutely certain that a particular individual was utterly unfit for promoting the gospel, based on their past behavior.  Maybe you were Barnabas, the advocate on behalf of a sinner, who had to stand up against unyielding leadership and lost friends and co-laborers in the process.  Or maybe you were the John Mark, someone who made mistakes in your service or your past, that others felt disqualified you from preaching the gospel.  And despite your great desire [and dare I say calling] to do it again, those in positions of leadership told you: NO.

But what we find later in scripture is that Barnabas continued to preach the gospel and that Paul uses his service as an example to other believers [1Corinthians 9:6].  John Mark worked alongside Barnabas and eventually became associated with Peter [1 Peter 5:13].  He was included in Paul’s first imprisonment and “by the end of Paul’s life, he came to admire [John] Mark so much that he requested him to come to be with him during his final days” [2 Timothy 4:11].[2]  Thus, we must conclude that all three men were destined to preach the gospel, to glorify the Lord, to be used by God for His holy and divine purpose. 

We cannot, nor should we, speculate about whether these three should have remained together; nor can we truly posit that it was more beneficial that they parted ways and thus reached more people separately than they might have together.  For who among us can claim to know the mind of God?  What we can say is that God is a God of relationship, not separation; and His purposes will be achieved regardless of human failings.        

Listen, dear one, to what the Holy Spirit is telling you about who you are and what you were made to do.  Yes, seek counsel about this.  Yes, test everything you hear against the scriptures.  Yes, search out a mentor who is willing and able to pour into you their experience and love and who will call out in you traits you didn’t know you possessed and who will encourage you to be exactly who you were made to be.  But don’t ever allow anyone’s opinions or judgments or declarations of “I heard from God” steal from you your purpose or your identity.  Neither should you permit anyone to tell you what you were meant to do, what ministry you are destined for, what call has been placed upon your life. 

Only God, and His Holy Spirit, has that authority.      

 

 

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[1] The partnership of Paul and Barnabas can be found in Acts 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, and 15.

 [2] Zondervan 1984 NIV Study Bible: notes on Acts 15:39