You See Bones, I See an Army (cont,)

These are my highlights from chapter 1, called, Holy Frustration, by Floyd McClung.

That he invites me to be a coworker in sharing his love with others never ceases to amaze me.


[re: the church in the book of Acts] They were a dynamic movement of small communities, spontaneously breaking out all over the city. They occasionally met together in big celebrations in Solomon's Porch at the Temple. They gathered in each other's homes, crowding into living rooms and gardens and workshops, wherever they could find space to gather and worship and pray for their friends and family. They were infiltrating every part of the city.

Think about the power of what was happening: they often spent times fasting and worshipping and speaking words of encouragement to one another. They preached boldly about Jesus. Common people were discovering unknown abilities to teach, pray for the sick, serve, and organize. Everyone was involved. The whole church was actively engaged, not just a few. [unlike many churches today where 20% of the people do 80% of the ministry]


Local churches can easily become a spiritual Harmony Bay, locking people up instead of setting them free, with church leaders who mean well but, if not led by the Spirit, turn the church into a world unto itself, cut off from reality.


The church that does not carry a passion to reach the world isolates people behind walls of cultural irrelevance. When that happens, pastors and leaders serve like guards on the prison walls instead of liberators sent to pull down the walls. They stand as caretakers of dry-bone cemeteries instead of speaking life to the dry bones.


The very word for church in the New Testament is about an empowered citizenry commissioned to lead, not control. Ecclesia, or church, did not convey a Sunday meeting to go to or a boring, building-oriented place where a few people did all the ministry and everyone else was a spectator.



It was an assembly where everyone had an equal right and equal duty to take part.



He [A Bible teacher friend of the author's] challenged us to gather them in small groups and, as we were able, in celebrations. He called this process "building" in contrast to "blessing." He told me that doing ministry without a clear aim to build a healthy community, an ecclesia, was irresponsible. He said God had something better in mind. He challenged me to build a discipling community that we would lead and care for and that would in turn become part of God's mission.



Two paradigms, the Building Paradigm, and the Blessing Paradigm


Building                                                        Blessing

Focused                                                   Following spiritual fads
Strategic                                                  Lost in church culture
Intentional                                               No clear outcome
Building a movement                              Living for the moment
Pioneering spirit                                     Pleasing others
Long-term thinking                                 Short-term mentality
Fruit that remains                                  Immediate results
Fathers and mothers                              Hirelings
Building spiritual foundations               Adding to what others do
Values oriented                                      Meeting oriented
Spiritual sons and daughters                 Crowds and meetings
Reproduction                                         Production


Every apostolic leader must face this challenge: will I build what God has called me to build, or will I extend what others are doing? You want to know why potential apostolic leaders don't make this transition successfully? Lack of courage. God lifts his grace off church leaders to get them frustrated enough with the old way of doing things so they seek a new way of doing church.

He [God] cares for the old ways but injects new life into his church through those people who are courageous enough to change.

One of the things I committed to was to do nothing that did not lead to new church communities being started. The results were amazing. God blessed our efforts.


When I told the pastors of the churches we had been attending that we wanted to start new churches, they reacted. In fact, I didn't meet one leader in the city who encouraged me as a young visionary to dream about starting new churches. They were concerned with losing church members. They felt the city didn't need more churches. Some of these leaders were inside the walls of "Harmony Bay" and were doing their best to guard the prison from attack. They were good men at heart, but they were locked into a way of thinking about church that was narrow and sometimes controlling. I decided I didn't want to be the kind of leader that reacted unfavorably to young visionaries.


I believe God wanted us to reach the outsiders, not coddle the insiders.


As I have traveled the world, I have found that the ministries which lack resources and credibility are often the very ones that have the most to offer in terms of creativity and inspiration. What they lack in money and status is made up for in courage and vision.



There is a great danger in defining church according to our past experience or dry theological explanations. Describing church is not the same as defining it. God has created the church to be a dynamic, growing, powerful movement, not a static doctrine. The Holy Spirit invites every generation and every race of people to create new expressions of church. Jesus called these new expressions "wineskins."

Don't try to fix the church. God is not calling us to fix what he has created. Don't focus on changing the people and the churches they are part of. It is time for a new wave of church leaders to be released who do church in brand new ways. As you read this book, I hope you hear the Spirit speaking to you. God may be calling you to believe him for your generation and your culture. Dare to believe him for a new way of thinking and a new way of acting, based on God's Word and infused by God's Spirit.

New Ways of doing church must be born on our knees, out of desperation for God.

Boy, that was a full chapter! Holy Frustration, or as Bill Hybels calls it, Holy Discontent, is something I never heard of before until I read Bill's book. That's when all the pieces of my head and heart starting coming together and making sense. That was right before God called us to pastor. It was God's way of laying a foundation for me that spring boarded what He was bringing next. It made it so much easier to accept His calling when I understood the big picture. If you're feeling frustrated or discontented with any aspect of church, seek God about it. Ask Him to reveal the purpose behind your frustration and reveal His plan for your life. Being stuck in frustration is a terrible place to be.



Blessings on this breezy, cold Wednesday.