Salt & Light

In the last chapter, we briefly left the sermon on the mount study we have been doing. We had reached the end of the beatitudes, and I felt the time was right to introduce the big picture. God's Kingdom is all we need to see of the big picture. It is a simple reality of having ourselves, and everything entrusted to us put under His Kingdom, and in so doing, we expand His Kingdom for Him. By our surrender, His Kingdom grows. This book though is about surrender, and that's why I find myself in the sermon on the mount. Originally when I set out to write this, I wasn't planning to study the sermon, but, it's such a beautiful sermon, and it gives so much opportunity to explore the ramifications of surrender in all facets of life that, I've decided to revisit it again now. 

So for this chapter, let's read Matthew 5:13-16: Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

Ok, so, salt and light. As Kingdom disciples, that's what we are. Remember, at the start, before preaching this message, Jesus left the multitude and deliberately made his audience smaller. He went up the mount, and then once the people who were his disciples also made it there, He began to teach. So, when He spoke these words, he was speaking to the disciples. So, what does it mean to be salt and light? Let's find out.

Salt: In his article about meat rubs here Meathead explains that he doesn't put salt in his rubs, why? Because salt is special. It enhances the flavor of the meat itself and actually penetrates the meat, it goes down below the surface a little bit if given enough time. The other spices such as pepper, paprika, garlic, etc tend to just flavor the surface and introduce a different flavor to the meat, they don't penetrate much. His contention is that salt is a stand-alone specialty that should be added to just about any meat to improve the meat quality, not so much a surface flavoring that adds a complementary flavor. So, do you want to be salt? Well, ok then, but you don't get to be paprika or garlic. It's no longer about you and what you bring. It's about infiltrating the world around you and improving the lives of those around you now. In other words, it's about surrendering and being a positive contributor, not the star of the show. 

Light: Whenever it enters a room it brings visibility, and clarity to those in the room. The default state of things is darkness. Darkness is the absence of visibility and clarity. In a room, people rarely look at the light, yet they benefit from the light by being able to clearly examine whatever thing they might be working on. As a spiritual light, you bring moral visibility and clarity to the world around you. Now, the world might never pay attention to you. Is that ok with you? If so, immerse yourself in Christ, in the words of God in scripture, and receive all of the Holy Spirit the Lord wills you to have. In so doing, your lenses are clean, pure, and clear. The world around you benefits even if they don't notice you. 

To fully function as salt and light, you must be surrendered into discipleship with Christ. If that's not ok with you, as salt you can blend into the world by just carving out your own space as a person given to their own kingdom and mission, and so you become part of the landscape, to be stepped on, or otherwise used by the world in the same way the world uses it's own, essentially you become just another spice on the world's shelf. As light, you can get cloudy, dim, and eventually go after some carnal pursuits that are removed from Christ so completely that you cover your light, and now, just like the world, you do stuff with the light shared with you. In this way, you become a taker of light and not a giver of light. It is up to you. Christ has a way of teaching us all truth and then leaving the ultimate choice of how much or how well we apply it up to us. 

This has been chapter 15 of Surrender!? To Who?

The Christian's Bermuda Triangle

So, the Bermuda triangle is said to be the triangular-shaped zone in the Atlantic where ships and such mysteriously get lost, or disappear or something. That is tragic, but, what if losing your faith was even more tragic? I think so. What if western Christians have a Bermuda triangle of their own to contend with? A place to ping pong about in and get disillusioned with God, Christianity, and who knows what else. So many Christian individuals, groups, churches, or otherwise seem bound and determined to lurch into a corner and just sit there or worse, violently ricochet around. How do I mean? Well, a triangle has 3 corners, here they are:

1. Patriotism. America is a Christian nation. We must defend it from the evil-doer, by whatever means necessary. (Insert random violent old testament story to justify this here.) Or, We must love our neighbor as ourselves, therefore let's become more socialist, and have better welfare, it's immoral to be rich. (insert random verse out of context about loving your neighbors here.) 

2. Legalism. So Jesus has rules? Our church has more! Not only do we believe in modesty, but we will also tell you exactly what to wear. Not only do we believe in 2 Kingdoms, but we will also spell out what you are not allowed to do so you don't have to think. Also, we will install closed borders at our church; you're not part of our church without going through a thorough vetting process. We also won't baptize you or partake in communion with you unless you're willing to be part of our church.

3. Libertinism. So, Jesus loves me? Yaay! Freeeeedddddddoooooommmmmmm! In our church, not only do you come as you are, you may stay as you are, wait, you mean the gospel of Matthew has 28 hard-hitting chapters?? Ahh, he's probably just talking to ye-old Jews or something, carry on, John 3:16 is really all you need. Anyway, don't you just love the freedom in Christ? Wait, you have a great depression in your pocketbook? There's a legalist telling you to get a budget and a job? A budget!? Personal responsibility, work?!! REEEEEE Naawwww God wants you to prosper, just have more faith and pray, and it'll be alright. 

I am not all that interested in getting you to leave your church even if it might have lurched into one of these corners. How about this, you opt out. Fortunately, if you really really want to get out, the walls of the triangle are really really low. All you have to do is read your New Testament, and apply it practically and literally to your life, principle by principle. 

Money and the Kingdom: To Spend as One Blessed by The Lord

Disclaimer: The financial teaching below is what I believe to be true and accurate, biblically speaking. It should not be read like a "how to be a millionaire". It's also not whatcha call prosperity gospel, that stuff isn't really gospel to my way of thinking. The real reason for this disclaimer is, as of 2022, 1. I am not a millionaire, and 2. I am not able to give as much to the Kingdom as I want to. So, what follows is not so much a way I am teaching you to live as it is a way that I intend to live. I will lay this out fairly methodically and thoughtfully for my benefit and will do so publicly for your benefit. (Hopefully! :D) Check back in 2042 and we shall see how this went. :)

With this thing I speak of, several positive things happen, here are a few of them: 

1. Your time is valued by people in your life. 

2. You contribute to your community in a positive manner.

3. You have a place, a sense of belonging. 

4. Your mind is occupied and not idle.

5. Your skills and abilities are continually honed, refined, and improved in other ways. 

6. All your needs and some of your wants are met. 

So, this thing I speak of is your money maker. Perhaps it's a current job or management position. Perhaps it's the result of a job, ie, a passive investment that pays you. Regardless, those things listed are benefits from the money maker. There are a lot of struggles around the idea of purpose, and fulfillment in the workplace, and that's what this whole series of Money and the Kingdom is all about. As a refresher, this series is for Kingdom disciples who are willing to wrap their arms and hearts around 2 fundamental realities. 1. Whatever you are doing for profit is ministry. 2. God is providing for your needs, NOT you.

Consider for a little bit, a healthy family, and the meal table. The father goes out and grabs provision. The mother takes some of that provision and converts it into a delicious meal. Then the younger children do their job. What's their job? To come to the table, to lift their spoon, and partake of the delicious meal, lovingly prepared by their parents. (This is not to say that  the husband can never prepare a meal, and the wife can never get provision, but in light of the current political climate about gender roles, I wrote that illustration very traditionally for a reason.) God, is your father, and He is also complete in His ability to parent you, after all, men and women are both made in the image of God. So it is that He takes the complete parental role in your life for you. He has prepared for you, the adult, a meal table for your life. He has equipped you with a unique gift that you can take to the marketplace and get paid for. He has provided you with a culture to use it in. On 1 side claim and truly believe that God actually is providing for you just like Jesus said He does. (Matthew 6:25-31) On the other side, go out and do stuff, working with your hands, feet, and brain in the ways God gifted you. When you have both fundamental realities coexisting at the core of your belief system, you are the child of God, who is willing to go to the table, and pick up his spoon and eat from God's abundant provision. 

Getting practical:

Ask God for your percentage, and use that, but what follows is an example of the practical application for this spending allocation, and I am going to use a number for the sake of convenience. Keep in mind, that 100% of funds need to be split in 3 directions. Giving, Spending, and Saving. I have it like this: Giving 20% Spending 40% Saving 40% However, for you, practically applied, it might work better to do like this: Giving 15% Spending 50% Saving 35% I hope it makes sense that this is about the principle of intentionally turning God's provision table for your life into a ministry by giving each dollar a place to go rather than wondering where it went, and not about hard fast numbers. 

In part 2 we allocated a 5th or 20% of this abundant provision from God's table for us and gave it to God for Him to use to supply the tables of other people with both their wants and needs. Now, we want to allocate 40% to spend on monthly expenses. The groceries, the utilities, the clothes, and the wants. Let's see if we can establish a budget, and slow our monthly spending rate down to a point where we can live on 40% of our pay for the smaller monthly things that we end up buying. If you do it all intentionally, there is a decent chance you will be able to buy all the things you used to buy. Controlling the spending in this way merely paces it, so you don't buy it all as fast. 

 What about the big things that have to be gotten that just don't fit in the budget? Well, that's what the savings are for. So, what are big things that don't fit in the monthly budget? Anything that costs more than about half of the budget amount, or something that needs to be gotten right now even though the budget is already used up. So, big things, and emergencies should be purchased with careful thought and prayer from the 3rd portion of your God-given provision. We will look at that more closely next time. 

Church Problems are Fictional

 So, we have made a huge mistake in my opinion, and in this post, I want to explain what I'm seeing. I will do that by defining some terms and discussing each one. These terms aren't meant to be all in, dictionary correct, or end all be all of all things regarding their meaning. No, when I define a term, I am explaining what it means to me, and am entirely open to a better term for what I am talking about. So, let's begin. 

1. The Church. 

It is the people of God. It is what happens when multiple disciples of Christ gather in Christ's name. When that happens, you have a part of or a form of church. Yet we have made the mistake of believing that the church is something we create. We believed it was a ministry we started. Yet, the church is not something we can ever create. It's something God creates when His children meet around their mutual love of Christ and His Kingdom. The thing we have called the church is actually just a form of non-profit ministry or a charity. 

2. Non-profit Ministry.

It's an origination that belongs to God's Kingdom. It's not trying to make a profit, but it is trying to advance the Kingdom of God through things like teaching, prayer, counseling, evangelizing, and so on. Or, they might take disabled people hunting, but they are Kingdom focused, so it's for the honor and glory of God, and the advancement of His Kingdom, As a non-profit, it relies on funding from businesses and for-profit ministries. 

3. Charity.

It's a non-profit organization that works on what it believes are good causes but is not necessarily Kingdom ministry oriented. It might very well do the same things as a non-profit ministry. For example, a charity that makes accommodations to take disabled people hunting so that they might enjoy the thrill of the hunt is not trying to make money, and it is a good cause, but if it's not Kingdom focused, I am not prepared to call it ministry. 

4. Business.

This is an organization that is for profit. This is the type of organization that gets started to accumulate personal wealth, to build a personal empire. To be rich, to be important. Greedy people abound at the heads of these organizations. 

5. For-profit Ministry.

This is an organization that pretty much looks like a business, and in most ways, it is a business. Yet, there is one huge difference that makes all the difference. The management of this organization has given it to God and His Kingdom for His purposes. Practically speaking, this means that the organization cares about its people, both employees, and customers, as people, and not just as a means to profit. It also means this organization cares about raising funds for the Kingdom to give to Non-profit ministries, doing Kingdom things, and enabling the practical working of the hands and feet of Christ by His disciples. 

 So, now, we have discussed what the church is, and we have discussed the 4 different kinds of organizations people find themselves working in and operating, but what's that got to do with the provocative title? (It was suggested by a friend.) Well, at its core, the church is God's people meeting with and about Him. So, how can such a thing have problems? It can't. Now, the things we build, the organizations, and the people in them can have problems willy nilly, at any moment, without warning. So, there you go, that's the reason for the title, God's spotless bride has no problems. Our organizations sure do though...

 So, at the outset, I said we made a big mistake. What's the mistake? I believe it goes something like this. We arrange a nice little 2-3 hour meeting on Sunday mornings, we appoint leaders for that meeting, and in so doing we create for ourselves either a very nice, average, downright boring, outrageously heretical, or even toxic weekly seminar. (Now, I personally go to one of these things, and I'm thankful it's one of the nice ones. However, it does have its problems.) Yet, our big mistake is taking it so seriously. Here are some of the ways:

We tend to think that a person who no longer attends one of these things will die spiritually.

We tend to give the leaders of these weekly seminars something that amounts to a life sentence, a lifetime call to do and be someone truly special and impossible. 

We even give them special privileges and hold them up in high esteem as spiritual gurus who know God far better than us mere mortals can.   

When this weekly seminar has a big schism or hiccup within its people group, we take the offense very personally and even at times leave God over it. 

So, why do we do this with the weekly seminar and not so much with our other businesses, our other ministries, or our other charities? Because, we have, very arrogantly and presumptuously called the weekly seminar thing we created the church and even believed it to be true. Yet, it's very obvious if you think about it, that the church only resides within the weekly seminar. Want proof? How about this, if I called all of your congregation including the leaders to an outback steakhouse, by bribing them with free steaks, and they all showed up, then we would sing hymns and share testimonies to the Lord until the steakhouse kicked us out so they can go home and sleep. Would you be able to look me in the eye and straight-up honestly tell me? "The church is not here. Only the 2 hours on Sunday morning count" I didn't think so. In this case, your Sunday morning leaders would have gotten to be who they were this whole time, brothers in Christ. Who would have led this meeting of the church? Me, Because I had the idea and I paid for the steaks. Yet, the meal table at outback was not the church either, As a man, I created an event or occasion through my natural means, and God saw it, liked it, and supernaturally created church the way He wanted it. After this event was over, my leadership stopped, because this entire time, I was not a spiritual guru, I was also just another brother in Christ. So, I believe we should pray towards demystifying, simplifying, and humbling the way we look at our efforts, leaders, and Christ's church. How to get there? I don't know how to unpack generations upon generations of wrong thinking around this issue. I know that I am not the first person to wrestle with this dilemma at all. Many men who are much older and wiser than I have talked about this issue. Yet, I want to do my bit, to fellowship, and to see the church for what she truly is. I'm not quite sure what to call the Sunday morning thing now though.... 😕

Perhaps we can keep using the term church and remember that there are 2 definitions of it. 

Definition 1: Church: The bride of Christ, the people of God, getting together around and about Him. Both locally, and globally.

Definition 2: Church: The meeting of the church as defined in definition 1. The organization, plan, structure, and ministry, are designed to give God the platform so that He can form the church as He wishes. 

Ultimately, this whole entry was addressing the concern I have that we have made a 3rd terrible definition for the church that goes something like this: I will make the church, by my efforts at organizing, building, teaching, singing, etc I will make, start, or do church properly. Or, to put it another way, I will make Christ's bride for Him. 

Whatever God calls us to organize, build, arrange, or otherwise do, let us remember that we are merely doing a ministry for Him. God will build the church. I believe as disciples of Christ, we should only ever do ministry. Either for-profit or non-profit. Let's let the world keep the businesses and the charities, and let's let the Lord build the church. 

Photo Credit: Pastor Brian Moss.

Persecution

 Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. -Jesus Christ, Matthew 5:10-12 

Persecution: Defined as hostility and ill-treatment you experience for what you did, or who you are. 

 The year was 1569, it was late in the winter in Asperen, Netherlands. I was standing guard by a residential home the authorities had turned into a prison. I had sworn to uphold my duties faithfully as a guard. As I looked over the landscape I noticed the pond was covered in ice, it looked passable, but too thin to trust with a man's weight. Suddenly, the window of the estate was pushed open and a shabby, starved looking man lowered himself on a rope he had fashioned from knotted rags! There was a moat around the home for security but it was frozen, the man jumped off the moat and made a run for it! I chased him, he ran across the pond, I followed, and broke through, the cold water closed over my head, I fought to the surface, and tried to get out, but the ice was too thin, I couldn't get out! So, this was it, I thought, my time to die had come....

Then I heard a voice, and a hand grabbed me, I was dragged onto the ice again, by this same escapee! He had come back, I looked at him, he looked harmless, and he had saved my life. Why was I chasing him? Why was he in prison? Well, I certainly wasn't going to arrest him now, I thanked him for saving my life and was about to let him go when I heard a voice saying, "You have to grab him! Remember your oath!" It was the burgomaster, I saw he was standing on the bank; if I turned this one loose, he had me dead to rights, and it would be over with me. So, very reluctantly, I seized the prisoner and took him back to his cell... -Dirk Willems' pursuer as imagined by yours truly. 

 Later Dirk Willems was burned alive, and executed, either by the flames or by someone else who wanted to end his suffering. His crime? Rebaptism. He had rejected his infant baptism as recognized by the official politically correct churches of the day and got a believer's baptism and was marked as an Anabaptist. This was a crime in the kingdom of that day. Yet, it was absolutely vitally important to Dirk in the Kingdom he was aligned with. 

 So, that's not the only form of persecution. I have here the story of one who was persecuted for being a Nazi. Then there is the story of the Bataan Death March. In that situation many American men suffered tremendously at the hands of the Japanese. That was persecution on a terrible scale. Why? Because they were Americans. They were persecuted for being Americans. Yet, to put a finer point on all these situations, all these men were persecuted for the same basic reason. They were persecuted because they were seen as the enemy and did things that put them in the category in the minds of the people. 

 Now back to the original text at the top. Are you willing to be counted as an enemy in this world for the cause of Christ and His Kingdom? It is not that you are desiring to be an enemy, It's just that the cause of Christ is what matters to you. This book is about surrender. So, we are looking for a complete surrender to Christ. A surrender that goes so far as to die for a Kingdom that cannot be seen physically so much of the time. Thankfully, persecution in the free west is so rare and mild that it barely counts as persecution. However, I am advocating for a willingness to surrender so completely to Christ, that we are willing to accept persecution and even count it as a blessing when it comes. Great is our reward in Heaven Jesus said. This paints the idea of living in eternity. So, part of this whole surrender thing is to just switch gears and live the relational life with Christ now. Live in eternity with Christ now. Realize that the unseen reality is more real than the seen one! It is! Realize this in the heart. This is why Paul was able to say things like, "For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory" 

In the next chapter, I want to switch gears, take a break from the sermon on the mount and talk about God's Kingdom. Because we have now made it through the beatitudes. We have surrendered a lot of things, we have been down here giving things up because surrender is victory when you're giving it to God. So, let's look up and out just briefly, to try to grasp the big picture of God's Kingdom in some small level that we can understand. Then we will return to the sermon on the mount. 

This has been chapter 13 of Surrender!? To Who?

That Other Show That Exists That's Not Called Nascar

Behold, there was a great to-do in St. Petersburg. No NOT that St. Petersburg. This St. Petersburg. There was a group of small men and a woman. There were teams of people that handled round rubber things and a hose that dribbled put put juice. The small men and a woman each buckled themselves into their own personal rocket. It had wings, front and back, but, the wings were upside down, so, they did not fly. Behind the small man there was a great shouty thing. It made tremendous noises and then the rocket acted like a rocket. At each corner of the little shouty rocket with the small man or woman in the middle was a round rubbery thing. The front rubber things slewed left and right, the rear rubber things were wider, yet, when the shouty thing in the back shouted extra loud, the rubbery things rotated so fast that smoke rose into the atmosphere. (Don't tell the EPA!) The streets of the correct St. Petersburg were closed wherever the shouty rockets were. Good thing too, because these little rascals were out of control! They zigged, zagged, and weaved through 30 mph corners at 90 mph or so, they launched assaults on each other, in desperate attempts to pass, with as much control, grace, and poise as a leashed beagle trying to catch a squirrel. Sometimes one would overstep and act like a startled cat on linoleum. Then it would have to be scraped away from the wall it had crunched against like a dropped pretzel. Well, they zigged, they zagged, they lunged, and slid about. Then they emerged from the city streets and entered the airport runway. They shouted along the runway, but eventually, they reached the end of the runway and had to turn back onto the city streets. None of them ever took off from the runway. Silly rockets, the wings are upside down! What did you think would happen?? Well, for reasons I'm not to keen to admit to and face, I found myself watching this strange and bizarre work of uhm...art? There were 2 little men named Scott in this work of uhm...art? They were also Kiwis. Near as I can reckon, that means they are from some island down there called New Zealand, and being so far away means they don't quite talk the way I think one should talk, one of them has a wife named Emma, but, for reasons that must have to do with being Kiwi, he calls her, Emmer. Hm....anyway, well, I really like the Kiwi Scotts, I even think they talk kinda cool, so I watched them in their rockets with great intrigue. Well, the one Kiwi Scott was a rookie just last year. For those of you who are still in...erhm never mind.., that means, beginner.  He got to start first in this uhm, art thing. That was also where he stayed. He deduced that if he took it just a wee bit easy on his rocket, he would only need to stop 2 times for rubber things and put put juice. Yet, by my observation, he slewed about and went crazy fast like the rest of em, because no one ever passed him. The other kiwi Scott decided if he were to stop 3 times for rubber things and put put juice he could go even faster! Well, it kinda worked, but, then he came up on this little Frenchman named Romain Grosjean. This guy showed great signs of ferocity when the second kiwi Scott tried to mosey on by, why, he would weave sideways and nearly take the front wing off Kiwi Scott's rocket!! For some reason Kiwi Scott wanted to keep his wing even though it was upside down, and he still hadn't gotten airborne, so he reluctantly settled down and meekly followed the wild Frenchman around for the rest of this uhm...art event. Then someone in a little box above the run-way waved a black and white cloth that looked kinda like a black and white checkboard and the rockets all calmed down. The Kiwi Scott who got to this cloth first was so happy that he leaped from his car with so much enthusiasm that he tipped over and sat down rather abruptly! The other Kiwi Scott was less happy, but, he was still first place amongst the ones who stopped 3 times. 

So, I guess it was a race then? Hm, well, if you own a rocket with upside down wings or some such thing, and a man named Scott from New Zealand, or to put it another way, a Kiwi Scott asks to drive it. Then, you should let him, if you want your rocket to get to the cloth that looks like a checkerboard quicker than the rest. Now, if you were to put the wings right side up, I'm not sure what or who should operate your rocket at that point. 

This has been my in-depth analysis of the opening race for the 2022 season of the best race series it seems like no one wants to talk about: INDYCAR!

To Keep it Simple or Not?

So, there are a few things from Scripture that exist in this World today. Yet, due to Humanity's abilities to attempt to define good and evil on their own in keeping with the example set by their first father and mother, Adam, and Eve. We find ourselves with some choices in these matters. We have the complex opinions of man, and we have simple truth. I will attempt to lay those out below. 

1. the Church.

Opinion 1: The church, on Sunday Morning is the church, you should attend it. In fact, according to some, your soul is at risk if you don't. So, you go and hear the music, and sing, you listen to the teaching, but then you might pickup the Bible and read it and wonder, where are the gifts, the apostles, the prophets? Why is the pastor teaching instead of pastoring? Well, there is an explanation for that too you see, it's called Cessationism. That is to say, the gifts stopped because the Bible is complete or some such thing. Or, you just become charismatic and do all in your power to bring it all in on Sunday Morning. Perhaps you rename your lead pastor or bishop to apostle? Perhaps you go and ordain someone and call him a prophet? Perhaps you even pray in ways that us mere English speaking mortals cannot understand? Yet in all this, the fundamental root opinion in both camps is, Sunday Morning is the church, and you'd better come. So, we fight for it, we pour blood, sweat, and tears into this so to speak. 

Opinion 2: None of the churches I know are the church. So, you construct the ideal church in your head. You pour through the New Testament, and make a mental checklist of all the ingredients you see in a church. Then you open your home and host people as long as it takes to get it all done. You strive to give time for apostolic workers to come and shake things up, or be sent out. You give time for prophetic words to happen, you bring the gospel to the streets for evangelism. You have a time for teaching, and a time for prayer ministry, pastoral care. You keep going, communion, feet washing, bishops, deacons, etc. You bring it under 1 big umbrella and give it a name. It is now the church, it meets all the criteria, you fought hard to get here, so you'll do whatever it takes to keep it.  

Keeping it Simple: What the New Testament said is what happened. If it says they washed feet, they did, if it says they had communion, they did. If it says they spoke in tongues, they did. The Greek words Paul used for the terms that were translated into words like Bishop are the definitions to go by, not what the catholic church thinks. For leadership definitions click the link. So, to take it literally, and keep it simple. How are you doing? How is your church experience? Is it lacking? Whose fault is that? Yours actually. You don't need other people to come along and make a system for you to get the experience you need. Just have fellowship with God daily, connect with people, attend a church meeting you like, enjoy the teaching, the music, seek God on how to fellowship with others in other ways during the week. It really is that simple. Just own it, and do it. 

2. Church Leadership Problems.

Opinion 1: The church needs to be protected, so we establish layers of bureaucracy and accountability to keep a stable and fluid leadership flow going. We run it like a business. We establish protocols for everything. We need to be efficient. When you get ordained. It's for life, don't leave. Stick it out or you'll be a bit like the scum of the earth. A dangerous heretic. As a leader, you have tremendous power, but, it most be funneled through the proper channels. Don't betray the people who made you a leader.

Opinion 2:  Having a church run like a business is awful. Meet in homes, keep it simple. Who needs to worry about leadership? We are all brothers/sisters in Christ, right? Right!

Opinion 3: I have a vision. I have the direction. The church needs to go with me, I'm going to stick it out and fight for it with all I got! I fought too hard for them to let them just do it how they want and I'm certainly not going to just leave now. 

Keeping it Simple: The people described in the New Testament already exist. Let the Holy Spirit identify them for you as you need them. If you see that you are a leader. Walk in the direction the Lord is leading you, let those follow you who wish too, and let those who don't see it stay put. 

So, in closing, 2 main points. 

1. Are you willing to own it? To individually take responsibility for what is lacking in your relationship with Christ and what is lacking your church experience? Or, do you need a scapegoat? Someone or something to blame? A leader to blame? A church to blame? If you own it, the Lord will help you. I don't know how, but, He will.

2. If you're a leader, are you willing to just simply go and walk. Do you have the courage to walk? Even if it means walking away from people you love? Or walking into pain? Or, do you need to be a puppet master, or a driver, herding the crowd in the direction you want them? If you are willing to just walk and lead those who choose to follow, then God will see after you if you walk after Him, somehow. You follow God, and help those who follow God behind you. You don’t control who does. You just simply walk, and help those also walking behind you.