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A Reflection on the Irony of Methodist Denominations and the Kingdom of God

I fell in love with the work of God in and thru the Moravians in my “Church Since The Reformation” church history class in Seminary.

I know that may sound weird. But the Moravians captivated me.

To the point that I forced my wife to go with me to Winston Salem, NC to go see the first Moravian community that formed in the United States.

The struggle and imperfection of the people.

The difficulty of living in close community with one another.

The devotion to prayer (almost 100 years of 24-7 prayer) and confession.

The dedication to taking the Gospel to the whole world (before it was easy – they’d literally send family members off on boats to unknown places only to never see them again).

Hardly any of us in today’s world commit ourselves to anything like these people committed themselves to one another and to God, if we’re honest.

Then, shortly after Seminary, I fell in love with the Wesleys and the Methodist movement in the same way.

Of course, I had learned about them in that same class. But there was something about the practicality of working in a church that created the context for the principles of the Methodist movement to come alive for me.

The desire for all people to hear the Gospel – not just “preach” in a church gathering.

The intentionality of grouping people together to care for one another’s souls.

The balance of relational structures with Spirit-led movement.

Just like the Moravians, it took my breath away. How God was at work in and through people in such normal and yet powerful ways.

And these movements captured me because the Spirit who is in me resonated with the same Spirit in those people. The same Spirit that has always been ushering in the kingdom of God.

Thru the elders and craftsmen of Israel.

Thru the prophets and poets of the Old Testament.

Thru the disciples and apostles of the New Testament.

Thru the priesthood of all believers of the Church today.

The love I felt that drew me toward these movements was the very love of God for His people, actually for all people that He wants to come to know His love.

And this is why, after “swimming in the Methodist waters” for the last nearly decade, I’ve grown even more confused by the “denominationalization” of the kingdom of God.

Yes I just made up a word.

And this isn’t just true of Methodists. I have friends in so many denominations that started as kingdom movements and yet now, let’s just be honest, aren’t.

So we must ask ourselves: Why are denominations consistently the place that kingdom movements go to die or become dormant?

And then secondly, and potentially more importantly, if thats true, then: Why do we keep creating the same things expecting different results?

So many Christian leaders continue to say they want to be a part of something like these kingdom movements that happened outside and alongside the established religious structures of their day, but then attempt to do the work of kingdom movement within the structures that have consistently not allowed for kingdom movement. And then are confused when it doesn’t work.

It’s either ironic or insane. I can’t decide which anymore.

It’s what I did for nearly half of my life. I kept holding out hope for “renewal” or “revitalization” or “reformation.”

But over the last 7 years or so I’ve been asking myself: Is that really how resurrection happens though?

So for the last several years I’ve made it pretty clear that I think God is doing something he’s done before, if people are willing to follow Him into it.

Something He did in Acts.

Something He did in the Monastics.

Something He did in the Moravians and the Methodists and other modern kingdom movements.

He’s calling entire communities of people into renewed relationship with Him and one another.

Not for the “purpose” of revival or awakening. Just simply for the purpose of His love.

Not with a “plan” of creating the next big thing or fast-moving, multiplication model. Just simply with a plan to devote themselves to one another and to Him.

Prayer and presence will mark these communities.

Hospitality and hope will be their commitment.

Sacrificial love and sustainable life rhythms will become their pious work.

Hidden acts of service and homes filled with God’s presence will permeate all they do.

The thing that unites them won’t be organizational, nor performative, nor attractional, nor visionary.

It will be incarnation.

Real life with one another, with God.

They will work and play full of the Spirit.

They will raise kids and grandkids and other’s kids together in the faith.

They will work thru conflict and practice forgiveness as a means of grace.

They will listen and give generously and celebrate God’s creation.

They will be a kingdom movement. Whether they have a name or logo or website or building or bylaws is irrelevant. It will barely cross their mind if at all.

Because they will have one another.

And they will have God’s presence.

And after all, isn’t that what this whole Advent of the kingdom we just celebrated is all about anyways?

God with us.

God among us.

God experienced through our relationships with one another in the midst of our every day life.

That’s incarnation.

That’s a kingdom movement.

It’s simply beautiful.

And it captivates the depth of my very soul.

The Good News: Incarnation

The least possible evidence that someone has believed the Gospel of Jesus is that they center their lives upon trying to get people to show up to something in order to hear a verbal presentation of this Gospel.

The least possible evidence that someone has believed the Gospel [which literally means “good news”] of Jesus is that they center their lives upon trying to get people to show up to something in order to hear a verbal presentation of this Gospel.

Acknowledging that reality is important when phrases like “just preach the Gospel” are being thrown around as “solutions” to injustices that exist.

It’s fascinating when you begin to explore what this “good news” actually is, why it matters, and what it actually means to believe in it.

To do that, you have to consider and start with the entire narrative of Scripture.

The God we read about in the Bible is the one who created us by sending His very breath into us. This God is the one who became human in order to enter into humanity to live with us. This God is the one who sent His Spirit to now live within each of us. And this God is the one who will not “bring us up into heaven” but instead has been bringing heaven to earth this whole time and eventually will redeem or recreate earth and heaven fully.

This is the God of incarnation. And that’s good news!

Why?

Because incarnation is not just some fancy theological word. It is essential to the nature of who God is, and it means that God is always “getting to us.”

Most Christians will tell you that the Scripture teaches that we can’t get to God. And whether that is true or not is almost beside the point. Because the nature of God never allows for that instance to exist. Just because of who He is, He is always “getting to us.”

This God of incarnation is the God of every day life. Of showing up when and where we are. Of managing to meet us in our mess and not expecting us to clean up our mess to get to Him – or more correct, clean it up before He can get to us.

The truth is this: too much of this history of the Church has miscommunicated this reality.

Not necessarily through words. But certainly through actions.

The Church has most consistently taught with its actions that we do not actually believe complete incarnation to be the trajectory of the Scriptures and the very nature of God.

Instead, it has been communicated through actions that the center of the Christian life is a weekly gathering, for a specified period of time, in a facility that is owned or rented, that we should be trying to get everyone to show up to. And that this is (incompletely) called “church.”

Which communicates that this is a necessary and important outcome of the Gospel.

But is it?

This isn’t actually a question about whether or not gathering should happen. It will happen as a natural outcome of being made in the image of God, and of being “the church.”

It is a question about what the place of gathering is: What is its actual role? How much of our focus does it deserve (especially since it seemed to get so little of the God of the Bible’s attention while He was here on earth)? How much impetus should we place on it (when it seems to be described as a small part of the overall lifestyle of the Church in Acts done in mostly normal, everyday sorts of ways)?

There will be those who get upset at this attempt to take incarnation to its full implications. To “work it out” beyond the least possible evidence of it, to a mature understanding of its inworking and outworking in our lives.

Many of those who may become upset will be religious professionals or dedicated “church goers” (as “church” is being defined above).

But there is very little doubt what someone believes to be most important in their life if you just follow their actions, or their money, or their time. No matter what their lips say. Jesus taught us this.

And if you follow those things in the functioning of almost every single “church” I know of, they will tell you that gathering people is the single most important thing “the church” does. It’s honestly not even close. Somewhere between 75-90% of almost every church’s actions, money, and time spent is on gathering people.

Facilities are built around it. Staff are hired around it. Programs are run around it. And schedules are created around it. Whether it is getting people to show up or what happens once they do, by the actions of all involved (myself included for much of my “ministry life”) we have communicated what we believe is most central to “the Church” and thus to “the Gospel.”

Now here me loud and clear: gathering is important.

But we rightfully should ask what its importance is and are we rightfully placing it in the correct spot in importance level.

And we should rightfully acknowledge that gathering is the least possible evidence of our internalizing of the presence of God (incarnation being essential to who He is) into our lives.

Actively treating gathering as the most central aspect of the life of the Christian ultimately runs contrary to what we read in the Scriptures. The Gospel of incarnation, as displayed perfectly by Jesus (God incarnate), does not centralize gathering people.

And that must start to be said loud and clear if we are to reclaim the Gospel fully again – the literal good news of God for the entire world.

We must lament the reality that we have believed the Gospel only in part. Only in its most basic, elementary form. And thus we have placed gathering as the most important part of our Christian lives.

And so I join together with all those willing to acknowledge this, and look to Jesus once more as our guide to imaging God in this world. In doing so, may we fully reflect to the world “God with us” this Advent.

An open letter to “church experts” trying to lead the conversation on people “leaving”

Another good title would be: Why leaving a ministry job might be saving their souls, and why you should stop talking about them.

[If you haven’t read the pontifications of church “experts” about why people are leaving ministry jobs, then you can if you’d like. There are so many opinions on the stats out there and I’ve grown tired of reading them (just Google about Barna stats and “the Great Resignation”).]

To the Church Experts,

I am saddened by how you are talking about people leaving ministry jobs (or thinking about leaving).

It reveals a great deal of ignorance.

It also displays a great deal of insecurity.

One of the main evidences of these things is that the way you talk is simply a guilt trip clothed in Biblical language or “Christianeze.”

STOP SPEAKING BEFORE LISTENING

There are 3 main things I wish you would take time to explore by listening to those “leaving” before speaking any further about them:

1. Most are becoming ministers in a new way. They are not “leaving” ministry.

Framing what’s happening as “leaving ministry” reveals an unfortunate ignorance of what ministry is, who is expected to be in ministry, and where the locus of ministry takes place.

That people say phrases like this in general is lamentable enough.

But then that you would apply them to someone who is leaving a job working for a ministry is detrimental.

When you do this, you have just communicated to others that “real ministry” is only what happens when those who are in leadership and/or work for the ministry are doing it.

And that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Too often I’ve seen you talk out of both sides of your mouth when it comes to this topic. You tell people to find their place in ministry generally, but then create a special category for those who are especially “qualified.”

As long as someone is following Jesus and living, they’re in ministry. It is just a question as to who they are in ministry to and with.

It’s a weird dynamic when “church experts” misunderstand, or simply contradict, their own teaching that everyone is a minister and we just have different roles within this thing called ministry.

A believer doesn’t leave ministry. They simply change contexts and roles.

For those who have left ministry jobs behind, they have not “left ministry.” And for you to say so as a supposed church expert only further reveals the ignorance that exists about what ministry is and who is “in ministry” among God’s people today.

2. Most are allowing their calling to be integrated into the rest of their lives. They are not “abandoning” a calling.

This is one point of contention that I am very passionate about.

There are two main issues I have with how people have been taught to understand calling (and they’re related): 1) too many people confuse their calling with their identity, and 2) too many never integrate their calling with the rest of their lives.

It’s ironic that these two issues seem divergent and yet are not in the least.

Your calling is not who you are.

Who you are is foundational. Your calling builds upon that.

And if you haven’t dealt with that, then your calling becomes the tail wagging the dog. And it creates all sorts of confusion and pain.

It also typically means you’ve separated out your calling from the rest of your life.

A whole person who starts with the foundation of who they are being the most important thing to God, is then fully capable of understanding their calling as an integrated part of their life.

People aren’t “called to ministry” as separate from “called to their family.” These aren’t competing values for someone who correctly understands and lives into what God is calling them to. They are one and the same.

And so, just like the last point, when understood correctly, someone is not actually abandoning a calling. They might stop living out that calling in a certain way. But the calling isn’t gone.

They may have misunderstood it, confused it with their identity, or separated it out from their entire life. But they haven’t abandoned it.

The pain caused by how you “church experts” are misspeaking about the concept of calling is causing trauma upon trauma upon trauma in most people’s lives who are leaving a ministry job.

When you tell them they have abandoned their calling, it only retraumatizes them or causes them new trauma to the already difficult circumstances of changing careers.

The pain that’s being caused by your words when you actually think you’re helping is heartbreaking.

3. Most are courageously following Jesus by doing what they’ve challenged others to do for years: to live out their faith in a non-Christian workplace and community.

The absolute craziest part of the confusion you’re causing as “church experts” in this conversation is the fact that when someone leaves a ministry job and becomes a person following Jesus out in the workforce, they become the very thing you continually give lip service to being the most important thing a Christian can be: a missionary.

The person leaving a ministry job is simply following to its logical conclusion the single most important theological belief we hold to as Christians: incarnation.

They are locating themselves, with all the skills they’ve developed to care for people (pastor), to convey truths in relevant ways (teacher), to walk with someone thru coming to know Jesus (evangelist), to speak in love the mysteries of God (prophet), and to do it among people who may never come to know God unless someone goes to where they are (apostle).

They’re literally embodying out in the world the entirety of the gifts God has given to the Church by making the very decision you are now critiquing them for making.

This is not only confusing to the person going thru it [who feels like they’re actually doing what the Gospel compels them to do like every other Christian in the world], but it is also confusing to every other Christian who has been told to live as a missionary out in the world yet are watching the person leaving a ministry job being shamed for becoming a missionary.

The way you “church experts” have spoken about those leaving (or thinking about leaving) has created such a convoluted context for this conversation that it’s nearly impossible to even have it anymore.

It’s angering if I’m honest.

I have sympathy for you as you’re trying to do your best to wrestle with something you were wrongly taught, but unfortunately you are now becoming the one wrongly teaching it.

STOP KICKING THEM WHILE THEY ARE DOWN

All of this doesn’t even get into the emotional and spiritual damage that’s being done to people “on their way out.”

You “church experts” consistently lament how difficult it is to be in ministry, how ministry leaders get wrongly critiqued by others, and how people need to support ministry leaders during these difficult times…

But then you turn around and kick them while they’re down…and that shouldn’t be lost on anyone.

It’s “church-culture acceptable” spiritual abuse honestly. And I won’t refrain from calling it that.

I’ve been the recipient of it. And I will not remain silent on behalf of those who have made such a difficult decision to only be abused in the process.

STOP DE-PERSONALIZING WHAT IS HAPPENING

I’m in ongoing conversations with at least a dozen people who have left ministry jobs over the last 2 years. Each of them have left for varying reasons. To lump them all together as a statistic would be to miss what is actually happening in this moment in the Church in America.

Each story of those I speak with are as uniquely beautiful and complicatedly gut-wrenching as the next.

And you’ve missed the whole point of the Gospel if you don’t treat them as such.

If instead you just lob your opinion out there as a grenade, with no awareness of the damage you’re doing, then you are no church expert to begin with. And why people are giving you a platform as if you are one is beyond my comprehension.

The church should not simply be an organization that provides a severance package on the way out.

It should be a family that says “we will see you at the next reunion.”

This depersonalizing of people’s stories of why they are leaving ministry jobs is disheartening. And for those of you perpetuating these kinds of conversations, I beg you to stop.

You are not being Christ in their lives in this moment.

You are instead being a Pharisee that is heaping burdens upon them.

[Side note: most of what I’ve said in this blog post could also be applied to how too many established church pastors are talking about church members who have “left.” The guilt trips laced with Biblical language. The spiritual abuse of kicking them while they’re down. I’ve seen all of it the last couple years and it’s sickening.]

And for those who are reading this who have left or are considering leaving a ministry job, here’s a prayer I offer you during such a difficult season:

Be kind to Your little children, Lord; that is what we ask of You as their Tutor, You the Father, Israel’s guide; Son, yes, but Father as well. Grant that by doing what You told us to do, we may achieve a faithful likeness to the Image and, as far as is possible for us, may find in You a good God and a lenient Judge.

May we all live in the peace that comes from You. May we journey towards Your city, sailing through the waters of sin untouched by the waves, borne tranquilly along by the Holy Spirit, Your Wisdom beyond all telling. Night and day until the last day of all, may our praises give You thanks, our thanksgiving praise You: You who alone are both Father and Son, Son and Father, the Son who is our Tutor and our Teacher, together with the Holy Spirit.

– St Clement of Alexandria, 150–215 AD

I am angry with my fellow Christians today

If you believe that what happened in Uvalde, Texas, was an act of evil, this post is for you.

If you are tired of the way our world is becoming more divided and divisive, this post is for you.

If you consider yourself a Christian and to be redeemed by the blood of Christ, this is post is for you especially.

I am angry.

I am angry at Christians on the “right” who get defensive when tragedies involving “our rights” happen.

I am angry at Christians on the “left” who use tragedies to throw accusations at those who disagree with them about those rights.

I’m angry at Christians in the middle who throw their hands up and claim there is nothing that can be done because the world is “full of sin.”

Every single one of us is guilty of using events like this to promote ungodly and unholy agendas. Either through an intentional act or by passive disengagement. And you know how I know, because the gospel is only a byline to the tragedy.

The comfort God supplies is used as just a platitude we throw out there to sound spiritual. And that right before we launch into “what we really want to say.”

I am so angry.

I’m angry because we keep talking like the world. Thinking like the world. Engaging with each other about the social ills we face like the world.

We have placated the world, accommodated the world, compromised with the world, and even prostituted ourselves to the world.

And for what?! To be liked? To be accepted? To make the Gospel more palatable and the Church more respectable? To be allowed access to what the world has defined as success or affirmation?

Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!

This approach by the Church to engaging the world has been proven a failure. And we look like fools for continuing to use these approaches.

These strategies and methods are not working because they are not biblical. They cannot produce the transformation the human soul needs. And they are incongruent with the character of God.

And for those wondering what I mean when I say “the world”, let me tell you what I mean. It is the way of living that seeks its own way and pleasure rather than the way of obedience to God in Christ. It is a way of looking at life that is defined by selfishness, “winning”, and self-righteousness.

It is marked by posturing and virtue signaling and the pretense of looking like Jesus, being near to Jesus, but never actually embracing the life of Jesus. Never fully appreciating that anonymity is closer to the goal, and not some bug to the outworking of holiness in our lives.

We keep talking about God but haven’t truly spent any real time with him.

We keep preaching about the gospel but haven’t really been convicted to the point of contrition and transformed by it to such a degree we mourn our former ways of life.

We keep calling people to repent of sin but are walking around with logs in our eyes the size of redwoods.

We talk about what needs to change and cry out for revival in our nation while at the same time holding onto the millstones that have been drowning us in the oceans of sin and worldliness.

And then, when tragedy after tragedy happens, we become as shrill and incoherent as the supposed pundits who are “looking out” for us.

This vacillating makes us idolatrous. Not wise. Not shrewd. Not contextual. Not culturally sensitive.

It makes us hypocrites. And charlatans.

There are too many claiming to be emissaries of Jesus who have become prophets in the service of false gods. Who function more like priests in the temples of the same rather than a royal priesthood in the kingdom of God.

When evil like we have seen in the last couple of weeks, and years, rears its head, the church should be the first to show the world how to mourn with those who are mourning. To weep for the innocence lost and the hopes fractured by the wickedness of broken people.

When the world sees the members of the body of Christ engaging in the same finger-pointing as the rest of the world, we have become the salt that has lost its saltiness. We have moved from abdicating our moral authority to participating in the moral corruption of the world.

The people of God should be the first to call out the evil, especially from those on “our side.” Or did we think those around us don’t notice our duplicity?

Do we actually think we can give them a pass because they are like “us?” Because they are on the “right side” of history (and it always seems to be “our side”). We should not only be ashamed of behaving like this, we should be revolted. We should be disgusted with not just our cowardice but in too many cases our complicity.

And just so we are all clear, I’ve had it with political Christianity. The kind of Christianity that uses faith as an excuse for politicizing and justifying anything and everything they think is right.

I’m done.

I hate it with every fiber of my being.

When our primary framework as Christians is political in nature, we have become more secular than holy. We have surrendered the moral ground and ceded it to the enemy of our souls.

What is happening around us may look like physical warfare, but it’s not. This is a spiritual war. This is why using the methods of the world will fail us over and over again. And yes, spiritual warfare often has catastrophic physical consequences. But not recognizing what is happening around and behind the visible tragedy is a terribly short-sighted understanding of what is happening.

The political approach is a failed endeavor for the Church. And those who continue to use it will become victims of their own self-deception.

The reason I hate the political methodology is because it is a lie. It is based on the same premise that sent the human race into the fall—that we can know good and evil and live. No, we cannot. That is the principal lesson of the Garden. With knowledge comes responsibility. And with that responsibility accountability.

For the Church, the political arena is the fountainhead of death in our world. And it tricks us into thinking we are making a difference. It seduces us with promises of being “agents of change” or “making a difference”. Welcome to the failures of the Maccabean revolution and the betrayal of Judas.

If our worldview is framed by the political ideas of the world we cannot be a Christian who properly reflects the character of God. But if we are trying to be Christians whose understanding of the word is constrained by the revelation of God, then we must reject the use of politicized language, rhetoric, and accusations outright. We must work harder to be charitable with those we disagree with. Not less.

And don’t confuse what I’ve just said with being engaged in the civic process. We can be good citizens without becoming ideologues. And to think it can’t be done is to misunderstand the very power of the Gospel. It’s to accept the notion that engaging in the civic process requires a conversion from Christianity. Or at minimum a compromising of our faith.

It has become clear to me that in the eyes and minds of too many, both inside and outside the Church, there is no tangible difference between the world and the people of God. And that is not the world’s fault. That’s on us as the Church.

We are the ones bringing disrepute to the name of Christ. We are the ones smudging the spotless dress of Christ’s bride with the filth of this world. We are the ones scandalizing the world by creating confusion and fomenting apostasy through our inconsistent witness. That’s an “us” problem.

To all the Christians talking about ____ today… WE are the problem.

When we don’t love our neighbors because we don’t know them… we are the problem.

When we don’t forgive those who have wronged us because they deserve what’s coming to them… we are the problem.

When we don’t turn the other cheek or go the extra mile because that is a violation of my rights… we are the problem.

When we wax more eloquent on political talking points than the gospel of life…. We are the problem.

When we moralize tragedies for political advantage and excuse wickedness out of fear… we are the problem.

When we stand in judgment over each other as self-appointment executioners of God’s holiness… we are the problem.

When we think we know what’s wrong with the world and have “the” solution… we are the problem.

When we allow our emotions to be enflamed by those who neither know God nor are led by God… we are the problem.

When we abandon the Truth for the next and newest cultural phenomenon… we are the problem.

We can continue to get disappointed at a world ruled by sin and wickedness. Or we can do what we were saved to do.

The tools, definitions, rhetoric, and mechanisms of the world will not address or solve what is wrong in the world. Every time we think they will, every time we substitute what God gave us for what some other fallen person has invented we will fail. And we will continue to fail until we surrender our wills and our wisdom to God.

Check out the Jesus Took Naps Podcast

There is so much about Jesus and his earthly life that looked like everyone else around them. But, we too often dismiss this or simply don’t pay attention to it.

My friend Drew Anderson, a contributor to Jeremiah’s Vow, and I have started the Jesus Took Naps Podcast. A podcast that looks at the remarkably ordinary life of Jesus. We will look at how Jesus’s life can teach us how to live ours today.

Click on the image and go to the podcast site. You will be able to listen on a variety of podcast platforms.

The Jesus Took Naps Podcast. A Remarkably Ordinary Podcast

We will be discussing the remarkably ordinary life of Jesus Christ. This is a concept we have been mulling over and discussing for some time. What we have discovered is that in our own lives we have missed the simplicity of who Jesus was and what Jesus did. Our hope is to recapture some of that.

There is so much about Jesus and his earthly life that looked like everyone else around them. But, we too often dismiss this or simply don’t pay attention to it. Our lives have become busier than we have time for. More congested than we have the capacity to manage. And we have become more concerned with short-term achievements and lost sight of long-term realities.

On the Jesus Took Naps Podcast, we want to change that. We will talk about the simple realities of living a life of faith as well as the practical challenges of living in the world.

We want to invite you to join us as we talk, think, pray, and consider what it means to live a remarkably ordinary life. Just like Jesus did!

“O Lord, My Rock And My Redeemer” Cover – Genavieve Linkowski

Originally from Sovereign Grace Music

LYRICS

O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer
Greatest treasure of my longing soul
My God, like You there is no other
True delight is found in You alone

Your grace, a well too deep to fathom
Your love exceeds the heaven’s reach
Your truth, a fount of perfect wisdom
My highest good and my unending need

O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer
Strong defender of my weary heart
My sword to fight the cruel deceiver
And my shield against his hateful darts

My song, when enemies surround me
My hope, when tides of sorrow rise
My joy, when trials are abounding
Your faithfulness, my refuge in the night

O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer
Gracious Savior of my ruined life
My guilt and cross laid on Your shoulders
In my place You suffered bled and died

You rose, the grave and death are conquered
You broke my bonds of sin and shame
You rose, the grave and death are conquered
You broke my bonds of sin and shame

O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer
May all my days bring glory to Your Name
May all my days bring glory to Your Name

“Own Your Learning” by Samuel Suresh

This video was so inspirational.

I love good storytellers, and this is a great story.

The difference between learning and studying can feel like not very much. But there is a difference.

One we should consider more carefully.

Don’t just be a student. Become a learner. I’ve realized these are not the same things.

Easter Sunday 2022 | “Go!”

Never forget the price that Jesus paid and the cost God incurred in order to bring about our salvation.

Happy Easter!

For the last 40 days we have been preparing to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The day has finally come.

I encourage you to do a couple things today. First, I encourage you to celebrate the goodness of God in making a way for our reconciliation with him. Never forget the price that Jesus paid and the cost God incurred in order to bring about our salvation. We can rejoice in all of this because God is good.

Second, I would encourage you to make an intentional effort in the coming week to share with someone why Easter matters. Not only that it matters to you as a follower of Jesus Christ, as important as that is. But how it matters to the one with whom you share the good news of the gospel.

One of the primary obligations we have as Christians is to tell the story of Jesus. I think what we often get wrong is we tell the story in a way that keeps us out of it. I believe that is a mistake.

If you have been saved by the precious blood of the Lamb of God then the story you tell IS your story as well. It is not your story because you did anything worthy of salvation. It is not your story because you have somehow impressed God with your newfound righteousness. It is your story because the one that Jesus saved was you!

So today enjoy the celebrations and the time of reflection. But tomorrow I invite you to go.

Go tell someone how grateful you are God has restored you to fellowship with him and with those whom you share fellowship with in your church.

Maybe that’s not something you’re comfortable doing. The truth is I’m not sure how many are. But if you are even a little bit thankful for God’s grace it is a discomfort worth enduring so someone else might also come to know what you know.

I am not saying be pushy or rude. Don’t try to “save” anyone. Just talk about this moment, this even, this reality that has impacted your life.

So go. Do not allow fear or doubt or uncertainty to keep you from going.

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