We all love a good story – right!

Over the past few months as part of my daily devotions in the YouVersion Bible App, I’ve been journeying through the Book of Psalms. It has been a huge encouragement and inspiration for me as I have drawn many insights into my own life from its authors.

As I’m starting to get towards the end of the book, I’ve certainly come to appreciate that they are, in essence, an intricately designed collection of poetry and songs that recounts Israel’s history, His covenant promises, and also poetically retells the entire biblical story – so that I can learn from His-story.

And we all love a good story – right! There is great power in stories! Stories are not just for little children at bedtime, they’re not just for entertainment in the movies, nor are they just for the older generation to share with their families.

The stories of God have great power! They can help us live fully today, and they can give us strength and faith for tomorrow. 

The stories of God can transform our lives as we come to appreciate and fully understand what He has done for us, what He is doing in our lives and what He promises to do for us, as we mature in our faith and understanding of what it means to be a part of His divine plan for our lives. 

I believe that the Good News of Jesus and how God continually intervenes in the lives of those that love Him is a huge testament to the ‘Power of the Story’, and is the basis for the whole Biblical narrative, as God understood what His children need. You see, a great story grips us and moves us to respond.

The Ethiopian eunuch experienced this for himself as he was reading the Book of Isaiah and wanted to understand it some more, as it would appear that parts of what he was reading either didn’t make sense, or were so astounding that he wanted to know more, as we can see in Acts 8:26-40.  

Many of us are gripped by the testimony of others and how God has moved in their lives to bring about life transformation.

This is what inspires us about Saul’s amazing transformation on the road to Damascus (see Acts 9:1-19) 

The thing is, we need to remember the stories of old and tell them not only to each other to encourage and build each other up, but also to our children, and our children’s children so that they’ll never forget!

Scripture reminds us of this in Joel 1:3;
“Tell your children about it in the years to come, and let your children tell their children. Pass the story down from generation to generation.” (New Living Translation)

Psalm 78:5-7 and Psalm 145:4-7 also touch on this idea of passing on the stories of old so that we do not forget when God has intervened in our lives. 

This is what Psalm 114 in essence is all about, each line is referencing a fascinating part of a story of when God intervened and changed the course of history! And we are encouraged to keep telling this story, as this psalm is a song that should be sung / read at least yearly in remembrance of Him and His involvement in our lives.    

Many years ago the Jewish people

escaped Egypt’s tyranny, 

so that Israel, God’s people of praise, 

would become his holy sanctuary,

his kingdom on the earth.

The Red Sea waters saw them coming

and ran the other way!

Then later, the Jordan River too 

moved aside so that they

could all pass through.

The land shuddered with fear.

Mountains and hills shook with dread.

 

O sea, what happened to you

to make you flee?

O Jordan, what was it that made you

turn and run?

O mountains, what frightened you so?

And you hills, what made you shiver?

Tremble, O earth, for you are in the presence of the Lord,

the presence of the God of Jacob.

He splits open boulders and brings up bubbling water.

Gushing streams burst forth when he is near!

Psalm 114 (The Passion Translation)

Some of the greatest moments of our story, His-Story are told in this psalm: When God split the Red Sea so that His people walked through on dry ground, when He brought water out of a rock, and when He split the Jordan River – Amazing eh!

We all love a good story – right!

If you have the chance to read through the book of Exodus you’ll find that it expands on these amazing stories of how the God of the universe continually makes a way for His people, those that love Him and impacts their lives for good. 

Maybe you could write your own psalm to remind yourself of all that God has done for you in your life and how that can speak into the lives of your children, and your grandchildren.

Blessings ’til next time 😀

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Viewing Church as Family

As I referenced the other day I have a lot on my mind at the moment – be it consciously, or unconsciously. Some of which I’m sure, is compounded due to my health situation.

But then again maybe, just maybe it has more to do with the age old question “where to from here?”

A question many people are asking around the world in these unprecedented times. Where do we go to from here?

Covid-19 has changed so much in our days in the space of six months it has literally brought the world to a standstill and even though some countries are seeing some success along the way in combating the coronavirus pandemic. It has the propensity to bring us to our knees again if and when another wave of the virus hits our shores.

As we here in New Zealand head back to some form of normalcy we are yet again reminded of the fact that the Covid-19 pandemic that is sweeping the world has the potential to wreak havoc on our way of life in Aotearoa.

It can have a significant impact not only on our health but on every aspect of our lives.

We have recently had a small number of people return to New Zealand with the virus in their system, some unknowingly asymptomatic. And it got me to thinking; How many people are asymptomatic when it comes to their faith?

Asymptomatic: (of a condition or a person) producing or showing no symptoms.

I read the following excerpt from an article on Premier Christianity the other day and it resonated with me. “One night a dad and his young sons sat down with a bowl of popcorn to watch a movie. They turned on Netflix and began scrolling through the seemingly infinite library of films to decide upon their viewing for the evening. After a while the dad landed on Die Hard and, being an irresponsible father, said: “Die Hard! Son, have you ever seen Die Hard? There’s Bruce Willis. He’s wearing a vest. It’s incredible!” And the son replied: “Maybe Dad, but let’s see what else there is.” So they continued to scroll, and that’s when they saw The Lion King. And the son said (for the 100th time): “Dad! Let’s watch The Lion King.”

Which movie did they watch that night? They watched The Lion King, of course. Why? Because in a family, the older generations are always willing to make personal sacrifices in order to include and engage the younger. This principle is foundational for healthy, loving and functional families.”

It was from an article looking at “What every Christian needs to know about Generation Z” and raises some interesting pointers that we as church leaders need to concern ourselves with, if we are to reach a generation that “is the first truly post-Christian generation, having been raised by non-Christians” that have little or no knowledge about the Good News let alone God’s provision.

Which raises another interesting quandary. How many Christians are asymptomatic?

That is to say that they are producing or showing no symptoms or signs of their faith, or at least don’t know or haven’t been able to clearly articulate what it is that they believe, and how they do mission and ministry today – apart from out of a sense of duty.

Colossians 1:10 says that we are “to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.”

(English Standard Version)

In all of this I am reminded of the fact that church is a family and this is where the article drew to its conclusion.

The thing is, we we need to be reaching out to the next generation; explaining what faith is all about and then guiding, encouraging and helping them to move forward in the faith.

We may not all see eye to eye and often times we may not like the direction that some of our brothers and sisters, sons and daughters are taking, let alone accepting what our parents or grandparents are wanting us to do. We constantly live in this struggle and we need to navigate it in such a way that we can continue doing life together and move forward, agreeing to disagree. But remaining faithful regardless.

Maybe the issue has come about because we have not passed on certain things to our children and their children in a way that they understand.

Joel 1:3 says that we are to “tell your children about it in the years to come, and let your children tell their children. Pass the story down from generation to generation.”

(New Living Translation)

“The challenges for the Church at such a time are profound. A generation that finds itself at the crux of such change has a significant responsibility for shaping the new ways of thinking that will define its own age but also the coming era.

When Christians get it right at such times, adapting themselves to the changing culture and finding new language for timeless truths, the Gospel spreads more easily for years to come because it makes sense to people. However, when the church gets it wrong by resisting change and enshrining nostalgia, we risk apparent irrelevance and an upward struggle… The challenge is the same: To reinvent the Church without changing the message, to reach this generation for the sake of the age to come.” Emery White

Maybe we have not been able to demonstrate and model new and innovative ways of doing mission and ministry because we have been taught to follow a particular model that served our grandparents and their parents really well over the years. And so when their children started to, or wanted to change things within the church (maybe here I’m talking about mainstream denominational churches at least) they were limited, or not able to bring about change because of the pressures of the elder statesmen and women who did not want change, and this train of thought has permeated down to today with catastrophic effect.

A missing generation (25-55 year olds) in many churches and even where they are present they are the ones that are now holding things in balance and revert to a similar mindset inherently embedded within their own psych.

This is often confused with power and control and has shifted from the entrepreneurial and visionary leaders to the administrators as it becomes more about sustainability and financial accountability, rather than truly being led by the Holy Spirit.

Propensity: an inclination or natural tendency to behave in a particular way.

The thing is maybe the word propensity is not the right word to use in relation to the virus, as it is adapting and masking itself in some way so that it can have more of an effect on the population (at least that is what some experts are surmising). It is not behaving in a particular way, as it appears to lay dormant in some people and they are asymptomatic, while in others it can have a more far reaching effect, and become life threatening. Disrupting the very fabric of our lives in the process and turning many things into chaos.

Are we in the church community going to be able to adapt and change to the changing dynamics of our day? Or are we going to be held back by those that now truly have the power and control, and make decisions on our behalf (often times to protect us or the organisation – at least that is the rhetoric).

I believe that God is calling us to adapt and change, to morph, to pivot, to unite and do things differently – not based on if we can afford it or not.

But rather on the premise that we can’t afford not to, or else we will die and become even less significant in bringing about His Kingdom. We will stop bearing fruit and He will cut us off.

Throughout the scriptures God reminds us time and time again that it is He who makes all things new.

The Holy Spirit brings new beginnings, new life and new hope and through stepping out in faith and just doing something we can impact our world for the better if we trust in Him.

This post is a tad longer that most that I have written of late – maybe that is because of the importance and the need to remind ourselves that we are family and that we need to be raising up the next generation of leaders in a way that releases them to do God’s will – Therefore, I would be very interested in your take on what has been shared.

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