Something Happened Along the Way

We don't always see it, but the way Jesus served God's mission was radically different from his contemporaries.  For example, Jesus chose his disciples.  The normal or correct practice for rabbis of the first century was to wait for a disciple to come tot he rabbi and ask for permission to follow him.  Jesus turned that around going out to people and asking them to, "follow me."  Not only did Jesus choose his disciples, he allowed women to be part of his team, another first century no-no.  In the story of the sisters, Martha and Mary (Luke 10), we see Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus.  This means he was teaching her.  Jesus discipled and trained Mary and other women to be leaders in his church.  No other rabbi allowed women into their classrooms.  These are just two of many examples from Jesus' life.

When we begin the book of Acts, we see lots of adaptive changes happening quickly.  Suddenly Jesus' followers are sharing God's word in other languages, then they are taking the good news into the homes of foreigners, next they begin to deliberately target Gentiles (non-Jewish people) inviting them into the kingdom of God.   We've heard these stories so many times, we forget how radical Jesus and his followers were when it came to the mission of God.  The apostle Paul sums of this radical, adaptive approach this way, "I have become all things to all people, so that I may by every possible means save some." (1 Corinthians 9:22).
 
But something happened along the way. Somehow when Jesus' followers got to the 21st century and found themselves in comfortable churches, the conviction to adapt, the practice of being radical and the desire to spread God's word in new and changing ways, was forgotten.   We need a new, fresh radicalness, we need to actively practice adaptive change when it comes to Christ's mission.  We need deep change.

Keep Pressing On,
- Pastor Tim