The Role of “Deconstruction” in Rebuilding

/in /by

the role of deconstruction in rebuilding

As our Executive Director (Bill Taylor) noted in his blog post last week, we are shifting our focus in these posts to “rebuilding.” He appropriately challenged us to recognize the universality of the divine calling we have received as part of God’s family – the call of the church is a call to us all. As we then begin to process thoughts about rebuilding, we must recognize both the present reality as well as the divine design we are working toward. This leads us to this presently controversial word of “deconstruction.”

In some measure, we are at a place of “rebuilding” because of COVID, but it is more than that. COVID regulations and ripples did not singularly change the context and effectiveness of our ministry, though it exacerbated or magnified what already exists in some measure. The last several years also laid bare what we are doing, in a way, clearing the table for us. The question then is: “What was swept off the table of ministry in the last several years that should be put back on?” That is for each of you and your churches to sort out, but I want to suggest that it will be hard to do that well without engaging in a form of “deconstruction.”

“Deconstruction” has been getting a lot of press lately. I have people asking me what I think about it, and how we should respond. Without getting too deep into the manifestation of deconstruction we are seeing in Christian celebrities (that may be a topic for another blog), I would want to clarify that in its essence deconstruction is not the same as destruction. Deconstruction is not equivalent to abandonment – though that seems to be an equivalency too often implied. Deconstruction is a more careful and thoughtful process of taking something apart for the sake of understanding and improvement rather than a critical spirit engaged for purposes other than rebuilding.

The truth is that to rebuild we must first disassemble, or at least review.

COVID did some of that deconstruction for us, but it has left lots of work for us to do. I believe that healthy deconstruction is only a first step – whether it is personal or corporate. The next steps are evaluation (bible based) and then rebuilding. Bill has helped us to begin to think about the rebuilding portion.

Unfortunately, some of us refuse to reconsider anything. Others too easily dismiss what has gone before. Neither approach is right and both invite trouble. Peter is one example of someone who wrestled with this same process. He had to reconsider the reality of Jews & Gentiles and rebuild his approach to ministry. That is deconstruction in its appropriate application: guided by the Holy Spirit and motivated by a concern for the lost, growing God’s church, and bringing honor to His name.

Where are you at in the rebuilding process? Do you refuse to revisit your plans and strategies? Are you simply longing to put everything back together as it was before? Or have you inappropriately thrown out all things historic too dismissively, simply because they were used by a previous generation or leadership? Hopefully, we are wise enough to avoid both of those ditches.

Additionally, let’s hope that what we have built is made up of components so evidently valuable and appropriate that when our ministries are deconstructed, they will reveal the great building blocks of God’s amazing truths, the sources of hope and purpose, of love and charity. And may we have the humility to allow others to test what we have been building, and building on, to make something stronger, better, purer, and even more effective.  In fact, let’s be building blocks on which those coming after us can build upon to reach higher for God’s kingdom.

Maybe we need to avoid the word “deconstruction” because its meaning has been hijacked. But the concept we must not run from. To rebuild well we must not tear down and abandon, but disassemble to evaluate what parts still work, what parts are necessary and valuable, and then reassemble with those pieces. To do this well we must listen to the Holy Spirit and the truth in God’s Word. In fact, that approach is at the heart of our heritage in the Free Church. So, let’s rebuild well!

Terry Kaufman
EFCC Leadership Catalyst

Rebuilding on Divine Calling

/in /by

rebuilding on divine calling

So God created human beings in His own image.  In the image of God He created them, male and female He created them.  Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.”  Genesis 1:27-28 

This week the blog theme shifts from theology to rebuilding. This is a natural progression – a rebuilding of mission/ministry on a foundation of theological truth. “Rebuilding” seems to imply that something has been lost, destroyed, or taken away. After two years of pandemic, “rebuilding” is a relevant theme.

I am struck by two truths from Genesis 1. First, man and woman are made in the image of God.  Second, man and woman are given a divine calling by God.  A few weeks ago, our EFCC Leadership Catalyst Terry Kaufman talked about how God’s beautiful plan for humanity includes “work”! Part of what it means to be made in His image is that we are wired (and commanded!) to create, be fruitful, and tend (2:15) creation. We are gifted and called by God to “reign” over what He has created in a loving, caring way that causes it to flourish.

I am reminded that every human being – male and female has this gifting and calling from God. Further, as followers of Jesus, each of us has a calling to minister shalom and His grace in this world. Many Old Testament scholars see temple imagery in the Garden of Eden. Man and woman are expelled from the Garden/temple in Genesis 3, but God continues to find ways to personally minister grace in a sinful world (through the tabernacle, the temple and Jesus). Peter reminds us in I Peter 1 that we are a “living stones that God is building into His spiritual temple. What’s more, you are His holy priests.  Through the mediation of Jesus Christ, you offer spiritual sacrifices that please God.”  (I Peter 2:5). Peter further declares that we are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own people. As a result, we can show others the goodness of God (I Peter 2:9).

The calling on man and woman in Genesis 1-2, was a calling to all humans.  It was a calling to live out the image of God in us and work – to produce beauty, fruitfulness, and shalom.

That universal call still stands – even in a creation that groans under the weight of sin (Romans 8). Moving forward, I want to suggest that the Church needs to rebuild on another divine calling. This calling is for every follower of Jesus (not just pastors and missionaries). This divine mandate is for each of us to be a royal priest who ministers the gracious, redemptive presence of God in this foreign land. Professional clergy and spectacular programs alone will not accomplish what God has called His Church to. This side of COVID we need to embrace the divine calling that puts feet to the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers and makes it relevant to salvation, sanctification, and mission.

Bill Taylor
EFCC Executive Director

 

When Theology is Not Enough

/in /by

When Theology is not Enough

I am haunted by some verses found in John 5. The context – Jesus has just healed on the Sabbath and the leaders are upset. Jesus offers up an explanation for healing on the Sabbath. This leads to more trouble as the Jewish leaders clearly understood Jesus’ statement about his father (v.17) and want to kill him for blasphemy. In the middle of the subsequent rebuttal by Jesus we read verses 39-40:

39You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me! 40Yet you refuse to come to me to receive this life.

Wow! Think about those words for a few moments. These men were the elite theologians in Jesus’ day. They knew their Scriptures inside and out. They had been educated in the best rabbinical traditions. They had systematized their Scriptures into a detailed theology and created a whole host of religious practices to live that theology. But they missed the point! They missed Jesus.

Do we do the same thing?

Before we go further, please understand that I am in no way advocating that we give up on becoming better students of the Bible. I am also not setting up a false dichotomy between theology and religious experience, or theology and Jesus, or the Bible and Jesus. We need to be more robust in our theology, but we also need to experience Jesus in our daily lives. Theology without experiencing life with Jesus is like the experience of the religious leaders of Jesus’ day.

When was the last time you truly experienced Jesus in your life?

Do you have friends that can ask if and how you are experiencing Jesus?

When I say experiencing Jesus, I am simply referring to those moments where we can clearly identify God showing up in some way, shape, or form in our daily lives. It might be as simple as a Bible verse taking on new meaning. It might be an answer to prayer. It might be another member of the body of Christ who visibly lives out Jesus in their words and actions toward us. Whatever it is, it leads us to a bigger, bolder, and more beautiful vision of who Jesus is.

This whole blog season has centered around the theme of theology. As we close that theme, I want to leave you with this encouragement. Our theology comes to life when it is infused by seeing and experiencing the living Lord in our lives. As we meet Jesus throughout our daily lives: we learn more about Him and His good plan for the flourishing of all life, we learn more about His character, we are drawn deeper into His love, life, and mission, and we grow in our understanding of what it means for us to follow Him. As our experience of Jesus grows, our theology deepens.

Do you want to deepen your theology?

The flipside of that question could be this one:

How are you making space in your life to be open to hear from, see, and experience Jesus?

Neil Bassignthwaighte
EFCC National Mission Director & Interim Prayer Catalyst

The End of Mission

/in /by

the end of mission

Some people believe that mission is over. Jesus said in Matthew 24:14 that “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.” The Gospel has indeed been preached to all the countries of the world, but Jesus is referring to the nations – the ethnic or people groups with their distinct cultures and languages. Almost half of the world’s population, representing many people groups, are yet to hear the Gospel.1 The Gospel has not been preached to them. Mission is not over, and the task of world evangelization is still in effect for the Church. But when will mission end?

Throughout the Book of Revelation, John records his vision and revives the confidence of the Churches in the certainty of the spread of the Gospel throughout all the nations. Persecutions and slaughter cannot stop the spread of the Gospel until all that dwell on earth has heard. The song of the twenty-four elders addressed to the Lamb of God celebrates the redemption of men from all nations. They are redeemed out of all peoples of God’s purpose: He has “made them a Kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth” (Rev. 5:10). In another vision, John sees “a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people, and language” in worship before the throne of God (Rev. 7:9). Representatives of all nations will be there in heaven worshipping the Lord and thus fulfill God’s promise to Abraham in Genesis 12. This is where history ends. God is moving all history towards the completion of world evangelization.

In Revelation 21:24, John describes his vision in heaven “The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendour into it. The glory and honour of the nations will be brought into it (v. 26). The worship of God by people from every nation, tribe, people, and language will bring the highest glory to God! This should be our guiding vision of ultimate purpose, that God would be most glorified in every people by a movement of obedience and worship to Christ.

This multicultural worship in heaven will happen because this is God’s unchanging purpose on earth.

We read in Hebrews 6:17-18 the two unchanging purposes of God; (1) To bless Abraham and his descendants, and (2) To bless all peoples or nations of the earth through His descendants or seed. So, between Abraham in Genesis 12 to the worship in heaven by all the nations of the world in the Book of Revelation is mission. The worship in heaven and the completion of God’s promise to Abraham will only be realized through missions.

The Book of Revelation closes with a vision of new heaven, new earth, and the eternal city in which the Lord Himself is the Light. There once more, we meet the nations. In the new Paradise is the tree of life with leaves for the healing of the nations (Rev. 22:2). And so, history is complete. Mission is over. The nations, the families of the earth who have always been the object of God’s love, redeemed and preserved, have a place in God’s creation. The Lord will be their light, and they shall reign forever and ever (Rev. 22:5).

Ike Agawin
EFCC International Mission Director

1 https://joshuaproject.net/global/progress

Theology for Today

/in /by

theology for today

Recently Bill Taylor posted on this Blog site some thoughts and questions regarding Genesis and its implications for us. He graciously opened the door for further discussion, and I would like to follow that invitation by suggesting a couple of thoughts for consideration.

First, it is clear from the early chapters of Genesis that we were created to work. I know that work is often perceived as a four-letter word — in the “bad” sense. But work was given to mankind pre-fall, in a perfect environment, and as a part our forming in the image of God. This flies in the face of the often-caricatured picture of work being a result of the fall of humanity from grace, the fall into brokenness, something to endure, something bothersome and endured only to provide for what is really important — which of course is leisure. But that is not God’s model. Nor is that God’s example. Work is Godly, in many ways. At least, it is designed and intended to be.

In fact, there is a fascinating verse in Isaiah 65 that indicates that we will even work in the New Heaven/New Earth. There, work will not be stained by the fall, but we will be able to build houses that last and will not be taken from us. While I am not sure how literal to take that, I do believe it draws our attention to the fact that the world for which God created us, the world of Genesis 1 and 2 where sin had not yet destroyed so much, included work. If heaven is the re-creation, the fulfillment of God’s Eden, then work will be a part of our eternity in some form. I actually wonder if craftsmen, artists, creatives will all find fulfilling God’s honoring work in heaven, while us pastors will have to set our hands and minds to things less familiar to us now, as the work we are presently committed to will not be needed there. That is an intriguing thought for me.

So, can we begin to view our workplace and work opportunities with a fresh view? As Christians we should not communicate a dread for Mondays, and a celebration for Fridays, in the same way as those who are ignorant of God’s design and call on us. What a privilege to partner with God in the provision of our people and in reflecting His image through work.

But that also leads to a second observation from those first chapters of Genesis.

The work assigned to humanity in the Garden of Eden included care for God’s creation. Yes, that creation was there to provide for us, but we are also called to consider and care for the larger creation of God. This too is part of living in the image of God.

So, I leave you to ponder a couple of questions. What is your attitude about work? Is it appropriate? What can you do to change it? How can we leverage our work as a call of God, whether that work be in a kitchen, garage, retail sales, or church? And what are we personally doing to further the cause of care of God’s creation? This too is part of our work, our calling.

For me, these are pretty clear, and not very controversial, implications of the first chapters of Genesis where God articulates the beginnings of His plan for us. So how is that theology expressing itself in your today?

Terry Kaufman
EFCC Leadership Catalyst