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We continued our series on Nehemiah last night at Deeper in the church. (http://www.christchurchbraintree.org.uk/deeper.html) .
I have grown to love the story of Nehemiah. The way that the news of the plight of the people of Jerusalem moves him to weep and pray. the movement of the Spirit in him that causes the discontent with their plight to be a vision of their restoration. But mostly i love the courage that Nehemiah displays as he follows through in making the vision a reality. He faces so much opposition from inside and outside the camp. He is accused of arrogance and idiocy, plotted againts and invited to spring traps. All of this and he perseveres. He achieves his vision on a mind blowing scale, in just 52 days they rebuild miles of wall and mostly it is down to the strength, faith, and commitment of the vision carrier.
One of the reasons that i admire Nehemiah is because i see my own situation in his (although on a much smaller scale). God has given me a vision for the transformation of lives through discipleship to Jesus and the church i lead has grown that vision to be the transformation of Braintree to the glory of God and i love it. It is a vision worth living and dying for. Transforming Community by nurture and healing through faith in Jesus. I thank God for putting me here and allowing me to be a part of such a worthwhile vision for His church. (Please God never let me be the leader of a church that only has a vision for a social club for their own benefit). But do I have the courage to see it through?
You see, the vision grows and develops through prayer and study, discussion and faith. it is now not simply a desire to transform, but a plan of how that transformation will take place according to God’s plan. Do i have the courage and the faith to go through with it? The vision that God is growing, in the leaders of the church as well as me as their minister, is not what was expected by many or called logical by those lacking in faith. it is a plan about the reformation of the church so that the people can can be equiped to serve the vision and to grow in their faith and discipleship in Jesus. It is not a plan with lots of ‘projects’ for the church to do on top of their current structure, but a plan that transforms the structure of the church so that the organic growth of the church will lead to huge impact in the power of the Holy Spirit through the transformed lives of the people. And needless to say, it is not popular with some.
It necessitates a mindset change from church as people centred social gathering and pastoral care as chaplaincy to church as God centred worshippers and pastoral care as formation for service. This is hard for some as all they have known is the kind of church where the congregation are the centre of the purpose of the church. Where the church is set up to serve them and meet their needs and they have not been taught or even imagined that the church could be for anything else. I want to see a church where the needs of the lost who do not know Jesus can become the found who know Jesus as Lord. Where their needs and transformation are the central purpose of the community of faith as Jesus said they should be in the great commission.
Of course, this means that the church ceases to be a place of comfortable belonging and becomes a place of a different sort of comfort. Comfort that is rightness. rightness that comes from doing what we are supposed to do in the way we are supposed to do. the comfort of satisfaction and purpose fulfilled. It is this comfort that is talked about in Isaiah 40. the comfort of rightness in the eyes of God rather than the comfortableness that comes from the armchair of safe selfsatisfaction.
so much more to say… i will try to add to this and would be interested to hear other’s views.
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