And He said to him,"' You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' "This is the great and foremost commandment. "The second is like it, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' "On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets."
We've spent, rightly so, much of our lives focusing on the first commandment. Yet, how much fullness of the second commandment do we actually experience, to the degree in which the Lord intends, in our day-to-day lives? This burns in me every day, especially when I see how so many sheep stray for the lack of a shepherd.
The phrase that really sticks with me is "The second is like it". I looked the phrase up in my handy-dandy Bible software and saw that the Greek work for "is like it" connotes that there is so much similarity with the first commandment that the only difference is the order in which we are to do them.
The commandments are homogenous, like milk and cream permanently mixed together. In fact, the word is "homoios". In other words, yes, we are to love God first, but we can't really fulfill the first commandment until the second is burned into us so completely as to have the first and second commandments blur into indistinction.
The other scripture that keeps my tailfeathers on fire is Ezekiel 34. I won't repeat it all here but it's essentially about the judgment that will come against bad shepherds. I don't want to be a bad shepherd, and since all of you are shepherds as well, I know that you don't either. Read Ezekiel 34 and you'll see what I mean.
OK, so what should Christian gatherings be all about? Here are some bullet points:
- Loving community
- Simple worship
- Ministry one to another
- "Everybody plays"
- Missional commitment to our community
Each of these bullet points deserve much elaboration but let me put them in abbreviated terms, one-by-one.
Loving Community
To be in a group of people who are fundamentally committed to one another, not just on Sunday mornings but any time necessary. To be in a group of people who share their lives, to a small degree or to a big degree, outside the four walls of the church. To be in a group of people that you know you can count on in times of distress, pain, sorrow, anguish, despair. To be in a group a people with whom you can share triumphs, joys, new seasons of life, love.
Simple Worship
To move back to what many of us knew in the "old days" of the Vineyard. Just one or a few people playing guitars, keyboards, djembes (please, no tambourines :-), doing simple songs of worship to the Lord. Not "professional" because this is just another word for "elite". In this case, "simple" equals "accessible". Maybe sometimes we'll have to put up with someone singing off-key, playing out of tune, etc., but if it's good enough for God it should be good enough for us.
Ministry one to another
Seeing the exercise of the gifts of the Spirit of God for the purpose of strengthening, enlightening, encouraging the people of God.
"Everybody plays"
Every believer having the opportunity to be used by God in any (not necessarily "every") group meeting. Not oriented to a "pulpit" ministry but to a "populist" ministry. In the words of Bob Jones, no "Nicolaitan" spirit having separation between "clergy" and "laity".
Missional committment to our community
To not be satisfied with focusing on ourselves but to be absolutely deliberate in opening up our hearts, minds and lives to the needy IN OUR OWN MIDST first and then outward from there ("To Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the earth"). Being meaningful in our own community to the point that, if we disappeared, our community would be devastated.
Lastly, let me be very up-front with all of you when I say that it is my desire that these gatherings draw together like-minded people who can develop MUTUAL loyalty, to one another and to the cause of Christ in our community. That we would see this combine both the corporate gathering and the smaller cell gathering, as indistinct pieces of one whole and that we would see many divergent peoples come together, not out of heirarchy, but out of loving committment to God and to each other.
So much more to be said but I hope that this note gives you a broad brushstroke outline of what I am going to do. I invite comment from all of you.
Love, Peace, Grace,
Bill
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