These transformations in me took place through tears, training and time, and like many, I fought it every step of the way. I am not easily persuaded, but I welcome the opportunity for you to try, for this is what it means to live in Koinonia, the Biblical word for true Christian Community and Fellowship. These changes have happened in me for one reason and one reason alone – God used the community of faith He placed me within and the leaders and teachers He gave to me. Had I chosen my own route, like a hired hand running quickly from those communities which did not teach me what I wanted to hear, I’d still be the young Christian man with a closed Christian mind, except of course for a few personal changes we all manage to accidently make along the way in the areas of personnel piety and private devotional growth (a post modern definition of sanctification – personal piety guided by personal growth defined by me).
 

Here is a most profound phenomenon in the American church: So many of us leave our churches when they change around us in search of the church that takes us back to what I am used to, as if God’s creative energy is always stifled by new and exciting ways of expressing our faith. Do you have any idea how many times I’ve heard phrases like – “that’s just not the way we things around here”, or, “the people of my church are used to”……….(name your preference here). We simply do not understand ourselves as part of a growing and living community as much as we see ourselves as part of a status quo hodgepodge of friends that are in my life to meet my needs and serve my tastes – especially the preacher. The preacher who understands himself as a hired hand (the way many view us by the way) will most often capitulate to such directives. It is always much easier to be popular than it is to be faithful. Just ask Jesus. He was a preacher of a different order, introducing a gospel that He hoped would forever transform the way His disciples understood ministry. Do we really think it was accidental that the gospel writers seem to highlight the difficulties Jesus continually had with the religious status quo of his time? Do we not think it quite feasible for a man of Jesus’ intelligence to simply give the people what they wanted, and appease the Pharisees to such a degree that all would be well in Church Central? Give me a pastor who is struggling with the status quo, and I’ll most likely be introducing you to a preacher who is proclaiming the gospel to his church, unless of course the gospel is the status quo. IN this case, they are faithfully serving by his or her side, without spending most of their time consumed with what we are doing and how we are doing it. (If you are wondering whether or not you are part of the postmodern status quo at this point, just answer a simple question: Are you thinking to yourself how easily you could straighten me out, having already decided how much straightening I need as you read the words above? The status quo often deem holding others accountable as the primary calling of the Christian faith, only, the standard of accountability is most often their own personal preferences measured against another person’s life. If this is you, you have your answer.)