Praying the Mission (1): Knowing the Father Page 1
Introduction
In the last chapter it was necessary to define the family of God as those who are adopted by
God and brothers and sisters of Christ Jesus. It’s essential in order to defend our unity as one
family. This naturally leads us to defend our unity as one family
. That’s essential because the
mission Jesus put us all on depends entirely on that unity, according to His own prayer in John17:18, 20-23.Jesus puts massive significance and emphasis in those verses on a Trinitarian kind of unityamong His people, as well as the built-in results of that kind of unity for the mission of worldevangelization. In other words, when Jesus sent the apostles and disciples out into the nations,their mission was to be accomplished by preaching the gospel.But by His own teaching and prayer life in John 17, we also see that the apostles and disciples,as well as all Christians in general, would see more fruit in their missional labors when theywere a united people. So while preaching is the
message
of the mission, unity with oneanother like the Trinity has is the
method
of the mission. We
sow
the mission by preaching, andwe
reap
the mission in unity. In short, when Christians get along with one another and love oneanother, they will have a living-color example and context by which to interpret our message of
the gospel. It’s pretty basic. Yet so overlooked, neglected, and even rejected far too often.
This particular part of the series will be the most passionate for me, I must admit. For almost adecade now a radical restructuring of my understanding of the unity of the church has been
maturing. So when I come to Jesus’ words, “Our Father,” I see –
and I believe Jesus intended
–
so much behind the word “our.” Such simple little words sometimes contain the deepest
meditations, yet they are so often quickly passed over with little thought. But not this word.
And not in this series. Every word is important as we’ve established previously, because Jesus is
drawing from OT theological concepts embedded into the special relationship He had withIsrael, and therefore the New Covenant / True Exodus community today called the church.
When I got a hold of Jesus’ theology of the unity of the church in passages like Ephesians 2 and
John 17, this passion inside of me began to swell in ways that seemed to overshadow so many
other passions. Perhaps this is because there’s this intense, built
-in sense of things that are notset right. The older I get the more I see the nasty underbelly of reality, and the deeper I seebetween the lines that are so strongly and dogmatically drawn by various leaders,denominations, and Christians.
Part Seven:
The Family of the Father (2)
Defending the Unity of the
Father’s Family
Matthew 6:5-9; Luke 11:1
Praying the Mission (1): Knowing the Father Page 2
Church Power + Church Politics + Church Money = A Nasty Underbelly of Division
The nasty underbelly I’ve come to see more clearly is that so much
of the church today is runlike a business. That means many churches are too often about money, namely making it andspending it. While I agree that certain business principles can be brought into the church tomake things run smoother and more efficiently, essentially helping us work smarter and notharder, I also deeply feel the inward tug of desiring worldly gain like any other American
breathing the air of the “American Dream.” Too many churches, at least in America, have
breathed this air deeply and find themselves drifting into an atmosphere of biblical unreality,
totally blinded to the black and white teachings of Jesus regarding money. So I’ve seen several
churches split in my lifetime over money.And with the urge to make and spend money, to bu
ild a big and “successful” organization, alsocomes politics. Where there’s power to be had and money to give and spend, there are people
wanting a piece of it, many of them vying for the biggest piece so they can have the biggest say.This is another part of the nasty underbelly of church, and Jesus hates it, frankly. Those
churches whom I’ve been a part of who have also had a “healthy” or even enormous amount of
money in the bank have been those where the most politicking has occurred. Decisions arem
ade based on pragmatics and human reasoning all of which are called “wisdom” by manyleaders, but foolishness to God. And so I’ve seen several churches split in my lifetime over
power and control in the local church.
Reading Between the Denominational and Doctrinal Lines That Cause Division
Then we have those who have attempted to draw some pretty bold and dogmatic lines forchurches and denominations in the past. Those lines
say
things like “inerrancy of Scripture”and “sound doctrine.” But no matte
r how boldly you draw those lines and writes those words,
there’s a very deep chasm of inconsistency between those lines into which many fall into whocannot “tow the line” or are not “on the same page.” So I’ve also seen churches split becauseof “doctrinal disagreements,” which of which, I’m convinced, were not entirely untainted by
struggles over money, control or power.
It’s hard to imagine it, but according to the
World Christian Encylopedia
, “Christianity consists
of 6 major ecclesiastico-cultural blocs, divided into 300 major ecclesiastical traditions,
composed of over 33,000 distinct denominations in 238 countries.”
1
Within Christianity, theauthor of this article in the
Encyclopedia
counts 33,820 denominations. And his article waswritten in the 2001 edition, some nine years ago. At the risk of sounding a little juvenile, I just
think that’s the most retarded thing I can possibly imagine. But it’s true.
1
David B. Barrett, George T. Kurian, and Todd M. Johnson.
The World Christian Encyclopedia: AComparative Survey of Churches and Religions in the Modern World
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2001),1:16, Table 1-5.
Praying the Mission (1): Knowing the Father Page 3
The reason I think it’s so retarded is because we split up and separate from one another o
verthe most bizarre and stupid and asinine things. The Baptist denominations were founded as aresult of separation from other groups around or just after the Reformation. The reason wasonly their difference regarding the mode of water baptism. The Reformation brought with itthe continuation of infant baptism from the Catholic Church, but a group of believers scornfully
labeled the “Anabaptists” believed that once a person had been truly converted, they ought to
be water baptized by immersion again as an adult. And just to show you how bizarre this issuegot, many leaders in the reformation vein actually persecuted and murdered Anabaptists. Overwater. The history is shocking and horrifying and serves as just one small example amongmyriads that Christians have a tendency to hurt one another and separate from one anotherover doctrinal lines they boldly and dogmatically and arrogantly draw. One would think, forexample, that if baptism were that kind of issue, worth killing each other over, Jesus wouldhave been a little more clear about it in His gospels.
The Enlightenment and Its Contribution to Division in the Church
I can’t help but think that this line of thinking has largely been handed down to us through the
embedding of the Enlightenment into our cultures for the last five hundred plus years. Thatperiod of history brought about a Renaissance of the intellect whereby scientific discovery bymen like Isaac Newton and others forged the way for a new kind of thinking. That thinkinglargely di
smissed mystery and replaced it with rationale. If it couldn’t be tested, observed,
examined, analyzed or proven then it had no place in life. And that kind of thinking has been sowoven into our cultures, throughout the world, that we have come to largely base our doctrinalsystems and beliefs and alignments with what can be intellectually worked out on paper.As a result, we end up with thousands of doctrinal statements which various groups want to getsigned by whoever will agree with them. The result is that further and deeper divisioncontinues to be forged between Christians who have so much to agree upon, namely the life,earthly ministry, death, resurrection, ascension and heavenly ministry of Jesus Christ for His
children right now. I’m not sure I’ve ever met someone who called themselves a Christian whodidn’t agree on these things.
But when we come to other matters like the end of the world, the judgments in Revelation, themode of baptism, spiritual gifts, church government, Bible versions, etc. are these really of suchmassive significance that they warrant, if not somehow
demand
, a separation from other
Christians who don’t agree with us?
I mean, do we really have to have all these areas analyzedwith our enlightened rationale so that we have hammered them all out with such a deepdegree of agreement in detail? Science continues to press into the knowledge of matter, whichdrives them to understand how things work on the most microscopic, subatomic, nanoscopic,
string theorized levels. And I say, “Go for it!” Let’s work on figuring all this out because, Ibelieve, it’s part and
parcel of taking dominion over the earth God gave us.However, there will always be points at which our knowledge and ability to observe, analyze,and rationalize will be severely and massively limited. We bump up against this brick wall, and
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Praying the Mission (7): The Family of the Father, Part 2 - Defending the Unity of the Father's Family
Built in to the first words of the Lord's Prayer is an assumed unity, oneness, and togetherness of children of the Father as they pray to Him. In Part 7 of Praying the Mission, Rob raises the problem of division and denominationalism in the church and attempts to address the root causes and cures with Jesus words "Our Father."
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