Hebrews 10:19-25

In conversing recently with a gentleman at a hotel where I was staying, I learned that the church across the busy freeway had just gone to 5 services. This had been necessitated by their 25% annual growth rate. I asked myself if that achievement in numbers alone constituted success? Was God monitoring the same statistics this man was tracking? How does God measure growth in His Church? I believe growing numbers could happen concurrently with authentic growth but in light of Jesus’ comments about broad and narrow paths, numbers should probably not be considered the sole benchmark. The size of budgets should not be considered a true benchmark for the Bride’s health either. How tragic that the numbers of heads and dollars have become the gold standard of church success.

What is the consequence of building something using our plumb line versus God’s? Can we really build the city whose architect is God using our standards of measurement and our tools? As you read the New Testament, how do you think God is measuring success?  By their NT teachings, can you tell what the apostles’s were using as a plumb line?

Once upon a time there was an apprentice carpenter who was handed a board by the journeyman carpenter and instructed to use that board as his standard of measurement. He instructed him to produce 100 boards exactly like that one.  The hard working apprentice laid the board on top of the board to be cut and struck his line. He made his cut and produced his first board. He then took the second board and used it to mark the cut for the third board. He followed this procedure for 98 subsequent cuts. When the journeyman came to see how his apprentice had done, He was not pleased. He asked where the original board was. The apprentice showed him where he had set it after the first cut.  The journeman showed the apprentice how setting aside the original resulted in a slow accumulation of error in each subsequent board. The consequence was that much time and materials had been spent cutting 98 boards that would not fit the application where they were needed.

As I see churches shrinking and the masses avoiding Christianity; as I see Christians increasingly marginalized in our modern culture, I ask myself “Why?”  The story we devout ones often sell to ourselves is that they are not involved in Christianity because they are by nature hardened, depraved and unelected. While I see an element of truth to this assessment, I don’t think that is the whole story. I also believe that substituting heads and dollars for the simple transformation of human lives have resulted in the accumulated errors that have contributed to impotency in the western church. Each subsequent board that has been cut over the centuries became a tradition (or wineskin) sanctified by time and practice. I think it is quite likely that many who are yet-to-be-saved keep Christianity at a distance because their gut tells them something is amiss.

Father, I believe You desire to pour out Your new wine, Your very own abundant life upon us. I believe You desire to see us exceed Yourself in the good works that You did while on this earth.  Just as in Cana, I believe the Bride Groom has saved the best wine for the last.  As we revisit the New Testament and search out the ancient markers and the original plumb line please show us how to be transformed and to transform our institutions into communities where new wine can be better received,  retained and served up to the called and thirsty ones all around us. Amen.

For the purpose of searching out those ancient boundaries I am proposing to my friends (who have an interest) that in our precious smaller gatherings that we read the New Testament together in 2014. I am also proposing we read and study a book together that might help us better capture the narrative of the New Testament free of the biases we have inflicted upon it through our traditions. The book is called The Untold Story of the New Testament Church by Frank Viola.

The current questions that are being discussed in many circles I associate with, revolve around the Church. What is the Church supposed to look like when it gathers? Does our assesment of her health mirror that of God’s? Why is my local church shrinking?

We are reminded in our passage to not forsake our own assembling together. The passage implies that when we meet, it should also be our intention to encourage and stimulate each other to love and good deeds.