http://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/glory-plodding/
What we need are fewer revolutionaries and a few more plodding visionaries. That’s my dream for the church — a multitude of faithful, risktaking plodders. The best churches are full of gospel-saturated people holding tenaciously to a vision of godly obedience and God’s glory, and pursuing that godliness and glory with relentless, often unnoticed, plodding consistency.
Does this sound like Jesus' calling for you?
Until we are content with being one of the million nameless, faceless church members and not the next globe-trotting rock star, we aren’t ready to be a part of the church. In the grand scheme of things, most of us are going to be more of an Ampliatus (Rom. 16:8) or Phlegon (v. 14) than an apostle Paul. And maybe that’s why so many Christians are getting tired of the church. We haven’t learned how to be part of the crowd. We haven’t learned to be ordinary.
I have no desire to be the next globe-trotting rock star, but sorry, neither do I want to live my life being just an ordinary church goer... fitting into organized religion.
I used to think going to church was the 'road less travelled' or the 'narrow road'. But lately I've recognized there is a certain amount of comfort and security from fitting into that crowd. I'm prepared to discard the security of following the crowd whenever it distracts me from following Jesus.
2 comments:
I'm with you, Jon. No desire to be famous for the sake of being famous, but certainly not aiming for the high road of plodding along with millions of other aimless sheep.
Sure, visionary is good--but I don't think visionaries plod. Neither do risktakers. Real visionaries and risktakers leave the main road, wander off on wonderful tangents, and are revolutionary.
If it wasn't for the title of the book, I might give the guy credit for encouraging a less flashy, more earthy lifestyle. But promoting a lock-step honoring of the status quo? Don't think so.
Yes Al, I think you clarified the issue some. He throws in the words visionaries and risktaking, but I don't see how that fits with describing someone who is plodding along the same path, and sticking with the crowd.
Oh well. There are many institutional church leaders who have invested a lot into their systems, I can't be surprised if they are hesitant to considering change. But I sense change is coming. I pray that we'll discover greater unity down the road.
Post a Comment