Conclusions

I hope you have enjoyed this rather random walk through what Jesus is doing in a part of his Body in the 21^st Century; but, more than that, I sincerely hope that you have been inspired to seek what Jesus has for you and for your church fellowship. I’m sure you are fed up by now hearing THERE ARE NO FORMULAS, but we have discovered a few principles along the way. We do have to get rid of things – all transformations, like the butterfly emerging from the chrysalis, require that luggage be left behind.

Firstly, all is centred on the person of Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Son of Man, the actual human being who walked around Israel for 33 years and is now seated at the right hand of the Father, fully God and fully man. Because he is God, he is totally good, infinitely powerful, endlessly wise, we will never reach the end of who he is. Because he is man, and chose to limit himself thus while on earth, we can relate to him, draw from his experience here on earth, understand what he is saying, empathise with him, live in his presence, experience his life, be transformed to be like him. We do need to abandon many aspects of our church-based life, but we have him. We may find it hard at times to know what to do, but we are more and more able to recognise his voice, and we do hear him speaking. We may miss the satisfaction of completing rituals and other religious activities, but we have a relationship with him that will last for ever, and will never stop growing.

Secondly, here are some of the things we need to throw overboard from both our churches and our individual lives:

Any thought of working out a strategy, a plan or a vision (that has not come directly from him). His job is strategy, ours is tactics.
Trying to please people, trying to make an impression, doing things to influence people so that they will like us, being more concerned about how we are perceived than who we actually are.
Trying to manipulate others in any way towards a desired outcome.
Rushing ahead to make things happen, rather than waiting for his word, which may take us off in a completely new direction.
Judging ourselves or anyone else according to criteria that we have chosen or others want to impose on us.
Apathy that slows or limits our ability to respond to his command – we should be like the cat waiting at a mouse hole, totally at rest yet always ready to spring into action
Busyness that drowns out the still, small voice (1 Kings 19:12 AV)
Thirdly, here are some revelations that sustained our church community, I know that Jesus want to give you your own:
“Jesus wants to lead his church directly”
“Manifestation, not representation”
“Live depending on continuous revelation”
Lastly, when you have decided to be single-minded in your pursuit of Jesus and after you have cleared your life of all that is not needed, wait on him, he will not fail you.

Endnotes

Notes