Jesus’ Family
Sometimes we get confused about what it means to be in the family of God. We come by this confusion naturally; it is an understandable occurrence in this ‘age of reason’ in which we live. Thankfully, our Lord clarifies it for us:
#JesusStories: Luke 8 tells of a day Jesus was speaking to the crowd, and his mother and brothers came to check on him. However, they couldn’t get to Jesus because the crowd was pressing in on him. So they sent word to Jesus that they were in the crowd and wanted to see him. What Jesus did next was surprising; he used the opportunity to make a HUGE point. He said, “My mother and My brothers are these who hear the word of God and do it.” After making his point, I’m sure Jesus made his way toward his family, though Luke did not include it.
This was early on in Jesus’ ministry, and already he was calling for people to rearrange their schedules around his words. Many today would think this reveals Jesus’ authority to expect obedience. However, there was something else going on. In the world of the Hebrews, there was no separation between a thought and a deed. In other words, no one would talk of a thought until the corresponding deed was visible. This idea still stands today in the right-of-passage tradition for a 12-year old Jewish male called the Bar Mitzvah. Interestingly, the word mitzvah means ‘a prayer in the form of a deed’. In our Greek-based culture, this is an odd idea. Either someone is praying or they are doing a deed; prayers and deeds are separate ideas. But in the Hebrew understanding they are fused as two sides of the same coin. So when Jesus was telling the people to “act on it”, he was was punctuating that the new inbreaking kingdom teaching was SO TRUE, that he and his disciple-family would align their behaviors to whatever was needed to advance it. In other words, they were putting their money and their time where their mouth was. And these ones repeating the kingdom–advancing behaviors were the ones Jesus called family. Wow!
This is a significant challenge today. True to our Greek roots we have carved out a state of salvation that has little corresponding actions. Now don’t get me wrong, I fully believe that anyone who even calls on the name of the Lord will be saved! And those individuals are immediately adopted into the family of God. So this is not a conversation about who will be in heaven; it is a conversation about who will be able to work with Jesus in bringing the kingdom of heaven upon the earth. Receiving salvation does not require works, but advancing the kingdom of Christ does. Most Christians today are being directed to be ‘students of the scriptures’ rather than ‘re-enact the works of Jesus’. Eleven percent of the gospel verses were written while Jesus was with the marginalized; eight percent of the verses captured Jesus doing healings and miracles. Is your time in the word of God leading you to be with the poor? To pray for healings and miracles? To re-enact the behaviors of Jesus we see repeated over and over again in the gospels? I propose that we need a new definition of Christlikeness – one based on what Jesus did with his time, rather than one based on the scriptures we’ve studied and verses we’ve memorized. But to the ones working hard to advance the kingdom of heaven in the likeness of Jesus, He was quick to call them family.
#DinnerChurchQuotes: “Sorry, we are not going to fix the world with speeches from platforms; we must embrace the relational work of gathering around tables.” –Dan white
Blessings & Boldness,
Verlon
Dr. Verlon and Melodee Fosner have led a multi-site Assemblies of God Dinner Church in Seattle, Washington since 1999 (www.CommunityDinners.com). In this decade when more churches in the U.S. are declining than thriving, and when ninety-six churches a week are closing, Verlon and Melodee sensed that a different way of doing church was needed for their 97-year old Seattle congregation. It soon became obvious that they were not the only ones in need of a different path. They joined the FX team in 2016 and founded the Dinner Church Collective. And then in 2019 founded the Dinner Church School of Leadership. There is a lot to be gained when church leaders begin to see open doors in the American landscape that they had previously overlooked. Therein lies the journey for those who will forge a new future for the American Church.
Categories: Uncategorized
10.15.20
By: Josh Gering
“Most Christians today are being directed to be ‘students of the scriptures’ rather than ‘re-enact the behaviors of Jesus’.” What a sobering quote. This is more true than I want to believe. How have we reduced following Jesus to what we learn about Him and neglect the very works that He has called us to? Book knowledge does not change hearts or communities. It’s only when the body of Christ can get out and DO what Jesus did or at least make some attempt at it! Perhaps it’s time to reinvent discipleship classes and turn them into discipleship labs?
10.19.20
By: Joshua Smith
It’s been about six months now since I have began training as a mission developer. I am being asked more and more if I am going to seminary. It’s really easy to see the narrow track assumed for “students of the scriptures”. This reminds me of the net verses line fishing analogy. We as a church have to be enouraging of more targeted ministry untethered to traditional church requirements.
10.20.20
By: Rodney Martin
Verlon, there is a lot to grapple with in this week’s post. We are so immersed in a Greek worldview that it is difficult to grasp a Hebraic understanding of prayer, salvation, etc. The proclamation church is cognitively driven with a clear differentiation between belief and action. This disconnect seems to be alienating to seculars and others who often approach the world in more wholistic, unified ways. Approaching discipleship as the act of following instead of teaching abstract theological ideas radically changes how one knows or defines a disciple of Christ. Does this mean a disciple may not be able to recite the Creeds but will look like Jesus in the way they love and engage in peacemaking? The Dan White quote that we won’t fix the world from platforms but by gathering around tables imaginatively presents what it means to move from cognitive believing in Jesus to being together as followers of Jesus. This strikes a chord with me but I also feel internal tension in wondering how one knows if they are a disciple of Christ without learning certain theological truths. Paradigm shifts are never easy.
10.20.20
By: Marion Sortore
Verlon writes:”I propose that we need a new definition of Christlikeness – one based on what Jesus did with his time, rather than one based on the scriptures we’ve studied and verses we’ve memorized.”
With that new definition of Christlikeness comes a new definition of church – not the buildings but the people – as we discussed in an earlier blog. I don’t believe we can have one without the other…simply because when we are more and more like Jesus, we do the things that Jesus does – and church in a box isn’t it. Verlon, you stated it early in your post: “This was early on in Jesus’ ministry, and already he was calling for people to rearrange their schedules around his words.” Jesus isn’t calling us to fit Him into our schedule; Jesus is calling us to make Him our schedule and fit our life into His. I believe Jesus is the calling the church to make Him their life, and to fit church into His life.
10.20.20
By: Shawn Rutan
Great reminder of keeping God’s vision. He viewed those around him as family. It’s a powerful moment when we can look around the room and see the outcast of society as our family and feel the same love for them as we do for our biological family. I was thinking the other day, how funny would it look if we treated our biological families the same way we treat proclomation based church. Connection cards, offering, dress code, superficial short conversations based on obligation rather than sincerity. The examples I drummed up in my mind gave me laughs for two days! I pray we, the Church, can get back to a more familiar approach.
10.20.20
By: Nicole Fike
Replicating the works of our master is what 21st century Christianity is all about. Advancing the kingdom and saving lives is what drives me to pursue dinner church. These are the three ways I focus on replicating the works of Christ in ministry:
1. Practicing the posture of being “with” our guests. This is the signature mark of the way God has come to us in the world. Matthew 1:23 says “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”)
2. Being with “the least of these” (Mt. 25:40) is the practice of opening a space of with-ness between us and the broken and tending to the presence of Christ there at the table. Being with the least of these is a practice that is fundamental to shaping communities in mission. This is what it means to be God’s faithful presence in the world. Listen, love and serve.
3. Practice being present. Luke 10:3-7 gives us a good example of this. 3 Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. 4 Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road. 5 “When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house,’ 6 If someone who promotes peace is there, your peace will rest on them; if not, it will return to you. 7 Stay there, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house. They are traveling light. (v.4) Stay a while, be present, submit, eat what is offered, be a guest, put yourself at the mercy of the order and relationships in this place.