2/4 - The Key to Transformation By Dr. JSalum
Destructive phrases, enemies to changing!
The following are some phrases that destroy the creativity of the church or reveal an adversity to change in any situation:
1) “This isn’t the way we do things around here”.
This is an expression that shows an addiction to sameness, doing the same things as they have always been done. An example of the result of this type of thinking is that the same “type of liturgy and worship service” that is practiced today is the same that has been practiced in many congregations for centuries.
Have you ever stopped and wondered if our type of worship service is in fact what pleases God? All of the services in all of “the churches” are the same all over the place. This uniformity is the result of an importing a “packaged” gospel that is exported to other nations. Per example, what is practiced in Brazil in terms of our worship services is the result of accepting the importation of the religion of foreign missionaries without questioning.
It is simply the proliferation of established, repetitive, and unquestioned religion, since the times of Martin Luther and Calvin, directed by liturgy, by the protestant ethic, and by tradition and conformity to the same daily routine.
The “routine” is unchangeable, because it has substituted the life of the Church (Ecclesia – the gathering together of the saved) destroying its revolutionary power to provoke changes in culture and society.
This routine has isolated the church in a religious and cultural monastery (a sub-culture). The church is either isolated in such a way that it’s no longer relevant and also it is not able to exercise its role as “salt” in the influential areas of society: Politics, education, religion, business, media, the arts and entertainment, and the family.
The practice of the Gospel today isn’t the same as it was for the Church in the first century in terms of being “a witness” of Jesus and an agent of transformation in society. The “Gospel” has become a product of a priestly class that considers themselves “holy” and everything else as mundane and secular. But we know that the Kingdom is in us and wherever we go the Kingdom is manifest through our words and deeds.
Even Mary having chosen a higher role did not become holier than Martha who went about with her household chores. We don’t become “saints” for sitting at the feet of Jesus; we are “saints” whatever we do in Him wherever we are, because He made us “holy” with the Blood He shed on the cross.
But the “church service” has replaced the deeds of the disciples, because it has transformed the believer into a “church member” and not into a Kingdom disciple that bears witness to and brings the presence of the Kingdom into every spheres of society that he enters.
The “church service” has created a wall around the “ecclesia” isolating it from the city “polis”, in such a way that the church cannot revolutionize the city because it has become isolated inside its own religious walls.
The “form” of worship became the church and the “temple” became the church. The “church” is only church when we are gathered worshiping and there is no church elsewhere unless we are inside a “temple”.
These extra biblical concepts, which are by the way heretical, have become the “Truth”. And there are so many other practices and ways of doing things that also have replaced the “Truth” and that are nothing more than mere human tradition.
These traditions need to be questioned, rejected and replaced through a “metamorphosis” process so we can test the perfect will of God as clearly taught in the Bible.
Because of this devotion to the form of doing things and to tradition we need to realize that much of what we have been doing in the past has not been truly from God. We need to be transformed.
2) “We already tried it once, it doesn’t work.”
This is a commitment to failure. We think “It’s not even worth trying, it’s better just to stay as we are.”
The traditional hymn “Just as I am” did not teach us that we should continue being what we were.
The Gospel is innovative. “I make all things new” is the eternal process of God. The Spirit is always moving over the waters. We will never be able to experience everything that is God. The Holy Spirit will always have something new to teach us.
3) “Well, we need to follow the Bible, you know.”
Of course we need to follow the Bible, but whose interpretation and which interpretation of the Bible must we follow?
Have you ever stopped to think why more than 90% of churchgoers in their whole lives have never even led one person to Jesus? It’s because the results that we have been getting are directly related to the way in which we act. If we keep on doing what we have always been doing, we’ll keep on getting the same results.
It’s like the story of the train conductor that would constantly get down from his train on a regular basis to hit the wheels on the train with a rubber hammer, because from his first day of work he had been instructed to do just that.
Until one day, a boy at one of the stops asked the engineer the question he had never asked himself: “Why are you hitting the wheels of the train with that rubber hammer?”
The conductor stopped; thought and intriguingly replied “You know what, I really don’t know myself.”
Most of churchgoers have repeatedly done the same things for years as they were instructed the first days not even knowing what they are doing. There are no results when we follow and do things we don’t even understand.
The following are some phrases that destroy the creativity of the church or reveal an adversity to change in any situation:
1) “This isn’t the way we do things around here”.
This is an expression that shows an addiction to sameness, doing the same things as they have always been done. An example of the result of this type of thinking is that the same “type of liturgy and worship service” that is practiced today is the same that has been practiced in many congregations for centuries.
Have you ever stopped and wondered if our type of worship service is in fact what pleases God? All of the services in all of “the churches” are the same all over the place. This uniformity is the result of an importing a “packaged” gospel that is exported to other nations. Per example, what is practiced in Brazil in terms of our worship services is the result of accepting the importation of the religion of foreign missionaries without questioning.
It is simply the proliferation of established, repetitive, and unquestioned religion, since the times of Martin Luther and Calvin, directed by liturgy, by the protestant ethic, and by tradition and conformity to the same daily routine.
The “routine” is unchangeable, because it has substituted the life of the Church (Ecclesia – the gathering together of the saved) destroying its revolutionary power to provoke changes in culture and society.
This routine has isolated the church in a religious and cultural monastery (a sub-culture). The church is either isolated in such a way that it’s no longer relevant and also it is not able to exercise its role as “salt” in the influential areas of society: Politics, education, religion, business, media, the arts and entertainment, and the family.
The practice of the Gospel today isn’t the same as it was for the Church in the first century in terms of being “a witness” of Jesus and an agent of transformation in society. The “Gospel” has become a product of a priestly class that considers themselves “holy” and everything else as mundane and secular. But we know that the Kingdom is in us and wherever we go the Kingdom is manifest through our words and deeds.
Even Mary having chosen a higher role did not become holier than Martha who went about with her household chores. We don’t become “saints” for sitting at the feet of Jesus; we are “saints” whatever we do in Him wherever we are, because He made us “holy” with the Blood He shed on the cross.
But the “church service” has replaced the deeds of the disciples, because it has transformed the believer into a “church member” and not into a Kingdom disciple that bears witness to and brings the presence of the Kingdom into every spheres of society that he enters.
The “church service” has created a wall around the “ecclesia” isolating it from the city “polis”, in such a way that the church cannot revolutionize the city because it has become isolated inside its own religious walls.
The “form” of worship became the church and the “temple” became the church. The “church” is only church when we are gathered worshiping and there is no church elsewhere unless we are inside a “temple”.
These extra biblical concepts, which are by the way heretical, have become the “Truth”. And there are so many other practices and ways of doing things that also have replaced the “Truth” and that are nothing more than mere human tradition.
These traditions need to be questioned, rejected and replaced through a “metamorphosis” process so we can test the perfect will of God as clearly taught in the Bible.
Because of this devotion to the form of doing things and to tradition we need to realize that much of what we have been doing in the past has not been truly from God. We need to be transformed.
2) “We already tried it once, it doesn’t work.”
This is a commitment to failure. We think “It’s not even worth trying, it’s better just to stay as we are.”
The traditional hymn “Just as I am” did not teach us that we should continue being what we were.
The Gospel is innovative. “I make all things new” is the eternal process of God. The Spirit is always moving over the waters. We will never be able to experience everything that is God. The Holy Spirit will always have something new to teach us.
3) “Well, we need to follow the Bible, you know.”
Of course we need to follow the Bible, but whose interpretation and which interpretation of the Bible must we follow?
Have you ever stopped to think why more than 90% of churchgoers in their whole lives have never even led one person to Jesus? It’s because the results that we have been getting are directly related to the way in which we act. If we keep on doing what we have always been doing, we’ll keep on getting the same results.
It’s like the story of the train conductor that would constantly get down from his train on a regular basis to hit the wheels on the train with a rubber hammer, because from his first day of work he had been instructed to do just that.
Until one day, a boy at one of the stops asked the engineer the question he had never asked himself: “Why are you hitting the wheels of the train with that rubber hammer?”
The conductor stopped; thought and intriguingly replied “You know what, I really don’t know myself.”
Most of churchgoers have repeatedly done the same things for years as they were instructed the first days not even knowing what they are doing. There are no results when we follow and do things we don’t even understand.
To be continued...
Read all articles here:
1/4 - The key to transformation: Do you understand what you’re
reading?
2/4 - The Key to Transformation: Destructive phrases, enemies to changing!
3/4 - The key to transformation - Other destructive phrases, enemies to changing!
4/4 - The key to transformation: All of us are called to full-time ministry
Read all articles here:
1/4 - The key to transformation: Do you understand what you’re
reading?
2/4 - The Key to Transformation: Destructive phrases, enemies to changing!
3/4 - The key to transformation - Other destructive phrases, enemies to changing!
4/4 - The key to transformation: All of us are called to full-time ministry
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