“Somewhere along the way the movement of Jesus Christ became civilized as Christianity. We created a religion using the name of Jesus Christ and convinced ourselves that God’s optimal desire for our lives was to insulate us in a spiritual bubble where we risk nothing, sacrifice nothing, lose nothing, worry about nothing. Yet Jesus’ death wasn’t to free us from dying, but to free us from the fear of death. Jesus came to liberate us so that we could die up front and then live. Jesus Christ wants to take us to places where only dead men and women can go.” - Erwin Mcmanus
That is pretty powerful. I wonder how far off the trajectory we have moved…
“Jesus, how have your followers done in maintaining your intent?”
Amen!!! We have become much more comfortable with words like polite, nice and good and try to avoid words such as risky, adventure and sacrifice.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhh…………the Barbarian Way!!! As I told you in person, I apologized to both of my boys for bringing them up in an environment that valued and promoted civilized Christianity. I am learning to be a barbarian, and I think they are too. McManus was a blessing to me……..he motivated me to recalibrate and to rethink about what this journey is all about.
Thanks for sharing this impactful quote!
DU
I almost died 5 years ago. Literally looked death in the face and thought that my life was over. While on vacation, I ended up in an ICU unit far away from home. I learned some powerful lessons in that unit that have given me a renewed strength for this battle we call life. What I learned is that I don’t fear death. I was sad and concerned with the trials my husband would endure raising our children alone, but I wasn’t actually afraid of dying. In fact, I had the thought “Wow I wonder what happens next.” I discovered that I fear life without God. And I also learned that I truly fear people who don’t fear the consequences of sin and ask me to teach my children to accept sin as OK. And when I recovered and didn’t die, I was faced with the fact that life can be over in an instant. The battle is huge. It might get ugly. Sin is real. Death is coming. God wins.
Thanks Mike. As my family wrestles with death this summer, I’m counting on that last statement being true. Come Lord Jesus!
My understanding is that we are redeemed from death, not by avoiding it, but by being raised from the dead at the last day.
On a side note, there is a new effort to bring together people from various Restoration Movement backgrounds at
http://www.connect4change.net/
The purpose is to improve understanding and trust between different RM groups. They are gathering personal profiles of people who wish to be a part of that conversation. Maybe some of the folks here would be interested in participating.
The movement is far too radical to become that civilized. Something has gone wrong, dreadfully wrong. Christ is counter-cultural and revolutionary. The movement is not to be tamed so easily.
Paul- Please explain. What do you think has gone wrong?
Troy,
I was referring to this part, “Somewhere along the way the movement of Jesus Christ became civilized as Christianity. We created a religion using the name of Jesus Christ and convinced ourselves that God’s optimal desire for our lives was to insulate us in a spiritual bubble where we risk nothing, sacrifice nothing, lose nothing, worry about nothing.”
We (many) have lost the urgency and surrender. Too many have bought into a self-centered approach to Christianity that feeds our needs but has lost sight of a world dying without Christ. Where is the mission in our churches?
Sorry if I sound too negative.
Paul-
I couldn’t agree more. It used to be that a Christian journey meant going somewhere and doing something for the Kingdom. Now, a Christian journey is agonizing in self-loathing angst over the intricacies of ones’ own feelings.
If the way of Christ is counter-cultural, and it is, then why do people fall over each other trying to embrace and adopt post-modernism, or even the modern mindset for that matter?
This post reminds me of a sermon I heard the other day. The preacher said that we make people saints because that is less challenging than calling them rebels. If we make them a saint, like we make Jesus a figure on a pretty stained glass window, then it seems less real and therefore convicts us less resulting in apathy. Great stuff mike!
I believe that “somewhere along the way” goes back to Constantine. Once Christianity was accepted and embraced for reasons of status, the focus started to turn away from Christ. Christianity has always been about identity. The early Christians’ identity was based upon a man who willingly died on a cross. After Constantine, (for many) the “Christian” identity was needed to belong to civilized culture. Constantine did many good things, unfortunately, I think ultimately this post is his true legacy.
I LOVE McManus!! Thanks for this quote today. I’m coming to Abilene towards the end of August to lead worship for Welcome Week. Would love to grab coffee–scratch that–a Dr. Pepper and chat. Peace, friend.
BST
Not to start a fight, but that quote sounds like an underlying theme of the new Harry Potter book.
“Jesus Christ wants to take us to places where only dead men and women can go.”
Strong Meat
I’m dead. I’ll go.
I do worry that we are far too eager to pronounce judgment on entire swaths of Church history. It’s so easy to say: “early church– good, but oh, darn that Constantinian shift!”
We fail to recognize the true church– always present, always loving, sometimes failing but never ceasing.
We fail to trust in the mysterious providence of God and we simply reject any development that makes the Church different from what we would have it be.
Now of course there is the constant need to renew and revive and reform the body, but historical over-simplification does not help us.
“Somewhere along the way the movement of Jesus Christ became civilized as Christianity. We created a religion using the name of Jesus Christ and convinced ourselves that God’s optimal desire for our lives was to insulate us in a spiritual bubble where we risk nothing, sacrifice nothing, lose nothing, worry about nothing.â€
Amen!!
We have come to the point, I fear, that our identity and labor in His vineyard is encompassed within the brick and mortar walls of our ‘church’ buildings. ‘Let outside take care of itself, I’m not going to put my life in danger to go THERE, to THAT neighborhood. They know we’re here, let ‘em come here.’ But when THEY come here, let them stay in their own little corner and not be noticed. We certainly don’t want them to be fully welcomed and integrated into full relationship with us and our kids.
We truly HAVE insulated ourselves within the walls of our church buildings, within the walls of our “christian” friendships and simply seem to refuse to follow Jesus into the neighborhoods He always walked,taught, healed and comforted.
Now, what is the solution to this fear and apathy? What will it take to bomb us out of our safe havens?? When will we truly die to this world to be alive in Jesus and what He wants of us and has commanded us to do? Is there a solution? My fear is we will be so weak and pampered that when hard reality in the form of true persecution comes to us we will not have the spiritual strength to survive, let alone reach out to help others in that persecution.
Bless you, Mike for this quote. I pray we take it to heart, pray about it, not discuss it, but begin a true active reformation and restoration of Jesus’ work on this earth.
Okay….I’m sure many of the people that frequent this site read books written with words I will never understand and can speak 5 languages. So….don’t choke when I share with you the book I just finished reading. It’s author is Stephen Baldwin. Yes….”the” Stephen Baldwin. Daniel, Alec, and Billy’s little brother. Talk about the “Barbarian Way”. Having grown up “in the church”, it was downright embarrassing to read this book written by a wild Baldwin brother & come to the realization that I am a civilized Christian. I felt Stephen pointing his finger at me from the pages of his book:
“So I would like to make a suggestion to all the believers in America: Wake up. Snap out of it. Get up off your lazy butts. And go and make disciples of all the nations. If you don’t like what I just said, God bless you. But it ain’t rocket science. Read the Bible. You know I’m right. Say what you want about the complexities of discerning God’s will for each individual, but I’m telling you that if you aren’t out there actively telling people about Jesus in the hope that they will come to faith in Him, you are not obeying God. If I’ve ticked you off by saying that, too bad. I hope it does. Statistics show that about 90 percent of you have basically treated Jesus’ last words like you would a flipping fortune cookie. You read it, thought, oh how nice, and threw it on your plate and never thought about it again. God’s plan is for you to GO. It’s as simple as that.”
I read this book thinking that I was going to be so proud of him for changing his life, but finished the last page feeling convicted, lazy, and so sorry for being (as he so eloquently puts it) “nicey-nice. I’m ready to put on my Barbarian war paint and pick up my sword now. Don’t know why I wasn’t ready before. Never thought I’d learn this lesson from a Hollywood actor. Guess that’s why the book is entitled “The Unusual Suspect”.
Oh, I love this quote. I’ll be spending the next 3 days in a prayer room on a girl’s Chrysalis and that is exactly what we will be doing - battling for them - warring in the Spirit. Sometimes it gets ugly and dangerous in there. Sometimes it is filled with peace and joy but we have to be ready for anything. It is a battle for their hearts. God will win. Cari, I love the quote from “The Unusual Suspect” too. I needed to hear all of this today.
Cari - I’ve been wanting to read Baldwin’s book - now I want to read it even more. Thanks for sharing that quote!
I love this quote. If anyone would like to be more “barbarian” there is a group of us here in St. Louis that have moved into one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the region, to try to live out the Gospel. Come join us. God has given us a 65,000 a square foot abandoned catholic church, so we have lots of room. Last night I heard the sounds of gunfire up the street and I thought, first, I’m glad I’m already dead, second, I hope one of the kids that we work with was not involved. We have a lot of kingdom work to do here. Come die with us and live like you never have before.
Todd
maybetodo@mac.com
North City Church
Todd!! PTL and bless you for being Jesus to those that so need Him and His love, grace and mercy.
Will you keep us posted? I’d love to converse with you on my blog, if you’d do me the honor of a visit.
Bless you and your group. May the LORD bring His great harvest from your planting and watering!!
This book has been quite significant to my journey as it’s taught me that we’re all dealing with the same God through different eyes and different actions to live for him. Quite possibly we see others who are bold and we should be thankful and glad and rejoice that they are and others who are quiet and humble and soft spoken and be glad that they are all apart of the Kingdom of God, we all have something to share, sometimes it’s raw and sometimes it’s polished so much we think little of it.