8/12/06 – Real Christianity Pretty Plain

Hi all,

I've been thinking about how plain and mundane real Christianity is compared to the way the world idolizes celebrities.

I think my first interest came along years ago when I was reading a quote from a Roman official to another about that sect called Christians. He commented about how they were good citizens, good workers, kept to themselves and their business, and were in all ways good for Rome and the empire. He also expressed a bit of puzzlement about what they believed, but he couldn't get away from their character.

Those he was writing about were normal people, just living their lives, trying to get through life like everyone else, but they had a quality about them that made others take notice. By contrast, I've also seen the superstar mentality in much of modern Christianity. It's one thing to be notable, it's another to be idolized by people.

I first saw this in 1978 when I worked for the PTL Club in Charlotte, North Carolina. My title was "Park Ranger" at the Heritage USA site, but really because it was under construction I did everything from landscaping to cutting brush to babysitting Tammy Sue, to showing people around on tours...whatever needed to be done.

One day while standing on the front porch of the Registration Building Jim Bakker's black Riviera pulled up and out he stepped. Immediately every woman on the porch (my tour group) mobbed the poor man! They shoved Bibles in his face, books he'd written and any other paper they could find to get an autograph. He pushed himself through, ignoring the clatter, walked up to me and said, "All I want is a bathroom! Can you tell me where I can find a bathroom!"

Because construction was ongoing all we had were the proverbial blue port-a-potties, and with that information off he went to some distant corner to find a private bit of plastic.

I came away from that experience marveling at the blatant idolatry. I was 20 years old, newly married, and admittedly idealistic, but still, I expected more out of these ladies. The tour was over at that point, for Jim's appearance made their day and they all had to run off to find their friends to tell them what happened.

It reminded me of Jesus' experience in Mark 5 where a woman with a hemorrhaging condition touched Jesus' garment hem and was healed. When he stopped and asked who touched him the disciples responded: "Look at the mob, they're all touching you; how can you ask who touched me?"

But Jesus seemed to shy from the limelight and instead ministered to people where they lived. He could have been a superstar if he had wanted to, in fact much of the motive for Judas' betrayal may have been to force Jesus to prove who he was, try to force his hand so to speak. But instead, Jesus always did things to meet needs; multiply food, heal people, give to the poor, give teachings of encouragement, and so forth.

In fact, he must have given so often to the poor that when Judas left to betray him in John 13 the text says they thought he was leaving to go give money to the poor. How many of us have gone out at about 9pm to give money, or if we leave late some night our friends just automatically assume we are leaving to give some money away?

Shortly after that experience on the steps of the Registration Building at Heritage USA Barb and I spent several months working the prayer lines because they were short of help in the morning when the show was live, so we spent many mornings starting about 6am praying for people from all walks of life who called that 800 number for help. This was one of the main outreaches of ministry for the TV show called the PTL Club.

The contrast between the idolatry seen on the steps of the Registration Building and the calls we received crystallized for me what was real and what was not.

One call Barb received was from a woman desperately calling for prayer because her husband was trying to get at her to beat her. Barb could hear the commotion in the background and very quickly took authority over the situation and asked the Father to send an angel to protect the woman, and as soon as that prayer came out her lips it got suddenly quite...the husband had turned his wrath away with no apparent reason and left the house, leaving a thankful housewife on the other end of the phone with divine proof of God's protection and love for her.

We are part of a kingdom that values a cup of water to a child, food to those in need, a visit to a prisoner, and clothes to given freely to others. Matthew 25:31-40 states that when Jesus returns to set up his earthly kingdom the indication of the righteous will be that they fed the hungry, took in strangers, gave clothes to those in need, and visited those in prison.

He doesn't say anything like: Enter into the kingdom the Father has prepared for you because you attended 12 women's conventions...or For you went to 6 men's conventions...or you loved prophecy and studied the Word on it...or went on missions trips...or had a TV preacher pray for you once...or never missed a Sunday school for 25 years.

The kingdom we are a part of has no interest in superstars and idolatry, our King Jesus is concerned about the real issues in people's lives, not the veneer and facades people see.

I've contemplated this in part because of the huge and growing house church "movement" (I hesitate using that word) of which I'm a part.

It isn't glamorous, sensational, or particularly attractive. In fact, like our Lord, house church has no form or comeliness that we should desire it. (apologies to Isaiah 53:2)

House church and relationship based Christianity is anticlimactic. It's about a bunch of friends and new acquaintances walking through life together. But because it is based on family, it is also the best 'structure' provided for church to do those things closest to the heart of Jesus...clothe those in need, pray for others, feed or give money to people, and so on.

Unlike what I grew up in, I come away from a house church meeting with a different feeling than I did in the former. I usually don't have my emotions stirred up a lot. I can't even say that I always feel better when I left than when I came. It isn't about feelings.

That said, each time I leave I've been enriched, but in a different part of me. Not the emotions or flesh, but socially, spiritually, and in other intangible ways that I'm not a good enough wordsmith to explain.

It's kind of like going out to dinner with good friends. How can you measure how good it was to catch up with each other, to just enjoy a meal together, to share memories and dreams, goals and prayer requests?

That's what I like about house church, it's boring in that way. You don't come away all tingly, but you come away knowing you are loved, appreciated, safe and secure, with a deeper knowledge of God and each other, and with the knowledge that any one of them are as close as a phone call or short drive. We know each other and our idiosyncrasies, and it's just normal life.   

I think Jesus is found most often in the plain and normal things. When I share with people how humble and down to earth Jesus is, I often use this example: I will ask a crowd if anyone there has felt the presence of Jesus in a service...not just an anointing, but you could sense in the Spirit that Jesus was walking around ministering to people. Always a number of hands go up. I then ask those people if at any time they sensed Jesus drawing attention to himself or take over the service, or in some other way seek to exert his authority?

The answer is always no. He just seemed to come in during a service and go about his business, and then the sense of his presence just lifts and he is gone.

That's the way Christianity is supposed to be. Normal, low key, going about our business helping each other, being good citizens, involved in each other's lives.

I was in Edmonton, Alberta in November 2001 when the Lord appeared to me during the worship service. The church was in the red light district and it's members were former drug addicts, prostitutes, homeless, and prisoners. Suddenly, like an overlay of this realm, about 6 or 7 steps away, Jesus appeared almost like walking through an invisible door. In that short distance between where I saw him to where he stood before me as I hit my knees, he said: "I love these kinds of people."

That has stayed with me. Jesus hasn't changed. He loves the hurting, those broken, those just starting a new life. As to why? I think it's because they are real, have no facade, no airs about them.

That same night in the prayer line was a young lady who I learned later was 22 years old. As I prayed for her I saw a mini-vision of a department store window and her decorating the manikins and other parts of it. Along with the vision was a word of prophecy about how the Father loved her and how she was pleasing to him, and that he gifted her with artistic talents and was in the middle of his perfect will.

She burst into tears and in the ensuing conversation told me she was just out of prison, having done 4 years for drug possession. She had just enrolled in an interior decorating school and gotten a job in a department store dressing the manikins and displays in the store. She thought she was all alone and was worthless to the Father God and Jesus, but the opposite was true.  

She just needed to know that she had a Father who loved her, and that she was pleasing to him, and that she was in the middle of his perfect will. That's what it's all about. That's normal Christianity. It's plain, very 'everyday' and 'every-man'.  

I'm trying to find Jesus in the normal and mundane, for I think that is where he is found most often.

 

Just some thoughts...

Blessings,
John Fenn
cwowi.org