Can two walk together, except they be agreed? - (Amos 3:3)

I grew up United Methodist. A member of the United Methodist Church (UMC) In much the same way as I grew up a democrat. Meaning that I did what my parents did, and that seemed right to me. Growing up, it meant social justice, civil rights, a sense of community, a place to express my gift, and a bunch of other things. As I got older, I realized that there was something BIG missing: Repentance. There was NEVER a call to repent, personally.
We read ritual prayers which said it, we heard constantly about being a good person, and loving the Lord. We sang hymns about God’s great Love, our sin, and Jesus' great sacrifice, and occasionally about the brokenness of repentance. The classic hymn ‘How Great thou art’, has this amazing verse which says:
‘and when I think, that God his son not sparing, sent him to die, I scarce can take it in. That on the cross, my burden gladly bearing, he bled and died to take away my sin.'
We would sing that every so often. (Today, I can barely hold back the tears when I dwell on those words too long...)

We were told time and again of the experience that John Wesley and His brother Charles (the founders of Methodism) had at the church at Aldersgate in 1792, but I do not recall being told that we should seek the same experience (repentance and submission)

At 19, I attended a service at another church which impacted me tremendously. I guess I came to understand that for all my church going, and church singing, and Sunday school teaching, I was estranged from, and in fact was not even in relationship with God. I went up for the altar call for those who wanted to accept the sacrifice of Jesus for their sins, and submit themselves for him, to be Lord of their lives. Things were somewhat different after that. I started to read the scriptures more carefully and critically, I started to listen to the sermons much more analytically, and compare the doctrine that I was being taught with the Bible. The doctrine began to fall woefully short.
Somewhere in my 20’s, I realized (at least subconsciously) that I was a Christian, not a United Methodist, and as such, because two cannot walk together unless they are in agreement, I had to leave. That was 1988.

In 2005 I went back as a volunteer to the church that I grew up in. I felt that I could affect some change, by introducing the people to a more intimate form of Worship; personal , and deep, which would translate into a more meaningful relationship with God, and change in their lives.
But I had forgotten the scriptural admonition, which had caused me to leave in the first place:

Can two walk together, except they be agreed? - (Amos 3:3)

This became painfully obvious when a new Pastor came in 2008.

Why am I writing all this down now? Well, for two reasons:

1) The recent Glenn Beck ‘restoring honor’ rally. Thousands of ‘christians’ running to DC, because a Mormon says words like God, Jesus, Faith Honor and America. Standing with Mr. Beck, even as he bears the standard of Beelzebub. Even as he preaches the false doctrines of Lucifer.

Can two walk together, except they be agreed? - (Amos 3:3)

But I had an advantage over the mindless unthinking hoards on the mall in DC. Actually 2. The first is that I read the Bible, and the second is that I have been dealing with this for a while. Case in point is the second event:

2) I attended an ordination service recently. My cousin was ordained an Elder in the UMC. This makes now four close relatives that are UMC Reverends, (2 aunts, an uncle, and a cousin). I sat there, impressed by the ritual (at least parts of it) and was in fact in agreement with much of what was said (The sermon by Bishop xxx in particular) but I kept seeing, as I looked at the sea of white robes, the words of Jesus: “ Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. - (Mat 23:27-28)”
So even as I heard the familiar words, the familiar passages, and felt familiar emotions, I was reminded that what is familiar is not often what is righteous, and that my feelings are not evidence of the truth.
I have wrestled with this for a while. So much so that I wrote a letter to a brother in April, responding to a request of his. The text follows. I pray that as you read it, it will speak to you…

04/17/10 -

My brother:

Let me begin by apologizing for not getting back to you in a timely fashion regarding your request. There were/are several reasons for it, which I will try to explain below. I ask that you be patient with what may amount to some rambling, as I speak my heart.
In the past few months, I have been undergoing a rather radical change in (and a redefinition of) my understanding of what it means to be a ‘Christian’. It has been challenging, disquieting and on some level depressing. I believe, you see, in the ‘purposed narrowing’ of our lives, which happens through spiritual, through external, and through deliberate internal means to conform to a Biblical standard of behavior, belief and associated action. That is a process that is reforming my life.
When Rev. xxx called me in Early 2005, and asked me to help with the ministry, I thought that it was a good idea, and I believe that at first it was making some change, but after a while I no longer saw it, and it became increasingly difficult for me to sit through things that were obviously heretical (and in fact, by leading Worship I was tacitly agreeing with them) .
My conversation with Rev. zzz basically nailed the coffin shut… Here are some samples.
When we began the Repairer’s Fellowship in 2007, it wasn’t clear what it was supposed to be other than a house-church, and base of operations for a teaching ministry.
Though I have learned, and am still learning to expect YHWH to exceed my expectations on a regular basis, I didn’t expect to be challenged the way that I have been over the past few months.
The Dilemma:
In 2009, as part of a study on the ‘Prosperity Gospel’, I began a study of the doctrine of tithing, and quickly realized that it was in fact fallacious, and not applicable to the church (the results of my study are here: Examining the Tithe .
I spoke to Pastors, ministers and other clergy about this, and essentially the honest ones agreed. This troubled me, for though there was agreement, there was no change planned in any of those who acknowledged the veracity of my points. Have we become like the church leaders of Yahshuah’s day, making decisions not based in truth, but socio-political, and economic expedience? (John Chapters 11 & 12) Increasingly I believe that to be so, and it is distressing to say the least. One of my mottos is: ‘Righteousness before Political Correctness, Holiness before Convenience & The Word of God before our Opinions’. Even when it’s painful, that’s the way I’m trying to live, and minister.
The next question for me was, ‘How does the church support itself?’
The subsequent study led to what I call ‘The Doctrine of All’, which was based on Mark 12:29-31, and 2 Corinthians 8:1-5 & Matthew 25:31-40 (I will send you the study if you’d like).
This led to an even more basic truth, which is what YHWH’s plan for church growth is found in Acts 2:42-47, namely, Study the Word, Live the Word, Love YHWH, Love your neighbor, and YHWH will add to the number of those being saved. Why do we not teach/practice this? Is it, once again, a question of expedience? So I decided that this was the direction we had to go.
So the question became: WHAT DOES THIS LOOK LIKE IN REAL LIFE? Conceptually it all made sense, in fact, it made so much sense, that it made everything else look like foolishness. But how do I make the concept a reality? How do I get the life on the pages into the hearts of the people? Is that even my job?
I have long been a critic of the money focus that I see in many churches. As a Pastor, I understand that generally the current mindset, and current gauges of success are namely the bigger your church (literal numbers, and building size) the more successful you are. That prevailing belief led me to write my senior thesis paper on growth strategies within the Mega, Traditional and House church models.
By the end of my study, I came to a couple of disquieting conclusions:
1) The church in America is in fact NOT growing, for the most part, we are merely shifting sheep from one pen to another, and the statistics bear that out.
2) The current strategies are in fact counter-Biblical, and deeply flawed. Yahshuah commanded Peter to Grow Big Sheep, not build big pens to hold them (John 21). By seeking to ‘impress and excite’ the sheep instead of feeding/disciple them, we are creating a nation that is as spiritually bloated and malnourished as our physical bodies are (well not you, LOL).
3) This strategy is essentially playing right into the hands of the enemy, because the sheep are malnourished and weak, and when adversity comes, they are easily defeated.
4) Our American sense of ‘Rugged Individualism’, which is as American as Mom and Apple pie, is in fact not Christian, and this mindset has crept its way into the church. Of course our cover phrase is ‘a personal relationship with God’. Fact being though that Christianity’ is lived out in community, unless you happen to be on a deserted island. Otherwise, the expression of the commands in Mark 12 can ONLY happen in community.
So what to do?
In our congregation/fellowship, I began (in earnest) to focus on the idea of Christ in community, meaning that our lives are interdependent. We have been working through a series on the process of moving from Dependence to Independence to Interdependence. It was (and at times still is) a depressing enterprise. I am constantly reminded that I cannot expect to do in a few months what it took Yahshuah 3 years to do (and even then the results were not 100%), but I didn’t expect the kind of passive resistance that we have seen. For example:
We have a member who has a weekend only job. He is struggling financially. We have another member who is struggling physically, and as such has to take cabs to work every day, it costs her $10 per trip, sometimes $100/week if she takes cabs home too. I suggested that since he is home all day, he could take her to work in the morning, she could pay him $8.50 per trip, saving her money, helping him financially, and keeping the money ‘in the family’. They both thought about it, and rejected the idea. I was floored!
Another example:
We do not teach tithing, but we do teach cooperation. We expect that our members will contribute to our services, whether financially, or with food, or with help in the day to day, week to week, running of the ministry. We meet in our home, and very rarely does anyone offer to come by early and help clean, or aside from one or two does anyone offer to help with dishes, etc. Why? Because we have trained people that ‘church’ is time to ‘get’ not ‘give’ and even then ‘giving’ is a single function, money.
So now I am ‘Floored and depressed’, because I believe brother, that if the idea of true community cannot be understood and implemented in the church, especially in a small group setting, then the whole thing (‘Christianity’) falls down.
What then?
As I reached a point of near despair, the Holy Spirit asked me, ‘If nobody had listened to Yahshuah, would He still have been right?’
This has helped me tremendously, and we will continue, and I understand that the process will be slow, at least for now…
That said, what does any of this have to do with Xxxxx?
The things that I saw/heard/experienced during my most recent time at Xxxxx further cemented my belief that the current church system must change dramatically or die. Xxxxx is as you know, a church which is dying, and the current strategies will not save it. Unless there is a paradigm shift, a shift that returns to the foundational simplicity of the church. We must return to a mindset and practice where the Pastors are indeed shepherds, and not career journeymen, or empire-building motivational speakers.
Systemically, we must get to a place where the members are dependent upon YHWH, independent of the prevailing trappings of ‘religion’ and interdependent upon one another. Without such a return, we may as well just pack it in…
If I am not seeing this thing correctly brother, please help me see it in a different light. Looking forward to hearing from you soon..
Much Love to you, Bro.
C
To date I have received no answer…
Can two walk together, except they be agreed? - (Amos 3:3)

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