Crossroads At the Way and Churchianity

by Jesse Steele

that’s because He gave us domino and He keeps His promises. Faith in the here and now is about our dominion in the earth, it’s not the basis for a spelling test at the entrance to Eternity. God is not so foolish as to eternally condemn one soul forever in flame merely because a missionary might have been disobedient. That wouldn’t be Justice—and many non-Christians even know that. It’s why many of them reject a so-called spelling-test “gospel”.

  Hank: You seem to have learned a lot from your time in the Throneroom.

  John: I still don’t know everything. But I don’t need to. The Book of Life determined the final salvation and it will not be disputed. I can rest easy in that. I suppose, if we could fully understand why it has the Last Word on the matter, well… it wouldn’t be so powerful if we could understand it in this lifetime. We bear witness to the Light, and the Darkness can’t understand it.

  Hank: So, we don’t need to spread the gospel?

  John: Do you want to see this world become a living hell-hole, covered in Darkness? Or do you enjoy what I wrote about seeing in the Throneroom? Do you want as much of Heaven in the here and now as you can possibly have?

  Hank: Well, yeah.

  John: As I said, the Spirit and the Bride say, “Come!”

  Hank: That sounds funny to me.

  John: What?

  Hank: Saying that Christians are the “bride” of Christ.

  John: People thought the same of Jesus’ cousin, the baptizer.

  Hank: John the Baptist? What’s he got to do with this?

  John: He used the marriage illustration early in Jesus’ ministry. Jesus also used wedding, bride, and bridegroom illustrations often.

  Hank: Illustrations? What do you mean?

  John: Body of Christ, Bride of Christ… Illustrations help us understand Him.

  Hank: Oh, I thought you meant something else by it.

  John: Like what?

  Hank: I don’t know… you know some of these groups can get crazy and think strange things. “Bride” is a strange word to throw around.

  John: Jesus said it. I wrote about it. Jesus’ cousin, John, said it. We had a pretty strong relationship with Jesus. How strong is your walk with Him?

  Hank: Well, it’s not that bad. I lead my church, after all.

  John: Wait. Lead?

  Hank: Yeah, I’m a pastor.

  John: No one led us but Jesus, though, there were many who had the same pastoral-shepherding manner as He did.

  Hank: Well, someone has to lead the Church without Jesus here.

  John: Yeah. We called them elders. But they are peers—all equal to each other in leadership.

  Hank: Someone has to be a lead elder, though.

  John: There wasn’t a lead elder in Heaven. The elders sat in a circle and the Lamb was in the center.

  Hank: But that’s in Heaven. Jesus was there, like you said. Without Him, someone must take the lead.

  John: No one did in Jerusalem after He went up. We just spoke in turn as the Spirit led us and we respected each other.

  Hank: But you had Jesus personally leading you for three years, so you could do that.

  John: In those three years, He told us many times that the Teacher, the Spirit, who would come after Him would lead us even better. And that’s what happened. It wasn’t our just our memory of Him that allowed us to work as equals. You’ve got the same resources we did when the Spirit first showed up.

  Hank: But someone needs to lead so people know what to do!

  John: Why are you really saying all this? Are you worried about how you’ll feed your family, trying to justify your own job? The Great Commission has lots of money flowing in and out and people try to capitalize on it all the time. One couple were in cahoots together and the two of them dropped dead in front of Peter. There were so many of them, we eventually called them “Christ mongers”. That was after I got back from Patmos…

  Hank: …NO, I’m not thinking about money…

  John: Okay. I believe you.

  [awkward pause]

  Hank: What’s wrong with a leader, though? Does it really matter anyways?

  John: You seem to think it matters. We must model our earthly administration after the administration of Heaven. That’s how we’ll see His glory. If we don’t follow after Heaven in our Christian fellowship, then no one—neither Christians nor non-Christians—will want to listen to us. Then you’ll think you always need to read books on how to “do” church, because it will feel more like a chore you enjoy than an easy sprint.

  Hank: Well, I suppose that makes some sense. I enjoy my job as a pastor, and I always loved working as a Bible study leader before that... and it’s a “fun chore”… but still a chore. Something’s always told me that things can be better… somehow…

  John: …But we were talking about the bridegroom illustration. You still didn’t answer my question about your walk with Jesus.

  Hank: It’s good. I’m very confident in Him and He means so much to me.

  John: Then you shouldn’t have a problem using the same Bridegroom illustration we did. Don’t you want to see Him return soon?

  Hank: Yeah. That’d be great.

  John: Then invite His Kingdom, which you’re a citizen of. We don’t want to live apart from that glory any longer than we have to. I saw it with my own eyes. Speak for yourself. But knowing Him is my motivation to know Him more. Being in His Presence was all it took.

  Hank: This is very different from what I’ve been told before.

  John: I speak merely from what I can testify of.

  Hank: So, why are you so passionate about these things? Where did you get it from? Is it your personality?

  John: I beheld the beauty of Holiness Himself. That does something to you. You can’t go back once it’s truly taken root in your heart. My passion comes from one simple thing: As beautiful as the New Jerusalem was, as valuable as its golden streets and their dust, as big as those oysters must have been to make the pearl gates… the greatest treasure lived in the Center. God Himself is our reward. And from the way He looked at me. From the look in Christ’s eye, I began to understand…

  Hank: Understand what?

  John: While God Himself is the greatest reward I look forward to at the resurrection, that wasn’t all. Looking back, seeing the way Jesus always looked at us. Yes, He is my reward, now and in Eternity. But I always wondered why He did it… why He created us in the Beginning—knowing that He’d need to write down our names because the Accuser would dispute them… knowing that it would take the Cross for Him to redeem even me… It’s clear now… We are His reward also. We were always going to be His reward, even from the Beginning. That’s what makes Him different from the others. His disciples are disciples whom He loves.

  Scene 5: William

  William: Hank, come on in.

  Hank: You’ve got a humble office. I was expecting something that looks like the bridge of the space trek enterprise.

  William: Why’s that?

  Hank: It’s kinda’ how your church looks from the outside.

  William: Everything’s gotta’ look like something. So, maybe “out of this world” fits.

  Hank: Is your goal to impress people?

  William: Never. Our goal is to have the most excellence that God gives us the grace to grasp.

  Hank: Isn’t that so you can impress people?

  William: It will only impress the people who also want excellence. If we don’t do our best at everything we do…

  Hank: …even in God’s Church…

  William: …especially in God’s Church. If we don’t do our best then we will drive-away the people who want God to do His best in their lives. You have to take care of your own life before you can ever help others. Jesus taught us that.

  Hank: How is that different from trying to market yourselves just to draw more people?

  William: Because what we do is selective.

  Hank: You mean that you pick and choose which people you want to come here?

  William: No,
we express ourselves so clearly that others can easily choose whether they want to follow Jesus with us. Some people don’t want the truth—not on any terms. We want them to figure that out sooner rather than later. By doing our best, they know who we are quickly and they can reach their own decisions about us faster.

  Hank: I thought you were seeker-sensitive.

  William: We are seeker-sensitive. We aren’t trying to attract people who aren’t looking for something. We are looking for the people who are looking for us. We are sensitive to seekers.

  Hank: How do you find them?

  William: Communicate in a clear, understandable way and don’t compromise who you are.

  Hank: But I always heard that “seeker-sensitive” was about watering-down the gospel.

  William: How could a diluted gospel message attract people who want the pure, transforming power of Jesus in their lives? If we dilute His message then the people seeking Him will walk right past us and not even know it.

  Hank: This isn’t what I came here for, but now I’m curious. I thought the seeker-oriented model was based on trying to get as many people as possible.

  William: That would be non-seeker oriented. We only want people who are looking.

  Hank: How do you make that work, though?

  William: It’s the same in any organization. Of course we’ll need a vision. It starts there. Then, we communicate our vision to the world, which is different from conforming our vision to the world. Once people know about our vision, that vision is what people will come to us for.

  Hank: That seems obvious.

  William: It is obvious, but it’s not easy.

  Hank: Why not?

  William: Anyone can theorize about vision, but living it out is the hard part. Most all of us get scared when it’s time to be