Brain McLaren once said, “When Christianity sees itself more as a belief system or set of rituals for the select few and less as a way of daily life available to all, it loses the ‘magic’ of the kingdom.”
There is a mindset that keeps us thinking that the most important thing we do as Christians happens on Sunday. That once you become a Christian Sunday becomes your holy day. We tend to define who we are and what we do as Christians based on what happens on Sunday.
If you asked the average Christian to explain what a Christian does, they would describe their Church and what it does. And that is a piece of the it, but it is not the whole picture.
I am not writing to bash the Church or to bash Sunday worship. I love what happens on Sunday’s and I love Christ’s Church. What I am wanting to see accomplished is, for us as Christians, to begin to rethink who we are and what we do.
Traditions and rituals are not bad in and of themselves. But when we hold them to a higher value than they are meant to be they can begin to control our lives. Because in the kingdom of God is all about getting more IN and less about keeping people OUT. It is about not putting up barriers in places they are not meant to be.
In Acts 15, there is a conflict going on among many as to what Gentiles should be required to do in order to be considered followers of Christ. Many believe that the Gentiles must be circumcised in order to follow God to the letter. After some of the other apostles speak to this matter, James says, “So I think we should not bother the other people who are turning to God” (some translations say, “should not make it difficult…”). James understood that following God is not about circumcision, it is about the grace of God available to all people. It is about a life available to all who would love the Lord and follow Him.
Being in the kingdom of God is not about having a better worship service or having a better preacher or better ministries. I am not claiming that there is anything wrong with those things. But that is not what being in the kingdom of God is about. It is about a life fully devoted to God. It is about looking for the amazing things that God is doing in our lives and those around us. It is about helping others see the need for Christ and discovering the joyous life they can have in and through Him.
Justin Cherry 