PRAYER OF CONSECRATION
Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
Jesus, I belong to you.
I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice.
Jesus, we belong to you.
Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.
Acts 13:1–3 (NIV)
Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and Saul. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.
CONSIDER THIS
Now in the church at Antioch . . . Don’t you love how this New Testament church is taking shape? Later Paul will capture the shape of it with these words:
So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. (Eph. 4:11–13)
In addition to the apostles, in Antioch we see prophets and teachers emerging. Earlier we witnessed an early evangelist in Philip. Soon shepherds will start springing up across the countryside to guide and guard these newly planted churches.
It’s easy to idealize or worse, idolize, life in the early church. It’s tempting to pine for those “good old days” of old when everybody knew their job and loved each other and nobody complained about anything. We know better, don’t we? At the same time, we can be assured they got a lot of things right. They seemed to work out of the context of ever-deepening relationship. It’s always Barnabas and Paul or Silas and Peter or Simeon and Lucius. It doesn’t seem to be a Lone Ranger culture. Might we see them as a community of the friends of Jesus? They lived and worked in what we would call “banded community.” Notice how the text describes their togetherness:
While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.
Permit me a few observations:
- Worship, prayer, and fasting were not the performative activities limited to a special occasion or even a weekly Sunday gathering. They were a way of life.
- There are no heroes here. They are acting collectively and together. Count the use of the third-person plural term, “they.” The only “me” is the Holy Spirit.
- Notice the “plurality of leadership” model at work here. The guidance was not to hire a top gun CEO or senior pastor. It was to “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul.” They were “set apart” in their relatedness rather than their individuatedness.
- Notice how they were to be “set apart . . . for the work to which I [the Holy Spirit] have called them.” They were not necessarily being set apart for a job the church needed them to do. The Holy Spirit gives the assignment and gives it to the assignees.
- They were working from consecration to consecration. Notice how they were immersed in worship, fasting, and prayer which created the conditions for them to hear from the Holy Spirit. This led to more fasting and prayer which created the conditions for Holy Spirit-empowered obedience with the laying on of hands, commissioning, and sending. (read #5 again)
I sometimes wonder—what if we declared a moratorium on church as we currently do church? What if we decided to do nothing but seek the Lord (together and apart) in worship, fasting, and prayer for the next year; opening ourselves up fully to what the Holy Spirit might be saying in, to, among, and through us—for the sake of the world? What might happen? Might we come to the kind of reset wherein we were able to let go of the church as we know it and take up the church as the Holy Spirit knows it? Might this lead to a laying down of the church we are building and a taking up of the church Jesus is building? What would be the risk of such a move? What might be the cost? What might be the gain?
Sometimes I wonder if we have become attached to a system and structure we have inherited, adopted, and called “the church” that might not actually be “The Church.” I recognize my wondering can trend toward one of at least two things. It can tend to excite a lot of people and it can tend to worry a lot more people. I wonder what is the fundamental difference between these two groups of people? It’s got to be more than one’s aversion or affinity for change and risk.
What might happen if this began to happen again?
While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.
THE PRAYER OF TRANSFORMATION
Lord Jesus, I am your witness.
I receive your righteousness and release my sinfulness.
I receive your wholeness and release my brokenness.
I receive your fullness and release my emptiness.
I receive your peace and release my anxiety.
I receive your joy and release my despair.
I receive your healing and release my sickness.
I receive your love and release my selfishness.
Come, Holy Spirit, transform my heart, mind, soul, and strength so that my consecration becomes your demonstration; that our lives become your sanctuary. For the glory of God our Father, amen.
THE QUESTION
So that’s the question: What might happen if that began to happen again? I asked a lot of related questions. I dare you to tackle some of those in your journaling. We would love to see some of that reflection on our Wake-Up Call Facebook community today.
THE HYMN
Today we will sing “Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus.” It is hymn 477 in our Seedbed hymnal, Our Great Redeemer’s Praise.
For the Awakening,
J. D. Walt
Sower-in-Chief
seedbed.com
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5 Responses
JD, the last person who suggested such radical changes to the established religiosity of that day was nailed to a tree, and his followers likewise persecuted. Such radical changes, if implemented would arouse both the wrath of the “religious establishment “ and the powers of darkness. They seem to have a working relationship with one another whereby both can simultaneously exist together in a semi-truce. What you’ve described as a reset, would in my opinion, result in the death and resurrection of the institutional church. I personally believe that is what is currently happening right now. Our choice is to either fight it or to accommodate it.
Hi Bob, Interesting post. Would you be willing to share more on what you mean regarding the “death and resurrection of the institutional church”? Do you mean the institutional church would just come back? Thanks brother, Bob
Hi Bob. I’m sorry about the delayed response, I spend most of my days outside and had not checked this site until this evening. I’m certainly no expert on ecclesiology, but I do try to keep up with current events regarding the health of the Church. I’ve noticed that most of the institutional church is in serious decline. I’ve also noted that most efforts at reform are usually met with heavy resistance, therefore I’m convinced that short of a miracle, the IC in its current form will die. As to its resurrection, I believe that some form of structure will take its place, but I believe it will be more smaller groups that appear more like intentional communities of faith that will network like the various congregations described in the book of Acts; definitely post-denominational, and composed of every-member ministers operating in their various charisma’s. I hope this addresses some of your questions. Blessings.
Thank you Bob for your reply. Very much appreciated. I definitely feel that most of the church’s I have attended lack a whole community approach and seem like more of a checking of the list. my feeling is that responsibility falls both on the leadership and the complacency of the members. It’s all very sad, and I know I am guilty too. Take care and I appreciate reading your daily comments!
The risen Jesus wants to reset Christianity to His Spirit.
When Christianity shifted from being Spirit-led to being controlled by a pulpit-head, its vibrant and life-consuming heart-connection with Christ as Head was curtailed by a religious system and structure that has been passed down through the centuries. It abandoned its “ear to hear what the Spirit is saying” and put its trust in tens of thousands of separate denominations and hundreds of thousands of independent churches scattered worldwide, each following its own leaders and traditions. Yet, in the midst of all this confusion and competition Christ is still speaking to and calling His sheep to follow and obey His Spirit instead of their favorite religious institution. He who has ears let him hear!