When
God says go and the church said no
Numbers
13
Moses
receives a message from God. “Send out spies to recon the land I am
giving you.” Moses calls 12 men from each tribe and sends them into
Canaan to gauge the power and strength of those who live there. After
40 days, the spies return and report on their findings. It is a land
flowing with milk and honey. The fruit is plentiful and abundant. But
the inhabitants are strong and well defended. The only voice that
stands opposed is Caleb, the representative of Judah.
The
people are now filled with hesitation. They have wandered from Egypt,
through the sea, to the Mt. Sinai, and now to the borders of the land
promised. But they look back and consider where they have come from
better than what lies before. The enemy is greater. The land can’t
be that good. What seems to be the better choice is returning to
slavery.
God
has told them to “Go”. They were told to go from there houses in
Goshen. They were told to go through the dry passage between the
walls of the sea. They were told to go to Mt. Sinai to meet God. They
were told to move toward the land promised. Go gave them the
Go-ahead. Whatever stood before them could not counter God’s
permission and God’s directive: Go!
The
Church has been told to go. Nothing has ever overruled the commission
that Jesus Christ gave the disciples of the early church. Go into all
the world. Go and teach my words. Go and witness to me. Go and
baptize in the name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Jesus says “Go”
and the Church was born.
But
going requires a willingness to go. It is no exaggeration to claim
that the American Church experience of the last 100 years has been
one of “come”. Come and hear the music. Come and hear the
preacher. Come and join the fellowship. Come and find a family
atmosphere. The American Church stopped going beyond its walls and
began to call out to the community, “Come and find us.”
God’s
response to the Israelite people was to heap curses upon them. The
generation that left Egypt would never see the land promised to them.
Their children would walk into the land and receive the promise that
had been their parents and grandparents. And the voices of fear, the
spies who said the people didn’t have a chance, would disappear
then and there.
This
part is the hard part to hear.
What
if those curses are still active?
The
American Church has been looking at its declining numbers. It is
seeing most of its churches growing old with little influence of
younger generations. We are watching those churches of older folks
close with increasing numbers every year. God’s curse is coming
upon us. The statistic demise of the American Church is a consequence
of a “come and find us” mentality. God said to go out into the
world, the community, and declare the good news of the Kingdom of God
present among the citizens. That was not a message to drop leaflets
with the address of the church and the times of worship or the
vacation Bible school or the Christmas program with the kiddies. The
message was one of “how can we help you live into a better, more
abundant, life.”
The
American Church is dying off because it sits in fear of the
inhabitants of the land. It worries that they will be persecuted. It
is filled with anxiety that there is no hope for this “sinful”
generation that gets worse year by year. It has become convinced that
culture has turned against Christianity and has rejected them. It has
judged that culture has nothing holy within and deserves to lead
itself to its own ruin.
But
that isn’t what God said to the Israelite's. God said, “I have
given you this land.” God has said to the disciples, “Go and make
more disciples.” God has said to the American Church, “Go!” and
the American Church has said, “No.”
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