Every now and then I will find myself getting sucked into the hope that there is some kind of simple, magic formula to deal with difficult issues in my life and in my work as a pastor. I love the idea of formulas. You do this and this and this and then . . . this will be your result. Ahh, the wonderful simplicity of that idea. It’s a nice thought, isn’t it?
But, what usually ends up happening is that life comes along and reminds me that the magic formulas don’t typically work the way I thought they would. Even though I’d love to come across some simple formulas, I find, over and over again that the important, substantive issues of this mortal journey don’t seem to fit neatly into the formulas; they require case-specific thinking and they call for lots of time and effort and attention.
Take something like relationships, for example, I have years of training and learning, both academic training and on the job training in relationship issues. I had almost enough hours for a sociology minor in college—sociology involves relational issues. I’ve counseled hundreds of people regarding relationship matters. (Okay, I haven’t done it very well. But that doesn’t take away from the fact that I’ve got lots of experience at it.) I’ve been involved in numerous conflict resolution meetings. As a pastor of a church a big part of my life involves trying to encourage relationships, and repair relationships, and foster relationships and help relationships work and coax relationships and pray for relationships.
If there were a magic formula that helped to create and maintain perfect, loving, fulfilling, harmonious relationships, you would think that I would have found it, by now. Wouldn’t you? But I haven’t. In fact, I find that I still, personally make simple, obvious relational mistakes from time to time.
So, I wish there were magic formulas for the big issues of life, but my experience is that there aren’t.
Instead, what I propose, is that we make a commitment to five fundamental concepts that are the basic practices of healthy Christians, and healthy churches—and have been throughout the history of the church—with the acknowledgement that these five fundamentals are not magic formulas, but, rather, lifetime pursuits. We can grow and learn and continue to strive in each one of these areas for the rest of our lives.
The basic idea, here, is to commit to a long distance marathon race rather than searching for the quick fix of a magic formula.
The five purposes are: Worship, Fellowship, Serving, Discipleship, & Evangelism.
If you are a follower of Christ, a good question to ask yourself is this: “Are these purposes part of my life? Am I involved in: Worship, Fellowship, Serving, Discipleship, & Evangelism?”
Every now and then, I get the distinct impression that people want something jazzier than the five basic concepts listed above. That stuff seems a little too ordinary. They are hoping that there might be something else that would feel like a more esoteric “snatch-the-pebble-from-my-hand-Grasshopper” pursuit of deeper spiritual insights and secrets.
When I mention the five purposes—worship, fellowship, serving, discipleship and evangelism—I, occasionally, get a look or a response like this: “Yeah, I already know about those things, but what else?”
I wonder if Jesus got some “Yeah-I-already-know-about-that-but . . . what-else?” kind of looks when he said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself.” But I better abandon that line of thinking, it’s a little too close to pouting.
Here’s a thought: The “what else?” is probably who we encounter and what we encounter on the journey of life as we regularly pursue the five purposes, fully engaged in the obedient life of faith in Christ.
So, Grasshopper, forget the magic formulas and live each moment of life, fully engaged. Live a life of worship (God is worthy), rich fellowship, servanthood, spiritual growth (discipleship) and telling the good news of Jesus (evangelism).
Master Po asked me to pass these helpful thoughts along to you.
Dan Marler
First Church of God
Oak Lawn, IL
http://www.visitusonline.org/
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