Our Savior with a Side of Beef

They say (something along the lines of) if you make seven new friends on your first visit to a church (or maybe your first few visits; I'm not all "read up" on church growth methods) then you're more likely to "stick" there.  So there are those churches that greet you when you pull into the parking lot and direct you to a spot (how do you do it all by yourself at the mall, I wonder?), then greet you at the outside doors and maybe have tables with literature on the inside with another greeter waiting to meet you and answer your questions.  And so on.  It's nice to feel welcome, to be sure. 

We hear the catchphrase "seeker sensitive" all the time, and there is no shortage of churches that are quite high on the entertainment factor.  One time, probably a decade ago when we still lived in Texas, Jed went to a church where the praise team had a giant screen behind them.  On the screen was a music video of those worship leaders all wearing similar khakis-and-white-shirt uniforms, but each with a different color sweater tied loosely around their necks, singing the song they were leading for the congregation.  And the real-life leaders, on the stage, that were leading the song, in front of a giant screen of them wandering around in grass leading the song, they wore the same outfits.  It seems a bit much, but so it was.  That was absolutely a "seeker sensitive," program-driven, entertaining church.  To this day, it's huge.  It's good to have a place where seekers can seek, to be sure.

(As long as it's the Kingdom, the King, they find.)

Then there are places with coffee shops and all kinds of different "Your Label Here" groups, and I'm not saying that either of these things are (always) bad in and of themselves, but I am saying that we can easily tread a fine line trying to make Christianity appealing and become distracted by scratching a carnal itch, or caressing the soul (minds and emotions) or even just feeding the bodies (cushiony couches, coffee, and donuts) when the Real Deal Christianity is about as appealing as it gets.  When it's not watered down to a social club.  Or a Do-Good Society.  Or a "Let's all hold on till we get to heaven" sing-a-long when we're commissioned to bring heaven to earth. 

Jesus is down with that.
The Buddy Jesus from the movie "Dogma."

My apostle says, and now I say, "We shouldn't have to tie a steak around Yahshua's neck (that's Jesus) to get people to like Him."  And he also says, "If I have to tap dance up here in a Big Bird suit to get you to come, I'll have to keep tap dancing up here in a Big Bird suit to keep you."

There. Has. To. Be. MORE.  When you read the stories in the Bible of those who walked with God, when you read the words and actions of Yahshua, our Savior, who did not concern Himself with making the Truth palatable, and when you embrace the abiding power of the very Holy Spirit of God in your own life, you realize more and more how what you've seen and known isn't enough.  You want more. 

When you begin to witness miracles, become healed, encounter demons but see them subdued, and see visions or have words of knowledge that are beyond anything you ever could have known, then you realize, "Holy cow!  This thing is REAL!!"  If only a person can come to experience the very real living Presence of Almighty God, they won't care whether they have a coffee right then or not.  They won't care if everyone's wearing matching sweaters or not.  How can one experience Him or even just read the realities of this life as presented in the Bible and not be searching for more than just the programs, the rituals, the rules?  Once you experience Him, the Big Bird suit becomes offensive to you.  Makes you want to scream at Big Bird: "There's MORE!!"  How, then, can people experience Him?  It happens only when He's accurately demonstrated, either through legitimate, genuine personal seeking or, more commonly, through a son of God on assignment who IS, in fact, demonstrating Him.  Not flash.  Him.  That is, Yahweh.  How important that we get it right and don't get lost in other...stuff.  Missing it by an inch is still missing it.  Only worse.

I would be so upset if I realized too late that I was content with the mundane milk and all the while the real meat was right there, just always masked by pomp and circumstance, by a flash in the pan.  No wait.  Not masked.  It can't be masked.  It's either there, exploding in your face, or it's not there, being kept from rising in power.  The real deal cannot always be predictable.  That scares a lot of people.

We don't have church attendance at The Rock of Greater Burlington.  You either know that you're joined by the Spirit or you aren't.  Isn't that weird?  So few do it that way.  But making someone sign a form isn't going to make them stay, or if it did, it's obviously not for the right reasons.  And since our success is not measured by what kinds of numbers we're sending in to the boards higher up, we're free from that formality ever the more. 

So this is kind of funny, to talk about meat around Jesus' neck, but one more funny thing before I wrap this up.  The Bible says that the Kingdom smells like life to some and death to others.  The Kingdom is polarizing.  Once encountered, people either dive in and can't get enough or they run screaming.  Our goal, then, is to follow Holy Spirit's direction at every service so that we know we're releasing the Kingdom, unadulterated, and so often our services take a completely different turn than any of us, including my apostle, ever would've predicted that morning when getting ready.  And we've found that Bible verse to be absolutely true.  For those of us joined there to that purpose, by the Spirit of God, we smelled life and have remained at all cost to play our role.  But we have had people walk in the door into the power and the unfamiliar freedom of our worship and literally run out the door!  And I don't mean that our music has "unfamiliar freedom" in that there's lots of charismatic gyrating and snake charming or whatever weird stories we've all heard, though we do dance.  If there's another thing I love about our church, or house, or ekklesia, it's that there is authority and order.  But the Spirit always has free rein to move.  And our music takes turns into new songs none of us has ever heard before, and the weight of Yahweh's presence is so palpable, it scares some people away.  Like, literally, one girl ran out.  So funny!  Does it sound strange to hear a Christian talk like that?  I hope so.  And no, we didn't chase her out.  We let her go.  She saw the Kingdom and had a perfectly viable reaction. 

So, if you're a seeker (which is where most all of us start), take the Savior with a steak tied around His neck if that's the best way to get you to be willing to meet Him.  Then really get to know Him.  Get to know the Father.  Dig for the deeper things.  And then you'll be challenged and drawn to that great adventure where the real meat is, and having tasted and seen, you'll know He's good, and you'll never look back.