David Bosch, in his monumental work Transforming Mission, along with many authors who have followed in his amazing path, mentioned the difference between church as institution and church as movement. There is much debate still going around these categories, specifically concerning whether any movement can remain as simply that, avoiding institutionalization, while really being a movement that is worthwhile.
I think the Wind of God is there to keep us on the move. A weather pattern, as mentioned in the last post, has the ability to stay for a given amount of time, some longer than others. This is our institutional duration as allowed by Spirit. The Spirit of God guides us in keeping our equilibrium as we try to balance movement and institution.
Sometimes the church can become too much of a movement, blowing in with hurricane force, only to be quickly downgraded to tropical storm, then peter-out somewhere in the mainland. This is the church with no roots, with great energy but no leadership structure, knowledge of its past, little theological depth, and little understanding of the weather patterns that come before or after its wild, ravaging movement. This kind of movement can be damaging to say the least.
Alternatively, the church can become the bogged down institution; a massive boulder in the middle of a field, left there in ages past and refusing to moved. Year after year the Wind blows on it and different weather patterns are brought in to attempt to change it and challenge its stubborn position, yet it refuses to be moved. It has a strong foundation and has built itself up into something old, strong and stubborn. Yet as time goes by, it is slowly weathered away, until it is finally, after years and years, weathered down to nothingness. The irrelevant piece of rock in the field finally disappears to something better can come along and bring health and life to that field.
Getting ahead of the Wind or refusing to be moved by it both lead to the same conclusion. It is in choosing to participate and follow the guidance of the Wind that the church finds health and vitality. It is in choosing to ignore it that our structures are deconstructed, either quickly in the case of the hurricane, or slowly like the rock. The church must be in step with the Spirit, neither rushing nor hindering (grieving) the Wind of God as we are pushed, pulled and moved nearer the Kingdom.
Peace,
Matt
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2 comments:
your focus on the holy spirit leads me to ask about your opinion or knowledge if the indian shaker church created in the northwest in the late 1820s. they believed the major tenants of christianity, however, they refused to acknowledge the bible and instead focused on the importance of personal/individual/community experiences of god, strictly through the holy spirit.
It's sad to admit that all of us tend to work towards the extremes. I have the slightest knowledge of the shaker movement, but I can say that their downfall is extremely similar to our own, though more of a mirror image. We tend to focus soley on the Bible (sola scriptura, for example), with no regard for the Spirit. Others tend to do the opposite. There is a fine line between the two, which is hard to follow as it is dynamic and fluid, but is important to constantly rediscover. It is through our history, the Bible, community and commmon sense, all guided by the Spirit, that we are guided. The Spirit is most important, but without these other things, a person's experience of the Spirit is questionable in my opinion.
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