From “Deep and Wide” pages 52-54 by Andy Stanley From a purely secular perspective, the story of the Church goes something like this; a small band of Jewish dissidents defied a superpower and a religious system that had been in place for a thousand years and, in the end, prevailed. At the center of this “grassroots movement, originally referred to as the “The Way” was a Jewish carpenter whose messages centered on a “kingdom” that wasn’t directly connected to this world. He spoke mostly in parables that few could understand. He insisted that those who followed Him ‘love’ the Romans and pay those onerous taxes. He alienated the influential and the powerful. He offended practically everybody. His family thought He had lost His mind. After only three years of public ministry, He was arrested, publically humiliated, and executed. After His execution, Jesus dispirited and desperate followers claimed that He arose from the dead and that they had seen Him! Touched him. Eaten with Him. Within weeks of this alleged resurrection, dozens and then hundreds of people within walking distance of where Jesus was buried believed this nonsense and began telling others. Before long, Jerusalem was filled to the brim with followers of The Way. When resistance from both Rome and the Jewish authorities broke out, several members of the original group were executed and the followers scattered. In spite of this, everywhere they went, followers of The Way insisted that God had done something unique in their generation; He had raised a man from the dead. In a relatively short amount of time, this Jewish knockoff religion replaced the entire pagan pantheon of gods as the primary belief system of the Roman Empire, the same empire responsible for crucifying its central figure; the same empire that launched several vicious inquisitions with the intent of stamping it out completely. Doesn’t really add up, does it? Not without an actual resurrection anyway. But the story of the church is not just unexplainable, it’s undeniable. Today over a third of the world’s population claims some kind of faith in Jesus. The Roman empire is long gone. Ancient Judaism died with the destruction of the Jewish temple in AD 70. But today one third of the world’s population claims Jesus as the centerpiece of their religious experience. He taught for three years, and twenty centuries later He is worshiped on every continent on the planet. That is an Amazing story! It is a story we are responsible for shaping. Like it or not, we are the stewards of the church for our generation. More daunting than that is the fact that we determine what comes to mind for the next generation when they hear the term church.
Posted on: Wed, 06 Nov 2013 22:15:16 +0000
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