the challenge of restoration

Webster defines restoration as "the act of restoring or bringing back to a former place, station, or condition; the fact of being restored; renewal"...

Wikipedia says this about the restoration movement:

"The Restoration Movement (also known historically as the "Stone-Campbell Movement") is a Christian reform movement traced to the 18th and 19th centuries in the United States during the Second Great Awakening. Barton W. Stone and Alexander Campbell were leading figures of four independent movements with like principles who merged together into two religious movements of significant size. Restorationism sought to renew the whole Christian church, on the pattern set forth in the New Testament, without regard to the creeds developed over time in Catholicism, Orthodoxy or Reformed Protestantism, which allegedly kept Christianity divided. Churches are now found throughout the globe, claiming to "concentrate on the essential aspects of the Christian faith, allowing for a diversity of understanding with non-essentials." Basically, there are those whose beliefs and doctrines may differ on minor subjects, but who believe in Jesus Christ the Son of God as the savior and authority of the church. Among key practices are the weekly celebration of the Lord's Supper on the first day of each week and a commitment to believer's baptism by immersion in water."

From what I know about the Restoration Movement, that seems pretty accurate...

(incidentally, for most of my life I have heard people talk about restoring the church of the New Testament... but for the most part, they were really endeavoring to restore the church of the 1950s instead of the 0050s...)

As I study about what the church (ecclesia) is literally 'called out' to be, it gets really uncomfortable... and what it gets down to is separating the word of God from the cultures and traditions of man.

It boils down to - as Rick Atchley puts it - mission versus tradition.

So as we try to understand what we are 'called out' to be, it will take us from uncomfortable to vulnerability to downright challenging!

The biggest challenge for me is that I tend to like routine... I seem to be addicted to what I know. I guess a lot of people are that way, because organizations are made of people and organizations are notorious for seeking and clinging to stasis. In other words, when groups of people organize (perhaps especially when for religious purposes), the resultant 'organization' naturally finds its boundaries and strives - sometimes violently - to stay within them...

Conversely, positive progress demands change.

so I guess it could be said that organizations naturally tend away from flexibility and discovery and, instead, tend toward their norms...

is it a stretch, then, to observe that organizations naturally resist progress? That is the tension which provides the backdrop for our challenge today...

Because as we seek God's will for our lives, change is absolutely necessary!

So the struggle is obvious. But it is very important!

To become the absolute most effective church, we must rediscover the never-changing Word. As we do, I predict there will be many 'traditions' which hinder the 'mission'...

At the risk of being labeled a heretic (oh, well, probably too late :-)), I will list a few rather innocuous ones from my heritage which may serve as examples:

1. worship style - is ours relevant? is it traditional? does it serve the mission? or is it so completely borrowed from your grandpa's church as to make it NOT REAL?
2. daily living - is yours pure? is it relatable to your peers? does it lift Him up? or is it wholly compartmentalized from 'Sunday You'? (be careful not to be like those described in Amos 5-6)
3. servanthood - akin to #2: does your walk match your talk? or are you like the Israelites described in Amos' book...
4. do you act like you think the only saved people attend a church like yours with a name like yours who worship just like you?
5. Is 4-part-acappella worship the only acceptable way to praise the Living God? or is it a tradition which you have elevated to the level of Scripture because someone told you that's where it belonged?

Seeking God's will... and seeking to restore the New Testament church will stretch and scare and maybe even cause pain... and sometimes we are so invested in the way things are that even suggesting we consider change will cause heartburn...

but at some point we will have to decide what is more important: mission or tradition.

God Bless us as we seek His will for His Body