A "Christian" Sub-culture? How's that?

Journal Entry - September 4, 2008

"Then the captain (Temple Guards) went with the officers and brought them without violence, for they feared the people, lest they should be stoned." - Acts 5:26b

Amazingly these extremely religious people were so focused on protecting the religious structure and systems they had created and organized, that they had become totally incapable of recognizing the sovereign power of God moving and working in their midst. It was right there in their faces, but they couldn't see it. First it was the healing of the lame man, followed by their first hand view of the transformed Peter and John, and now they can't seem to contain the disciples in their jails - what more did they need to see?

And that leads me to this question: "How different is it today?" Having to deal with people who have created elaborate religious structures and systems in order to "protect" God and the integrity of modern day Christianity, I suspect they may have by default built instead another religious institution that feeds on itself within its own bubble (world). Similar to 2000 years past, denominational Christianity has all but disengaged itself from virtually every domain of society in an attempt to grow closer to God, when in effect it has extracted itself from God's equation to impact the world with the truth of His son. Aren't we really bright!

And how did this happen? How did "the church" effectively take itself out of God's strategic plan for influencing the world with the gospel? - Well, I don't know everything in total, but I suspect future historians will be able to clearly illustrate the misguided philosophy of leaders who retreated, withdrew and essentially circled the wagons as they began building their own elaborate sub-culture, beginning with private Christian schools, Christian colleges, Christian retirement centers, Christian camps and even Christian entertainment.

Their motivation was indeed correct, but apparently the Lord may not have been the person giving the orders, because from a basic military strategist's perspective, the leaders had in effect ordered a complete military withdrawal leaving the borders totally unprotected against invasion. So instead of the local church impacting every facet and domain of society, there is the free flow of humanistic and secular philosophies with every strain of weirdness, securely stationed in societies around the world. How else can we explain rampant child pornography, limitless abortions and the marriage of two men? - I think we (believers) are supposed to be the moral conscious of our communities, but instead we have, "spiritually" speaking, headed for the hills. Who's going to successfully argue the fact that God's eternal strategy called for the church to be positioned throughout society influencing and shaping the moral DNA of the heart of men, but instead in the brilliance of leadership, it turned and ran.

Why? How did the disappearance of this generation of Christian leaders occur? I suspect it may have happened like this: the first generation of leaders created an elaborate structure and secure systems which birthed a second and third generation of religious leaders (modern denominations) who had been birthed and raised in an artificial bubble of sorts; i.e., a subculture which had learned how to live outside the mainstream of the very society it had been commissioned to influence. In fact, it looks more like surrender without even a fight.

But great news! In spite of the relentless grip of organized and controlling denominations, there is a generation of young people, a remnant of new leaders being raised up, courageous and willing to take a risk by venturing outside the boundaries of modern denominationalism. These renegades, a rag-time crew of Christianity's misfits without the arsenal and financial resources of a denomination's stockpile, are arming themselves with Holy Spirit power as they enter the fray with everything they've got. They're going out in fear, faith and obedience fully realizing they will in effect be branded as disloyal and AWOL.

Venturing outside the religious bubble is risky, dangerous and in some instances downright suicidal. But why stay inside and die a slow but certain death? Shouldn't living for God be the adventure of a lifetime? Try reading the book of Acts really slow... and while you do, I'm going outside to fight.