This is another great book by Wayne Jacobsen. Previously involved in the institutional church, Wayne writes honestly and powerfully about his transition and why true Biblical relationships are the most healthy for Christ followers. The following is the first of two excerpts from his book. This excerpt asks who is your covering. This book is available for purchase or can be downloaded free by clicking here.
It is usually not long in the Christian journey before the question of accountability surfaces. Some churches talk about the importance of having a covering, by which they mean a committed relationship to a local church institution. Without one your salvation is suspect. This thinking is built on the notion that an individual cannot be trusted to discern truth and so must draw that security from a tradition, denomination or trained professional.
It is so much a part of our religious psyche that it remains unchallenged, even though not one New Testament Scripture vests our accountability in another human being. In actuality the New Covenant declares quite the opposite. Each of us are accountable to God alone for our choices. At no time did the early apostles project authority over others, nor command their actions. Instead, they urged, beseeched and encouraged leaving each person to live consistent with their individual conscience.
When some among the Ephesian elders had begun to pervert the gospel in order to ply their own power games over people, John wrote for them to trust the anointing they each had from the Holy Spirit. “You have no need for anyone to teach you,” John wrote, drawing a clear distinction between the value of receiving good teaching when offered, but never trusting someone else’s interpretation over the discernment of our hearts.
From an institutional perspective, direct accountability to God has never been popular in church history, and cries of anarchy are raised at its mention. Instead we’ve entrusted our security to church councils, creeds or religious hierarchy, even though all these mechanisms have at various times led down paths far from the mission and character of Christ.
Jim Peterson shows, in his compelling book, Church Without Walls, that the major reason religious structures amass power is their desire to be the arbiter of truth. Yet, “Jesus never said or did anything to indicate that structure and organization could serve to protect God’s people… [He was not] against structure. It is necessary, as we shall see, but for protecting his people, he had something far more trustworthy—the Holy Spirit.”
It would not be an overstatement to say that all heresies and abuse have come from those who would be leaders over the church of Jesus Christ. And it is usually not long in the formation of a religious tradition for people to use it to satisfy their own preferences, rather than help them stay true to the gospel. Even the early church evidenced this problem.
From a personal perspective, direct accountability to God has never been popular either. It seems that we would prefer to subscribe to the dictates of a religious tradition, rather than to risk walking with the living God. We give up our own study of scriptures to get fed by our pastor or favorite teachers. Parents abdicate their role of discipleship to the church program. And instead of helping the needy we refer them to church counseling programs when all they need is someone to love them and take a personal interest in their lives. This is the road more traveled, because our flesh prefers the path of least resistance and risk, to firsthand accountability to God.
But intimacy doesn’t work without unmediated access to God. All lines of accountability in the New Testament are clearly drawn between God and the individual. We will each stand or fall before him based on our response to his work through our conscience, and will not be able to point fingers at political or ecclesiastical authorities for our deception or lack of obedience. The awareness of that responsibility will lead us to listen carefully to other believers, and to weigh the counsel of those who may be further down the road than ourselves. In the end, however, each of us must have the the freedom to respond to God as best we see fit. No church tradition or leader can usurp that place.
Far from freeing us to do whatever we want to do in God’s name, this realization confronts us with the reality of our own struggle to know the difference between flesh and spirit. We’d much rather not sort this out on our own, but follow someone else’s prescription for relationship. But none will suffice. Our flesh gravitates to the path of least risk and resistance, and will even abuse any prescription in an effort to hide behind it.Wayne Jacobsen, the Naked Church
In order to grow in intimacy, we have to face the power of our own self-preferring nature, that exalts itself above God’s purpose in its quest for comfort and satisfaction. Here the battle for intimacy is won or lost.
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