Healing School Ponderings

Last week May 18-22, Marcia and I, along with 7 others (3 more from our church, and 4 other Dunamis folks), attended the week long Healing School at Bethel church in Redding, CA. I took some notes and wanted to reflect on them personally, and share those thoughts with anyone who is interested.

General Observations

I've already had a lot of teaching on Divine healing, including teaching from the Dunamis project (I've actually taught some of those lessons), several books, miscellaneous teaching at other conferences and seminars, and attending the Randy Clark school last year in Redding. So, in many ways, there weren't a lot of surprises or completely new ideas here. Most of the teaching we received reinforced what we already knew. But that's a good thing, because there are a lot of challenges and frustrations when one engages in healing ministry of any kind. Most of these reminders I'll include below in my other remarks.

That said, I'm very glad I went, and for many reasons. Going with our church and Dunamis friends helps us carry back some of the nuances from the Bethel culture that bring wholeness to our church and our Dunamis team. The culture of honor alone (cf. Romans 12:10b), is one that turns any silly notions of competition, or validation through ministry on it's pointy little head. The culture of dwelling in the Presence (e.g. John 15:4-7) is just simply the only atmosphere, not to mention prerequisite, for any real and fruitful ministry, and yet we can so easily get distracted by the very people and the very needs we minister to that we step out of His presence in order to do them. Other Bethel "Culture of Heaven" values are: grace, generosity, joy, faith, revelation, healing, and worship. Since cultures are more caught than taught, it was good to be there and watch their culture in action.

Basic Teaching on Healing

Teaching on healing from Bethel (and Randy Clark, and many others) begins with this: Jesus healed everyone who came to Him for healing. He never turned anyone down because of their lifestyle, their lack of faith, or because they "weren't ready yet," or needed to learn a lesson. While it's true that Jesus didn't heal everyone he saw (cf. John 5:3-9), there's not a single record of Him turning down anyone who came asking. Put that together with Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever (Hebrews 13:8), and you have to come to an inescapable conclusion: we can expect healing today.

Another basic teaching is that it is always God's will to heal. This one is a trip-hazard for some of us--especially us Calvinists who believe everything that happens is in God's will, and some people are sick and remain so after we pray. But remember that it's also God's will that all people will be saved (1Timothy 2:4), and yet not all will be saved. To explain this apparent contradiction we talk about the active will and permissive will of God: God permits things to happen (sin, for example), though He is not the direct cause of those things. While God turns all that happens to us to our good, He does not directly cause everything thing that happens to us. We know this is true, because it is the thief who comes to steal and kill and destroy, not Jesus; Jesus comes that we may have life, and have it to the full (John 10:10). It's important not to attribute the devil's work to God. (There's much more that could be said on this, but I'm not writing this blog entry on the nuances of the will of God.)

If it's always God's will to heal, why doesn't everyone get healed? I'll deal with that important question below.

A Sort of Random Look at My Notes with Some Further Reflections

Confession: I'm not very good at taking notes. I tend to focus on what the speaker is saying and taking notes sometimes makes me lose the next thing the speaker says. So I tend to only write down things that really catch me in some way that I want to make sure I don't forget.

(I'll put my note in bold and my reflection/thoughts in regular type face.)

Faith looks to Jesus, not inward to one's heart. This was from Chris Gore on the first night. Chris was talking about how we assess our level of faith. Faith is a pretty big deal, since without it, it's impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). When we turn inward to our own hearts to assess our own faith, we turn away from Jesus and to ourselves. This is a good way to get depressed, since we can quickly become aware of all those things that compete with faith in our hearts. As we turn toward Jesus in faith, our faith grows and is encouraged. Introspection is not always helpful, and habitual introspection is self-centeredness, plain and simple. It's not about us. Not even our faith is about us. Instead Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith... (Hebrews 12:2, NIV84).

To have the peace that passes understanding (Philippians 4:7) means I need to give up my right to understand. There are mysteries in God and in what God does in us and for us that we may never understand in this life, and maybe not even the next. If we limit what we allow into our lives based on what we understand, we have created a barrier between us and anything in God that is beyond the capacities of the human mind. The longer I live this Christian life, the more I'm convinced that understanding is overrated. Lining up all the little truths in a sensible pattern, satisfies the rational mind, but rarely is worth the effort, judging by the actual fruit in ministry such projects produce. One can dance around the mysteries of the Trinity for pages and pages, and still come to the same conclusion: it's beyond human understanding (or else fall into heresy). Understanding is highly valued in Reformed and Calvinistic circles, and by the modern mind. Many things in Scripture are clearly understandable, including the basic Gospel message! But God is much bigger than our human capacity to understand, and often our attempts to understand these mysteries is merely a fool's errand, a wild goose chase, or as the Bible sometimes puts it a chasing after the wind (Ecclesiastes 1:17).

If it's our burden, it's our glory; if it's not our glory, it's not our burden. Here Chris was speaking about what we feel when we pray for healing and nothing seems to happen. If we are not the one's doing the healing, we cannot take the glory, but neither can we take the blame. If we do take the blame, we're believing that it's really up to us to heal, and we should be taking the glory when someone does get healed. Of course some people do find a perverse validation when they pray for the sick and they get healed, but that's just wrong and we all know it. But if healing is what Jesus does, then it's not up to us, and we have no business taking the blame for it. This isn't to deny that we may be out of step with the Spirit at that point, but then our assignment isn't to do better at healing, but get back in step! Also, if God could use Samson, even while he was a moral failure, He can use us, even when our faith or our walk isn't what it should be.

If the Kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Romans 14:17), then if we're not living in joy, we've relocated ourselves outside the Kingdom of God. Joy is an essential attitude in the Kingdom, it's the second thing listed in the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22). Joy is one of those things we find in the Presence (Psalm 16:11; 21:6). Jesus even prayed that, among other things, his disciples would have the full measure of my joy within them (John 17:13b). Believers should be happy people--the happiest people on earth! Let's put an end to this knuckle-dragging, 'what a worm am I' false piety and get into the Kingdom where there is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit!

This should not be interpreted to mean that we should never be sad, or never grieve the loss of a loved one. That may be where we are for a season. But our lifestyle should be one of joy.

Laughter is the best form of prayer, because joy releases the Kingdom. God laughs at the schemes of the enemy (Psalm 2:4). Chris Gore reminded us that Psalm 2 does not say God laughed, but God laughs (present tense--ongoing action). When we laugh at what the enemy intends as stealing, killing and destroying, we put him in his proper place. He has no authority, because Jesus has all authority. When we laugh at the enemy, because we know and believe that Jesus has all authority and that all the enemy's schemes against us are doomed, or will be turned to our favor (Romans 8:28), we bring in the Kingdom we are laughing from. When we get anxious and fearful, we succumb to the lie that the enemy can actually harm us, but that's a lie. The one within us is greater than the one in the world (1John 4:4) every time, all the time.

The Gospel is not a prisoner exchange program (Danny Silk). Simply put, we were not taken out of bondage to sin and the devil, just to be put in another bondage to "Christian" legalism. We are not under the Old Covenant laws. We are called into the freedom (e.g., John 8:36, 2Corinthians 3:17) of a Father/child relationship (Romans 8:14-17; Galatians 4:6-7; 1John 3:1).

Sin: Whatever violates love. The only law the New Testament believer is under is the law of love (Romans 13:8-10; 2 John 6). Sin is no longer fixed to the myriad of rules found in the Old Covenant, but in the simple rule that we love each other, and love God above all.

Manage your love, not your sin. Following up on the previous two, Danny suggests that our focus be outward (toward others & God) rather than inward. Like Chris, when talking about faith, Danny stresses the importance of turning our efforts outward. Managing sin, puts the focus in the wrong place: on us. Sin management usually looks like trying really hard not to do something and then punishing ourselves when we do. But the more introspective and self-focused we are, the more we cut ourselves off from our source of strength: God (1John 4:7-8). When we live a life of love, the management of the inner life sorts itself out, or rather gets put into alignment by the One we're following. If love is the fulfillment of the law (Romans 13:10b), then let's be about loving people.

Do we think we are better parents than God? When our kids break the rules, what do we do? One thing we don't do is kick our children to the curb for every single infraction until they get their life sorted out. We don't disown them for a moment of selfishness, or foolishness, or even defiance. They're our kids! We love them even when they mess up. Even when they really, really mess up. We don't think we're better parents than God, do we? Really? In fact, Jesus said the best fathers are evil compared to our Father in heaven (Matthew 7:9-11; Luke 11:11-13).

There are two rules for us: love and believe. Yes, I know earlier I said there was just one: love, but we are also commanded to believe, which actually is the context for our love relationship with God.

If fear wasn't controlling you, what would you do? (Dawna DeSilva, I think) Something to ponder. We are no longer slaves living in fear (cf. Romans 8:15). So, if fear wasn't an issue, if you weren't afraid of what might happen, or might not happen, what would you do? Fear is often rooted in a belief that something is bigger than God. Can we laugh at that?

A thought to prayerfully ponder.

Five aspects of a healing ministry (Chris Gore):
1. Words of Knowledge & Prophecy. Moving in healing ministry is often accompanied by receiving specific information from God about parts of the body that need healing. This comes to the healing minister in many ways: the 'still, small voice,' sympathetic pain (pain felt in one's body that signals pain in another person), a picture, or perhaps some other way. When a word of knowledge comes, God intends to do something.

2. Laughter. Laughter is good for the soul and good medicine for the body (Proverbs 17:22). As discussed above, laughter also characterizes and so brings the Kingdom as well.

3. Thanksgiving. Simply being thankful for what one has, for the healing one has received (no matter how small), often releases more healing. Instead of being frustrated that pain diminished only 10% (for example), be thankful for a 10% reduction of pain! If nothing seems to be happening, be thankful for what God has done in the past. Gratitude is also an essential Kingdom attitude.

4. Declaration. For those who aren't familiar with this term, a declaration is a prophetic act that creates a new reality by declaring it. In Ezekiel 37:4, Ezekiel is told: "Prophecy to these bones and say to them 'Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord!'" He spoke the words God gave him and created a new reality. God spoke the universe into existence and then made us in His image. Our words have power. (Maybe I should write a blog on this topic; it's much bigger than I can treat fully now.)

When Jesus and the Apostles healed people, they didn't pray for healing they declared healing. They said things like "Get up!" or "In the name of Jesus, get up!" It's interesting to study how Jesus healed (He never seemed to do it the same way twice!). Sometimes he did stuff with spit and mud, but most often He just spoke the new reality into existence.

5. Testimony. When there is a report of God healing someone of X, the sharing of that testimony often carries with it the potential to release the healing of X in others. Maybe this is because testimonies release both faith and expectation.

6. Prophetic Action. This is a bit strange, but sometimes a simple act of stepping over an imaginary line, or stepping forward, or taking hold of something in the air can release healing in a person (I've seen it happen!). This is one of those things that can offend the understanding, but I talked about the limits of the understanding above. Understanding is overrated, and actual healing is much better!

Don't focus on the problem; focus on the Problem Solver! This is so critical, it's hard to overstate. Often healing ministries struggle and even fail because we pay too much attention to the sickness, the injury, or whatever. The more we look at a problem, the bigger it seems to get. Before long the problem starts to look bigger than God (Who by this time has faded into the background, if not sunk beyond the horizon!).

Don't focus on the missing leg, focus on the leg that's missing. Obviously related to the above statement. Heaven already has what we need. We don't bring earth up to heaven; instead "Your Kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven." That is, our task is to bring heaven to earth; along with all that's in heaven for us. Don't focus on the illness, but on the health, not on the injury but the restored body. While we're at it, don't focus on the darkness, just bring the light.

Bring life where there's death (Eric Johnson). I was so interested in Eric's talk I hardly took any notes. But this stuck out as significant. The believer's task is primarily to bring life where death reigns. Jesus said His role was to bring life to the full. As His followers, that's what we do too. We don't merely bring the truth of the Gospel, we bring life from the God Who has given us new life. This should break off from us the impoverished idea that the Gospel is primarily about getting different thoughts in our heads. We need more than better thoughts, we need a new life! We have new life in Christ (not just new truth). It's true that lies can rob us of life (and usually do!), but the point of the Truth is to give us life. We carry that life in us, and can carry it into places where death has gotten a foothold. When we do, we should remember that the life we have has already defeated death, so there's no need for anxiety.

What happens when I pray and the person doesn't get healed?

I already discussed above that we shouldn't take the burden, if we won't take the glory. But that's not a complete response to this question.

Our track record in healing is not directly related to our theology or spiritual maturity, since Jesus sent out the 12 and the 72 long before they even understood Who He was. So let's stop blaming ourselves. 

Nor should we blame the one we're praying for! It's not their lack of faith, sin in their lives, or bad theology. When Jesus healed the man at the pool of Bethesda, he later found him and said, "Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you" (John 5:14). Apparently the man was not morally perfect--but then who is? And who has perfect faith, or perfect theology?

One thing we should never do is to try to make the Bible fit our experience. If the two don't agree, which one is wrong? Obviously, it's our experience that needs to change, not the Scriptures. There was healing in the New Testament church by the Apostles and other believers (if the gift list in 1Corinthians 12, is any indication). This has not changed. There is healing for us to do too.

When we try to understand Scripture in the light of our experience, rather than the other way around, we run into all sorts of problems. Yet it's been pretty much a standard to make God into some sort of abusive parent, teaching His children lessons by making them sick, or injuring them. If that happened in your house, you'd be arrested, and rightly so! Imagine: "Son, you're getting kind of proud of your athletic abilities, so I'll need to break your arm, but it's only because I love you." Or how about this one: "You've been misbehaving quite a bit lately, so I'm going to give you an injection of cancer cells and hope you can straighten out your life before you die." What?!! You would never stand for that with a human father, how can we project that onto God?! Besides, God is smart enough to know how to teach us what we need to know without having to hurt us, or make us sick. It's the thief that comes to steal and kill and destroy, not Jesus (who is a perfect representation of the Father).

Of course God can use a broken arm, or cancer, or anything else to teach us what we need to know. But that's more like a father helping his child learn from his or her mistakes, or learn how to be positive even when things go badly. The father didn't control the child into making the mistake, or deliberately bring bad things into his child's life. He just helps his child grow because of them. So too with God. The worst that can happen to us, God turns to our advantage.

When healing doesn't happen, we may have to resist the temptation to try to understand, and simply seek the Lord for His counsel or consolation. I have books that deal with this topic in a chapter or two, and I can barely summarize all the thoughts here. I think I've summarized what I heard last week from the Bethel teachers.

Let me add one more thought, not one I've heard from Bethel, though. In Daniel 10:12-13, Daniel had been praying and the answer to his prayer was delayed in coming because of what appears to be a spiritual battle between the Prince of Persia and the archangel Michael. Daniel didn't know this until the battle was over and Michael succeeded. I think that sometimes there is a spiritual battle going on for someone's sickness that we don't know about. Elijah, when he knew God was sending rain, still had to pray for it 7 times before it rained (1Kings 18:41-44). Our job is to persist in pursuing healing until it comes, even if it takes a long time. I don't mean 24/7 prayer (unless God says to do that), but persistence, not giving up, like the woman and the unjust judge (Luke 18:1-8).

There's more of course!

Yesterday, a friend of ours let us know she wouldn't be going to class with us because she was sick. We prayed for and released healing, Marcia called and talked about some of the things we had learned and she was healed and made it to class after all, and was deeply blessed by both the healing she received and the content of the class last night.

We carry the Holy Spirit within us, and with Him the presence of Jesus. So wherever we go, we change the atmosphere. The God of healing isn't just "up there somewhere," He lives within us. We don't have to call Him down, He's already here. When we prayed for healing for our friend yesterday, I was most conscious of simply releasing the power of Jesus in me toward her. I don't have a junior Holy Spirit, or a weak Jesus in me, nor does any believer. We need to get over the idea that somehow we are weak and worthless, and remember that we have been clothed with power from on high (cf. Luke 24:49; Acts 1:8), and God loves us enough to have sent His Son to restore us to our rightful place as His children. If God values us, we're not worthless, no matter what our self-evaluation tries to tell us.

One of the other things we had reinforced for us is the perspective of praying heaven in, rather than praying hell out. There's a tendency among some intercessors to be focused more on praying out the enemy, than praying in the Presence. I've heard them wailing in 'travail' as they 'wrestle in prayer' against the spiritual forces of darkness. There's no need for that. Whenever the enemy shows up, we need to remember that he's already defeated (e.g. Colossians 2:15; 1Peter 3:22). It's a whole lot easier to turn on a light, than to chase darkness out of a room. This is also true spiritually. Besides, spiritually speaking, we don't just want a demon-free environment, we want an environment saturated with God's presence. A demon-free environment may still be dominated by an atmosphere of the world, or the flesh -- a merely human atmosphere. But that's shooting too low. Our target is and should always be God's presence when we pray for a person or a nation (or anything in between).

I may do some more reflecting as I continue to process what we learned. It was a lot!

No More Pastor-Centered Churches

I've been thinking a lot about the role of pastor (or whatever we call the person in this role) in the last few years and my general and somewhat vague thoughts are beginning to coalesce around the theme of "pastor-centered, vs Christ-centered church." This is my first attempt at trying to articulate in writing what I'm thinking here. I hope it makes sense.

The Pastor-Centered Church: What does it look like?

When I'm using the term "Pastor-Centered" church, I'm thinking about a congregation that has it's activities and decision-making process centered around one person: the pastor (or senior pastor, for churches that have more than one). If the pastor doesn't visit someone in the hospital, one might hear the complaint: "The church has not visited [someone]." When a major decision is being made, all eyes turn to the pastor to hear his/her opinion, the rest of the discussion responds (positively or negatively) to that opinion. The pastor sets the agenda for the discussion just by being there.

In a pastor-centered church, the major portion of the ministry and all the important and critical ministry is done by or with the direct participation of the pastor. If the church were a country, the pastor would be the president, and in some countries the king or queen.

A pastor, in a pastor-centered church, is either fighting that tendency to make him/her the center of all activity, or fueling that tendency. Fighting it is not easy. I know. Pastors who are paid by their congregations are expected to perform in certain ways; this includes 'running the show.' "That's what pastors are paid for," some would say, or think, or assume.

For some pastors, this is a relationship they embrace, endorse and promote by what they say and what they do. They are everywhere, know everyone's issues, attend all the events of all the families, and fully embrace the status they enjoy as the one everyone looks to for advice, whether spiritual or not. If they are not liked, they are loved--at least that's their expectation of themselves. If someone doesn't like them, or leaves the congregation, they take it very personally. Such pastors often take on this role self-sacrificially, as an act of servanthood (at least that is the conscious thought process in the pastor's mind).

Psychologists and sociologists call this relationship co-dependence.

When church members minister vicariously through a pastor with a need to be needed, we have a pastor and a pastor-centered church that are sick, but don't know it. This is certainly not the arrangement envisioned for the church in the New Testament.

The Christ-Centered Church

(I hope this doesn't look like a cheap shot: calling one model 'pastor-centered' and the other 'Christ-centered. I just didn't know how else to describe a non-pastor-centered church. What or Who is at the center of such a church, if not Christ? I'm open to suggestions for a more neutral sounding way of describing the alternative.)

The Christ-Centered church is one in which the leaders (including the pastor) understand that their task is not to do all the ministry, but to see to it that the church does all the ministry. They take their cue from Ephesians 4:12, understanding that the task assigned to them by Christ is to equip God's people for works of service... The Greek word translated "service" is diakonia, which is also means "ministry." That section ends with the assurance that when this is done, many good things happen ...as each part does its work (Eph 4:16). God's design then is for everyone to have a part, and also for everyone to do their part.

When a church leader takes on ministry that belongs to others, he is usurping both their role as ministers and Christ's role as the one who assigns ministry! This is not servanthood, regardless of the thought process in the pastor's mind. It may be self-sacrifice, but if it is, it's a sacrifice to the wrong god.

In the Christ-centered church the pastor is mostly interested in empowering the ministries of others in the congregation. Such pastors equip others by helping them identify their gifts, by calling out the "gold" in them, by believing in them when they don't believe in themselves, by encouraging them, by lifting them when they make a mistake, and a host of other things. I have found that helping people discover their gifts is not enough. Most people need to be 'pastored' in their gifts: nurtured, corrected (gracefully, of course), encouraged and provided opportunities to risk using them.

(While were here, let me suggest that there are often many, many pastors in a congregation, not just the one with a title. For much of the history of the church the one with the role we call 'pastor' was not usually called that. They've been called minister, parson, reverend, and a number of other things. Only recently has 'pastor' been the primary term. My official title in my denomination (Christian Reformed Church) is "Minister of the Word." I wish we could choose a different term than 'pastor,' but that may not happen in my lifetime, so I'll continue to use the title, even though it's imprecise.)

In Acts 6:4, the apostles decided that some ministry was a distraction to their primary task, which they understood to be prayer and the ministry of the word. In the pastor-centered church, often the pastor gets to those things last, or does them along the way. They are not often the main focus of the pastor's life. The pastor who understands the central importance of prayer and the ministry of the word, is more likely to try to work toward the Christ-centered church model we find in Ephesians 4:11-16 (and elsewhere). It's the only way to do it!

Closing Thoughts

I don't really have much more to say on this, and I'm not sure if I've just created a straw-dog to knock down, or addressed a real issue in a helpful way. As I said, these thoughts are still coming together in my mind, and I'm not sure I have it all sorted out.

On the other hand, I do see some relationships between pastor and church that are unhealthy, not in merely specific circumstances, but systemically. There is something about keeping the pastor on a spiritual pedestal and assigning him the Lion's share of responsibility for all the ministry in the church that is just plain wrong, if not blatantly immoral. Maybe I'll write about this more as my thoughts on this form into a more coherent presentation.

Thanks for reading. I'm open to your comments.

The Kingdom Family

I want to write about something I've been thinking a lot about recently. It's really changed the way I think about Church and Kingdom. It's the idea that both are really all about family. I don't mean biological family, but biological family is a shadow, a pattern of the reality found in the Kingdom.

The North American Problem with Family

I grew up in North America. So I live with a North American world-view. I am even more aware of this mindset after living for a year in Costa Rica (as a language student), and in the Dominican Republic as a missionary mostly to Haitians living there. That experience made me aware of some of my cultural assumptions more than anything else.

One of the things that became evident to me is that in other cultures family means something other than what it means in the culture I grew up in. Without trying to articulate what family means in those cultures, let me just make this observation about family in ours: family is the launching pad to your real life.

In North America the important thing is one's work, one's job, one's life calling. It doesn't matter if it's painting houses, running a Fortune 500 business, or preaching the Gospel: the important thing is that we do our job, and do it well. We admire the person who sacrifices all to work hard and build up a successful business, or to advance in the workplace, or to simply do his/her best to make his/her employer look good, make money, etc.

What is clear is that one's family is not the most important thing in the lives of most North Americans, one's work is. From work we get purpose and meaning, we matter to society and to ourselves. At least that's how we see it. In fact, it's what we assume to be true, without even thinking. And despite the slogans of what people wish they had done on their deathbeds, North Americans are more likely to skip a family vacation than to skip a day of work to attend an important family event. And we expect them to, and admire them for it.

This is not the way it is in most of the world.

Given all of this, we tend to understand Church and Kingdom in terms of individual sacrifice and achievement. We tend to understand the relationships in the Church and the Kingdom of God more in terms of policies, procedures, and expectations of a "contribution" (by which we mean doing something around here). We tend to run our organizations more like machines, with the people in them like cogs in a wheel, here to help the machine function. We even talk about Spiritual Gifts that way.

Basically we value people for what they can do for us, not because we see them with intrinsic value (though we would deny that with our words, while affirming it with our actions).

Kingdom Culture is not North American Culture

If we read the Bible as an individualist, we will see terms like "God the Father" and "children of God" as metaphors, instead of basic realities. Since we tend to assume that the purpose of family is to get the kids out of the nest and independent, we will understand such references as metaphors for launching us into our 'real' work in the Kingdom (from where we get our identity and purpose). And while we might not say it that way, the way we live demonstrates our actual beliefs and assumptions.

In the Kingdom of God, independence is a problem, not a goal. The entire goal of most families in North America is at odds with the basic assumptions of the Kingdom of God: it is only in dependence on God and in community with other believers that we can find our identity and purpose. Notice I said "community with other believers;" I should have said as "a family of brothers and sisters," but if I say that to we North Americans, we get the wrong picture in our heads. We don't know what family in the Kingdom looks like, because we have never seen anything like it in our daily lives.

Joseph: a Story of a Family's Restoration

In reading and preaching through the Joseph narrative in Genesis (chapters 37-50), I was struck as never before by how family dynamics drive the story. If we begin with the assumption that God could have rescued the family from the coming famine by simply stopping it from happening (we agree that's within God's power, right?), then there must be another purpose for the story. What might that other purpose be?

As I read the story, what becomes clearer and clearer is that Jacob's family is extremely dysfunctional. There is jealousy and envy. The oldest, Reuben, slept with his step-mother's maidservant. Jacob obviously has a favorite: Joseph, who comes on the scene looking a like a tattle-tale and a bit of an entitled brat. The brothers all want to kill him (except for Reuben and Judah), and instead sell him into slavery (where he'll likely die in forced labor). Jacob, in self-centered despondence, abdicates his role as father and the rest are on their own. Judah even leaves the family, takes a Canaanite wife and his family goes downhill. He ends up sleeping with his daughter-in-law, believing she was a prostitute. This is not good.

Without re-preaching the series here, let me say that one way of understanding the Joseph narrative is to see it as God's way of restoring Jacob's family, so that it would be the 12 tribes of Israel. The family was on the brink of disintegration, but God, through Joseph and the crisis of famine, pulls them back together. It is out of this family that God builds His people.

Fast Forward: the New Testament Church

The New Testament is full of the language of family: brothers and sisters, God as Father, the household of God (Eph. 2:19; 1Tim. 3:15), etc. It is the language of belonging, more than the language of function and purpose (as we North Americans understand purpose).

Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. (John 1:12-13)  

When we read John 1:12-13, do we understand that when we come to Christ we enter a family, or do we see this merely as a metaphor for something else? And what sort of family do we come into: a place of belonging, or a place of launching? Do we read that God is our Father in the sense that He equips us and sends us out of the house, or in the sense that He never leaves us, but empowers us as we go together? Do we understand that God is our Father because we are "born of God" (as opposed to by a biological father)? Is He our Father really, or metaphorically? What kind of a Father is He: the kind we grew up with, or something more?

How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! (1John 3:1a)  

When we read 1John 3:1, how do we understand what John is saying? Do we see here that we are given a new identity?

Consider all these references to treating and loving each other as brothers and sisters: Romans 12:10; 1Thessalonians 4:9-10 (e.g.), and the dozens of places where fellow believers are called brothers or sisters throughout the New Testament. These are more than nice ways of speaking. This is not mere poetry or sentimentalism. The Biblical writers are telling us of the new reality we are living in and the new identity that we have in Christ.

If we really are children of God (1John 3:1), then that is the most important thing about us, and it's the most important thing about our brothers and sisters. In fact, our brothers and sisters become for us more than "fellow believers" they become family; we belong together and to each other.

The Family Business

In some families, all activity and relationships revolve around the family business. Family members gain or lose value in the family as they contribute, or fail to contribute to the family business. This is not healthy. When the members of the family have value only insofar as they contribute to the success of something outside of the family (the business), the highest value in the family ceases to be family; it becomes making the business successful. Lamentably, this makes perfect sense to everyone in such a family.

For some of us, Church and Kingdom are the family business for the family of God. So, we treat people in the family the way the above, dysfunctional family does: people are only valuable insofar as they contribute to whatever it is the family is doing: running this program, that outreach, holding this small-group, etc. The exceptions we make are for those who are old or infirm, but we will say things like "But you can still do the work of prayer," meaning they might still be valuable to us, if they could at least do that. It's the wrong message! Sure they can pray, and should! But their value is not in what they can do, it's in who they are as sons and daughters of God Most High!

The Business of Being Family

The more I read Scripture, the more I pray and worship, and the more I try to live this life we are called to, the more convinced I become that God's major project is not so much saving souls as it is (re)building His family (which is the purpose of saving those souls!).

One of the major works of the Holy Spirit that is often overlooked is found in Romans 8:15-16

For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.   

and Galatians 4:4-7

But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.

The Holy Spirit reunites us with our true Father. In so doing, He incorporates us into God's family. Nobody is adopted into isolation, or into independence. When someone is adopted, they are adopted into a family.

In God's family, everyone has a place. This does not mean that everyone has a 'job.' It means that everyone belongs. Whatever 'job' we have in the family of God, is an expression of belonging, not a requirement for it. We don't do what we do in God's family in order to belong, but because we belong. The only qualification for being in God's family is met in Christ and applied by the Spirit of adoption.

If we only have value because of what we can do for God or for each other, we are not sons or daughters, but slaves. A slave has value only in what the slave can do for the family. This is not who or what we are.

Sometimes we need to be reminded, and sometimes we need to remind others: I belong; you belong; we belong together. If the Spirit lives in you and in me, we are family, because we have the same Father. Nothing else qualifies you to deserve my honor or attention as much as that truth does.

What the Church is supposed to be about, and what the Kingdom of God actually is, is this: God's family being God's family. The business of being family, is the family business in the Kingdom of God. This includes, by the way, finding those brothers and sisters who don't yet know they are our family. It includes extending the love we have received from our Father to others who need it (and who doesn't?). It includes just about everything most churches and most ministries already do. We just do those things out of love, and not for love; out of belonging, not in order to belong; to be more like our Father, not to gain his approval (which we already have).

When we begin to see all of this in terms of family, as the governing perspective on all ministry and what the Church is supposed to be, a qualitative change happens: the family business becomes the business of being a genuine and healthy family.

[There's more to say on this, but this is a good stopping point for today.]