Membership at Gateway - Something Different
Posted by Randy | Labels: Different, Holiness, Holy, Leviticus, Life Journal, Light, Membership, Pantheism, Partnership, Salt | Posted On Friday, February 10, 2012 at 11:49 AM
February is Membership Awareness Month at Gateway, when we invite our members to reaffirm their membership. We also offer Discovering Gateway the last two Sundays of this month as our membership class for those who want to explore what it means to be a member here.
We've been clear over the last few years that membership at Gateway is about more than joining an organization to get your name on a roll somewhere. Membership is the intentional decision to partner with Gateway on your journey of becoming more and more like Jesus Christ.
I had those thoughts in the back of my mind as I have been reading passages from Leviticus the last several days as part of our Life Journal Bible reading plan. Honestly, Leviticus has not typically been my favorite book of the Bible to read, but this year God seems to be opening me to all kinds of new insights as I'm reading. He's been challenging me to go deeper and learn more about what He's saying here. And one passage stands out to me:
The Hebrews understood God to be holy, "wholly other," present and active in all of life but not the same as all that is around us. This was in contrast to many religions of that time that embraced what we would call Pantheism, that God is all that we see. In other words, God and creation are inseparable - God is in all things and a part of all things. They are inseparable. Much of New Age and Eastern thought has pantheistic elements to it.
Hebrew/Christian thought understands God to have created all things, to be active in every part of life and living, but God is still "wholly other," different, apart, from His creation, including you and me. Our "religious" goal is not to affirm the god within us (for we do not believe there is a spark of God in all people), or reunite with the cosmos or universe. We are created in God's image, and when we commit our lives to Jesus Christ, his Spirit comes to live within us, but we are not God or a god.
This is a deeper topic than I can unpack in a few paragraphs, but it's implications for the Christ follower and for the Member of Gateway are profound. God calls you and me, who have committed our lives to following Jesus, to be holy. He invites all to be holy, but holiness is not the product of our hard work or effort. It is the work of the Holy Spirit to transform our lives, to help us become more and more like Jesus and, likewise, to become more and more like the human beings God created us to be in the beginning (Genesis 1-2) where we experienced open, unhindered relationship with God all the time. Yet, being holy really is very different from the way the world around us lives. And it does require our cooperation.
God is the ultimate definition of holy because God is totally and completely different from anything else in all of creation. The Sabbath is called holy because it is to be a different day from the other six days of the week. The Temple was holy because it was different from all other buildings and used for special and unique purposes. And we are called to be holy, unlike anything and anyone else around us. The goal is not to fit in and be a part of the crowd.
The early Christians understood that their lives were to be different and separate from the lives of others around them. In fact, they were so different that they were dismissed by others or even attacked and sometimes even martyred for their differentness, their holiness. We, on the other hand, afraid of being ostracized, of being left out, of not being a part of the crowd or even the "in-crowd," find it all too easy to try to be like the world around us. We adopt the standards and practices of those around us because we do not want to seem too radical or different.
Kids battle it in school all the time, as they feel the pressure to fit in and conform or be left out. But adults battle it no less, though it doesn't seem as obvious when we are in the midst of trying to fit in. I know I battle it when I feel the desire to do things for which people will like me. We give in to office or neighborhood gossip; we prefer to get even when we have been wronged, versus offering forgiveness and seeking reconciliation; instead of loving God and people and using things, we love things and use God and people. In fact, we will even argue that if we are too different, no one will hear or see our message. But there's a difference between being in the world and being of the world, and our calling is to be in it but not of it. (See John 15:19, John 17:13-19, James 1:27, 1 John 2:15, James 4:4)
Membership at Gateway is the decision to partner with Gateway to become more and more like Jesus, and that means becoming more and more different from the world around us (holy). It's not that the world, God's creation, is inherently evil and to be avoided at all costs. It's not a call to retreat into Christian enclaves and hide out. It is to be who we are, where we are, and allow our differences to be seen. It's choosing to let God use us to influence our world, rather than letting our world influence us. Being different will sometimes bring ridicule, but more often it will bring curiosity. I remember looking at committed Christ followers before I had fully committed my life to Christ and wondering what it was that they had that I didn't. I was curious and eventually sought them out to learn more, and I eventually discovered I wanted that difference in my life, too, regardless of the cost.
Being different or holy doesn't mean adopting Amish practices or being weird for weird's sake. It's choosing to be salt and light in our world. It's choosing to adopt practices and life patterns that don't always fit the world's agenda, but we have come to understand their importance in helping us be in the world but not of the world.
Leviticus says being holy is important for the people of God; so important, in fact, that they ordered their whole lives around practices and beliefs that distinguished them from every other people or nation. Membership at Gateway means to value the journey of becoming more and more like Jesus, and your partnership with Gateway is an intentional choice on your part to seek this. Quite frankly, it's the decision to be intentional about being holy with others, regardless of what the world around us thinks or expects.
It doesn't mean Gateway is responsible for your journey - you are! But Gateway will partner with you, offer you opportunities to seek Christ and help you and me understand what that looks like. It offers you a community of faith to travel with in the pursuit of this goal. After all, God's teachings in Leviticus were spoken not to individuals but to the whole family of God. And the early church never saw itself as lone rangers but as people of faith walking together, living alongside each other, seeking to be holy even as God is holy, by the power of God's Holy Spirit.
Membership at Gateway isn't even about what's in it for me, but how can I join in what God is doing in through this church to help me on my journey to be salt and light, to be in the world but not of it, to be holy even as God is holy. It is to be different, for the sake of God and His Kingdom!
We've been clear over the last few years that membership at Gateway is about more than joining an organization to get your name on a roll somewhere. Membership is the intentional decision to partner with Gateway on your journey of becoming more and more like Jesus Christ.
I had those thoughts in the back of my mind as I have been reading passages from Leviticus the last several days as part of our Life Journal Bible reading plan. Honestly, Leviticus has not typically been my favorite book of the Bible to read, but this year God seems to be opening me to all kinds of new insights as I'm reading. He's been challenging me to go deeper and learn more about what He's saying here. And one passage stands out to me:
"'For I am the LORD your God. You must consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy....'" (Leviticus 11:44 NLT)The word "consecrate" is translated in some versions as "sanctify." Regardless of the word, the Hebrew word behind it means that we are set ourselves apart, with the idea being that we are setting ourselves apart for faithfulness and obedience to God. The word "holy" carries much the same meaning - to be "different" or "separate."
The Hebrews understood God to be holy, "wholly other," present and active in all of life but not the same as all that is around us. This was in contrast to many religions of that time that embraced what we would call Pantheism, that God is all that we see. In other words, God and creation are inseparable - God is in all things and a part of all things. They are inseparable. Much of New Age and Eastern thought has pantheistic elements to it.
Hebrew/Christian thought understands God to have created all things, to be active in every part of life and living, but God is still "wholly other," different, apart, from His creation, including you and me. Our "religious" goal is not to affirm the god within us (for we do not believe there is a spark of God in all people), or reunite with the cosmos or universe. We are created in God's image, and when we commit our lives to Jesus Christ, his Spirit comes to live within us, but we are not God or a god.
This is a deeper topic than I can unpack in a few paragraphs, but it's implications for the Christ follower and for the Member of Gateway are profound. God calls you and me, who have committed our lives to following Jesus, to be holy. He invites all to be holy, but holiness is not the product of our hard work or effort. It is the work of the Holy Spirit to transform our lives, to help us become more and more like Jesus and, likewise, to become more and more like the human beings God created us to be in the beginning (Genesis 1-2) where we experienced open, unhindered relationship with God all the time. Yet, being holy really is very different from the way the world around us lives. And it does require our cooperation.
God is the ultimate definition of holy because God is totally and completely different from anything else in all of creation. The Sabbath is called holy because it is to be a different day from the other six days of the week. The Temple was holy because it was different from all other buildings and used for special and unique purposes. And we are called to be holy, unlike anything and anyone else around us. The goal is not to fit in and be a part of the crowd.
The early Christians understood that their lives were to be different and separate from the lives of others around them. In fact, they were so different that they were dismissed by others or even attacked and sometimes even martyred for their differentness, their holiness. We, on the other hand, afraid of being ostracized, of being left out, of not being a part of the crowd or even the "in-crowd," find it all too easy to try to be like the world around us. We adopt the standards and practices of those around us because we do not want to seem too radical or different.
Kids battle it in school all the time, as they feel the pressure to fit in and conform or be left out. But adults battle it no less, though it doesn't seem as obvious when we are in the midst of trying to fit in. I know I battle it when I feel the desire to do things for which people will like me. We give in to office or neighborhood gossip; we prefer to get even when we have been wronged, versus offering forgiveness and seeking reconciliation; instead of loving God and people and using things, we love things and use God and people. In fact, we will even argue that if we are too different, no one will hear or see our message. But there's a difference between being in the world and being of the world, and our calling is to be in it but not of it. (See John 15:19, John 17:13-19, James 1:27, 1 John 2:15, James 4:4)
Membership at Gateway is the decision to partner with Gateway to become more and more like Jesus, and that means becoming more and more different from the world around us (holy). It's not that the world, God's creation, is inherently evil and to be avoided at all costs. It's not a call to retreat into Christian enclaves and hide out. It is to be who we are, where we are, and allow our differences to be seen. It's choosing to let God use us to influence our world, rather than letting our world influence us. Being different will sometimes bring ridicule, but more often it will bring curiosity. I remember looking at committed Christ followers before I had fully committed my life to Christ and wondering what it was that they had that I didn't. I was curious and eventually sought them out to learn more, and I eventually discovered I wanted that difference in my life, too, regardless of the cost.
Being different or holy doesn't mean adopting Amish practices or being weird for weird's sake. It's choosing to be salt and light in our world. It's choosing to adopt practices and life patterns that don't always fit the world's agenda, but we have come to understand their importance in helping us be in the world but not of the world.
Leviticus says being holy is important for the people of God; so important, in fact, that they ordered their whole lives around practices and beliefs that distinguished them from every other people or nation. Membership at Gateway means to value the journey of becoming more and more like Jesus, and your partnership with Gateway is an intentional choice on your part to seek this. Quite frankly, it's the decision to be intentional about being holy with others, regardless of what the world around us thinks or expects.
It doesn't mean Gateway is responsible for your journey - you are! But Gateway will partner with you, offer you opportunities to seek Christ and help you and me understand what that looks like. It offers you a community of faith to travel with in the pursuit of this goal. After all, God's teachings in Leviticus were spoken not to individuals but to the whole family of God. And the early church never saw itself as lone rangers but as people of faith walking together, living alongside each other, seeking to be holy even as God is holy, by the power of God's Holy Spirit.
Membership at Gateway isn't even about what's in it for me, but how can I join in what God is doing in through this church to help me on my journey to be salt and light, to be in the world but not of it, to be holy even as God is holy. It is to be different, for the sake of God and His Kingdom!
