Follow Christ Together

“We must follow Christ together!”

It’s an encouragement I’ve given to many churches as I do in this video: bit.ly/Follow052. It sounds good. No one disagrees. Everyone nods.

And then I explain what I mean by the simple phrase “Follow Christ Together.”

Follow

Very simply, it must involve forward movement. Follow is a verb meaning “to go or come after; to move or travel behind.” So When Jesus called the disciples, they didn’t “follow him in their hearts” and stay in their boats. They took action. We are people of action. The Church is on a mission, a quest, a pilgrimage, a journey. We move forward. We follow.

But what do we follow? There are lots of ideas, philosophies, streams, traditions, models, strategies, and opinions.

Christ

We follow Christ. The Messiah. The Builder of His Church. He is our all-consuming focus. It’s not the latest idea, style, model, trend, or church growth strategy. It’s not our deeply held tradition, our most revered bovine (read: sacred cow). Our primary focus is not being inclusive, relevant, contemporary, progressive, or traditional. It isn’t celebrating homosexuality or standing up for righteousness (or coffee in the sanctuary). Instead, we have a living, “following” relationship with the Father, with the Son, and with the Holy Spirit. And from that relationship, we live. We (and His Church) revolve around Him. Romans 11:36 guides us: “For from Him and through Him and for Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever! Amen.” He is the only reason we do any of this!

Together

But LISTEN! We often miss it on this part. We must do this in ways that bring us together, that show we love each other. “From Him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” (Ephesians 4:16) Together is an adverb describing people who are with one another, side by side, shoulder to shoulder.

Match your passion for driving to a destination with the passion to disciple those God has brought to you. They may opt-out, but as leaders, I want us to contend for each other the same way we contend for God’s vision.

So here’s where this gets interesting. You need all three. Follow. And Christ. And Together.

If we Follow Christ without being Together? Church split. Hurt people. Broken relationships. We may have been right, but we missed the point. Jesus wept.

If we Follow Together without being centered around Christ? Agenda-driven rather than mission-focused. Organizational rather than a living organism. Competitive and innovative but distracted. Flash-in-the-pan and fad-chasing. Oblivious, irrelevant, and stuck in the mud. Giving a cup of cold water, but Jesus who?

If we talk Christ and do it Together without Following? Stagnant. Dying. Fat-headed. Arrogant. Academic. Clinical. Philosophical. Impotent. Jesus left.

In the Real World…

If half the church doesn’t resonate with a new vision, I question a leadership team’s direction, timing, or implementation. A leadership team needs not only God’s vision but also God’s timing and God’s implementation strategy. It may be that if the congregation balks, the team has work to do in the timing and implementation.

My bottom line for leaders is this: take the congregation toward God’s calling. If you split the church, or lose 25% of the members, you didn’t lead well. That’s what I believe.

Hope

But I also believe there’s good news here. We are in whole-hearted, I-would-die-on-this-hill-too, passionate agreement on (I’d say) at least 75% of our Mission as the Church. We have to keep that in mind. We’ll be way off mission otherwise.

Oh, I’m not saying it’s easy to do this. We are entirely in need of His super to empower our natural. But we must Follow Christ Together. Can we? Will we? Let’s! How? Let’s ask Him.

ps. if this Fertilizer sounds familiar, one of two things is probably true: you own my book “Worship Fertilizer (the first hundred),” or you’ve been receiving these emails since August 7, 2014, when this one was originally sent. (originally subtitled “More positively stated than ‘Killing a Church 3 Ways,’” and still very applicable today!)

-Dave Helmuth
(purchase my book, "Worship Fertilizer: (the first hundred)" HERE)

Follow Christ Together (Nº 330)