One of the “tests of fellowship” my sisterhood of churches was infamous for was the call to be “sold out disciples” of Christ. As part of multiple lukewarm campus ministries over the years that sales pitch worked on me. While there is nothing wrong with that call in and of itself, that expectation unfortunately opened the fellowship up to all sorts of abuses. Part of the problem has been some just don’t get it. If they’re not being told how to be “sold out” they won’t be. While there have been many efforts to change parts of that old culture over the past few years I’ve noticed the cost has been “sold outedness”. Brothers and sisters just don’t seem to be motivated to serve and follow Jesus because no one is explicitly telling them to be. Don’t get me wrong, that’s not universal, but is prevalent enough to be noticeable.
I do believe there is a Biblical call to be sold out in our faith. Romans 12 reads, “Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.” (Rom 12:11) At the same time, we can’t be zealous for zealous’ sake. Paul writes to the Galations, “Those people are zealous to win you over, but for no good. What they want is to alienate you from us, so that you may be zealous for them. It’s fine to be zealous, provided the purpose is good.” (Gal 4:17-18) And Proverbs 19:2 reads, “It is not good to have zeal without knowledge, nor to be hasty and miss the way.” That’s what I think hurt our churches in the past- too many were zealous more for their leaders, the latest evangelism drive, etc and not for zealous for Jesus.
I also think this is part of the problem in the American Christian Church (TM). Many are happy to be Sunday morning Christians, give their tithe (sometimes), and be on their way. For many, living as a disciple of Jesus means having a particular political persuasion rather than daily taking up their cross. Or they’re proud to be a member of some megachurch led by a best-selling author.
So we could all use a little wake up call. I mentioned before that some just don’t get it. Praise God though, some do. Thanks to Jessie at Surrender All and Marcus at Transplant Ministries for bringing these videos to my attention.