Jesus Shaped

I wanted to figure out a way to shoe-horn chapter 4 of Michael Spencer’s Mere Churchianity into Bridget Chumbley’s blog carnival on Hope. But that’s been our problem hasn’t it, trying to pound a square peg into a round hole, making the message of Jesus into something it’s not? Don’t get me wrong, second to love I would say that hope best describes Jesus’ ministry. But you couldn’t tell that today. And that is Michael’s point. What if Jesus showed up at your church for an “inspection”? Would he find it hopeful, in-line with his teachings? Or would he find it hopeful, filled with pop-psychology and an over-emphasis on feeling good?Would he even recognize it?

Michael argues that we’ve become so comfortable in our Jesus-culture, that we forget Jesus. In fact, to suggest following Jesus can be so radical that you may find yourself rejected, or worse, labeled a cult. To even have the nerve to advertise your church as “making Jesus popular” is so not-Jesus shaped it isn’t funny. I was recently in a toy store and I saw a Jesus action figure. I wanted it for no other reason than to remind myself that Jesus is real, not plastic. On and on I could go with examples, casting stones, with no suggestions of what to do about it. So let me share a recent personal journey in hopes it will lead us all to be more Jesus shaped.

A couple of years ago I was at a large event and an Elder was preaching on one of the miracles of Jesus. He made an anecdotal point using this miracle that didn’t hold up against the rest of Jesus’ miracles. As soon as he said it (I won’t say what) I immediately thought to myself, “that can’t be right” and I spent the rest of the sermon thumbing through my Bible to make sure I wasn’t crazy. He shoe-horned a good point into one of Jesus’ miracles that had nothing to do with that point, and he misrepresented the Word of God doing so. Mind you, this was an Elder, whose Biblical role is to ensure that the Church is teaching the Truth.

Hard, cold reality set in at that moment. I couldn’t rely on leaders, preachers, pastors or evangelists to chart my course spiritually. I needed to be led by Christ and his Word. But did I know it? So I made a vow to the Lord that I would study out the life and teachings of Jesus. I set out to read through the four Gospels in chronological order using several Bibles mixing up translations and commentaries and planned to read Jesus-specific books following (titles like Jesus the Same, the Jesus I Never Knew, etc) to close out the year. What was meant to last a few months in the Gospels and finish the year with a book a month, took over a year. I still haven’t technically finished (there are a couple more books to read).

I’m not saying this to boast. In fact it was so overwhelming I really need to take the time and go back over it. But it was an example of being proactive to be Jesus shaped. How can we claim to follow Him if we don’t know what He said, or how He lived? I want to approach this book positively rather than a blanket condemnation against the Church today. I can’t think of a better way to combat that cultural and spiritual malaise in the Church than to challenge ourselves to be Jesus shaped and there’s no better way to do that than to spend time immersed in his life through the Gospels.

This post adds to the discussion on Michael Spencer’s book, Mere Churchianity being hosted by Nancy at Bend the Page. Visit there for links to others in the discussion. And don’t forget to stop by Bridget’s for the Carnival too!