storm in a teacup

a call for humble unity in the Church

We’ve discovered a new love around here: Kid’s coffee. It’s not really coffee – it’s dark herbal tea with a splash of milk – but it looks like coffee and our little guys love it.

Another thing they love is straws. Paper straws, plastic straws, striped straws, spotted straws. But it doesn’t matter how many kinds you offer, you can’t always please a four-year-old.

“No, not that one,” Kav said. “I want my whiskey straw.”

“Your what?!” He doesn’t even know what whiskey is. And no, he can’t read the Irish cookbook yet and I guarantee you he’s never heard of Irish coffee.

“That one!” he pointed. “My whiskey straw!” And there, across the counter, was his green plastic straw, the one that curls around and around…like a whisk.

Ohhhh. It’s not a whiskey straw, it’s a whisk-y straw. Got it.

Let’s just hope he doesn’t mention it in his Sunday school class, right? I can just see him walking down the hallway on the way to class with his brother, talking about their red and green whisk-y straws that they got in their goody bags from church last Christmas. Snort. All we need is a visitor overhearing that conversation, and all heck would break loose.

(“Martha! Did you heeear what they gave the children at the church down the road? Ohhh, my goodness gracious…”)

There’s a lot of talk lately about persecution in the Church ramping up, even in America. And it’s true. But ironically, the Church’s biggest threat in the West isn’t from unbelievers right now. That’s on the radar for sure, but it’s still mostly down the road a little ways because that threat is preceded and prepared for by the real one – which is believers who are too quick to run with not enough information, making snap judgments and getting caught up in offense and creating division in their wake.

If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.

– Mark 3:24-25

What’s interesting to me about that verse is that it takes place smack in the middle of two events: The first is when Jesus was accused of using demonic power to cast out demons. The second is when He warns against blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, because the scribes did not understand what He was doing and instead of trying to find out, they had accused Him of having an unclean spirit.

This is important to pay attention to because the biggest threat to the Church is its self-inflicted wounds, primarily of legalistic groups coming against Spirit-filled Christians, organizations, leaders, and ministries. The Church needs unity but it has never found it in finger pointing and accusation, spewing hate and vitriol against anyone who challenges their self righteous comfort zone. We must walk in humility and grace toward others, knowing that we don’t know everything.

Do we want to be right, or do we want to be righteous?

Unfamiliarity breeds fear, and fear breeds dissension. Or, as a wise friend of mine put it this week:

Fear, not put into check, creates a very destructive tribalism. There are good parts of tribalism, like team work and sharing like-minded goals, upholding biblical values, etc. When done with maturity, accountability, and balance, there is good fruit. When done out of balance — check lists and qualifiers that produce a “mean girls” atmosphere, like “you can’t sit with us!” — then tribalism can turn into cannibalism. It seems to me the Church is being cannibalized from within and while that has somewhat been an issue for awhile, it has been going atomic since 2020.

— Maggie Montgomery

Do charismatic, Spirit-filled churches do weird things? Yes. Yes, we are weird…and so were those guys in the Bible. Especially Jesus. (Do you take Communion? That’s weird. Doesn’t mean it’s wrong, though.)

I am not wildly demonstrative in church – I blame this on my inability to clap in rhythm – but I remember years ago taking a younger friend to a Sunday service and she was aghast that weird people raised their hands during the singing. And this was a conservative, non-denominational church. No speaking in tongues, no healings, no deliverances, no signs and wonders, no loud prayer, no prophetic words…just slightly cringey worship music from the 90s.

It should be noted that all of those things – with the possible exception of slightly cringey music – are totally Biblical. Just because something is unfamiliar to us doesn’t mean it’s wrong. Likewise, just because the enemy has warped or counterfeited something doesn’t mean the real deal is wrong, either.

We have salt lamps in our house and some people think those are New Agey. So, okay, New Agers use salt lamps for whatever reason, but we use them because they really do clean the air (they attract water molecules and the warm salt traps particles of dust, pollen, smoke, etc) and they reduce EMF by neutralizing positive ions in the air. Salt lamps don’t have those virtues because of an evil power, but because God made those combined elements of salt and heat to do that. If we didn’t know about the science and we used salt lamps for some kind of spiritual power outside of Jesus, that’s one thing. But what about lighting a candle in the window and using it as a reminder to pray? Could that be New Agey? Um, maybe, I guess…but it doesn’t have to be.

When I post prophetic words, people could ignorantly interpret that as a Christian version of a tarot card or horoscope. Some people don’t like it; lots of people completely reject the prophetic realm. But we’re going to see the Church awake to signs and wonders like never before — the Bible warned us repeatedly of it — and the big challenge will be, will the Church have faith for it, or will they walk in fear, afraid to leave the familiar? Will they worship the systems they know instead of the One they claim to know? This has always been the question; it’s why the rich man went away from Jesus grieved. It makes me think of Luke 18:8: When the Lord returns, will He find faith in the earth?

The enemy has counterfeited so many truths that some Christians are afraid of anything that remotely smacks of the mystical or unfamiliar, but there is a lot of mystical and unfamiliar in the Bible. Just because something has been abused or counterfeited doesn’t mean the real thing has lost its validity.

But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way?

– 1 Corinthians 2:1-3

God made science, and all truth is God’s truth. Science is catching up to a lot of truths and proving them all the time. But also, we need to stop fearing and condemning things we don’t understand. Not everything can be explained by science, and people of faith shouldn’t need it to be. And we definitely shouldn’t be too trigger-happy in condemning practices we don’t personally participate in when they’re not blatantly unbiblical.

This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful.

But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God.

– 1 Corinthians 4:1-5

Here’s the nicest way I can say this: When we walk in ignorance, pride, and fear, we freak out over the dumbest stuff. And that plays right into the enemy’s hands. Church, we need to calm down and stop doing that.

I was asked this week on social media to share my position on a particular tempest in a teapot I’d never heard of, but the gist, as I discovered, was a new witch hunt against Spirit-filled churches. And for the curious, here’s my position on these types of things: I do not get involved in non-essential controversies. I don’t argue with people about Harry Potter, or The Shack, or medical marijuana. They’re such civilian matters. Whenever we are nitpicking someone else’s faith and doctrine we are putting our eyes on the wrong person.

What can you ever really know of other people’s souls – of their temptations, their opportunities, their struggles? One soul in the whole creation you do know: and it is the only one whose fate is placed in your hands. If there is a God, you are, in a sense, alone with Him. You cannot put Him off with speculations about your next door neighbours or memories of what you have read in books.

– C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

What is the fruit of these ministries, on both sides? I have never yet met a person who has accused a Spirit-filled church or pastor of whatever they disagree about doctrinally who has actually listened to their sermons. I have only encountered people who have taken clips out of context and soundbites from anti-charismatic websites. What is the fruit, though? The fruit from most of these charismatic churches is pretty good: healings, wholeness, deliverance, people coming to know Jesus, people maturing in the Word, people obeying Him in radical ways, and beautiful communities. The fruit from these other groups is dissension, division, pride, self-righteousness, confusion, and accusation. So-called “ministries” have no ministry at all if they are doing the enemy’s work of accusing the brethren. You will know them by their fruits…and that makes this kind of situation pretty obvious.

In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, in all things charity. That’s my position.

I think more and more will continue to come out that separates legalistic, comfort zone Church-ianity from Biblical, Spirit-filled abiding and practice. Wisdom is reserved for those who will not be tripped up by the spirit of offense. Offense and discernment are not the same thing and you will know them by their fruit.

The Lord is about to do something huge all over the place that will make the revival in Asbury look like the calm before the storm. But the enemy is frantically trying to subvert, delay, sabotage, and discourage us into thinking it’s not possible for us in this time. How do we fight back? How do we prepare the way? With unity, humility, grace, and our eyes on Jesus, not each other.

We’re not just capable of this kind of unity, we’re made for it. Do you remember the days shortly after 9/11? Here’s how Eric Metaxas describes them:

When you passed someone on the strangely empty and quiet streets, as we did, pushing our daughter in her stroller, you wondered if you were together at the end of the world. You exchanged glances that seemed to say: Yes, we are in this together. We don’t know you, but because of this tragedy we feel close to you. We are living through this together, and who knows what lies ahead?

– Eric Metaxas, If You Can Keep It

Are we ready for something like that again? Not if our favorite sport in the Church is friendly fire. But we can be. We are stewards of the mysteries of grace. We serve the One who’s already won, and we are on the same side, in this together. We just need to act like it.