Choosing Frontier Over Fortress

Choosing Frontier Over Fortress
Well, here we are again…It’s now our 5th of 6 weeks of Lent…Lent is a time of reflection and questioning as we look forward to the celebration of Easter…As part of our reflection, our Lenten series has been working through Rev. Paul Nixon’s book, I Refuse to Lead a Dying Church…Throughout these past weeks, we’ve looked at the six critical choices that every church and every individual need to make…These choices have been choosing life over death, choosing community over isolation, choosing fun over drudgery, and choosing bold over mild. Last week, I had said that the first three weeks, although the choices had some difficulty to them, they were relatively easier choices to make…Last week began the first of the final three choices which are a little bit more difficult to make…They’re not difficult in that we don’t know what the choice should be, but they’re difficult in that they’re harder to make and they might push us a little bit more out of our comfort zone than what we like…This week is one of those choices as we examine our choice “choosing frontier over fortress.”
What does the choice frontier over fortress really mean? What do you think of when you hear the word “frontier”? wild west, untamed, scary, unknown etc… What do you think of when you hear the word “fortress” safety, secure, imposing, etc… Well, the choice between frontier and fortress is about choosing out verses in…The unknown verses the known…
There was a computer game that was played in the 80’s called “Oregon Trail”…Has anyone ever heard of it or played it? There’s been a recent resurgence of the game on other Internet sites like facebook…In the game, you played a pioneer on the trail heading west…Leaving home and venturing into the great unknown…Along the way you encountered a lot if different and sometimes difficult situations…Foraging rivers, hunting, gathering, and even illnesses…It was an adventure to try and get through! The game itself was choice of choosing frontier over fortress…
The whole idea of choosing frontier can be very scary for some people…It’s venturing into new territory…Into something that’s unknown…It’s outside of comfort zones…In many cases, it’s just outside! Many of you may be thinking, “Yeah! That is scary!” And for those who think that way, the idea of a fortress seems like a good idea, it’s safe…It’s secure…It’s not dangerous…And yet…
Choosing fortress really takes all of the previous choices at their word…Because if we say that we choose life, community, fun, and boldness…Well, in those decisions we really have to choose frontier…Because if we choose life, that means that we really have to live and can you live when you’re stuck behind walls? And if we choose community, well…can you be in community when you’ve sequestered yourself in a fortress? And how fun can it really be to be cooped up in some imposing structure…And can you be that bold with the same people over and over again? I mean it’s important to encourage others in their faith journey, but if that’s all the folks that we interact with…isn’t that kind of a problem?
As Jesus talks with his disciples on the top of the mountain and he’s telling the disciples what their responsibilities are in what is referred to as the great commission…Jesus tells the disciples “All authority has been given to me.” And in that statement is a boldness from Jesus…That he has all the authority on earth and in heaven…Not only does he have that, but he’s passing the torch to the disciples…Now, he’s not giving up any of his authority, because certainly Jesus is Lord! But, he’s giving the disciples an authority to continue to share the message of the Gospel and to continue to share his teachings with the world!
The first thing that Jesus gives the disciples to do is in that very first word in the great commission… “Go.” Jesus doesn’t say “Wait for people to come to you.” Jesus says, “Go.”
Chuck & Krissie Cilano are missionaries currently serving in Thailand…One of the pieces of advice that they give the teams they work with is to first and foremost pray…Prayer is not something that’s that unusual or something that would be that out of the ordinary really…But what they also say is to pray for opportunities to be able to minister and not just for the opportunities, but also to recognize when those opportunities arise…In almost every one of those opportunities, it takes us to get outside of ourselves to be able to minister…To get outside of the fortress of our own comfort zone…
And at the same it’s not just a figurative getting outside of the fortress…But it’s also a literal getting outside of the fortress…In the chapter in I Refuse to Lead a Dying Church, Rev. Nixon shares some of the history of the United Methodist Church….From 1790 to 1830 the members of the Methodist movement grew from 58,000 to 501,000 in 40 years which is a 900% growth…That’s pretty amazing! Of those 501,000 people who made up congregations of the Methodist Episcopal church…about a third of them had no building whatsoever…In just 10 years in the 1840’s the number of new members joining had stopped and in those same 10 years, more church buildings were built…Is there a correlation?
The Methodist movement was founded on people who were willing to get outside of both themselves and out of the church buildings to meet people where they were…John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement spent just as much time, if not more outside of the sanctuary preaching in fields as he did in the sanctuaries and churches…What are we doing as a church to encourage people to meet Jesus? What are we doing to tell them that Jesus meets them right where they are…that Jesus is present in their very lives? That Jesus is calling to them…That Jesus is calling to us? How do they know? Do we give people the impression that they need to come to us to know about Jesus or do we give people the impression that they need to make the first move?
Now, please don’t get the impression that having a building is a bad thing…But, how is it that we use the building as a tool for ministry rather than the entire ministry itself? Meaning that if we woke up tomorrow and the building just vanished, would the ministries of the church still happen? How do we ensure that happens?
After Jesus told the disciples to “Go,” he game them the rest of the instruction… “Go and make disciples of all nations”…Go and make disciples of all people….ALL PEOPLE ARE WELCOME! We are to invite all people into a relationship with Jesus…Baptizing them in the name of God three-in-one…The triune God…The Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Ghost…And teaching to obey the commandments of Jesus…The commandments where Jesus said, “Love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and love your neighbor as you love yourself.” And all of the teachings that Jesus shared with his disciples that helped to give examples of those commandments and those that challenged the society of the day…And those are things that we all should be diving into to work at understanding our faith…Jesus asks us to enter the frontier…
The frontier can be an intimidating place, but the last part of the passage from Matthew says a lot…Jesus gives this commission and then he says…And I will be with you always…Remember that I am with you always…We’re not left alone in the frontier to flounder or to be alone…We’re in the frontier with Jesus…With the One who has sent us…we are not alone…We have heard the commission to Go and make and create disciples of Jesus Christ…And we go in the strength of Jesus Christ…The same Jesus Christ who is God made flesh…The same Jesus Christ who entered the frontier to live among us…The same Jesus Christ who lived and died for us…The same Jesus Christ who rose again and calls to us still…As we go into the frontier, we know that we are entering with Jesus…As we go with Jesus, let us also go together!