No Plan B

This has been a year of revelation. A year of God speaking and showing me His heart in ways that are beautiful and sweet. He has taken me on a journey. The journey has been eye-opening, exciting, exhausting, heartbreaking, and heart-restoring at the same time. There have been two encounters that shook me to my core because I knew right in the middle of it God was using it to communicate with me. I have spent hours meditating on both encounters and allowed God to become my teacher showing me how to walk in this new revelation.

One of those encounters happened over email after studying the last chapter of Romans. Chapter 16 is filled with a personal greeting from Paul to a slew of Christians working in the kingdom of God. It begins with a sister named Phoebe who was a deacon. The first person mentioned in scripture is usually significant and I wondered if that could be true of her. Was she seen as the most effective in the kingdom? If so, I wanted to understand her role so I reached out to a scholarly team that I trust to run my thoughts by. Their response was another shaking. This is a partial response I received back, with several points I will emphasize in bold.

Summary

In the Greco-Roman world, patronage and benefaction were extraordinarily important. As a prostatis (1 Thess. 5:12) part of Phoebe’s role meant patronage and benefaction. It’s also very possible that Phoebe provided funds for Paul’s missions and ministry. As you have pointed out in your email, benefaction was a huge part of how the first Christians won over their culture. In essence, a Christian community solved actual problems in the neighborhood thereby making life more livable for those in their communities, especially around the care of widows, orphans and children who had been left to exposure, and the sick. Once Christianity became the “official” religion of the Roman empire, Christian benefaction looked more like the building and furnishing of church buildings. Rodney Stark’s book The Rise of Christianity will blow your mind in this regard.

There it is. It brings tears to my eyes even after reading it again. In the early days of the church they won over the culture by solving actual problems within the community they lived in. The chief problem solver funding a lot of this in Rome was dear Phoebe. But as Christianity “evolved” it began looking more like the world. It moved from meeting needs to building or purchasing impressive buildings. If that doesn’t convict us then we need to get low and repent and ask for a softened heart. The god of this world has whispered “impress them with shiny things”. All that will do is leave us with wanting more and yet never being satisfied. What the early church offered was love and hard work which left people curious and open for the gospel for which then the disciples would offer LIVING WATER. The disciples moved in POWER AND AUTHORITY and fulfilled Isaiah’s prophecy. Their anointing brought good news to the poor, comfort to the brokenhearted, freedom for the captives and prisoners. We see this right away in Acts. Peter and John pass a lame beggar and Peter tells him that they don’t have silver or gold, but what they do have is far more valuable. They touch him and speak the name of Jesus over him and not only is the man able to get up, he goes leaping about. They moved in faith and power and the supernatural happened. This brought so much freedom to this man that he couldn’t help but go share this good news and of course others would come to know Jesus. The Holy Spirit was actually multiplying the church in number. Man did nothing in his own might to get people to join. They just let the FIRE run through them.

Everywhere the gospel went it pushed back the occult, idolatry, and evil. The world changed! In fact, one of the most influential people of the day was the Oracle of Delphi, a high priestess in Apollo’s temple. Kings and rulers would travel from all over to get a word of wisdom from her and prophecy about the future. Years after christianity invaded the land the Oracle began to announce that the gods were no longer speaking. Christianity pushed back the rulers and principalities of this world and shut them down. This was a supernatural war being won. But as I look around today I don’t see that push back. In fact it’s evil and sin waging war on us! Where is the church’s power? Where is our strength? Where is our victory? Where is healing and deliverance? Where is freedom and transformation? It’s happening in quiet pockets here and there, but from my view the Church overall is lacking the power we see in the book of Acts.

We must get back to Acts. We must stay in the upper rooms until fire falls. We have got to focus on prayer, the Word, communion, and dependency on hearing Him. We need to sit and wait and for His blueprints. This takes time and it takes us pressing in. We have gotten so out of balance that we actually believe that the things we build and plan with our own hands will save. We are powerless without Him!!! He comes, He moves, He multiplies, He pushes back darkness, He heals, He delivers, He sets free through those that are plugged into Him and Him alone.

The church is God’s plan A for humanity. There is no plan B. But we must get back to Him. We must return to His heart and plan. We must humble ourselves and repent for thinking we have a better, more modern plan. Time has proven that our way isn’t working. Just turn on the TV or radio to get a glimpse of our effect on our culture. His way is simple. It’s to gather in a community. We are to cultivate deep, rich meaningful relationships over meals. We are not to rush this. Stay longer, visit, share, pray. We are to also get back to serving our communities, get out of the four walls on a regular basis, not a once-a-year serve day. (I am preaching to myself). We need to be more concerned about touching people than how the lobby of our church is going to wow the families this week. We have to allow God to renovate our hearts so that we are aligned with Plan A and get back to changing the world. I love yall!