The Mystery of God's Movements

Mark 4
This chapter introduces how Jesus taught the masses. But if I'm honest, it doesn't help me formulate my theological framework that most Modern, conservative theologians like. Jesus tells stories. They aren't really even analogies where there is direct correlation from A to B and C to D. They are simply telling stories about the Kingdom of God. He doesn't tell everything about it. He doesn't even give a lot of details. He simply says that the Kingdom of God is like a farmer sowing seed; or it's like a lamp on a stand; or it's like a mustard seed. Developing a set of doctrines out of these stories is basically impossible...and here's why: Jesus wasn't trying to teach a set of doctrines, He was simply telling people about God and how God wants to relate to each of us and all of us.

Jesus wasn't building theology, He was helping people form a story, a reality, a schema, out of which to live. If the Kingdom of God is like a sower sowing seed, then I must be like the ground and I need to simply receive it and allow it to grow in me. If the Kingdom of God is like a lamp, I need to let it shine through me. If it is like a mustard seed, my job isn't to worry about it growing, my job is to simply be part of it. I don't need to know all the "in's and out's" of the Kingdom, I simply need to know that my part is to be open to it and allow it to change me.

My favorite verse was verse 27:
"Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how."

As a pastor and church planter, I really resonated with this thought. I've been to the conferences, I've read the books, I've talked to the famous people but the bottom line in church growth is that God grows a church when He wants it to grow and when the people of the church are open to His leading. There is no perfect formula for growth. There are no easy plans for reaching 100, 500 or 1000. Our job is to share God's love for people and let Him work in their hearts through His Spirit.

More often than not, I feel like the farmer who really doesn't know how God grows a community of faith, but I am willing to work the soil and do whatever He asks me to do.

Under the Mercy,
Jason