Christ and the Flag

I appreciated Pastor Dr Steve Bezner's work "Your Jesus is Too American" as he unpacked what it looks like to live a life dedicated to the Jesus of scripture vs the American version.

He tackled many important topics that the church can or has been compromeised on

• Power vs Humility and Service

• Enemy love

• Jesus on Possessions

• Jesus on Sexuality

• God and Country

• Jesus on Race

• Jesus on Suffering

I am grateful that he opened up about struggles (past beliefs that need to be reigned in - as one pastor has said you know a man by his limp). We all need a savior. It must have been deeply troubling for him when some left his church as some will seek something less challenging.

The church grew in the first century because Christians cheerfully and faithfully embodied a set of counter cultural theological beliefs. It grew because at its core was a different way of seeing the world. That difference caught the eye of many people,and it drew them into the church.

He is spot on here. As Dr Nija Guptas book Strange Religion the distinctiveness became less distinctive over the years and Roman and Greek influence slid into the church.

To put it more plainly, I wonder if the church is declining in the West because the church in the West became too successful-not at discipleship or evangelism but at identifying with Western culture in a way that made the church lose its distinct personality. In our desire to remain relevant, we lost our difference, and, by extension, we al lowed the very thing we hoped to gain to slip away.

I love the fact that he mentioned the Bruderhof - which I have visited. They get very right as far as living in good community showing the world a 'different life is possible'.

This is what the Sermon on the Mount is: a description of how life is under the rule and reign of King Jesus. "You have heard it said," Jesus declares, “but I say to you." The old ways and the kingdom ways aren't synonymous. The kingdom pushes things deeper-to a heart level.

Dr Steve Bezner is calling the church to vision of life in Christ that is costly but worth it.