On Commitment (Part 5)

May 12, 2010 at 5:28 am · Filed under Commitment and tagged: Commitment

As we continue to talk about commitment and as I continue to have conversations with people about committing to being a part of 2 Pillars Church, I am learning that there are several obstacles that keep people from committing.  For the large part, these can be rolled up into three categories: fear of commitment, comfort, and scared/inadequate/unconfident.

Fear of Commitment

One of the biggest obstacles to commitment I have run up against is people that are simply afraid of commitment.  Part of this stems from a society that has largely relaxed on calling people to commit to anything.  Our culture tells us to always be looking for the best option for us – the best products at the best prices.  The result is that loyalty has become thing of the past.  Another result is that there are a lot of churches in town that won’t call you to commit to anything because of the fear of scaring you away because commitment isn’t really all that attractional.

Another fear with respect to commitment is simply not knowing what you are being asked to commit to.  When we hear the word “commitment” all sorts of legalistic and binding thoughts come to our minds.  We think there is going to be a calendar issued and that we’re going to have to be at every single thing on the calendar in order to be committed.  The thing is, we’re not calling people to a calendar.  We’re calling people to a community.  Communities are messy.  Things come up.  People take vacations.  People take trips.  People need a break from people once in a while.  We get that.  Committing to being a part of a community means that all of that is okay because community isn’t always nice and tight and scheduled. Community doesn’t simply consist of a Sunday morning and a Wednesday night.

Being committed to a community means being committed to a family.  The thing about families is that they exist even when they are not together.  Although I love spending time with my wife and daughters, I have a job and so sometimes I’m not home. We’re still a family when I’m not home.  Now, that doesn’t absolve me from my responsibilities of being a present husband and father – quite the contrary.  Being intimately involved in a family drives me to want to be more a part of my family as I invest my life in them and they in mine.  As I grow in my relationship with them, trust grows deep.  Love and acceptance and true caring takes shape.  That’s what happens in a committed family – a committed community.

Another fear associated with commitment is related to this idea of being intimately involved.  Some people are afraid of commitment because they are afraid of being open and exposed and real about their life, their struggles, their doubts, and their sin.

The ironic thing about a fear of commitment is that deep, deep down, we all want the benefits of being committed.  We all want to be known intimately.  We all want a sense of belonging and purpose in the world.  We all want to feel loved and accepted – even though we struggle.  Even though we doubt.  Even though we still screw up and sin.  We all want people we can trust in our lives and we all want people to be able to trust us.  All of this happens in a committed community as we do life together and as we grow in the gospel with one another.

So event though we fear commitment, we all long for it.  We all need it.

Comfort

A second obstacle I’ve encountered as I’ve called people to commit is their comfort.  Let me preface this by saying that as a church planter, my job is not to steal Christians from other churches.  We’re really not trying to reach the reached for 2 Pillars.  We’re trying to reach the unreached for Christ.  At the same time, it takes a group of solid believers to surround a vision and get the thing off the ground.  For that reason, I tell people that my job is to cast the vision and to trust the Spirit to do his job.  So part of what this ends up looking like is calling solid believers out of existing churches to surround the vision and march forward into battle with us.

What gets in the way often times, is people’s comforts in those established churches.  Preferences for an established children’s ministry.  The desire for a comfortable youth group.  A preferred worship “style.”  A group of friends that you’ve done life with for years and that you’re afraid you will lose if you transition to a different church (which, by the way, may be an indicator that your community isn’t built on commitment at all, but rather convenience).

A final comfort is one of anonymity.  In a big, comfortable church with a menu of all of the fixin’s, you can be anonomous.  You can slip in, catch a good sermon, slip out, and get on with your life.  No one is up in your face.  No one is asking you about your sin.  There are no expectations.  You take what you want.  You give what you want and nothing more.  That’s comfortable.

The problem is that as I read the New Testament, no where do I see that as Christians we’re called to a life of comfort.  No where do I see that it is about us: our comforts, our preferences, our needs, our consumption.  After Steven gets stoned in Acts 7, I don’t see all of the Christians huddle together in a safe building and start up a sweet ministry for their kids, and get a rockin’ worship band, or simply build affinity.  I see them spread out throughout the region preaching boldly the same gospel that got their best friend killed.  That’s not comfortable.

To those that are comfortable, I offer this challenge: when you think about your life five, ten, maybe twenty years down the road and you look back over those years and ask – did I do everything I could for the kingdom?  Was I really apart of gospel transformation in my city?  Did I really see and participate in seeing the gospel reach the unreached?  What’s going to be your answer?  Will you be able say, “By the grace of God I did all that I could to see the gospel go forth?”  Or will you look back and say, “Well, I went to church for twenty years.”?  For those with kids: don’t let them be your excuse. Let this be an opportunity to model to them that the Christian life is more than comfortable huddle – it is a mission.  Show them that friendships with other believers their age can exist and expand beyond the four walls of a particular building as they lock arms with others for the advancement of the gospel.

Scared/Inadequate/Unconfident

The final fear is that of being scared, feeling inadequate to be a part of something like this, or feeling unconfident in your spiritual maturity.  To all three of those, let me say – you should be.  I am.  Church planting is the storming of the gates of hell.  If that doesn’t scare you or make you feel inadequate or unconfident then there is something wrong with you.  I’ve never done this before.  Chances are you’ve never done this before.  We’re in uncharted waters and Satan has drawn a target on our backs.  That’s cause for fear. We have an enemy.  His name is Satan and he loves to scare us.  He loves to whisper inadequacies in our ear.  He loves to play off of our lack of confidence and tell us that we’re not mature enough to storm his gates.

Planting a church is scary.  We are inadequate.  That’s the point.  At the same time, Jesus speaks these words over us: “Behold I am with you always.”  “I will never leave you, I will never forsake you.”

If we’re setting out on a mission that we can accomplish on our own strength, then it probably isn’t that great of a mission.  But that’s not what we’re setting out on.  The mission we’re setting out on is doomed for failure unless the Holy Spirit shows up and quite frankly, I don’t want to be a part of a mission that doesn’t require his presence and power.

No one is fearless enough, no one is adequate enough, and no one is mature enough – save for the empowering presence of the Spirit and his gospel.

Conclusion

Obstacles abound when it comes to committing to really being a part of something that matters.  Some of those are born out of fear, others are our own making, and still others are the whisperings of our enemy who loves to see us paralyzed by our fears, comforts, and feelings of inadequacy.

Commitment is a big thing. This is why we’re dedicating every Sunday morning in the month of May to the topic.  Each week we are systematically stepping through what exactly we are calling people to commit to and what that looks like.  At the end of May we will covenant together around these commitments as we charge forward to storm the gates of hell and plant this church in downtown Lincoln.

My prayer is that you would join us.  That you would prayerfully lean and depend on Christ and overcome your fears.  That you would jettison your comforts and stop listening to the whispers in your ear that hold you back.

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