Away with Words: In Pursuit of Authenticity

New Year's Resolution

Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved. (Matthew 9:17)

This year I resolve to find friends and allies in unexpected places. This is no rocket science resolution, just a lesson inspired by a usual suspect. Jesus chose "unlearned, uneducated men" as companions through whom to fulfill his mission. Himself a blue collar son of an unwed mother, born in a barn, raised in a ghetto, and a political refugee at the age of 2, Jesus knew firsthand that good things come in unpredictable packages. So he chose a tax collector, fishermen, political dissidents and other unlikely men as colleagues. Collectively they changed the world. His methodology paralleled his eartly predecessor. King David, at the time a fugitive, found his "mighty men" (II Sam 23:8) while hiding at the Cave of Adullam, where "all those who were in distress or in debt or discontented gathered around him." (I Sam 22:2) No elitist pretensions there, just authentic brokenness. That band of 400 brothers changed Israel's political and military history forever. If the goal is revival, reformation, revolution, transformation (pick your word) -- that is, if you aspire to be part of something historical -- tradition and predictability are most helpful as guides where not to go. What not to do. If you've "been there, done that," it's not historical! That's not to say the lessons of history are irrelevant. Properly interpreted and understood, history reveals ideas and principles -- Truth -- that set men free. But ideas are not methods. Principles are not structures. Truth must be aplied, contextualized, in order to transform. The overriding idea in Jesus' ministry methods was the value of a small group of people, properly taught and mentored ("discipled," for the religious among us) to exemplify and communicate Truth beyond the constraints of space and time. That's why I resolve to invest my life in people, wherever God helps me find them. Even if they look different, talk different, walk different, or act different. p.s. I found some interesting characters among the 2004-2005 class at the Billy Graham Institute for Emerging Evangelists. We had a bull rider from Wyoming; a bear hunter from the Carolinas; a retired football player born Jehovah's Witness who attended a Mormon college and got saved by the "Naked Preacher," a teammate wearing a bath towel, in an NFL locker room; a former rock and roll musician; a North Dakotan farmboy; an aerospace engineer turned web developing Brit who plays guitar and leads worship beautifully; and lots of other eclectic people who love God and are passionately committed to seeing history made in our generation. I guess I got a head start on my New Year's resolution!

posted by Jeremy Del Rio @ 1/02/2005 03:10:00 PM