Pilgrim Soldier

I’m trying to understand what it means to be authentic in our faith and how that actually pans out in the real world. Obviously I get the idea, but it seems that plenty of people are willing to talk about it being one of the most important things for the church to grasp before it will be accepted by modern society. The problem is that few (or at least amongst those I get to hear/read) seem to add anything of substance. So what does this authenticity look like? What are the hallmarks of an authentic lifestyle?

In the time that I’ve been thinking about it I’ve come to a conclusion that there are 3 essentials of authentic faith; Worshipping lifestyle, Disciple making, and Kingdom reflecting. These are really the things that make up the Christian task here earth and if we can get them right and balanced then we’ll go a long way to being authentic Christians.

As this is my journal as well as a blog, I’m going to record my thoughts on the 3 subjects over the coming days. They might even end up as a sermon series at some point in the future should I still think the same way!

Worshipping lifestyle

We so often have such a narrow view of worship is all about. There is a distinct danger of us falling into the trap of thinking that “corporate worship” is the pinnacle of worship. We can think that what happens when we meet together as a group of Christians is the most important part of worship. For me though this is simply the starting place! It’s far easier to worship God corporately as we draw from each other and move together to the throne of God.

However, for an authentic Christian life our whole life must be one of worship. It is not enough for us to go through the motions on a Sunday and count this as the sum of our worship. Nor is it enough to reduce worship to the sort of thing we do on a Sunday. We need to understand that for our lives to be authentically Christian our whole life needs to fulfil our obligation to worship the great I AM.

The key verse for me is Mark 12:30 where it makes it clear what Jesus knew the first commandment to be. The fact is that not are we called to worship the Lord with our total being, but that we are commanded to. An authentic faith is one in which we, like Jesus, hold this commandment ahead of any other. Only when we love our Lord with all aspects of our being are we really able to live authentically.

The divine priority is worship first, service second. Our lives are to be punctuated with praise, thanksgiving, and adoration. Service flows out of worship. Service as a substitute for worship is idolatry. Activity is the enemy of adoration.

Richard Foster, Celebration of Discipline, pg: 201-202

The rest of our earthly task rests securely on this aspect. Any service that we give to the Lord that isn’t built upon a firm foundation of worship simply isn’t worth it. Its like the old ‘faith or works’ argument. We can work until we are blue in the face, but if we don’t first have that relationship with God that comes through faith then it counts for nothing. Likewise service without worship is pointless as it brings us no nearer to God.

So authentic lifestyles are built upon our worship. Only when we are able to worship God through everything that we do are we truly able to lead a life that is attractive to other people. No amount of activity is going to replace that, and neither is having great worship at our corps/churches one day a week. We can jump/dance/pray/listen to the band/clap our hands as much as we like, but if we leave worship behind in the foyer as we leave we’ll probably be no closer to a full Christian life than when we arrived.