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Continued Obedient Faith as Holy
Witness
Through Participation in Small Groups
[aka Wesley’s “Class Meetings”]
by Lieut.-Colonel Janet Munn
(Presented by Lt. Col. Janet Munn at the “Holiness Ablaze”
conference
in Boston, Massachusetts at the 125 anniversary of the
Brengle’s sanctification on Boston Common)
In John
Ortberg’s, The Life You’ve Always Wanted, is the following
description:
Hank – long-time church member, regular church-goer – could not
effectively love his wife or his children or people outside
his family. He was easily irritated. He had little use for the
poor, and a casual contempt for those who accents or skin
pigment differed from his own. Whatever capacity he once might
have had for joy or wonder or gratitude atrophied. He
critiqued and judged and complained, and his soul got a little
smaller each year.
Hank was not changing. He was once a cranky young guy, and he grew up to
be a cranky old man. But ever more troubling than his lack of
change was the fact that nobody was surprised by it. It
was as if everyone simply expected that his soul would remain
withered and sour year after year, decade after decade. No one
seemed bothered by the condition.
The church staff did have some expectations . . . that Hank would affirm
certain religious beliefs . . . that he would attend services,
read the Bible, support the church financially, pray
regularly, and avoid certain sins. But here’s what the church
leadership did not expect – We did not expect that Hank
would progressively become the way Jesus would be if he were
in Hank’s place. (Ortberg, p.29)
This is called by some “Pseudo-transformation”
• Stories like Hank’s and countless others raises the question
– Are we after MEMBERS/SOLDIERS OR DISCIPLES? ENROLLMENTS OR
ENGAGEMENT IN APPRENTICESHIP WITH JESUS CHRIST?....
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