I was having a conversation with two good friends recently and brought up the point that Jesus was so subversive to the established church of his day. Most of the church (synagogue/temple) leaders were quite irritated and annoyed with his message and his methods. As I reflect on that, I wonder how Jesus would rub the established church of our day. Of course, the phrase "established church" is perhaps not so easily defined today as it would have been in the first century AD, but I think some analogy is still possible. But I keep asking myself what Jesus' day-to-day ministry would look like in our present culture and environment? Not so much "what would Jesus do" but where would Jesus be? How would Jesus be interacting with our churches?
I honestly don't want to ask this question or draw these analogies simply for an excuse to be subversive. But I'm wondering...if the Kingdom demands that we subvert some of the less-than-Biblical practices of the established religous context, does that mean that we must operate outside the context of those particular congregations or churches? I guess I'm beginning to have this image in my mind of treating the church (institution/program/building) as a sort of base of operation, but taking the liberty to engage in the Biblical mission and mandates of disciple-making, baptism, fellowship, etc in some out-of-the-box ways.
Or is this just a compromise which allows me to keep a foot in both worlds? I truly believe that God is stirring up a generation of missional subversives who are struggling with whether to attempt a kind of reform of the church or to simply cut the strings and "plant" the seeds in richer soil. The majority of my peers in ministry seem to be wrestling with these kinds of issues. Can following Jesus take you away from the church (the established institution)?
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