I wanted to share an illustration that came to me during our Sunday Morning meeting today. It was something God brought powerfully to my mind, and not something I had ever thought of before. For a couple of years I worked with a volunteer program here in town where I served as a mentor for kids who had oneor more parents that were incarcerated. It was a very rewarding program and I got to meet some really interesting people.
During the first year I met a guy who was a US Marshal. His only job was to find people who had escaped from jail. I remembered something he told me when we were talking, as I asked him how many people he caught and how many got away. He replied that he always caught them and always for the same reason. The reason was that they never had a plan, their only plan was to escape and they never had a plan after that, which meant it was easy to find them as at one point they would just find some familiar place to hide out. I thought about people who are transitioning to the Ekklesia and perhaps out of a traditional church setting. If their only plan is to escape but they don’t really have a plan for what they do afterwards, their chances of success are going to be limited.
Just “Leaving the church” is in itself not a great plan. That is why I feel the training is so important and having everyone work together from the same vision is so valuable. I imagine a day when Ekklesia’s will be getting together for fellowship and teaching, not to merge back into one large group again, but to periodically encourage and strengthen each other. How powerful will this be if we are all coming from the same original vision and understanding of God’s purpose in the Ekklesia. – R.G.
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