What a week it’s been.

Last week my Pastor contacted me by email to ask if he could visit us in our home. When I told my wife, she was adamant that he not come. It was dangerous and she didn’t want the conversation to end up in a shouting match again. I told her I would visit him in his office at the church instead. Which is what happened this past Friday.

You have to understand that we haven’t been to church in four or five years. We spend our Sunday mornings listening to worship music on YouTube and either reading one of my posts and talking about it or listening to a sermon by Pastor John Piper on the TV. Then we pray together and consider that where two or three are gathered, that is also church. But it is a weak argument, and we know it.

The problem is that there is a lot of baggage with our church and our Pastor that needs to be dealt with and reconciliation is essential. One of the new pastors came to our house twice, unannounced, and we wouldn’t let him in. Not good. I won’t bore you with all of the false accusations, misunderstandings, and general hurtful things that have happened other than to say that we certainly had something to reconcile about.

And that is what I told my wife. I can’t be writing about this stuff and then not do it especially since God went to all of this trouble to set up a meeting with the Pastor. Again, another example of how Cancer can become an excuse to talk. After all, it was obvious that he had heard about my condition and wanted to do the right thing by visiting us and praying for healing. That was nice but I was more interested in reconciliation.

So, I went to visit him in his office, but I went prepared. Remember that the ministry of reconciliation is spiritual warfare, so I made sure that I had three or four people praying for me while I was there. Most importantly, I did some previous work in my own heart, in prayer before God. I tried to think of all of the things that I felt he had done, or the church board had done, to wrong us and I forgave him (and them) for each one, accepting the blood of Christ as sufficient payment for each and every sin.

Then I prayed for forgiveness for my own part in each of those situations since none of us can escape the fact that we are all part of the problem. And I also prayed for forgiveness from God for my sins against the Pastor and the church which were truly also sins against him. After all, I had not treated them as they were in Christ. If I had, things might have turned out differently from the very beginning.

So, I was prepared as best I could be and had the attitude that I was going there not to recount his sins against me and my wife but rather to confess my own sins against him and the church in terms of a lack of respect for his position, in not treating him as the glorious son of God that he is, in terms of allowing my anger and frustration to show up at inopportune times. So, the focus was on me confessing my sins and asking him for his forgiveness. Which is what I did.

And it went very well as you can imagine. We talked for almost three hours about ministry and our experiences in trying to bring reconciliation to different situations. But first, we forgave each other and accepted the blood of Christ as sufficient payment for our sins against each other without getting into the specifics. That may seem unfair, and, in a sense, it is. We want the other to confess, to admit their wrongs so that they don’t do it again, but I wouldn’t go there (unless he wanted to). It was already forgiven. I accept that the cross seems unfair when you forgive someone without a specific confession of sins and I even admit that, sometimes, it may be helpful to hear specific sins confessed, but it isn’t necessary for forgiveness to happen.

So, I stayed focused on the goal at hand, regardless of whether or not it was fair in my eyes. After all, what happened to Jesus in his suffering and death for us was hardly fair either. So, I am willing to let all of that go even if it continues, even if it happens again, it will be forgiven again. As I walked to the church to visit with the Pastor, I even forgave him and asked for forgiveness for anything that he or I would say to the other that would be hurtful. My armor was on, and my mind was clear, and it worked out splendidly.

I was a bit afraid of my tendency to try and teach everybody what they should do, and my wife was praying specifically that God would give me some “holy glue” to keep my mouth shut. It didn’t work. After we reconciled, we had a wonderful time sharing our thoughts on reconciliation and ministry and what was happening in the church in the four years or so that we had been gone. It was a God moment and we enjoyed it immensely.

Of course, true reconciliation means that you can talk, minister, and pray together with open hearts and that is a step which may be more difficult, but we will leave that also in the hands of God. The Pastor’s attitude toward us has changed and my attitude toward him has changed. I have committed myself to see him as he truly is in Christ regardless of what happens in the meantime.

He still needs to meet with my wife. She also needs some reconciliation time. She was much encouraged by our successful meeting and is willing to meet with him (and his wife) sometime soon. There are a few others in the church that have either sinned against us or we have sinned against them that also need to be dealt with before we are ready to go back and worship together, although that isn’t strictly necessary. We sometimes attend my wife’s original church, and we can continue to go there but worshipping together is good for reconciliation and healthy spiritual relationships.

I also had an opportunity to reconcile with the other new pastor who had come to my home twice, unannounced, and I didn’t let him in. I asked for forgiveness and invited him to come over another time that we could organize together. That was another nice moment.

The pastor of our international church is what I would call a “Parachurch Pastor” since he got his start with Harvest Evangelism and worked closely with Pastor Ed Silvoso. And he has wonderful stories to tell about working with different pastor’s associations to effect spiritual unity.

One time, in South Africa, he was asked to speak to a white pastor’s association that was meeting and had already read Ed Silvoso’s book and just wanted to hear about different strategies to begin evangelizing their cities for God. Apartheid was over but there were still great divisions between white and black churches.

So, my pastor spoke to them about strategy instead of spiritual unity which was usually the first step. Then when he asked for any questions, someone stood up and began to weep loudly and long, unable to get many words out. Everybody waited with bowed heads until he could get ahold of himself and speak. He finally said that for years two pastors from the Dutch Reformed Church had vilified and condemned him because he was the local parish priest of the Catholic Church. But what caused his grief is that both of those pastors were present in the meeting, and he didn’t know what to do about it.

Before anybody could say anything, the two Dutch Reformed pastors jumped up and rushed toward the parish priest to hug him with tears streaming down their faces and asking for forgiveness. It was a wonderful moment of reconciliation.

And there were many other stories as well. It’s easy to talk about the ones that worked out well, but not so easy about others that failed. Usually, the failures are due to a lack of preparation before God and protection in prayer by others but sometimes the people involved are being pressured to confess, and that never works. That creates shame. It needs to come from them. In any event, we need to recognize the seriousness of the ministry of reconciliation as spiritual warfare. And I was part of one situation which my pastor had set up that failed miserably. I’ve written about it in other places. But still, the fact that my pastor has a heart for reconciliation is a wonderful blessing.

And he is trying to implement it at the leadership level and seems to be doing well. And that is key. But then we started talking about a discipleship program which he sees as the next step in the development of the church. I suggested making the ministry of reconciliation the key to discipleship. It isn’t just about being a good person or reading the Bible and praying every day. There is work to be done. I am a big believer that our character and spiritual development happen in the context of the ministry of reconciliation.

And if you think of the ministry of reconciliation in terms of healing relationships, everyone has a relationship that isn’t going well - marriages, in-laws, family, fellow church members, work colleagues. The list goes on. And when the power of forgiveness based on the sufficiency of the blood of Christ is applied to the relationship, there is healing. That healing is a testimony of the power of the cross to heal relationships, which everyone is interested in.

Rather than some generic “filling the void of my heart” testimony (as true as that might be), a testimony of healed relationships and faith-based power to overcome personal battles and addictions are the two sources of a practical testimony of faith that is very interesting to both believers and non-believers.

At least that is what I would do, together with all of the preaching and teaching, and training that goes with that focus on the ministry of reconciliation. The secret power of Christianity is the power of forgiveness based on the cross. The work of the Holy Spirit within us is to make that reconciliation possible. The prayers of Jesus and the Holy Spirit on our behalf to God the Father are about our relationships with Him and others.

That is the fundamental truth that we must never forget that Christ came to die on the cross to heal our relationship with God and then on that basis heal our relationships with others. Everything else flows from that central truth.

That is the source of anointing according to Psalm 133 which tells us that God puts his blessing (his priestly anointing) on us when “brothers and sisters dwell together in unity.” Just like the oil on the head of Aaron, the high priest, that flows down his face, onto his beard, and even onto his clothes. That’s a lot of oil, a lot of anointing and it is for a purpose. The priest prays for people, brings them to the sacrificial system (which for us is the cross), and teaches them the Word of God.

We want the anointing of God to have an effective ministry within the church so that we can be a witness to those outside the church.

However you want to get the attention of people outside the church, it is almost always relational, and the people need to be taught that truth. It is about building relationships. I call it “relational evangelism,” but it doesn’t have to be done alone, in fact, it is better if you do it as part of a team. We call it “invite culture” and it is both online and offline when it is done effectively.

Online, the people need to be taught the importance of sharing, liking, and reposting the content that the church is putting out there (assuming that someone in the church is writing content which is worthy of promotion). That gets good rankings on the search engines and when people are checking out our social sites or website, they may be interested in coming to an event or a worship service.

Offline, the people need to be taught the importance of inviting people to special events like a Gospel Choir or an Egg Hunt at Easter or a Christmas Fair. It’s important to get creative here and think of things that people would find easy to come to. The event is usually held at the church (but not necessarily so). That way they can check out the building and grounds and get oriented towards how to get there in case they want to come to some other event in the future.

It is important that the one who invited their friend is also there to help build up the relationship and make them feel welcomed and answer any questions they might have. Maybe take them out for coffee afterward or on another day to talk about the event or just to get to know each other.

At some point, they will be ready for an invite to an Alpha Program or to a small group in their area or even to a Sunday morning worship service on a special occasion like Christmas or Easter or, even just when there is a special event for the children. The relationship is essential, and the process will happen at its own pace but with the courage to invite them, even if they say “no” for now.

When the time is right, you will also have the chance to talk about your testimony of healing, either from some sort of physical or mental problem or addiction that you are in the process of overcoming in faith as you walk the road of repentance with the help of your small group and church in a process of one-on-one accountability and discipleship.

You can also talk about healed relationships through the power of the cross. Perhaps that conversation won’t happen right away, and it may not even be you who gives it. It may be someone else in the church that they get to know. God is in charge after all, and he knows what they need to hear.

The point is that when the ministry of reconciliation is at the heart of discipleship, then it is the context of ministry that also heals us and calls us into the spiritual unity of reconciliation with everyone so far as we are able. It is a truly wonderful and powerful focus for the local church and creates great ministry opportunities.

Some people would claim that in the context of that kind of anointing there could also be signs and wonders and great physical as well as spiritual healing and I would agree. The signs and wonders certainly get people’s attention, but it is meant to support the ministry of reconciliation and not become an end in and of itself.

The true power of Christianity is the ability to give a “Job testimony” that, even in the face of great trials and sufferings, we declare the goodness of God. Without that, we run the danger of falling into some form of triumphalism and prosperity theology which is an affront to God because it prioritizes the benefits over the relationship with God. And none of us like that in our relationships.

So, what does all of this have to do with the “religious church” which is the point of this post? Everything, of course. Rather than focusing on what a religious church looks like, it is better to describe what an anointed church is all about.

We can talk about the boring, mind-numbing useless services of the churches that have no power but focus on the external religiosity of their particular denomination.

We can talk about churches that are more focused on protecting their positions or their installations at the expense of their people.

We can talk about Pastors who listen to their Boards and the opinion of the people more than to God and leaders who listen more to their Pastors and the people than to God. Which, of course, is not spiritual leadership. Paul said, “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ” (I Corinthians 11:1 NIV). It isn’t a democracy, after all, but rather a theocracy based on the Word of God and the leading of the Spirit.

We can talk about churches that make music and worship the most important part of their church experience forgetting that true and spiritual worship is the loving obedience of following Christ in the way of the cross through confession, repentance, forgiveness, and reconciliation.

How often we are caught up in the beauty of the song, the wonderful feelings of hope, and the possibility that God will intervene in our daily lives to solve problems because we worship him? True but also not so true.

The anointing does not come from the worship. The worship comes from the anointing.

Just to be clear. Since when has worship been reduced to singing anyway? And I love the singing. It is truly inspiring, but I know how many times I have raised my hands in worship and have not been right with God or my neighbor. So, what does that say about my worship? I might have enjoyed it, but God did not accept it. That’s the truth.

The thing about the religious spirit is that it is very deceitful. It isn’t one thing, but rather a thousand. There are so many ways to get distracted from what is important. The Devil has had plenty of time to think through his strategies and schemes to keep us from the heat of battle and the most important work of the church.

He doesn’t want us to know that we have been given the gift of significance and that our testimony is a key ingredient in this great rescue attempt by God to save as many as possible. We matter. What we do and how we do it matters. Each one of us, in our way, however, we do it with the combination of creational skills and spiritual gifts that God has given us and that we have developed in our lives, we are significant to God’s plans.

But for that to happen, we need to be reconciled to God on an ongoing basis and with our brothers and sisters as well. Even those who aren’t Christians are part of this great ministry of reconciliation. Forgiveness, especially when it is unfair and undeserved, is one of our greatest witnesses to the power of the Holy Spirit within us.

So, there are many levels and faces of the religious spirit. The only way through is to focus on what matters to God the most and then be accountable to each other to stay the course and to exercise a loving obedience in the same direction together. We must seek spiritual unity as if it is the very lifeblood of the church, which it is.

When we do that, together, at every level of the church, we create a church culture which is focused on the anointing of God and the ministry of reconciliation and then anything can happen.

What a wonderful church that would be.