Flocking Together
I’ve been listening to Tim Pynes’ Stories from the Revolution podcast, which highlights different people who are investing their lives into following God outside church walls. Wolfgang Simpson, a German taxi driver-turned-evangelist who is an especially prophetic revolutionary in God’s Kingdom describes the process that many followers of Christ are finding themselves on.
He envisions it as a migration of sorts. 
Imagine two mountains peaks, with a valley in between. On the top of the left mountain is the Christian who happily goes to church every Sunday, paying his tithes, listening to sermons, and singing his heart out for God during the praise and worship time, and then returns home. He does not realize that there is anything else out there, and is perfectly content with the status quo. Simpson calls this position -2.
-1 is about halfway down the left mountain. The Christian is still a part of the system, but has begun to leave his worship services wanting something more – something deeper. He can’t quite figure out what it is, but he wants it badly. Attending the church programs and hearing sermons that he’s heard before no longer gives him energy for his week.
When he enters the deepest part of the valley, he has arrived at 0, the Wilderness. No longer just an internal journey, he has actually left all forms of communal life. He still loves his brothers and sisters at the church he previously attended, but he is being urged on toward a different journey. He knows now that what he is looking for cannot be found in the church-as-he-knows-it. He questions everything; he sometimes even doubts his faith in God. This is dying! Dying to the old program, dying from being fed by others…dying from the need to be spiritually entertained by a show of professionals.
+1, halfway up the right mountain is an exciting, but dangerous place. He’s left the doldrums of the wilderness, and is now experiencing family in an authentic faith community. Now every fiber of his being feels like he has spiritually “arrived” – at the end of his journey. But there is one last leg to take.
+2 is the final phase – that of multiplication. Anything that is alive and healthy is designed to reproduce, and faith is no different. Many Christians stop at +1 thinking that that is all there is to life, but how long might that life last if there is never any natural reproduction? Was it truly life in the first place?
This migration is natural. It’s like birds who migrate south. It is a healthy herd instinct. Like the Holy Spirit saying – “MOVE!” They KNOW (although they can’t always explain it) that if they stay where they are – THEY WILL DIE.
Christians are moving from Egypt to Israel. From Mt. Sinai to Mt. Zion. It is a migration. Some people can sense it more than others – but anyone who looks out of the window of their church will see that it is burning down around them, and to find life they must escape! Some can take the heat longer than others – and for that, I guess I applaud them. Maybe. But for those who are asleep – wake up! We’ve seen over and over again that “business as usual” is not healthy, and not working. Find the life that Jesus calls us to… then tell me what you find!
Has anyone been though a migration? Anyone out there going through one right now?
