Teaching

Below are some thoughts and notes based on a recent Secrets Of The Journey Webcast. 

1) Connectedness vs. collectivism

Eph. 4:16 from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.

For years we've preached from Eph. 4:11-16 with emphasis on Eph. 4:11-12. Here's a dynamic that has been eluding us for a long time.

- The whole body is being fitted and held together by what evert joint supplies.
- This is being done according to the measure of energy of each individual part
- This is what causes the growth of the body
- The Body builds itself in love

Here we see a very important interplay between "the whole body" and "each individual part".

The well-being and the growth of the whole body depends on the "proper working" of "each individual part".

The key dynamic we can't afford to miss here is "connectedness".

Connectedness is part of the very definition of being a healthy individual part.

The concept of connectedness is radically different from the concept of collectivism. It perfectly balances the significance of the individual with and as a part of the whole. In fact, the very well-being of the individual can be measured by his or her connectedness. Collectivism sees the whole and completely disregards the individual. The connectedness of the God-kind, as we might call it, celebrates the individual within the understanding of the whole.

At first, these concepts might seem unimportant to many. They're not. It's of paramount importance whether we understand connectedness and how we can never attain individual happiness without it.

2) In the beginning was...connectedness

The Biblical narrative begins with the story of connectedness. God himself, after creating Adam, defined unconnected perfection as "not good".

Gen. 2:18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.”

Think about it - here's the perfect creature, fresh out of the oven of God's creative genius. He looks in the mirror and he sees perfection. He thinks and it's perfection. He speaks and it's perfection. In purely technical and even moral terms, Adam was the perfect human being. But God himself called his lack of connectedness "not good". Which means there's no such thing as full perfection and happiness without connectedness. Whatever claim for perfection there is, it's not indeed perfection of the God-kind, until it's being shared.

The human race, it seems, always swings between two unhealthy extremes: collectivism and individualism.

Collectivism, as mentioned earlier, disregards the individual and in fact exploits him or her in the name of some utopian "common good". But what good is "common good", if it was achieved by killing, robbing or exploiting individuals, the very beneficiaries of the supposed attempt to bring good to the masses? History shows that collectivisim falls short of God's vision for mankind, which is built on His covenant with individuals, not with the masses. It's when people chose to make a covenant that true connectedness of hearts, minds and resources becomes possible, while honoring each individual party. If liberty ever needed a monument built in her name, it would have to be built by the building blocks of the legacy of healthy, meaningful individual lives, not the victims of exploitation in the name of some imaginary, forced "common good".

Individualism, in it's most extreme, ugly form, is yet another form of deception. When people say things like "my life" and by this they mean them, only them as an individual person and no one else, you're talking to someone who is deceived. The truth is, if you can perfectly equate "your life" with only you and no one else, you're probably a very miserable human being. God himself made Mr. Perfect, took a step back, looked at him and said: "Not good!"

Not even the perfect relationship between the sinless Adam and God was good enough to fulfill God's purpose for man. Many religious spirits push people toward isolation, thinking that the more isolated they are, the closer they will be to God and therefore, more spiritual. They're deceived. There's time for privacy and solitute, but those are times we need in order to recharge ourselves and become better sons and daughters of the Kingdom in real life, not in the artificial environment of religious seclusion. If monasticism was indeed the epitome of spirituality, Jesus should have built the biggest monastery of all. He didn't. Neither did he remain in the desert. Instead, he grew up in a normal family, helping his father in the carpentry business he was running, while growing in the Spirit and in communion with others.

Jesus remained connected with mankind in very real, earthly terms to the very last!

It's important for us to establish that in connectedness, which is the only way to share with others both the struggles of our fallen nature, as well as the celebration of our new birth, is indeed the full expression of God's perfect creation. 

3) The workers are few

Connectedness is the very essence of the work of God on the Earth. Sin pulls people apart. Jesus desires for us to remain connected in Him and with each other.

Mat. 9:36 Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then He *said to His disciples, “ The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. 38 Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.”

Even after releasing the power to heal people from their physical ailments and to deliver them from demonic spirits, Jesus identifies an even greater problem - disconnectedness!

Many Christians think that if we today had the power to heal every cancer and cast out every demon of depression and fear, people will automatically become established in the faith. It's not true. Disconnectedness, which at root level has to do with mistrust and betrayal, is a deep fundamental problem that can only be countered by efforts aiming at building connected bodies of people who share common values and greater purpose.

The workers referred to here, would be people who will work toward bringing people together under the lordship of Christ. They would have to work toward the restoration of each individual first and then, by God's grace, build connected bodies of people under Christ. This is very much at the center of building Kingdom communities is all about.

Today many churches are either too institutional in nature (where people experience the mysticism of the different liturgical forms without any relational aspect of such spirituality), or too modern and intentionally only aiming at gathering crowds for an experience.

Singing few songs and hearing a sermon on Sunday may do it for some, who desire to be left alone the rest of the time, but the truth is that shallow forms will never stand the test of time. Only connected people can move through the temporary seasons in life and the every changing cultural trends, toward achieving a greater purpose on the earth.

At the same time, our whole understanding of what "church" means, has to change. The Sunday morning liturgy, regardless of how lifelessly religious or dynamically modern is, is only one of the many legitimate expressions and formats of what a connected body of Kingdom people can participate in.

We're moving toward a time and it's in fact here, where many innovative formats will thrive alongside with the more traditional church structures. Think of "church" as a complex, multi-layered nexus, which has many forms, yet advances the same Kingdom.

There used to be a time when I was intimidated by such complexity and didn't even realize how reductionist my whole thought process was. No more! Today I celebrate complexity because I can see how that's the only adequate response to the chaotic nature of our fallen world. Ezekiel 1 provides a very vivid picture of the complexity of the way God's kingdom operates. Instead of fighting what we don't understand (the most natural response of our insecurities), we can join it and find where do we fit as a moving part in this enormously complex phenomena.

Mat. 9:37 Then He *said to His disciples, “ The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.

Most Bible Schools and seminaries emphasize on knowledge of Scripture, exegetical understanding and homiletic skills. However, in real life, most of the labor leaders, who have gotten into the "business" of bringing connectedness to a chaotic world, exert, can be filed under "emotional labor".

Most burnouts in the ministry are the result of the black hole of emotional dysfunction leaders have to put their efforts into, while bringing people together and connecting lives. No one talks about it in Bible School and hardly any ministerial associations are well prepared in providing support to those on the front lines who toil emotionally to overcome dysfunction and disconnectedness on base level - people and human relationships.

4) Happy spiritual fathers

A truly mature spiritual father and apostle will never be happy until they witness their spiritual children in a state of Kingdom connectedness.

3 John 1:2 Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers. 3 For I was very glad when brethren came and testified to your truth, that is, how you are walking in truth. 4 I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children walking in the truth. 5 Beloved, you are acting faithfully in whatever you accomplish for the brethren, and especially when they are strangers; 6 and they have testified to your love before the church.

3 John 1:2 is said to have become the rallying banner of the so called "prosperity movement". Nothing wrong with prosperity. What's wrong is what we do with prosperity, not whether we should prosper or not. The apostle clearly rejoices that Gaius is prospering - in his soul, in his health and in every other aspect of life.

What we've missed is the following - how concerned apostle John was not only with the individual well-being of Gaius but also with the whole community. Connectedness was part of the well-being of Gaius. Not only that but in verse 4 we see that Gaius, being the prosperous individual that he was, was "acting faithfully" and working to accomplish things for both brothers and even strangers!

Gaius was working towards connectedness. His personal prosperity was extended beyond himself and well into the realm of the body of people he was associated with. Not only that, he was connecting with strangers as well.

In my now 21 years of being involved in ministry, I can clearly see how connectedness has not just been a goal, it captures the very ethos of my apostolic calling. While most people are looking for an apostle who is a push-button miracle worker and a preaching pulpit machine, who mesmerizes the masses with eloquence and infallible charisma, I've come to realize that covenant based connectedness is probably what best describes the crown achievement of a true apostle. It's the restoration of individuals, the formation of spiritual families and tribes and from there, the actual restoration of fragmented societies begins. No greater achievement that this can exist.


5) The blessing of the weak links

As seen in 3 John 1:1-4 the apostle is most happy to see his children walking in connectedness with God and with each other. The quality of our Christian life and ministry can in fact be determined by the quality (and to some degree quantity) of our connectedness. But we have limitations. We can't connect with everyone and we can't help everyone - certainly God doesn't expect that from anyone. In fact, sociology tells us that we can't have more than a dozen quality, deep relationships.

It's not the deep ones, it's the significance of the weaker links that caught me off guard as I was studying this whole subject. In his revolutionary paper The Strenght Of Weak Ties (PDF link), which work some experts call one of the most influential sociology papers ever written, Mark Granovetter proposed something that sounds preposterous at first: When it comes to finding a job, getting news, launching a restaurant, or spreading the latest fad, our weak social ties are more important than our cherished strong friendships.

Furthermore, social scientists have discovered that the average number of people we come to know on a first-name basis throughout our lifetime is in the excess of 600. Granted, these would be mostly weak links types of connections, but nevertheless, they are on a first-name basis.

For those of us who feel called to advance God's Kingdom, we are so acutely aware of how scarce resources are when it comes to materializing our God-given goals. And yet, it's not resources per se, it's connectedness that turns out to be the solution to our dilemma. Not only that, weak links seem to be of even greater importance when it comes to resources, rather than strong ones.

Conclusion

Connectedness is not a goal, it's a state of being. The way we handle relationships, be they strong or weak links, might as well be defined as the way we handle God's blessing itself, because blessings traverse across connected lives.

Will we succeed in building this kind of a complex Kingdom nexus that allows the synergy of spiritual, emotional and physical resources? This is the task at hand. 

Eph. 4:16 from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.

George Bakalov

The Significance Of Connectedness by George Bakalov is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at gbmi.us.