A Fringe Invitation

Fringe

I’ve been rewatching the series Fringe which is about an off-the-beaten path, science task force working within the FBI. Its assignment is to investigate and focus upon what some consider fringe science - areas outside of the traditional and easily explainable. While watching this sci-fi program, I’m noticing some parallels between it and the Churches mission in our day. We too can no longer dismiss, and/or avoid the works, what some consider the fringe areas of the Gospel, Jesus said that we would perform. While saying this, I fully realize that the supernatural aspects of the Gospel can appear to be, like in the aforementioned TV show, fringe elements.

That’s why I wrote The Gospel Served with the Works. My intention was to create an easily accessible and digestible, scriptural presentation of the Churches mandate to do the works of Jesus. 

“The supernatural is weird enough. Don’t make it any weirder.”

Holding Things in Tension

I recognize and appreciate the reluctance of some to embrace these aspects of the Gospel as many feel that who focus upon them are more invested in these "fringe elements" of the Gospel than they are the core commission itself. I would suggest that the pendulum often swings too far in both directions. Because of this, I suggest that we consider how we can hold these things in tension with each other instead of in extreme opposition.

One end of the spectrum is probably best exemplified by Thomas Jefferson. Being a deist, and more of an admirer than a follower of Jesus, Jefferson infamously cut up his New Testament, removing all the supernatural aspects of Jesus’ ministry, and pasting it back together using only the collection of Jesus' wise sayings and teachings.

On the other end of the spectrum, some have become so attracted to the flame of the supernatural aspects of the Gospel that they have come to believe that being odd and strange are a badge of spirituality. From my perspective, this too is missing the mark. As they taught us at Global Awakening in Mechanicsburg, PA, “The supernatural is weird enough. Don’t make it any weirder.”

Investigation and Immersion

I suggest that we must find ways to move outside of our comfort zone. Just like the Fringe division of the FBI in the aforementioned television program, we would do good to begin to investigate and immerse ourselves in the supernatural works of Jesus as presented in scripture. By doing so, we can begin to discover how we might integrate them into our understanding of the Gospel as they are so deeply embedded within Jesus' ministry and that of the early Church, that they are inseparable. Some are probably asking whether this is something that we can do without becoming weird. Well, weird and fringe are something that are defined and held within the eye of the beholder. Ultimately, our goal would be to be no weirder than Jesus, Paul, John or any of those who understood the marriage between the proclamation of the Gospel and the demonstration of the Gospel. 

No matter where we fall on the spectrum between the written and oral proclamation of the Gospel, and supernatural demonstration, we will likely appear weird to someone. This is an unavoidable fact and it's the chance we took by signing the dotted line. As we carry and perpetuate the Gospel, persecution from one direction or another is simply a fact of life. 

Identity

Whether we are stiff and rigid, or have become weird and wild as it pertains to the Gospel, these attributes probably have more to do with the quirks and leanings we brought with us into our Christian identity and ministry, than attributes that we have culled from the Bible. For many of us, we have gravitated towards and adapted scripture and theology which already match our personalities more than we have allowed the scripture and the Spirit that inspired them to renew and reframe our thinking (Ro 12:2).

The trick is to allow Jesus work in and through us more and more so that our own traits and rough ages can fall into subjection to his identity in us. We invited him in not as a guest, but so that he could take over. That's what the word Lord means. While God created us uniquely and he cherishes who he made us to be, he calls us to more fully recognize who we are in Christ his son. We can never fully arrive at that perfection by we are pilgrims on a journey built that those things which hinder may fall off and those things he wants to build in us will grow. It helps, since we're all on this road together, to offer grace to each other as each of us strive to enter his rest and come into higher levels of maturity and identity in Christ.

You are the ones who are greatly needed in the supernatural presentation of the Gospel for you are the most sensitive to its abuses.

An Invitation and a Challenge

To those who value orthodoxy, seek integrity, and desire to be Christlike within the the proper bounds of the scripture, I would like to extend to you an interesting and serious invitation and a challenge to investigate the supernatural demonstration of the Gospel beyond your comfort zone. Being the ones who are perhaps the most sensitive to its abuses, your maturity and desire to respectfully and faithfully administer the Great Commission is your greatest asset and the full Gospel needs your unique perspective. That's the invitation. The challenge is that along the way, you might find that you have alienated yourself from others as they will likely deem your investigation as getting to close to fringe Christianity, but I'm only suggesting that you begin by going only as far as scripture demonstrate. 

If praying for the sick and other demonstrations of the works of Christ in the Church have appeared to you more like a sideshow than a presentation of the Gospel, then I encourage you to discover how to perform the works Jesus promised we would perform. That's why I wrote The Gospel Served with the Works.

This book presents numerous scriptural examples of how these works are not merely fringe elements, but together are a major component of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and our commission. I challenge you to check it out and more importantly, jump back into the Book of Acts and see how the disciples and others who never met Jesus in the flesh, operated in these works.. 

In addition, find those around you who embrace the works of Christ in his Church… those you feel you can trust to help you stretch yourself and along the way, invest yourself in other solid biblical resources on the subject. Purpose to suspend your criticism of those in the Church who appear to you to be odd or overly flamboyant. It is amazing how our perception of how God works can change as our experience administering the Gospel grows. While it is true that God never changes, it is true that our perception of him changes and grows as we come to better know him and his ways.

Conclusion

The Gospel was never meant to be comfortable and this is perhaps a revelation not expressed adequately from our pulpits. That said, there is a real joy in letting Jesus administer the Gospel through us, bringing freedom, release, and the ability to serve him better to those around us. This call is likely best reflected in another series you may have heard of, The Chosen. In it Jesus is famous for inviting his potential disciples to Come and See, and once in, he challenges them to "Get used to different!" Different is not a dirty word.

As long as we can trust him to hold us and keep us from falling off the edge while we step out and take these kinds of risks, we will succeed. It might surprise you just how normal these "fringe," expressions of the Gospel can become. After all, they were normal for Jesus, the one who we are to follow. They are to become so normal, in fact, that Jesus says they will follow all those who will believe (Mt 16:17-18). Are you a believer? Are you up to accepting his invitation found in the Great Commission? We need you!