Have you ever felt the power of a waterfall? Have you ever experienced the rush of hearing the falling water as you approach? Have you ever stood under and felt the weight of the water hit your body? That waterfall is made up of single drops of water. If one drop fell from the top of a mountain to the bottom, we wouldn't hear a thing. Yet, millions of these little drops can sound like a clap of thunder or a stampeding herd of cattle. The beauty of these gifts from God is matched by few things. There is power in this falling water that systematically performs a reconfigure of the surface of rocks and can crush bones.
The Americanized church as a whole seems to be removing itself from the continual, natural flow dropping off the cliff. We have complicated things and segregated the simple task of having the faith to flow as a stream. We don't jump off mountains or believe that together God can change the shape of the path before us. That's what rivers do! We would rather hang out with other drops in a heated pool or lay still in a fashionable cistern that is cut off from the flow of Living Water.
Every drop is important. The sound, beauty and power of the church is found within the unity of every drop. Living water is not sectioned off into stale pools that add lights or heating elements or fog machines or individual cups for the drops to feel most comfortable. Living Water flows and does not sit around while one "senior drop" of water tells them what it is like to jump off the mountain. Every Believer is important. Every Believer has God-given talents and skill-sets that make them unique. The Holy Spirit administers His gifts through each member of the Body of Christ so that the Kingdom of God is effective.
The beauty and power and sound of the Church is found in simplicity.
Individual Believers in the one true Living God uniting together to flow as a river. Jesus is the Living Water. His Body (His peculiar and particular people) is the River.
People go to Six Flags instead of the magnificent mountains. People go to Disney World instead of the beach to experience the unfathomable ocean. People "go to church" instead of experiencing the natural beauty of God's original way for people to meet and worship. We choose comfortable pews, innovations, impressive philosophers, marketing and radical music over the natural opportunity to meet with God's folks. Instead of interacting in worship we sit and watch and stand and follow.
Why???
Church life is a lot more simple than it is being made in America. It's a great deal less expensive also. The expectations that are found in a local church are sometimes like "keeping up with the Jones'". Is your church likened to a hewed-out cistern trying to hold water? The Body of Christ should be a living and active river...truly embracing Paul's teaching found in first Corinthians that explains that each member is CRITICAL. Grow together-go together.
Flow with the river off the mountaintop. Don't get caught in a beautiful cistern. A cistern is a cistern however high the ceiling is, powerful the sound system is, vibrant the praise band is, and relevant the pastor is.
"...for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water." Jeremiah 2:13