Semper Reformanda

“In a fallen world the Reformation maxim Semper Reformanda ('always reforming') really hits the mark.  We are always in need of reformation.  Today our deepest need is not just for reformation but for the 'reformation of reformation' as well.” – Os Guiness

 

“Now reform your ways and your actions and obey the LORD your God.” – The Prophet Jeremiah

 

I know how to talk of reformation, but I’m not so confident that I know how to reform.” – Yours Truly

 

For better or for worse, I am a member of the denomination called the Church of Christ. My highest loyalty is to Christ, and it has usurped my loyalty to the Church of Christ, and compelled me to be more closely affectionate with the church of Christ. Long ago, I thought they were synonymous and the exclusive property of one another.

 

What got me thinking about this distinction was my discovery that I didn’t need to be like Christ at all to be a member in good standing of the Church of Christ. This took me on my first tour of personal reformation…and this tour hasn’t ever ended (even when I thought it had on several occasions).

 

I looked around at who I was in fellowship with and saw that many around me WERE like Christ, even though they didn’t have to be in order to be accepted by our denomination. It was these, I noticed, who had people surrounding them who needed the real and genuine love of the Father. I fell in love with these people, and longed to be one of them.

 

Now, as I look in the Bible that I had grown up learning, I see that these people were the only true followers all along! They loved people and looked for opportunities to do it more and better! They did it in the name of Jesus, and they did it with a selflessness and openness that I couldn’t call anything but inconvenient and courageous.

 

Now I teach from that Bible every week to a group of people in my denomination, the Church of Christ. From what I can tell after almost a year with them, the majority of them are just like me…longing to be one of “those people” that make a life-changing difference in others…marking themselves as followers of Jesus, members of the church of Christ.

 

I’m always trying to ask myself, “What is the Christianity that I want my children being raised up within?” And when I ask that, I feel the attack of an enemy upon me to stop asking. That single question wakes up the best parts of me…it guides me in my current role as “a voice of reformation” as well as any question I ask. But instantly, when I ask it, I hear voices saying, “Don’t be so idealistic,” “Asking that will just depress you”, “Just protect your own children from the denominational parts, and only let the Christ-like parts influence them”, and “That’s not what you are here to do, Brian.”

 

I need to reform some more. And God has never let me reform alone. He always, always, always has had me drag people with me. I’ve always needed them, too…and I just hope and pray that I am someone they needed. It’s pretty much all I’ve got in the wake of my life, and I don’t plan on having much else. I’m just running after God’s Son with all that I am, and as little as that is, what else can I do?