This is a continuation of the "No more GMO church" series and builds on Part 1 and Part 2. If you've not read it yet, please do so the rest of this makes sense.
Conclusion(s)
Friends... ask yourself.... what healthy living thing needs so much intervention and oversight to reproduce? Do you have the encourage most young people to desire to reproduce and offer coaching, teaching, education, programs, etc to get them to do so? Of course not! We have to bridle their enthusiasm for reproduction. True spiritual life - the life of Yeshua (Jesus) does not need intervention to reproduce. In fact, sadly, intervention stops the desire to reproduce as it over-complicates reproduction and makes it look like something that belongs to professionals. We would not likely tolerate it very well if we delegated all our reproduction responsibilities and desires to professionals. Why then do we tolerate such in our spiritual lives? This just should not be.
Does The Body of Christ need fellowship, support, meeting together, leadership, and relationships with one other? Absolutely. And friends - we've not stopped doing those things - in fact we do them more and more deeply than ever. It is our belief, experience, and conviction that those things naturally take place when the Body of Christ is healthy and Jesus is leading them. Further, we don't see most of the above things happening in any substantial measure in the institution - with the exception of leadership, and that unfortunately doesn't often take place as it should.
The Church does not need rigid organization, control, heavy-handed governing, etc. Like gardening, it needs attention. It needs good soil, good water in ample quantity, fresh air, and regular weeding. As the old saying goes.. " the best fertilizer is the gardener's shadow". The same is true with our own gardens - both individually and corporately. The good gardner (John 15/16) has all wisdom and knows what to apply when deficiencies are found, when to prune and cut back, what to throw into the fire and how and when to harvest. Is this your experience within the institution?
Our like us, has your experience in the institutional system has been leaders that are gravitate towards extremes of passivity and disconnectedness from the sheep, or assertive and controlling, treating the sheep as human resources - more like CEO than a gardener. We don't see either in Jesus.
In our experience, the institutional seems to deeply resent and even despise the organic. Organic is twelve men who spent time with Christ were able to turn the world upside down. They didn't attend a new members class, they didn't read the latest fad books on the faith, or watch videos that would help them in their walk. The didn't require the approval of leadership, their passions were not made safe and acceptable to the institution. They were guerrilla warriors under a captain of the Lord of Hosts! Is this our experience today?
Center to the spiritual DNA of the disciples was this. They simply spent time with Messiah and followed him. The beauty of what has happened since is that it required absolutely nothing other than the presence of Christ. The same is still true today. The ONLY thing necessary to see the Kingdom expand is the King himself. He has given us all that we need.
The institution seems to really hate this idea - at least in practice. Rather, we've come to believe we need every sort of shiny thing in order to grow. Friends - if you plant GMO seed you can have the best gardening tools this world can offer - but you're still going to only get a single season crop at best. You won't get the rich, heirloom crops that are rich in flavor, nutritious, inviting in appearance, and most importantly have an innate ability to reproduce after their kind. Plant the seed of Jesus and watch it grow.
The institution seems to really hate this idea - at least in practice. Rather, we've come to believe we need every sort of shiny thing in order to grow. Friends - if you plant GMO seed you can have the best gardening tools this world can offer - but you're still going to only get a single season crop at best. You won't get the rich, heirloom crops that are rich in flavor, nutritious, inviting in appearance, and most importantly have an innate ability to reproduce after their kind. Plant the seed of Jesus and watch it grow.
A few more things...
Let us conclude by acknowledging that yes, we are painting with a broad brush. We have encountered and know exceptions to what we write here. The fact that exceptions exist however doesn't invalidate our observations or statements. It's the grace of Yahweh that anything grows from the GMO institution and as mentioned, largely in part because there are those serving as the 'root stock' DNA for these hybrid crops.
We praise God that it does produces anything, but also want to see the Body of Christ experience the fullness of the organic, spirit-led life that is available only though being connected to the head of the Body - Jesus and following him as the sole head of His Bride and Body.
We're coming at this not as those who are under any impression that we are successfully living out these things. We're not judging any hearts of those in the system. We're not saying this with a "we're doing it right and others are wrong" attitude or disposition - rather an invitation to deeply consider if what you know and observe of this institution matches what you see of Jesus in Scripture. We're just desperate to see us become whom we believe Jesus would have us be and quite frankly believe the institution stands in the way of such.
We believe - at least at this time - that we can linger inside of "Monsanto" all day, all year, for the rest of our lives. We're don't expect we'll ever see the system suddenly decide to stop using GMO and start going organic, any more than we expect Monsanto to do so. Rather, we're hoping to invest our time and energies into pursuing the Great Gardener - loving Him and loving our neighbor as ourselves. We believe therein that we'll be where we ought to be.
Our aim isn't to convince you of these things - that's not our job. If this has caused you to become upset - don't park there. Get in touch with us, talk with us and let's continue onward in love.
We praise God that it does produces anything, but also want to see the Body of Christ experience the fullness of the organic, spirit-led life that is available only though being connected to the head of the Body - Jesus and following him as the sole head of His Bride and Body.
We're coming at this not as those who are under any impression that we are successfully living out these things. We're not judging any hearts of those in the system. We're not saying this with a "we're doing it right and others are wrong" attitude or disposition - rather an invitation to deeply consider if what you know and observe of this institution matches what you see of Jesus in Scripture. We're just desperate to see us become whom we believe Jesus would have us be and quite frankly believe the institution stands in the way of such.
We believe - at least at this time - that we can linger inside of "Monsanto" all day, all year, for the rest of our lives. We're don't expect we'll ever see the system suddenly decide to stop using GMO and start going organic, any more than we expect Monsanto to do so. Rather, we're hoping to invest our time and energies into pursuing the Great Gardener - loving Him and loving our neighbor as ourselves. We believe therein that we'll be where we ought to be.
Our aim isn't to convince you of these things - that's not our job. If this has caused you to become upset - don't park there. Get in touch with us, talk with us and let's continue onward in love.
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