Follow.

Very simply, it must involve forward movement. Follow is a verb meaning "to go or come after; to move or travel behind." So When Jesus called the disciples, they didn't "follow him in their hearts" and stay in their boats. They took action. We are people of action. The church is where it's at! We are on a mission, a quest, a pilgrimage, a journey. We move forward. We follow.

But what do we follow? There are lots of ideas, philosophies, streams, traditions, opinions...

Christ.

We follow Christ. The Messiah. The Builder of His Church. He is our all-consuming focus. It's not the latest idea, style, trend, or church growth strategy. It's not our deepest held tradition. Our focus is not in being inclusive, relevant, contemporary, progressive, or traditional. It isn't celebrating homosexuality or standing up for righteousness (or coffee in the sanctuary). Rather, we have a living, "following" relationship with the Father, with the Son, and with the Holy Spirit. And from that relationship we live. We (and His Church) revolve around Him. Romans 11:36 guides us: "For from Him and through Him and for Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever! Amen." He is the only reason we do any of this!!

But LISTEN! We must do this in ways that bring us together, that show we really love each other. "From Him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work." (Ephesians 4:16) Together is an adverb describing people who are with one another, or that something is done with others by joint effort. Accord and harmony abound!

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So here's where this gets interesting.

You need all three. Follow. And Christ. And Together.

If we Follow Christ without being Together? Church split. Hurt people. Broken relationships. We may have been right, but we missed the point. Jesus wept.

If we Follow Together without being centered around Christ? Agenda driven rather than mission focused. Organizational rather than a living organism. Competitive and innovative, but distracted. Flash-in-the-pan and fad-chasing. Oblivious, irrelevant, and stuck in the mud. Jesus who?

If we talk Christ and do it Together without Following? Stagnant. Dying. Fat-headed. Arrogant. Clinical. Philosophical. Impotent. Jesus left.

But I believe there's good news here. We are in whole-hearted, I-would-die-on-this-hill, passionate agreement on (I'd say) at least 75% of our Mission as the Church. We have to keep that in mind. We'll be way off mission otherwise.

Oh I'm not saying it's easy to do this. We are in complete need of His super to empower our natural. But we simply must Follow Christ Together. Can we? Will we? Let's! How? Let's ask Him.