Wineskins
Mark 2:22 you know better than to put new wine into old wine-skins. They would burst. The wine would be spilled out and the wine-skins ruined. New wine needs fresh wine-skins.
Structure is important! Think of all the routines/structure/boxes that you have going on in your life – whether they are self-appointed or imposed by others. Some are particularly good and really helpful. Take the example of a morning routine – shower, breakfast, cleaning teeth, some sort of devotional time. Or traffic laws, without which there would be absolute chaos!
Sometimes however, we can get so rigid in our structures and routines that we forget the bigger picture and sometimes the aim of what that structure is there to facilitate.
Last night we hosted a discussion with some of our missional community leaders – all lovely and very capable people. One couple in particular had got very focussed on their group and how they were trying to make it work. The over-riding impression we got from listening to them was one of tiredness (why is this not working?) and of frustration (we have all these openings with our non-Christian friends and neighbours but no time to pursue them as we’re too busy trying to make our group work).
Another leader came up with the passage of the wine skins. Throughout the centuries, the ‘wine’ or the essence of the gospel has not changed. Society and individual situations, of course have! Sometimes we need new wine skins. Let’s be creative, think outside the box and not necessarily be a slave to the structure. Does the structure serve us and God’s purposes or do we serve the structure?
What is God calling us to do, both individually and as a group? Can both of those callings work together? Do the existing structures help or constrain? Let’s ask God to breathe His life and energy in and through us and what we are doing. May we and the whole body be used to draw others into an ever deeper relationship with Him in as many ways as possible. May we not lose sight of our ultimate goals. Let’s seek to bring God’s Kingdom to those people and situations that He has placed us with/in. Let’s ask God to reveal to us the best way of doing that.