Confession: Breaking Through to Ultimate Victory by Dr. F. Stoner Clark

In the spirit of manufacturers today who set forth their products anticipating potential misuse or abuse of their products, I offer my own disclaimer with this article—not for the spiritually squeamish or faint of heart. I say that because I’m going to talk with you about “confession,” a long lost spiritual discipline within the Protestant ranks of the church. When most believers are presented with the idea of confession, it summons images of a Roman Catholic confessional booth where persons purportedly anonymously confess their sins to a priest. Although most Protestant believers are not averse to the idea of confessing their sins, they seldom think of this activity in terms of an accepted practice or discipline of the faith. If the confessing of one’s sins is truly a biblical mandate, then its omission could potentially leave believers seriously spiritually deficit in their Christian walk.

We turn to James’ epistle for our precedent in attempting to further understand the significance of this concept of confession.

Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much (Ja 5:16 NASB).

This verse directing believers to confess their sins is not an isolated, stand alone verse; it has a context in the preceding verses. Leading up to this directive is a discussion about how we are to address affliction and sickness which involves calling upon the church for prayer and ministry. It also brings out the correlation between life’s afflictions and sin in one’s life. The idea of healing here is directly related to the forgiveness of sins. This concept was first set forth by Jesus in his healing of the paralytic who was lowered through the roof where Jesus ministered.

“Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven’; or to say, ‘get up, and pick up your pallet and walk’”? (Mk 2:9 NASV)

James verse on confession follows directly on the heels of addressing affliction and sickness. In the more modern translations the word “therefore” is supplied at the beginning of the verse. I believe this is a perfectly understood and correct rendering which captures the appropriate meaning of the verse. If we desire healing and wholeness, we should solicit the ministry and prayer of the church and then in keeping with that action we should confess our sins.

I believe a brief caveat would be in order at this point. In seeking to more fully understand the significance of personal confession as it relates to our walk with Christ, we need to see that this issue is much broader than simply obtaining physical healing for our bodies. As with all teachings in Scripture, we should couch it within the meta-narrative of God. We should always keep the larger picture of God’s ultimate intention as our context. Jesus’ sacrificial death and resurrection wasn’t just about securing our place in heaven. It was principally about bringing us fully into the same kind of relationship with Father God that Jesus himself has always enjoyed. It is all about the full stature life in Christ, about being fully conformed to his image. Considering this, we can see that the New Testament concept of healing—drawing upon Thayer’s Greek Lexicon—means to make whole, to free from errors and sin, to bring about one’s full salvation.

Returning to our James 5 passage, we learn that what NASV translates as “sins” could just as easily be rendered offenses, trespasses, fall or faults. In matter of fact, the Greek paraptoma is translated by Thayers as: a lapse or deviation from truth and uprightness; a sin, misdeed. This corresponds closely with our understanding of “healing” as that which brings us into the ultimate fullness in Christ. Taking these several verses together from James 5, I think it is reasonable to aver that coming out of our aberrant ways into a modality leading to full stature life in Christ minimally involves intra-church ministry and personal disclosure of how we have been spiritually errant. Confession is functionally both individual and corporate. However, this does not mean that all confession is necessarily public.

Summing up where we have come in this study so far, we can see that James has introduced a very challenging—if not threatening—spiritual discipline to the church. This discipline—confessing personal sins one to another—ties together the concepts of total wholeness and the need to reveal undisclosed sin in one’s life. Confession is an intra-body ministry and resolves to bring persons fully into conformity to the image of Christ.

Many believers struggle with understanding exactly what it is in their lives that deserves confession. Most Christians tend to over simplify the definition of sin as that which is outward, palpable and socially condemned. This viewpoint of sin is not only erroneous but will always leave believers far short of reaching the spiritual depths and maturation Jesus died to bring them into. As point of clarification, I am assuming here by definition that true believers would not be intentionally, knowingly involved in biblically defined sin such as is delineated in the Ten Commandments. Sin literally means missing the mark. Sin is broadly speaking anything in our hearts, attitudes, thought life and behavior that in any measure precludes Christ from assuming his rightful place on the throne of our hearts.

If we seriously want to grasp what it is in our lives that qualifies as confessionable, we simply need to look no further than identifying content in basically two areas. One is to bring indictment to every area in one’s life where there is a demonstrable failure to overcome according to biblical standards and the expectations of God. If we are failing to aspire to overcome in ways that are biblically mandated and that reflect the heart of God for us, then we are spiritually culpable in these ways. The second is to mark those areas of one’s life wherein God has been in any manner excluded or prohibited from assuming his rightful place in one’s heart. Maybe another way of viewing this is to discern in one’s life in what manner is conformity to the image of Christ being ignored, thwarted or denied.

In considering the above two categories, it is imperative that we keep our focus on the matters of the heart. We are enjoined in Proverbs to guard or watch over our hearts with all diligence since everything in life flows out of that. Jesus warned the Pharisees about cleansing the outside of the cup while ignoring the inside. He explained to his disciples that the origin of all corruption resided in the heart.

I want to qualify here that a proper understanding of confession must necessarily embrace sincere repentance. Without repentance—a turning and going the other way—confession simply turns into scrupulosity and becomes a farce. It becomes a kind of religious excessive-compulsive disorder wherein a pathological guilt arises over attention to misdeeds sans any intention to correct one’s heart and behavior. Without true repentance, confession is reduced to simply attempting to assuage one’s false guilt. Confession that arises out of godly sorrow and authentic repentance opens the way to emendation in one’s journey unto completion in Christ.

Confession is principally a matter of light and darkness, about things open and above board versus things buried and hidden, about that which produces spiritual health and well being as contrasted with that which is pathological in nature. The simple truth is that we are not going to overcome, mature and progress spiritually as long as unresolved un-Christ likeness continues to reside within our hearts. Any thoughts, attitudes or behaviors which fail to pass muster with respect to the righteousness of God and his holiness allowed to remain un-confessed and un-repented of will not only stymie current spiritual progress but will also become the grounds for even more extensive continuing spiritual damage in our lives. Un-confessed sin—anything in our lives that precludes Christ’s ascension in our hearts—provides Satan legal grounds for continuing his pathological activity in our lives.

Reconciling ourselves with this challenging discipline of confession will take intentionally rejecting the world’s concepts of how we perceive ourselves and how our understanding of personal significance and value are formed. The world’s concept of one’s significance is basically found in what one does and what others think. Since everyone’s emotional, psychological and spiritual well-being is very much dependent on a healthy self-perception, it is an ongoing struggle to effectively reject notions of self-worth based on one’s performance and what others think. If we adopt the world’s standards, we will find ourselves unconsciously and falsely covering up all detracting traits in our lives. The antidote for this spiritual malaise is in finding our significance—our sense of worth and value—fully in our relationship with Christ. When our self-perception is grounded purely in the love and acceptance of Christ and what he has done for us, we will be free to be fully integrous in all aspects of our lives and relationships.   

The drive to be admired, appreciated and accepted by others is nearly insatiable. All persons dread that sense of disappointment conveyed from others when failing to meet—in their eyes--expectations and measure up to whatever degree. It is fascinating that when Adam and Eve committed that original sin, their first response was to “cover up.” Unfortunately we are still continuing this destructive practice. One of the principal functions of the church is to create such an environment of love and acceptance—a safe zone—that persons will be released and encouraged to live personally integrous lives free of all pretensions and pseudo-personas. I believe this may be the major reason there are so many admonitions in the New Testament to “love one another.”  

In considering further what should be guiding our confession one to another, I want to draw upon the types and shadows in the Old Testament.

Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the end of the age has come (1 Cor 10:11 NASB).

There is so much understanding to be found in the exploits of ancient Israel corresponding to the church. For example, God’s ultimate intention for his people—to be fully conformed to the image of Christ—is wonderfully depicted in Israel’s deliverance from Egypt and subsequent possession of the Promised Land. Multiple times God conveyed to the people of Israel that he brought them out to take them in. Their deliverance wasn’t principally about coming out from under Egyptian bondage; it was first and foremost about getting them into the Promised Land. This is so strongly developed in the Old Testament that one could make the case that without their moving on to possess Canaan, there was no purpose in coming out of Egypt. It was Israel’s entering the Promised land that prefigured our coming into full maturation in Christ.

 Following Israel’s deliverance form Egypt they entered into the wilderness and faced various trying circumstances often leading to rebellious and unfaithful responses. Although God continuously met their needs in supernatural ways, they doubted and questioned the goodness of God and his benign intentions for them. Sometimes it was an issue of water or food. At other times they were confronted with the possibility of being overcome by an enemy. Israel’s typical response in these trails was to turn on their leaders, impugn the character of God and wish they were back in Egypt. God clarified that he allowed Israel to be tested in order to purify their hearts and bring them into absolute obedience.

Although Israel was punished for their moral failures in each of these scenarios, the most severe chastisement they received came at the border of Canaan in the face of the pejorative report brought by the ten spies. You can read the full account of this situation in Numbers 14. In this case, the people completely disbelieved God, accused him of bringing them out into the wilderness to kill them, made plans to return to Egypt and sought to stone Caleb and Joshua who attempted to persuade them of God’s true heart, intentions and ability to see them through whatever obstacles they faced.

In Caleb’s argument to the people, he strenuously warmed them about rebelling against God. The Hebrew word for rebel, marad, is defined in Strong’s thusly: to be contumacious, rebellious, seditious. Contumacious carries the following meaning: to be stubbornly perverse and rebellious; to be willfully and obstinately disobedient. Sedition is the act of leading others to rebel against authority. This is what Caleb was passionately warning the Israelites to avoid in their response to the spies’ report. As if this weren’t horrific enough, it gets even worse. Later in Numbers 14 we see God’s response to the rebellion of the people. “And the Lord said unto Moses, how long will this people provoke me”? What does it mean to “provoke” God? We mostly think of the term provoke as meaning to upset or possibly incite someone. However, the Hebrew renders this term thusly: to deride, to despise, to reject with contempt and derision. It is almost impossible to think of anyone intentionally, consciously treating God in this manner. However, this is exactly how God perceived the Israelites’ response.

Let’s see if we can summarize this situation and ascertain its significance for our discipline of confession today. God acted upon his eternal desire to form a people whom he would fill with his very presence by calling Abraham. From Abraham God amassed a people for himself shaping and refining them in the fires of affliction (Egypt) and ultimately delivering them through miraculous deeds. God made known his purpose to Israel of dwelling among them as his special people to whom he would provide an inheritance known as the Promised Land. At the border of the Promised Land and in light of the spies’ unfaithful report, the Israelites treated God with contempt, derision, perversion, obstinate disobedience, sedition and dispisableness. For these responses, for their refusal to enter the Promised Land, for their failure to believe and trust God, for their outrageous impugnment of the character of God, the people were disinherited and condemned to wander in the wilderness until all those over the age of twenty had died off. It would be hard to imagine a more final and ultimate punishment than to be cut off from God’s eternal intent and design to be filled with the fullness of his life with all of the ramifications appertaining thereto.

God’s ultimate intention has never changed or wavered. Being filled with the fullness of Christ, being conformed to his image, growing up into the full stature of Christ still remains Father God’s eternal desire and focus for our lives. Although there are myriad ways in which we can sin—far short of the glory of God—there is none more eternally fatal than refusing God’s overtures to bring us into the same relationship with himself that he enjoys with his only Son, Jesus. In determining the deepest egregiousness of sin, all one need do is ascertain to what degree a behavior, belief or attitude deters or precludes one’s progression into the fullness of Christ—the Promised Land.

Confessing our faults one to another is fully meant to help us discover and rectify the things in our lives that interdict God’s eternal work of taking his rightful place on the throne of our hearts. The consequences of not doing so are too monumental to contemplate. Working out the particulars of how confession is practiced in one’s life is mostly a personal matter. It is time to focus on that which is truly eternal, set our pride aside and cooperate with the eternal heart of almighty God.

Dr. F. Stoner Clark

An Inconvenient Reality

As the women were on their way, some of the guards went into the city and told the leading priests what had happened. A meeting with the elders was called, and they decided to give the soldiers a large bribe. They told the soldiers, “You must say, ‘Jesus’ disciples came during the night while we were sleeping, and they stole his body.’ If the governor hears about it, we’ll stand up for you so you won’t get in trouble.” So the guards accepted the bribe and said what they were told to say. Their story spread widely among the Jews, and they still tell it today.

                                                                                       Matthew 28:11-15 NLT

What do you do when the truth no longer fits the narrative you’ve been supporting? What do you do when you have been patting a story on its head for years—purporting to represent the truth—and evidence arises that completely dispels what you held to be reality? These indeed are the circumstances the chief priests and elders found themselves in following Jesus’ literal physical resurrection from the dead. These Jewish leaders had been standing against prophecy-based truth regarding Jesus from the inception of his miraculous ministry. Jesus’ ways and teachings just didn’t fit into the religious structure they had developed.

Now they were in an absolute dilemma utterly confronted with incontrovertible facts contrary to the narrative they had been patting. It is interesting to note that these Jewish leaders were at the point of ultimate decision in how they dealt with the truth regarding Jesus. This could have been a time of conviction, a time of repentance and turning. Instead they chose to perpetuate the lie even compounding it further by adding preposterous exclamations. Can you imagine a soldier admitting to his superiors that he was asleep on guard duty? Further, there would be the question as to why—once the guards became aware of the disciples’ intent—they didn’t do something to thwart their efforts. I can imagine the bribe paid by the Jewish leaders must have been significant considering how it had to offset the incredible experience just encountered by the soldiers as well as the charges of dereliction of duty they would face before their superiors.

Have you ever considered that the scenario just reflected on is still being—in principle—worked out through the church? Is it possible we could be practicing the faith today in ways that are in fact in denial of absolute biblical truth? If this were in fact true we would find ourselves embarrassingly in the same untenable position occupied by the Jewish elders of Jesus’ day. If this were true, we would—spiritually speaking—be shooting ourselves in the foot in terms of forfeiting eternal rewards.

How did the Jewish leaders of Jesus’ day arrive at a point in their religious experience wherein they could literally reject the very one all Scripture pointed to as the coming Messiah? At risk of oversimplifying I would suggest that somewhere along the path of their spiritual journey they forgot that everything God gave them in their religious order was meant to announce Jesus. In doing so they began to make it more about themselves than about God. Everything God gave Israel in terms of the feasts, sacrifice, priesthood, the temple, etc. was intended to point to and proclaim the coming Messiah.

Once they started down this road another misleading dynamic came into play. The people began to rely more and more on dogmatism for truth rather than revelation. That is, there began to be an unqualified acceptance of the religious teachings of the elders without questioning and investigating rather than seeking to know truth by revelation based on one’s personal relationship with God. We see an example of this kind of behavior in Acts where Paul’s ministry in Thessalonica is interdicted by unruly Jews who thoughtlessly followed their leaders without thinking things through for themselves. Paul then moves on to Berea where he is met with an entirely different response.

 These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so (Acts 17:11 NKJV).

How refreshing to see how at least some of the Bereans chose to verify what they were hearing by appealing to Scripture for themselves. Now, I am not suggesting that church leaders today are intentionally misconstruing the truth thereby leading the masses of believers astray. However, we have inherited a unquestionably unbiblical church structure that necessarily discourages individual believers from sorting out truth for themselves.

The unbiblical structure to which I refer is the dichotomy or clergy and laity practiced by most Protestant churches today. Few believers today question or challenge this false hegemony. Most behave as if this bifurcation of leadership and ministry functions existed from the church’s inception. If not that, they see this unholy division as an improvement over what the pristine church practiced for over three hundred years. When comparing how effectively the early church propagated the Gospel throughout the known world with the missional ineptness and basic irrelevancy of the church today, it seems incredible that we could believe we have improved on what they did.

The truth is there was no clergy/laity division in the church throughout most of the first four centuries of its existence. This was mostly true because from the beginning believers were taught that the church constituted a kingdom of priests. In other words, each and every believer was encouraged and challenged to discover his particular gifting and calling in the body of Christ. Early Christians felt a unique sense of responsibility to bring something of the life of Christ to the other believers each time they gathered. By creating a distinctive class of professional ministers the church has effectively disenfranchised believers from their individual calling, ordination and gifting. This action basically nullified the priesthood of believers so adamantly taught in Scripture.   

 And you are living stones that God is building into his spiritual temple. What’s more, you are his holy priests. Through the mediation of Jesus Christ, you offer spiritual sacrifices that please God…But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light (1Pe 2:5,9).

How many Christians do you know today that have an abiding sense of their gifting, calling and ordination coupled with a profound sense of responsibility to personally bring equipping ministry to the body of Christ? On the other hand, how many do you know that feel themselves to be part of a spiritually subservient class of believers incapable of doing ministry summarily relegated to the professional clergy? Given these conditions, the loss of authentic ministry in and through the body of Christ is inestimable. By tacitly accepting the clergy/laity fraud, we have fundamentally crippled the spirituality and effectiveness of the church.

The truth is that the Holy Spirit can exercise God’s ministry through any committed believer regardless of background, education, experience or status in life. The greatest qualification for being a ministering servant of Christ is not seminary training and denominational ordination. It is one’s absolute surrender to Christ accompanied with the willingness to be conformed to his image. In this spiritual state God can mold and use us as vessels unto honor in a great house.

From the Old Testament types and shadows to the origins of the church in the first century God has always intended to express himself through all his people. How long will we continue disavowing biblical truth, denying the priesthood of believers and forfeiting the best God has to offer for building up the body of Christ and taking a compelling Gospel to a lost world? The answer lies within each of our hearts as we consider our response in the face of biblical truth. Will we continue to pat a false narrative on the head and remain spiritually listless or will we repent and like Paul choose to be everything in Christ he died for us to be?

F. Stoner Clark - January 26, 2016

The Imperativeness of the Church

There is a question—the asking of which—has been growing in frequency over the past few years and is deserving of serious consideration. Many sincere believers are in increasing measure pondering the relevancy and legitimacy of the church. The dropout rate of most denominations today is or should be sobering. Among evangelical and mainline churches today we are seeing a 70% dropout rate of young people. Consider the following survey result as reported by USA Today:

 Seven in 10 Protestants ages 18 to 30 — both evangelical and mainline — who went to church regularly in high school said they quit attending by age 23, according to the survey by LifeWay Research. And 34% of those said they had not returned, even sporadically, by age 30. That means about one in four Protestant young people have left the church.

I realize that one survey doesn’t tell the whole story. One of the considerations in this instance is the attendance or membership behavior of those dropping out. Obviously many of those who leave also return to the church sometime later so for them this would constitute more of a hiatus from the church rather than a true dropout. A term popularized by Mark Twain—among others—categorizes how many of us respond when offered statistical evidence for an argument—“There are lies, damn lies and statistics.”

Although we may differ in what we believe concerning the exact numbers, few church-going believers today would argue against the fact that there is definitely a breach in the dam with respect to church attendance and membership. That the preponderance of this leak is among our young people is also almost universally agreed to. If the future of the church is in the younger generation, the church’s future is certainly looking somewhat bleak.

Another interesting aspect of the church’s numerical loss is the fact that it represents more of a rejection of the institutional nature of the church itself rather than a rejection of the Christian faith. Most of those leaving the church still believe in God and confess Christ as their savior. The tragedy here is in so many failing to recognize the imperativeness of the church for a believer’s attainment of the full stature life in Christ. Salvation isn’t about avoiding hell and gaining heaven. It is all about being conformed to the image of Christ. Jesus didn’t die—taking upon himself the penalty of our sin—just to ensure our entrance to heaven. He died that we might come into eternally the same relationship with the Father that he has always enjoyed. Jesus died that the Father might have what he has from eternity past always desired—many sons and daughters just like Jesus.

The fact that so many believers today fail to comprehend God’s ultimate intention through Christ is an indictment of the church’s enormous failure to proclaim the full gospel. When the church presents the salvation experience as an end rather than as one’s commencement of a journey leading to the full stature life in Christ, it is proclaiming a false gospel. As a result we see many sincere followers of Christ falling away from the church with a false sense of security believing they can continue in a legitimate relationship with God sans the church. The fact is God created us in a manner that our spiritual maturation absolutely depends on our righteous relationship with the body of Christ. If we believe that we are going to fulfill God’s eternal design for us without the church, we are woefully deceived. Even as I write these words I am painfully aware that much of what passes for church today is far from God’s intentions for it. That fact notwithstanding, we are not relieved of our responsibility to become part of the company of the committed.

We are not going to be able to stand before God in that Day of Judgment and excuse our failure to live out the transformational life in Christ through the body. If you are part of a fellowship which fails to proclaim a full gospel and teach the true biblical realities of the body of Christ, then find one that does. If you can’t find an authentic New Testament church then join with others of like mind and become the church. For additional help in understanding the true nature of the church please see my articles at www.http://hispresenceonline.org entitled “How Do You Spell Chruch?” To gain a greater perspective on becoming the church you should read The Last Church Standing: Becoming the Church Jesus is Coming For, also available from the above listed site.

Becoming the church doesn’t take a building, an ordained seminary trained pastor, a denominational connection, or a large group of people. Jesus defined the church as “two or more gathered in his name…” Becoming the church simply requires two or more dying-to-self, surrendered, accountable and committed followers of Jesus who are willing to walk out the transformational life in Christ allowing the Holy Spirit to flow through them.

Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ (Eph 4:11-13 NLT).

This passage from Paul’s letter to the church at Ephesus is pregnant with understanding of the church. God has provided specific ministry designed to equip all believers for their principal work in the church. That work is unmistakably a mutual ministry of edification, of building up one another toward the end that all believers would come into the full stature life in Christ. This is what satisfies God’s eternal desire to have a family of mature sons and daughters just like Jesus. God called the church into existence for this very reason. Additionally, as this process is in progress the church itself becomes a testimony to a lost world of God’s greatness and glory.

Only in committed, accountable, transparent and serving relationships will persons experience the transforming life of Christ. The principle of the cross is wonderfully worked out through these voluntary relationships. I say voluntary because it is not a matter of law or doctrine. We give ourselves willingly to our heavenly Father to become his workmanship in Christ Jesus. Hopefully we do this that God might have the mature family he desires for himself. The church is not some antiseptic environment where everything is peaches and cream. It is populated with persons with all the typical hang-ups, problems and sins found in any other grouping of people. The distinguishing characteristic of the church that differentiates it from all other social groupings is the commitment of the believers to exercise repentance, forgiveness and unconditional love while pursuing the full stature life in Christ. An authentic church has no back door. When strife or problems arise, the commitment is always to find God’s redemptive way through them unto building one another up in Christ. The authentic church comprehends and practices the priesthood of all believers. True followers of Christ responsibly accept their active role as ministers within the body of Christ.

Community has always been God’s’ modus operandi for implementing his purpose. From the inception of the nation Israel with the calling of Abraham, it was always God’s intention to create a community of the faithful who would reflect his life to a fallen world. When Israel miserably failed in their faith and obedience on the threshold of the Promised Land, God threatened to wipe them out. However, in the same breathe he also committed to start all over again rebuilding a community through whom he would express himself to a fallen world.

I will disown them and destroy them with a plague. Then I will make you into a nation greater and mightier than they are! (Num 14:12 NLT).

 The Old Testament nation of Israel serves as a prophetic type of the church we have been called to be today. We see in Israel’s history—their deliverance from Egypt, their Red Sea baptism and their entering of the Promised Land—the major stages of a believer’s transformational walk in Christ. Reflected in these events are the spiritual types and shadows of salvation, Holy Spirit baptism and the full stature life. God made it clear to Israel that their deliverance from Egyptian bondage was for the purpose of entering Canaan. God said, “I brought you out to take you in.” The goal here was never simply deliverance from bondage but rather the acquisition of Canaan. This is why their rebellion at the border of the Promised Land was so egregious. These stages are also clearly reflected in the major feasts of Israel—Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles.

The church is God’s milieu for perfecting his saints. No one is going to achieve conformity to the image of Christ apart from a righteous integration in the body of Christ. Growing up into the full stature of Christ is our Promised Land. Embracing salvation through Christ while eschewing conformity to his image is tantamount to denying God his eternal purpose with man. It is a self-centered, self-aggrandizing soteriology. It’s the classic “Field of Dreams” mindset, “What’s in it for me?” The decision many followers today should be considering is not what church to join but how to become the church Jesus is coming for.  

Dr. F. Stoner Clark

The Necessity of Community by F. Stoner Clark

We need to consider the reality of community in our efforts to bring a Christian perspective to prepping. If prepping per se is consistent with the life of faith we have been called to in Christ, then community must play a significant role in how this would play out in the process. If community appertains to the Christian life in general, than it must follow that it also would be germane to one’s preparations in thwarting those unwanted and unintended consequences so inevitable in life.

It should be understood from the outset that the sense of community being addressed here is far more than the basic understanding of a group of people living in the same area. What we are concerned with here is the nature or character of those persons living in the same area with respect to their interpersonal relationships, commitments and shared values. As a nation, we have grown increasingly socially distant and detached from one another to the extent that persons can reside in the same neighborhoods for years without developing significant contact and relationships with their neighbors. Even the architecture of homes reflects this trend as houses once built with front porches are now mostly constructed with private rear decks instead. I grew up in a wonderful home that had no welcoming front porch but rather an extensive rear patio and back yard. We had very little contact with our neighbors, but it was completely different when we visited my grandparents in their old home in Altoona, PA. I still remember the times of warm fellowship enjoyed during those visits where daily gatherings of friends and neighbors on their front porch fostered the sense of community our present day society has forfeited.

Meaningful community, the kind that is constituted by intentional relationships and interactive lives, does not come about naturally but must be purposefully cultivated. This type of community starts when persons living in proximity to one another realize the value of interdependent living. It starts with the recognition that there will be times when well meaning, productive and basically self-sufficient people will need the encouragement and help of their neighbors. The constituents of this type of community are committed to always doing what they can for themselves while having the humility to seek outside support when necessary.  

If truly biblical principles relating to Christian community were exercised, we would no doubt experience a utopian society. It is interesting that the definition for “utopia” refers to an imaginary place in which the government, laws, and social conditions are perfect. It comes from the Greek ou topos which literally means “not a place.” The word was originally coined by Sir Thomas Moore in the 16^th century when he wrote a fictional work depicting the perfect society. In truth, the church properly realized would be authentic utopia. However, this level of perfected community can only be achieved when truly regenerated persons consistently live by the principle of the cross in their daily lives. When we choose to die to our own self-serving wants, needs, aspirations and appetites opting to serve first the purposes of God, authentic relationships become a reality thus allowing the creation of bona fide community.

It is dismaying that so much of what defines our culture literally mitigates against meaningful relationships and genuine community. The nature of community in America was very much altered through our transition from a principally agrarian society to one that was mostly industrial and technological in essence. Consider how socializing in general, the kind of games people used to play and what used to constitute entertainment has transmogrified from relational in nature to non-relational. With the advent of video games and smart phones we began to raise generations of youth totally lacking in social graces and skills. The extent to which this transition has influenced our relational behavior is epitomized by young people who prefer impersonal texting to the more relational act of conversing on the phone.

Another factor in the disruption and decay of meaningful community is the government’s obvious efforts to create an ever increasing class of citizens whose primary dependency is in government subsistence. More and more people are encouraged to look to and seek assistance from government generated programs. This is not happening casually but rather is an intentional and calculated nefarious attempt of the government to create a dependent class of society which looks to it as its savior. The ultimate intent here is governmental control over every aspect of one’s life. The level of government intrusion, surveillance and control in the lives of Americans today with the commensurate loss of freedom is unprecedented in the history of our nation.

It has always been God’s intent that we care for, look after and help one another. As part of this being the reality of life together, the building of authentic relationships has been a major factor in the equation. The better we know, appreciate and love one another, the more apt we are to look to one another in times of need. Remember, the more we honor and serve one another in the daily give and take of life, the more God is manifested and glorified in the midst.

Patrice Lewis shares her perspective following an unsolicited inquiry from a social worker on the occasion of the birth of their first child. The social worker all but demanded opportunity to come into their home to teach Patrice methods of proper parenting.

This brief experience cemented my husband’s and my desire to never, ever request government assistance. We live with the mantra of LEAVE US ALONE when it comes to busybodies. When we need help – and of course there are times we do – we seek first the assistance of family, then friends, then church, then community. In that order (wnd.com/2015/01/leave-us-alone).

Notice the tier of support illustrated here that follows one’s efforts to practice independence from false solutions and applying personal industry—family, friends, church, community. Of course there would naturally be a certain amount of overlapping of individuals within these various delineations, but one common denominator would be true of all—the intentional development of meaningful relationships.

We can learn much of true community from biblical precedents and teaching. I believe God created us as relational souls meant to discover a certain symbiosis in our relationships. He never intended that we become completely self-sufficient, self-contained independent monoliths. There are aspects of our personalities that can only be fully realized in the context of community. God always intended that we release something of his life to one another in social interaction thus calling one another more into his likeness. I am not suggesting here that we should not first attempt to fend for ourselves. However, we should also have the temerity and humility to seek assistance when our knowledge and skills fall short of what might be needed.

The first evidence of community we see in Scripture is in the creation story of Genesis when God states:

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth” (Gen 1:26 NKJV).

 In this passage we actually have two references to community. The first reflects the plurality of God’s persona in the Trinity as he refers to man being made in “our image,” and the second incident is seen in the use of “man” as humankind when God says “let them have dominion over all the earth...” In the very mystery of the Trinity we have an expression of biblical community, a grouping of “persons” living out their respective callings in concert with one another. In referring to man as humankind God was stipulating he was creating a community of persons. Given that he later declared his desire to dwell among his created ones, it seems logical to believe that men should also be together as living out their respective callings in concert as evidence of being created in God’s image. 

Probably the second greatest example of biblical community is found in the calling of Abram and the working out of God’s promise to him as expressed in the following passage:

And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: (Gen 12:2 KJV).

It is obvious that God was not just calling a man but a community into existence with the full intent of inhabiting that community with his presence. When the Lord told Moses to instruct the people to build him a tabernacle that he might dwell among them, he was prefiguring the body of Christ.

Have the people of Israel build me a holy sanctuary so I can live among them (Ex 25:8 NLT).

God’s intention has always been a people through whom he might manifest his glorious presence in a manner that redounded to their blessing and beyond them to all others. This is clarified even further as God declared:

I will dwell among the children of Israel and will be their God. And they shall know that I am the LORD their God, who brought them up out of the land of Egypt, that I may dwell among them. I am the LORD their God (Ex 29:44, 45 NKJV).

Israel’s deliverance from Egypt is nearly universally accepted among Christians as an Old Testament type of salvation. This passage reveals that God’s intent in bringing about salvation was to dwell among his people. Jesus lent credence to the same theology when he said he would be present wherever two or more were gathered in his name. One of the most profound ministries of the Holy Spirit is that of forming believers together as a habitation for God. Peter explained this phenomenon in terms of living stones being fitted together for a dwelling place for God.

And you are living stones that God is building into his spiritual temple (1 Pe 2:5 NLT).

The church isn’t defined by buildings, programs, denominations, etc.; it is defined by the presence of God among those who are allowing him to form them into that spiritual tabernacle. That tabernacle is an incarnational community devoted to making Christ known in all their ways. It is this sense of community that must also be captured in our pursuit of Holy Spirit-led preparations.

I am not suggesting here that we should go out and attempt to transform our respective geographic communities into something replicating biblical community. However, the principles governing Christian community can greatly serve the best interests of any group of people sharing a common locale. This is particularly germane with respect to the kinds of societal disruptions looming in the near future for America. When the disruptions come, we want to hopefully be positioned to thwart unwanted and unintended consequences. In a very real sense this is how we give a good account for ourselves much like in Jesus’ parable of the talents. In financial accounting, there are two sides to the typical ledger. One side is called assets and the other side liabilities. How we respond to the opportunities given us to prepare in advance will determine which side of the ledger we end up on.

Part of our motivation for choosing to be on the asset side of the page is that we might be situated to help others who were unable to help themselves. This aspect of prepping is quite parallel with why members of the body of Christ gather in his name. Although the church gathers biblically for multiple reasons, one of the most significant is so that those gathering might bring something of Christ’s healing, shaping presence to one another. Paul asserted as much in his instructions to the church at Corinth.

What is the outcome then, brethren? When you assemble, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification (1 Cor 14:26 NASV).

The practical implications of this passage can easily be transferred to a secular community of persons who understand the necessity of standing together and taking advantage of the multiplicity of resources available within the community.

Given our discussion of community thus far, what would be the take-a-ways we might want to exploit in terms of Holy Spirit led prepping in our own communities? This process must begin with an inner belief that one’s best hope for surviving and overcoming what is coming is through cooperation and mutual support with others of similar mindset. I know there are some persons out there who have the requisite skills and resources to go it alone, but the average person simply does not. The lone wolf paradigm for survival has a certain romantic appeal and probably touches something deeply adventurous in us, but for most of us this direction would best be left in the dimension of our dreams. For the greater majority, the most pragmatic approach is in building authentic community out of which shared knowledge and resources will provide the optimum opportunity for success for all involved.

The first and most essential question that must be answered is whether or not real community exists within one’s personal geographical location. Do you have authentic community with persons within, for example, a mile each direction of where you live? If so, do these persons share similar understandings with regard to the need to prepare for any number of potential societal disruptions? Are these persons committed to standing together in mutual support, protection and care for one another? If this kind of community does not exist for you, what are you willing to do to help build true community among your neighbors?

My wife and I have lived in numerous small towns and rural communities over many years of marriage and we know well the reality of the insider/outsider demarcation. If you are not born into a multi-generational family situation, you are basically considered persona non grata in most small town scenarios. We once served as pastors for seven years in a rural Indiana town of 600 persons and were still considered outsiders when we left. However, when we bought our most recent home on the side of a mountain in the Finger Lakes area of NYS, we employed a different tactic toward breaking relationally into the immediate community. Number one, we began to pray for our neighbors. Secondly, we started inviting them over socially to our home. Although responses varied—from one family who didn’t even want to come into our home to others who graciously reciprocated—the overall results were very gratifying. One of our neighbors—a multi-generational farmer whose land surrounds our property on three sides—wonderfully embraced us into the community. Additionally, they have opened their wooded acreage to me for the cutting of firewood.

I am going to assume for the sake of our discussion here that most readers are not presently experiencing the degree of community necessary to constitute reliable levels of mutual support. The goal here is not to define some finite plan wherein each participant is assigned distinct responsibilities. When you begin to develop the “prepping community,” you will discover that there will not be absolute agreement on many aspects of what that community should be. This is simply a manifestation of typical human behavior and should not be seen as a negative factor in your efforts. The key to developing the prepping community is in realizing that the backbone of the community is relationships! The primary emphasis and focus must be on building up meaningful relationships within the community. It is out of these relationships that various community prepping skills and resources will develop. Without the foundation of authentic relationships, there will be little hope of developing a substantial and lasting community preparation for what is coming.

Building relationships within your community is not a difficult task—it simply takes the investment of a little organization and time. All you need to do is create a safe environment where persons can come together naturally and grow more and more into one another’s lives. I would suggest starting with some purely social events—such as summer cookouts where everyone contributes something—where the only agenda is enjoying one another. The development of authentic relationships which eventually redound to mutual commitment usually passes through numerous phases. These phases might look something like this:

·         Individuals share knowledge of self with one another

·         Appreciation of others’ differences grows

·         Admiration for one another develops

·         Fears and defensive walls break down

·         Mutual trust arises

·         Increasing transparency in sharing one’s life

·         Sense of accountability toward others grows

·         Willingness to commit to one another’s well-being  

The development of authentic community should always be a natural and unforced process. Bringing people together in a safe environment in pursuit of common goals will naturally lead to ever-deepening relationships.

Once neighbors are comfortable with one another you can begin to call them together in a home over coffee to start addressing the whole issue of community and prepping. Keep in mind that you will probably experience fairly divergent points of view in the initial meetings. It is likely that very few in the gathering would already have seriously contemplated personal prepping let alone given consideration to any community aspects. We should accept this as normal and avoid the temptation to move the agenda forward too quickly. You are seeking to discover the common denominator in your group and working to exploit that for the common good. The common denominator is basically what everyone can pretty much agree on from the outset. The pace at which you can expect to progress is going to be determined by the level of readiness or willingness to address community prepping in the group as a whole. Bear in mind that this is just a starting point and that as persons become more informed and knowledgeable about prepping they will increasingly embrace more of the program naturally.

Although we are talking about a secular endeavor here, the biblical parallels are numerous and can be exploited to the benefit of all concerned. There is a lot of wisdom in applying Christian principles absent the religious language that tends to turn off non-believers. For example, the Apostle Paul encouraged every member of the body, when gathered as the church, to bring something of their Holy Spirit endowment in ministry to the other members. In considering the community aspect of prepping, the same principle is applicable. Everyone has different talents, strengths, abilities, knowledge, skills, motivations and resources. By identifying and quantifying the sum total of what everyone is bringing to the game, you can help ensure no one goes unprepared because they didn’t personally possess the needed goods. For example, one may have the knowledge and ability to develop natural springs for a backup source of unadulterated water. Another might be able to train others in hunting skills along with the related talent to dress and preserve wild game. Still others might have tillable ground capable of growing enough food for the entire community. Yet someone else could teach the skills of canning and preserving food. Personally, I have the ability and essential equipment to go into the woods and cut, split and bring in firewood.

Another essential aspect of prepping which is not particularly limited to community has to do with being able to buy and sell following the collapse of our monetary system. It isn’t really possible to predict exactly what this condition would look like, but being prepared to counter its affects would go a long way toward making one’s life much more bearable in the interim. The answer to this scenario is in having the ability to barter. The ability to barter has everything to do with the storing up—during times of plenty—of the kinds of goods that you would never want to be without and most other people would be in short supply of. Examples of these kinds of goods could be bath soap, toothpaste, toilet paper, laundry detergent, various calibers of ammunition, etc. Something as simple as a bar of bath soap could be invaluable as a trade when most other people completely run out. In terms of storing up specifically for the purpose of bartering, I would recommend items which are stable and have virtually unending shelf life. 

I cannot over emphasize the necessity of proceeding at a reasonable and measured pace in one’s attempts to develop authentic community. If you anticipate being a leader within your community, you must be able to establish credibility in the eyes of others. If others perceive you as some sort of radical or conspiracy theorist, they are not apt to lend credence to your wisdom and proffered direction. Calling together the members of one’s community and blindsiding them with doomsday scenarios would probably result in this meeting being the first and the last.

Our starting point must include some honest assumptions. The first assumption should be an honest assessment of the level and source of information that most people are operating from. It is fairly safe to assume that most are getting their news from the mainstream media and are therefore forming their perceptions out of a pool of misinformation, false information and outright deception. Most persons do not respond well to being told they have been horribly deceived and don’t really know what’s going on. If you are going to have any chance of winning the minds and hearts of others over to the truth, you will most likely have to work your way incrementally toward it.

A lesson from logic can go a long way in encouraging our approach to leading others into a more informed state. In logic, reasoning is often referred to as being either inductive or deductive in kind. Deductive reasoning tends to start with the particulars and progress toward the general. In terms of making an argument, it would mean basically stating what one believes to be the absolute truth of something and then developing a case for that. On the other hand, an inductive argument would start with that which is general in nature and progress toward a theorized conclusion. Part of the value in taking an inductive approach to presenting new arguments is in allowing persons to come to their own conclusions based on the evidence being presented. It tends to avoid crystallized, black and white thinking and has the advantage of ending up with persons being convicted of truth through their own thought processes.

One more suggestion—which I believe would be helpful in one’s efforts to develop meaningful community in preparation for societal disruption—would be to help the persons you are working with adopt a meaningful and legitimate worldview. This effort could pay significant dividends in helping to bring greater congruency of perspective within the community. Although the average person may not be able to readily articulate his worldview, it nevertheless likely exists. One’s worldview is simply the beliefs, values and understandings that make up the perceptual prism through which situations and conditions are evaluated and addressed. It is what shapes one’s perspective on all life interactions. The more persons hold to a similar worldview, the more they are apt to respond to any given scenario in a predictable and similar manner.

According to the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life (2007), 78.4% of Americans claim Christianity as their religion. Regardless of how actively persons in this survey participate in or practice their religion, they undoubtedly hold some very fundamental precepts of the faith in common. Applying this knowledge to our efforts to build community means we could probably coalesce and refine the respective worldviews within truly Christian parameters. Helping others to perceive and respond to world conditions in light of God’s eternal order and purpose will greatly facilitate building a congenial and relational community. In guiding discussions involving Christian precepts among persons of diverse religious backgrounds, it is usually helpful to screen out arguments based in denominational dogma and distinctives.

If you take the time to develop a community of persons—utterly convinced by their own reasoning of the true moral, monetary and geopolitical condition of the world—you will have the makings of a committed, supportive fellowship of persons with whom to stand when the day of reckoning comes. The potential of just such a community will be well worth the time and effort of nurturing it into existence.

One final thought with respect to community. As a Christian committed to developing a prepping community one can easily find the process confusing. This is due to a blurring of the lines differentiating the church and secular communities. It is always our hope that everyone we deal with would come into the saving knowledge of Christ. However, in developing one’s prepping community it could be counterproductive to attempt to make Christianity a qualifying factor for inclusion. This does not mean that certain Christian principles and practices could not be incorporated in the process when exercised in wisdom under the auspices of the Holy Spirit. After the community progresses to a comfortable level of camaraderie and acceptance, it may be very natural to incorporate prayer in the meetings. Given that 4/5’s of the people in America confess to some kind of belief in God, seeking his counsel and wisdom in your efforts would probably not be repugnant to most in the group.

Not wanting to add additional confusion to the point, I do want to mention something wonderful I believe God is going to be doing in these last days that could appear as a parallel activity to anyone involved in building up a prepping community. Remember that from the beginning churches were defined by their geographical locations and not by denominational or doctrinal differences. Entering any given locale, there would be only one church although persons belonging to the church of that place could be meeting in many different locations throughout the town. By now we understand that clinging to any denominational distinctives which serve to differentiate and divide one church from another is an untenable position. Jesus is not coming back for many different churches but for the church, his bride.

Understanding this, we should be able to accept that prior to Christ’s return, there must be a reclaiming of authentic Christianity faithfully expressed throughout the one true church of Jesus Christ. If this is true—and I believe it with every fiber of my being—we are going to experience the Lord reconstituting his church after the heavenly pattern. Believers whose lives are truly yielded to God—from every Christian persuasion and walk—are going to be challenged to relinquish every false, unbiblical belief, doctrine and practice and embrace the ultimate truth God will reveal to them.

This will necessitate barbequing a lot of sacred cows. Many of us are going to have to rethink how we are defining the church and doing ministry. A lot of our differentiating beliefs are going to be challenged. Most Christians tend to be quite proud and defensive of their particular fellowship or church. Few really think through the very aspects of their church which preclude their fellowship in the Spirit with other believers. If we are unwilling to follow Paul’s admonition to “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith,” we will risk forfeiting something of the fullness of God’s kingdom. Consider the following suggested list of defining characteristics which are going to be challenged as God reconstitutes his church in these last days:

·         The church meets in a “church” building with a name

·         Identifying the church by any means other than its locale

·         Affiliating with a denomination or grouped with other fellowships under some defined organizational structure

·         Embracing a hierarchical leadership structure

·          Upholding the clergy/laity dichotomy

·         Embracing doctrines which preclude fellowship with other true believers

·         Treating biblical descriptors such as pastor, elder, bishop, etc. as titles and positions versus ministries and spiritual motivations

All of the things in the above list came into existence 400 or more years after the birth of the church. All of it tended to bring division into the church as well as disenfranchise the priesthood of believers from their biblical ordination. The church Jesus is returning for must look and function like what the Bible describes.

Considering our desire and effort to develop a prepper community, I can easily conceive of what may have begun with that intention may well become by God’s grace and nurturing a fresh expression of the last day’s church.