Love it or leave it?

Disclaimer first: this is not, NOT, NOT a political post.  All in?  Lovely.  Let's proceed.

i met John Ruiz and heard about DTY (Die To Yourself for the uninitiated) on the same day.  Which is only notable because DTY did not yet exist.  It was an idea bouncing around the fertile mind of John even then.  A place where Christ loving guys, church going guys, could get together and be ...guys.  But not just guys.  REAL men.  Men who were, above all else, honest about the messiness of their lives with each other.  But not just honest, messy men wallowing in self-pity like some kinda group therapy their wives made them go to, but honest, messy men in search of a real relationship with Christ and therefore--because how could they not--be in real relationship with each other.  "Would you go to something like that?" John asked me.  Would i?  Heck yeah, i would!

And i did.  And so did many of you.  And it was revolutionary.  i don't use that word lightly.  i was ready to leave this church.  i was disgruntled and disaffected.  i didn't know half of you half as well as i would like and liked less than half of you half as well as you deserved.  It is easy for church to be about you when you don't love anyone else but yourself.  That's not to say that i wouldn't have missed many of you, i had made a few friends but i no longer had a reason to stay.

The church was not my family.  It was not a place i belonged.  It was just a church.  There are many like it.  And this one did not feel like mine.

DTY changed all that.  From its inception it was more than a Bible Study, more than a fellowship time, more than a prayer meeting, more than a vehicle for social-justice work.  It was all of them.  As much as it was born from Ruiz' dynamism and fed off his charisma as many movements do, it was obvious God was doing something through him and the other leadership, Josh, Matt, Matt, Martin, Grayter, Dave and the others, through DTY and in us and desired to do something through us: to build a family of brothers. 

To build His Church. 

Brokeness could meet healing.  Isolation could meet brotherhood.  The unknown could be known.  Needs could be met or if not met, at least prayed over.  Sins confessed.  All the things i'd read about in the Word, the people of God becoming the hands and feet and mouth and ears of Christ, all the things i'd thought a church was or should be, seemed to be coming to fruition in DTY, in this messy little group of men.  Lives being changed.  The church being changed.  When Christian men lead as Christ has commanded us to, God does some cool stuff! 

But time passes.  Things change.  Ideas become institutions.  Movements become monuments.  Fires burn out.  Church plants become generational churches.  Exciting, challenging, groups become clubs.  The life cycle goes on, Spring becomes Fall, birth-death-rebirth.  God has His plan and it is good and it is best.  But we temporal creatures still mourn a loss.  We are right to lament.  We are right to cry out to YHWH when He strikes the shepherd and the sheep are scattered.  We are right to cry out to Him when we feel the gears slipping and grinding to a slower and slower rhythm.  We are right to fight against complacency and apathy and isolationism and self-centeredness and selfishness and greed and unforgiveness and busyness and pride and all the enemies of love the devil will throw at God's work, God's church, God's people!  And trust me, the devil has come down to make war against the children of the woman, the Bride of Christ is touchable and the serpent hates us.  Hates the image we bear so much more clearly when we are obeying Christ and loving as He does and working for his Kingdom.  The mere act of standing up makes us better targets.  Much easier to hide in a pew, safely separated so one wicked grenade can't take out the whole group. 

i don't know if DTY has had its day, completed the mission it was born for and now is making way for something new or if its just going through growing pains or metamorphosis... or if it's dying a premature death.  i don't know if God will raise up another charismatic visionary to lead it.  i do know that it still has much to offer, no matter what it is and God has, is and will do great things through it.  That we are better for it having existed, for the time we've spent in it and being it.  That i know many more of you now half as much as i'd like to know you and like more than half of you half as much you deserve because of it.  That i thank God for it and for you and that i look forward to seeing you there! Because i love God and so i love his Bride, his Church, DTY, you. 

YHWH bless us and keep us.
YHWH smile upon us and be gracious to us.
YHWH turn his whole attention to us and give us peace.