The Earth Commitment
I AM GOD’S EARTH:
God is creating me. I started as dust, but I’m becoming like Jesus. I rejoice in trials and hardships because Christ suffered for me, and I am a living sacrifice transformed by the truths of God. Rom 8:29 (Rom 12:1-2 :: Gen 1:27, 2:7 :: 2 Cor 4:7-10)
Specifically, I will pursue opportunities for spiritual growth. I will root out sin in my life through regular self-examination and confession of sin both to God and to accountability partners, and in all areas of uncertainty, I will submit first to the clear teaching of the Bible, then to the leaders God has placed over me, and finally, after prayer, to my own conscience.
I always like to talk about the Earth Commitment second because it is the perfect follow-up to the Air Commitment. When God created Adam, he took the dust of the ground and formed it into a man and breathed his breath into that dust and made it a living being.
I am regularly amazed that humanity is intrinsically dirt.
I am also amazed that God never intended for us to be dirt.
I am also amazed that whenever God’s hands get on me and his breath gets in me, I become miracle dirt!
The nature of this commitment is simultaneously humbling (without God, I’m nothing but dirt) and empowering (with God at work in me, I am a walking miracle)!
However, the nature of this commitment is that it is also very, very difficult. The pages of the Bible are filled with stories of faithful worshippers of God who are taken through difficult times because God is still in the process of creating them into who they are supposed to be.
Nowhere is this more clear than in the letter of James, the half-brother of Jesus, who said this:
(2) Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, (3) because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. (4) Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. — James 1:2-4 NIV
The maturity that God wants to bring into our lives is a maturity that comes on the back end of endurance!
Jesus actually taught that long before James when he told his followers the story we know as the Parable of the Sower. During the story, Jesus describes a number of different kinds of soils and the fact that for one reason or another, none of them produced a good crop, but about the final soil, the good soil, he says this:
(15) But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop. — Luke 8:15 NIV
The fruit comes after perseverance.
Therefore, our conclusion must be that God does the work of creating, God does the continual, ongoing work of growing, but we need to maintain an attitude of perseverance and endurance if God’s work is going to take us to actual maturity.
In our church, we are committed to such perseverance.
That’s why our Earth Commitment gets into the specifics that it does.
Specifically
…I will pursue opportunities for spiritual growth…
Spiritual growth doesn’t happen automatically. It must be pursued.
Our natural tendency is not to grow. Or at least, our natural tendency is not to grow in the right ways.
Left to our own devices with no guidance or boundaries, we all tend to grow weaker rather than stronger, fatter rather than fitter, slower rather than faster, and duller rather than smarter.
Counteracting our tendency to decline requires consistent, focused effort.
No matter how old you or I are or how experienced we may be in the life of faith or in the church world, we all need to intentionally pursue spiritual growth by pursuing opportunities for spiritual growth.
For some of us, that will mean getting a coach. For others it will mean taking the step to become a coach to stretch you into a new learning opportunity. For some of us, it will mean volunteering for a responsibility we don’t feel ready for. For some of us, it means actually taking time to read and study the Bible.
We know that the real growth comes from God, but our job is to be consistent and persevering in the pursuit of growth.
…I will root out sin in my life through regular self-examination and confession of sin both to God and to accountability partners…
The second specific behavior we expect of people making our membership commitment is the behavior to root out sin. Two practices are mentioned in this commitment statement and another one is implied.
First, we expect that people who make the membership commitment to our church are actually interested in becoming more like Jesus. In fact, we expect that these people are so interested in becoming like Jesus that they are willing to deal with their own sin head-on. They are willing to examine themselves and evaluate whether there is a sin in their heart or in their lives, and they are willing to take corrective measures as soon as they become aware of it.
Secondly, we expect that these people are so committed to getting rid of sin that they willingly practice confession to God and sometimes to other people simply for the purposes of receiving an affirmation of forgiveness and to create relationships of accountability.
Thirdly, there is an implied expectation in this commitment. We expect that these people are so committed to getting rid of sin that they will not take it personally or get defensive if one of their sins is identified by another believer. For a believer committed to becoming like Jesus, a rebuke regarding a sin is not a personal attack or a loss of reputation. For a believer committed to becoming like Jesus, a rebuke regarding a sin is a blessing to be received with joy. A wise rebuke is often exactly what is needed to move us beyond our blind spots and to propel us into new levels of spiritual maturity!
..and in all areas of uncertainty, I will submit first to the clear teaching of the Bible, then to the leaders God has placed over me, and finally, after prayer, to my own conscience.
Finally, our Earth Commitment as members of Lafayette Community Church reminds us all that no matter how “mature” we feel we are, we are also simply dirt without the guiding hand of God all over us and the life-giving breath of God filling us. This humility, for all true Christians, always manifests itself in an attitude of submission and surrender.
It is our conviction that the Bible teaches three levels of submission:
First, we are to be in submission to God directly. However, because we are not as mature as Christ, we cannot trust our own ability to hear and discern the voice of God in our lives. The Bible is clear that we have the ability to deceive ourselves!
(9) The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? — Jeremiah 17:9 NIV
Therefore, we don’t trust our own conclusions regarding the will of God. Rather, we place ourselves in submission to the clear teaching of the Bible. To be sure, there will be times when we do not understand the teaching of the Bible, and we will be inclined to adopt the interpretation of the Bible that makes the most sense to us or that feels right to us, but our conviction is to place all of those inclinations off to the side. Our first and most important submission is the submission to the clear teaching of the Bible.
Secondly, even though we will be tempted to bring our own interpretations to bear on the more unclear parts of the Bible, we will not base our convictions on those wavering interpretations. Rather, when it comes to teaching of the Bible that is less clear, we willingly submit to the leaders God has placed over us. Whether Core Group leaders, Elders, Pastors, or even the district executive ministers of Converge MidAmerica, leaders are a gift to us by God for our own maturity. Each Christian who wishes to reach spiritual maturity should take submission to leaders seriously, and realize that if the teaching of the Bible is not crystal clear on an issue, it is wise and proper to simply submit to the guidance of those spiritual leaders regarding that issue.
Thirdly, there will be many opportunities in life for us to make decisions regarding which there is no clear Biblical teaching, and our spiritual leaders have not taken a position (i.e. should I buy a new or used car?). On those questions, there is no promise in the Bible that we will always make the right decisions simply because we have become Christians. Nevertheless, there is clear biblical precedent for prayerfully following the inclinations of your heart so long as you do not violate your own conscience. Consider these verses:
(4) Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart. — Psalm 37:4 NIV
(4) So, what about eating meat that has been offered to idols? Well, we all know that an idol is not really a god and that there is only one God…. (7) However, not all believers know this. Some are accustomed to thinking of idols as being real, so when they eat food that has been offered to idols, they think of it as the worship of real gods, and their weak consciences are violated. — 1 Corinthians 8:4,7 NLT
(22) So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself by what he approves. (23) But whoever has doubts is condemned if they eat, because their eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin. — Romans 14:22-23 NIV
The Bible gives incredible freedom for the believer, but spiritual growth requires a commitment to putting God first, seeking him first, and living lives of conviction from a clear conscience before God even in the small decisions of what we choose to eat.
Conclusion
We have high expectations for membership at LCC, but they are no higher than the expectations the Bible places on the average, everyday, ordinary believer. We simply believe that we should actually be living the Christian life and we should actually be pursuing spiritual growth.
No one has to be perfect to become a member of our church. That would be silly, and in fact it would violate the very principles of this core value.
We don’t believe people are “mature” or “not mature,” but we do believe that every true believer will be growing toward maturity in Christ.
Our conviction and our shared commitment is that we will actually pursue that growth and not merely wait around hoping it happens.