By J.D. Walt

Prayer of Consecration

Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.

Jesus, I belong to you.

I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body as a holy and living sacrifice to you.

Jesus, We belong to you.

Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Scripture

May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Romans 15:5–6 (NIV)

 

Consider This

There it is. I’ve never spotted it before. 

May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, (v.5)

It’s like holy dejavu. He said the same thing to the Philippian church (speaking of Euodia and Synteche)! 

Have the same mind in you that was in Christ Jesus. (Phil. 2:5)

Of course, this takes us back to the Jesus Manifesto in Romans 12:

Do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. (v.2)

The Spirit transforms us by renewing our minds by giving us the mind of Jesus Christ. Here is the warning: We can only go so far in this process by ourselves. And “going to church” so often is sadly just another way to remain quasi-anonymous in a crowd. To “have the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had,” requires consecrated relationships. (Remember the path—consecration, transformation, demonstration). We must press past the comfortable anonymity of being in a crowd. We must go beyond the cozy connections of our “community groups” and smaller “life groups.” These are good and good things happen there, but the church today is largely missing the critical connection of micro-communities; what history calls “bands.” A band is just that—a transformational micro-community. 

It’s why in the early church they had a saying: Unus Christianus, nullus Christianus. Translation: One Christian—no Christian. Making a decision to be baptized and follow Jesus is a personal decision. No one can do that for another person. However, to actually become a real Christian takes other Christians. Transformational faith is a team sport; it requires a lot of one-another-ing. Hence the saying: One Christian—no Christian. 

We have largely thought the transformation by the renewing of the mind comes through learning more information. Consequently, most of our groups are built around bible studies and other curricular resources. Again, not bad, just inadequate for the real work of transformation. This is why our churches may be growing numerically but not in the metrics of the New Testament. This is why our own lives tend to be stuck in the same sin patterns and habits that have plagued us for years. We simply do not have the kind of relationships envisioned by the New Testament to sustain the kind of transformation needed to become who God made us to be and to do what God designed us to do.

Unus Christianus, nullus Christianus. Translation: One Christian—no Christian.  

What is needed is a smaller setting where our real lives become the curriculum. This is the place where we realize we can only become the trusted friends of Jesus by becoming the trusted friends of a couple of others in Jesus’s presence through the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. This is a band. It’s where this miracle happens:

May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Endurance, encouragement, love, deep transformation, and the glory of God—that is what happens in a band. Note: This is not advanced Christianity. A band is not just for people who have been around the church for a while. It is for everyone. If our relationships are the mission, as we believe they are, and if awakening rides on the rails of friendship, which we believe is so, then banding is among the most essential practices in the kingdom of Jesus. I believe it is perhaps the most important work Seedbed is doing across the church.

Unus Christianus, nullus Christianus. Translation: One Christian—no Christian.

   

Prayer

Abba Father! Thank you for Jesus, who is our endurance and encouragement in the Spirit. He is our glory and the lifter of our heads. Thank you for the way he would do this in us through a few others in the transforming grace of covenant love; in the bond of a band. Impress on us that while we tend to build our churches on crowds we call community, you build your church with the smallest bonds of love, with real friendship; showing us if we can truly learn to love two or three others we have learned to love the world. I confess, it is so easy to believe the opposite. Holy Spirit lead me into this old new way. Praying in Jesus’s name, amen.