Scaffolds

In our current series about Moving Mountains I have been encouraging us to reflect upon and change those things that are barriers to God's Supernatural work in/through/around us.  As school begins, there is an educational term that comes to mind.  That term is "scaffolding." The idea of scaffolding is that education is a series of building blocks.  Lower levels of knowledge are foundations for higher levels of knowledge.  You can't do math until you understand numbers and counting. You can't do language till you understand phonetics and the alphabet.  You can't learn music theory till you know notes and terminology.  And here's my eureka moment ... you can't know what you believe or who you believe in till you know the basics of the faith.  Knowledge needs those building blocks in every application ... so why do we think this is different in our faith journey?

Here's my point.  A pastor or teacher builds a structure for a Bible Study lesson or a sermon series.  Part of that structure is a foundation about where he/she is going with the teaching or message.  Yet, our society is fragmented, scattered, and fleeting, like a butterfly moving from flower to flower.  Our cultural condition causes us to be hit-or-miss with our listening availability.  The message or the lesson is diminished and/or diluted because sections of the scaffolding are missing.  The building either doesn't happen, or the building is unstable because sections are missing.

I imagine this problem happens at all levels of education, but it seems (to me) amplified when applied to something our culture fails to prioritize and embrace.  And I think Satan loves when he (or when we) can remove one of those building blocks or sections of scaffold.  So ... that's my venting.  What do we do?  In the Methodist Church, we learn from what John Wesley called "Means of Grace."  Wesley encouraged the people called Methodists to:

1. Engage in 2-way prayer, both sending and receiving from God.

2. Believe God's word/words over the voices of the culture ... that is where truth is found.

3. Study ... always be a student of Scripture, learning as individuals and in community settings.

4. Worship, because corporate worship is one way God builds those foundations and scaffolds.

5. Serve, because in serving we become giving humans, and we learn to interact, compromise, understand, and love others.

6. Participate in worship and the sacramants, because they are sacred by the presence of God ... and what Christian would not want to be in God's presence?

7. Fellowship because part of the learning "scaffold" is learning how to do life with other people.

9. Love God and others as we love ourselves.

10. Witness by being ready to share how God is impacting and changing us for the better.

I truly could go on listing all day, but this is a good start.  Parents ... bring your children/youth every week unless there is calamity that keeps this from happening.  Make sure you find out what was studied, and pass it along to your children.  Adults ... make sure you are part of a Bible Study Fellowship or Disciple Group and stay engaged in that study.  Don't miss a building block!  Christians ... follow the advice of the writer of Hebrews who said, "And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of His returning is drawing near (Hebrews 10:25)."  Our gifts (according to 1 Corinthians 12) are for the purpose of BUILDING up the Church.  Let's build, so we can realize the fullness of God ... the length, breadth, height, width and power of a supernatural God!