Pillar 1 -- ReJesus, Emulating/Imitating Jesus

Four Pillars Introduction (below)

Jesus Our Cornerstone

Alan Hirsch and Michael Frost

June 13, 2025

In this book the authors are calling for a refounding of the church on the life and ministry of Jesus. Over the centuries the church has drifted from the model of Jesus. Yes, this seems hard to believe but through this volume Hirsch and Frost fill the pages with illustrations of where this has happened and speak extensively of our call to return.

One reference that has been heard often is to polls that have been taken showing that people like Jesus in great numbers, while at the same time they do not have positive thoughts about the church. This is the church that Jesus founded and all expressions and actions flowing out should be representative of Jesus. Yet a great number of people in western culture today do not see it this way. Hirsch and Frost call to the church to recalibrate the entire enterprise along Christological lines.

I will give you two thoughts from the book to chew on and we can look at more in other posts.

“Following Jesus means more than just a prayer of commitment. We must also emulate him.” (p. 6)

“Christology determines our missiology, and missiology determines our ecclesiology.” (p. 6)

I know that second quote was too theological for most of us, so hit the link here and we will break it down for both of these quotes. 

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Let’s talk about emulating Jesus. I remember when I was young the song was popular titled, “To Be Like Jesus.” Today that theme does not seem to resonate. One might hear, “No one is perfect,” or “I am just struggling to survive myself.” The goal of being like Jesus, though it is clear in the Bible as a central call, has diminished into believing, receiving, and loving him. Hirsch and Frost give some guidance as they say, “Jesus fed thousands with bread and fish and we can be like him through hospitality and generosity. We cannot die for sins but we can embrace selflessness, sacrifice, and service to others.” (p. 6)

(Central Bible call to be like Jesus -  What Does the Bible Say About Being Christ Like? )

No one can question that Jesus’ work for salvation continues to hold center stage among believers. That is without doubt. It is the idea of emulating his life and ministry that has faded generally from the picture. People tend to feel that is a goal far too high for the common believer. Much like Jesus walked the roads of Israel looking for those the Father was pointing out, we who would follow Jesus can live life daily with eyes looking for those that Jesus brings to cross our paths. There are hurting desperate people filling our cities today and our loving service and care could be the hand of Jesus for them.

Let’s touch those strange theological terms mentioned above. In plain language the writers are saying the model of Jesus ought to determine our mission ministry, or how and to whom we reach and touch. Then the mission ought to determine what church will look like, how we get together as Christians and what we do then. This little formula just seems logical. Jesus is the model for mission and mission will determine what church looks like.

Drift can happen slowly and through the centuries this formula has actually become reversed. Take the second part here. What we do at church should be established by the mission, how to touch lost people. Today in church we ‘hope’ the lost will come but regrettably they rarely do. This mode was set a long time ago and now it has crystalized into the expectation for most believers. Very few realize that only believers are coming to church mainly and our target audience is out there beyond our walls. The tradition of how church is done now dictates more than our mission. Much can be discussed about this and this simple formula. Hirsch and Frost will lead us in that as we move forward.

ReJesus

Alan Hirsch and Michael Frost

If Jesus is the prototype for a Christian and if we are to take his words and actions as exemplary and authoritative for all of his followers, then we must make this dangerous comparison of Christianity as a religion to Jesus. 

We believe this will reveal the church is on the wrong side of Jesus’ type of barbarian spirituality mainly because it cannot be considered civil. It was subversive. Jesus undermines any status quo not built on the demands of the kingdom. (p. 12)

Hirsch and Frost talk about the idea of the subversion of Christianity. They quote Jacques Ellul who asks, “How does it come about that the development of Christianity and the church has given birth to a society, its civilization, and a culture that is completely opposite to what we read in the Bible? Certainly, Christianity did transform from a dangerous and revolutionary spiritual force into a religious civilization.” 

They ask, “Was it God’s intention to produce a domesticated religion?” (p. 7)

We agree it is hard to live the way of Jesus, and so it is hard to create a religion out of the way of Jesus. We must constantly return to Jesus to authenticate as well as legitimize ourselves as his people. What other guide do we have? (p. 8)

Go to the link here and we will chew on these ideas a little more.

www.anakainosisforthechurch.com

Tradition has always  been a force trying to domesticate and control the church that Jesus built.

Here is an insightful and piercing revelation: “It is easy for agendas to take Jesus captive rather than the other way around.” (p. 9)

Remember, “Jesus will not lead us to hatred, violence, greed, excess, earthly power, or material wealth. But he will call us to a genuinely biblical faith that believes in him, not simply believing in belief. This requires an ongoing encounter with Jesus.” (p. 11)

C.S. Lewis says “The church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little Christ’s. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time. God became man for no other purpose.” (p. 17)

I personally hesitate to drop this quote in, but I do find it accurate and this blog aims to create dialogue, discussion, and discourse.

“A good church upbringing seems to prepare a person to know that Jesus is to be worshiped but not followed.”

We have sanitized and tamed Jesus. (p. 19)

People have been turned off to the church because our faith seems bland and insipid to them. Punk rocker and screenwriter Nick Cave tells about reading about the Jesus in Mark and discovering a passionate radical. (p. 21)

We need to accept Jesus as our guide, as well as our Savior. We need him to teach us how to live, not just how to worship. (p. 22)

We need a re-discovery of our foundation, the person Jesus. It will require us to let go of our much loved but inaccurate assumptions about him and be prepared to venture back to the gospels to see him and all his strange radical ways. 

It was possibly Voltaire who said “God made us in his image, and we returned the favor.” (p. 87)

What do you think about these thoughts from Hirsch and Frost? Let’s talk as you comment on Facebook.

July 7, 2025

The Surprising Jesus

Jesus was flat out surprising to almost everyone; the disciples, the religious, and the world. No doubt following in the footsteps of such a surprising Jesus will not be a tame, mundane, business as usual experience.

Alan and Debra Hirsch in their book “Untamed” say, “Jesus, the holy one, often went out of his way to connect with, or to be seen with, those the ‘holy ones’ of his day would have never even thought of entertaining. The holiness of Jesus is a redemptive, missional, world embracing holiness, that does not separate itself from the world but rather liberates it. (p. 46)

No doubt about it, Jesus’ holiness was compelling. The Gospels clearly show us that social rejects loved to be around Jesus. They couldn’t get enough of him. By hanging out with people like these, Jesus shows us that one cannot achieve holiness by separation from the unclean. We need to resist the temptation to see holiness only in moralistic terms, or else we will do violence to the idea of the redeeming God and end up seeing God as the ultimate moralist. (p. 46)

Jesus was more of a prophetic non-conformist than a tame ethics teacher. He calls people to throw everything away and follow him (Mat 13:44), to a cross (Mat 10:38), to a love for God that will make all other loves seem like hatred (Mat 10:35-37). This was no divine ethics lecturer speaking! His was a wild holiness that called to account those who preferred instead to follow the lame dictates of a religion of ethical codes and pious rituals. (p. 47)

The Hirsch’s say, “Greg Boyd is correct in his assessment: The church as a whole does not look like the Body of Christ whose outrageous love attracted people who would otherwise have had nothing to do with a ‘religious establishment’ or ‘ethical system.’” (p. 47)

Jump over to our blog page by clicking the graphic below and read the rest of these thoughts by Alan and Debra.

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The even more amazing thing is that not only did the social outcasts and sinners want to be around Jesus, but Jesus wanted to be around them! His mission was to save sinners. He practiced ‘active proximity’ with them. (p. 46)

One of the greatest counterfeits for following the untamed Jesus comes from the substitution of morals and decency for Jesus’ untamed kind of holiness. One of the standard attempts to stereotype Jesus, and therefore domesticate Jesus, is to make him into a moral teacher, someone who taught us how to live decent, rule-based lives. He was much more dangerous and subversive than that. (p. 47)

All through the history of Christianity the temptation to make the law primary rather than the heart has been a major distraction. That contrast is one illustration of domesticating Jesus, making following him a set of rules and rituals rather than following the passion and fire of his heart and walking in his steps. 

Listen to this quote: “A sanitized Jesus is a misrepresentation of him and leads us to live sterile lives.” (p. 51)

Or this one from Soren Kierkegaard: “There is a demand by ‘the crowd,’ the mass of people, to live an ordinary and passionless life in which God is essentially irrelevant, and yet they want this life to be regarded as Christian.” (p. 50) 

Yes, words like these seem hard, yet renewal for the church will only come with honest evaluation of ourselves as the people of God. We might ask, “Do we want renewal more than we want our present comfort and status quo?”

July 9, 2025

Jesus in our image

Voltaire is often credited with the saying, “God made us in his image, and we returned the favor.” (p. 87 ‘ReJesus’ by Hirsch and Frost)

We need a re-discovery of our foundation, the person Jesus. It will require us to let go of our much loved but inaccurate assumptions about him and be prepared to venture back to the gospels to see him and all his strange radical ways. (p. 87)

Our understanding of Jesus can be so easily shaped by our own psychospiritual needs. Some say, “Show me your Jesus and I’ll tell you who you are.” If we limit Jesus to the meeting of our psychological needs we end up only following part of Jesus. Sometimes the authentic Jesus will even challenge those needs. (p. 88)

Many are familiar with the scene in C. S. Lewis’s ‘The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe’ when Lucy is about to meet Aslan the lion, the allegorical Christ figure in the book. She asks Mr. Beaver, “Is he safe?” “Safe,” said Mr. Beaver, “Who said anything about safe! Of course he isn’t safe, but he is good. He’s the King I tell you.” 

Following Jesus is never safe when it comes to our culturally adopted lifestyles, but it is always good. (p. 89)

Remember that even though Jesus deeply loved his disciples (ie. John 17), he also continued to surprise, amaze, disturb, frighten, and challenge them. There are widespread tendencies to limit Jesus to a spiritual tap that can be turned on and off according to our need for affirmation and of course this is a terrible mistake. It leads us to remake Jesus in the image we desire rather than being molded into his image. (p. 89)

This is not a new phenomenon for our day. Think about Christian history and the centuries that have gone by. With the influence of Constantine Jesus in the fourth century became Lord of the Empire with all the elaborate trappings, exquisite basilicas, official levels of ecclesial authority and high ritual. In the day of the crusades Jesus was the conqueror of the Holy Lands where Christ in the flesh had walked, now controlled by heathen. In the days of the Inquisitions Jesus was the powerful chastiser of public sins and heretics that blotted the purity of the church. 

These descriptions could continue and walk through nearly every stage of Christian history. Man has been molding Jesus to fit his own context for centuries. It is also amazing that revival and renewal movements often were born as some aspect of Jesus was uncovered and inspired a return to the character of Jesus in that revelation. Stirred by the cry for renewal may we all run back to the Gospels and once again be confronted with the radical Jesus found there. He is certainly not safe!

Click the graphic below to finish this blog on Jesus in Our Image.

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Let’s join together to lay down our domesticated pictures of Jesus, and our tame versions, and our sanitized versions of Jesus that are so safe. Naturally each of us feel we have not made this mistake to remake Jesus in our own images. Anne Lamott gives us one small test saying, “You know you have remade Jesus in your own image when he hates the same people you hate.” Think about it. At some point we have all tried to shoehorn Jesus into our own agendas, making him hate those we hate, whether its gay, Muslim, liberals, Catholics, fundamentalists, or postmoderns. But Jesus will not be forced into our box. (p. 90)

We can find a taste of this shocking Jesus that will not be coopted by any religious system, or political, or cultural, or personal. Look at his first sermon in Luke 4. We love his quote from Isaiah 61 about setting the captives free. But what he says next caused his audience to want to kill him. What did he say? 

Luke 4:25-27 --- There were many widows during the famine but Elijah was only sent to the widow in Sidon and there were many lepers in Israel but only Naaman, the Aramean warlord was healed.

Jesus picked two stories that he knew is Nazareth audience would hate. They were outsiders, enemies, and despised by Israel. He dares his audience to admit that God loved them as much as anyone in Israel. Jesus will not be coopted, even by Israel, to a cause fueled by hatred and racism.

I don’t know about you, but I am going back to the Gospels for a fresh look at our radical untamed Jesus!

July 11, 2025

To Be Like Jesus

Emulating Jesus is the first of the Four Pillars. Let’s think about this in the light of a well-worn phrase today.

Nobody’s Perfect

I believe the question of motivation is critical to the popular phrase used by believers today, ‘nobody’s perfect!’ We hear this so often it causes one to ask, “Is anyone pursuing living like Christ or is everyone satisfied with, “nobody’s perfect?” Some may not realize there is a big difference. We have always heard that if you aim for the moon you might at least escape the atmosphere. For me that seems to be the difference between aiming for the image of Christ and settling for “nobody’s perfect” (satisfied with mediocracy). When we settle for “nobody’s perfect” it seems all motivation for reaching the heights is lost. It leaves so much room for low expectations or no expectations, and certainly gives no motivation for striving for and attaining something glorious. 

I am afraid Christianity today has bought into the bumper sticker doctrine of “nobody’s perfect” and has missed the thrill and life consuming challenge of giving our all to aim for living like Jesus. It can be an exciting adventure to awake each day with the aim of ‘being with Jesus’ through His Word, through His Spirit, through his people, and through joining Him in acts of mercy or piety that day. 

The conviction here is like that of Isaiah, Job, and John the Revelator, we believe that getting in His presence brings transformation. Isn’t that one of the lessons to be learned from Moses with God on Mount Sinai? Moses had spent time in God’s presence and when he came down he was aglow from associating with God in His glory. The journey emulating Christ intends a life that aims to walk in the presence of Jesus as often as possible so that this kind of transformation can take place often. ‘From glory to glory’ is the biblical phrase that hints at the promise that repeated moments in His presence will move us toward the image of Christ. (2 Cor. 3:18) This is a fundamental motivation of biblical Christianity, discipleship, and the call of Jesus.

Yes, this conversation of ‘Nobody’s Perfect’ quickly gets pulled down into the question, what is perfect, or who is perfect, or is it possible? But that was the genius of a Christian hero of mine, John Wesley. He continued to draw attention back to the ‘pursuit’ of holy love, the journey, and the passion for going on toward attaining such a prize. Wesley would not be distracted by the question of defining perfection and nailing it down to how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. The calls from God’s Word were sufficient and strong enough to convince Wesley this was, not only a goal worthy of Christian focus, but it was ‘the great goal’ of Christian calling. Yes, to Wesley the great cause was not to be saved, but to accept the noble and high call to become like Christ and to be filled with His Holy love. 

Motivation was the key for Wesley and must be for us today. Again let me ask, rephrased: “Who is pouring all of your energy into being like Jesus every day and believes it is a goal worthy of your life, blood, sweat, and tears? Or who is satisfied to live making the excuse, ‘nobody’s perfect?’” Some are going to aim for soaring with the eagles (Is. 40:28) while many are going to settle for hanging around with the turkeys. The choice is ours. 

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Of course there are many resting points between those two poles where believers have taken up refuge believing they have gone far enough, they are fatigued or feel they do not know how to go any further. Once more this was the genius of Wesley, he offered biblical paths for believers to use to help them continue on the journey of imitating Christ with far less premature derailments. This blog will discuss such paths in the days to come, but it is safe to say right now as we speak of motivations and the demise of the imitating Christ message, this great goal is not the high goal of faith today. John Wesley offered words of tried and practiced success to help in his ministry. This blog will share many of these as we believe emulating Jesus is a great key for renewal in the church.

Four Pillars Introduction

ReJesus - Jesus Our Model

Loving God by Loving Others

Relational Key as Spiritual DNA (koinonia/community)

Mission Our Manifesto

June 23, 2025

The FOUR PILLARS for Renewal               by Randy Howard

Let me take a page or so here to describe the concept I offer as what I see as the core aim of discipleship. This is a shift from the traditional approach so I will need a few words to bring a minimal understanding. Thanks for your patience friend.

('The FOUR Pillars' is the title of a volume Dr. Howard has written and will share step by step through this blog.)

In my spiritual journey I landed pretty early on the idea that there were four pillars of Christian faith. In my observation those pillars were the Bible, Prayer, Worship, and Church. As a college student I felt an increasing call to walk deeper into these pillars with the aim of growing spiritually. I began a lifelong practice of memorizing Bible scriptures. I soon began to develop a daily prayer walk that would grow stronger over time. I loved worship as it has been mainly perceived, singing praise with prayer blended in. And my life had been formed in church attendance and participation since birth. These four activities formed my personal individual discipleship curriculum which lasted through more than four decades of life. I often reflect that these pillars built a spiritual foundation for my life and everything else that I experienced on the journey was facilitated by those pillars. As I enter the sunset of life I have come to believe these four activities have generally been considered ‘the pillars’ of Christian spiritual growth universally. 

In this season of life and reflection I have come to believe that there are FOUR OTHER PILLARS that I now feel should be placed at the foundation of Christian faith and life. This shift in my thinking does not in any way diminish the importance of the four former pillars. They are and will continue to be essential in spiritual growth. In my view now, they should not be the goals to achieve, but they should be the means, the catalysts, the steps in process to reach and experience the ‘four pillars’ I now believe to hold the greatest import. Those pillars have been discussed in my recent book as Loving God by Loving Others, Relationship as Spiritual DNA, Jesus Our Model, and Mission Our Manifesto. In short, these pillars are Love, Relationship, Jesus, and Mission.

One influence for the shift in my thinking about the four critical pillars of Christianity has been a change in my personal journey in ministry. Ten years ago, I stepped into ministry serving the poor of my community. In this blog I will write stories of friends I have met and have been privileged to walk beside in life. As their friend I have worked to help them approach stability in life and inner hope and peace in Christ. Some of these friends I have had the privilege to walk with for over five years while all of them have been a part of my life for at least a year. These extended relationships have shown me the importance of the four pillars I now recommend as foundations for Christian life and ministry: Love, Relationship, Jesus, and Mission.

I have come to believe that these four pillars are actually the goal of genuine Christianity and therefore should be the goal of all discipleship efforts. Think with me. The Bible cannot be a goal of Christian life. It is a vehicle to carry Christ followers toward their goal. The same is true of Prayer. Christ followers are called to pray in order to see Christian faith and action activated in their life walk. The same is true for Church. Christ followers go to church to be built up, energized, and equipped for Kingdom building action in life. And Worship is far more than gathering together for sessions of praise and prayer blended powerfully, or in touching ways so that we may enjoy the presence of God. Worship is our whole life offering in the hope of glorifying God daily. The Bible, Prayer, Worship, and Church are critical to the development and effectiveness of a Christ follower, but they are not the goals a Christ follower is aiming for, they are the assisting means. I like the word catalysts. The goal is far higher; a life of consuming love for God by loving others extravagantly, a life lived in community reaching to build new relationships with others in need, a life aiming to emulate the model of Jesus, and by these three we arrive at life lived on mission every day. 

Read that last sentence again. These ideas resonate --  a life of love, loving and serving others, living in community, inviting others to gracious relationship with us, and therefore living on mission each day. These elements ring true to New Testament narratives and most importantly the life model of Jesus. In my view it is time to move these pillars to the front and to call all of God’s people to embrace these goals personally. Love is the center affirmed by all of scripture. Actually love is the foundation for each of the other three pillars. There is no genuine Christianity without love filling the heart. All other attempts at Christianity without love as the prime element have missed the mark and sink to the level of mere religion. Love motivates viewing Christian life as relational. We are meant to be in close family relationship with our brothers and sisters in Christ. We also are meant to offer our friendship and brotherhood to the lost, inviting them to come join the family. Love motivates emulating Jesus. We become like what we love the scripture teaches and life experience affirms. The Christ in us seeks to radiate out from us to all those around us, serving others just like Jesus. Finally love motivates mission. Love is the most powerful and pure motivation for mission. The love motive is greater than command, greater than instruction, greater than institutional programming, even greater than the urgency of the need. God’s love filling his children enables these four pillars naturally and effectively; Love, Relations, Jesus, and Mission.

June 25, 2025

Why FOUR PILLARS?

Briefly let me explain that this blog will deal with topics that surround five ideas: 

The need for renewal in the church AND the FOUR PILLARS

Jesus Our Model,

Loving God by Loving Others, 

Community/Koinonia as Our Spiritual DNA (relationship), 

Mission Our Manifesto

In looking back over the last 50-70 years we have seen numerous waves of thought to try and help the church fulfill its mission. We can all remember many of the most notable ones. I think of the Church Growth wave and I personally attended Peter Wagner’s seminar, and ultimately met him personally at one conference. There was the less prominent Church Health wave that was a small reaction to sheer numbers, data, and logistics. There was the Leadership wave with the John Maxwell and his many many books. That wave continues even today as you google church leadership and find many current and well known authors. Mixed in with all this was the mega church trend which actually swept through all waves. In the last 30 years the contemporary church has made it a high priority to build ‘big box’ churches just as culture has enjoyed ‘big box’ stores like Walmart and Target, to name a few. More recently the satellite church strategy has spread with Andy Stanley and Dr. Ed Young for example.

The amazing reality has now dawned on a significant number of Christian leaders that in the last 70 years when all of these waves were training and forming the vision for the contemporary church the church itself was declining in what the data shows has been an accelerating phenomenon. My feeling in writing the FOUR PILLARS for Renewal has been that all, or nearly all, of these waves were simply adapting secular models and applying them to the church so that the church would be more effective, more efficient, more excellent, more attractive, etc. In the FOUR PILLARS I ask the question what are the most fundamental and biblical elements that have perhaps slipped from the focus of the church through all of these waves. 

Let me give an example from the Reveal Study from Willow Creek Church and Bill Hybels. I first want to honor the courage and transparency of Hybels and the leaders of this flagship church here in America. Hybels launched the church on the ‘Seeker Sensitive’ philosophy and helped make it famous in Christian circles. (This could be considered another wave.) After decades of what seemed like great success Willow Creek asked for a study to be done of how well they were making disciples as they genuinely attracted ‘seekers.’ The study ‘revealed’ that although they had attracted so many, and they had seen them become a part of their church, they had failed in the main to make them into disciples.

This blog aims to talk about how authentic church renewal can come as we build the FOUR PILLARS into as many believers as possible and they become actual Christ followers. I am excited about the conversation and the potential latently held in these God given concepts.

You may click the link in the graphic below to go to the Anakainosis blog page where you will find every blog we have posted and a few we have yet to release. Thanks for following this conversation about Church Renewal.