Message... Movement... Monument
Updated: 5 days ago
The man God used to have a profound influence on my life as a young follower of Jesus introduced me to the Five M's. I share them here with the hope they will challenge you as they have me for the past five decades. It goes like this:
When God has something He wants done, He starts by choosing a Man (person: man, woman, or even child). How He goes about His choosing is not always clear, but everything starts with a person.
Next, God gives that Man a Message: there's something important He wants communicated to the world He loves.
The Man then chooses a Method to get out the Message. It frequently corresponds to gifting, skills, location, and time in history.
As others begin to see the Method's effectiveness, they think, "This works well; we ought to do the same!" So, a Movement is born to replicate the Man's Message and Method.
But then something happens: the Movement becomes a Monument. The Method continues, but the Message is lost; the practices continue, but the power is gone. The Movement stops moving.
So, God starts over: Man, Message, Method, Movement…and when it again becomes a Monument, He repeats the cycle.
The Old and New Testaments of the Bible are the unfolding story of God's divine restarts after Messages, Methods, and Movements end in Monuments. It happened with Abraham, Joseph, Moses, the prophets, Peter, and the churches of Acts.
Years later, men like Luther, Calvin, and John Wesley received Messages from God that birthed powerful Movements in their day. But in time a kind of organizational rigidity crept in, and while their names and ideas survived, much of the power and passion that drove the Movements died. Monument.
But before throwing too many stones, we need to take a hard look at ourselves. It's easy to talk about the "good old days" of experiencing the power of God as we sing one more chorus of How Great is Our God. Our testimonies are filled with inspiring God stories of years gone by but often lack the freshness of the movement of God in real time. The form continues, but the reality of the gospel's transforming power has grown cold, leaving us with little to say. Monument.
God has never changed, and His Message is still the same: redemption and restoration through the death and resurrection of Jesus. His Method is still the same: every follower of Jesus living as a carrier and communicator of His life-giving message. His Movement is still the same: the church, His body, encouraging and equipping followers of Jesus to live as His official representatives in every neighborhood, school, and office in every city, state, and country of the world.
No outside force can stop the Movement of God: never. But the inside force, the force of you and me as His followers, can slow it down by choosing to hang up our ambassador badges and build Monuments to the past.
But that's not what we were made for, and we know it. We long for more.
Man, Message, Method, Movement, Monument. I pray each of us will fight like junkyard dogs to keep our relationship with God so fresh and growing that we never let the victories of the past eclipse what He's doing today. Monuments may come later, but not today; not on our watch. This is our day.
