My wife got me a copy of "TOM and the Goldfish Bowl" by Ben Pasley for Christmas. There were other books I received as well, but this one happened to be in my stocking. Our family opens stocking gifts on Christmas Eve. Since I had finished the book I had been reading I started in on "TOM". If it had been among the books I opened on Christmas day I may not have chosen this one first.
A big "Thank You" to my wife for placing "TOM" in my stocking.
I have not finished it yet, but I can tell you that the book has a powerful message that is definitely worth discussing. For those who may not know, Pasley is a co-founder of 'Enter the Worship Circle', which has produced some of my favorite worship music. You have probably heard songs like "You Are So Good To Me", "Praise Awaits You", and "I Will Not Forget You" over the years. Well, Pasley was a part of those.
Pasley has authored several books including "Enter the Worship Circle" which I had read, and enjoyed, in the past. I had put "Tom" and another of his books on my Amazon wishlist, and honestly forgot they were there.
So onto why the ideas in this book are worth discussing.
First of all, the debate between "church" and "Church" has gone on for quite some time. It is a topic that I have taken part in. This is not the focus of the book, but it is an important place to start. You see, Pasley's issue is not between the Church and church buildings - even though he acknowledges the problem. As Christianity has struggled he states that the actual problem exists between the Church and the Kingdom of God.
While believers make up the Church, the Kingdom of God is the bigger - most important - entity. The Kingdom of God exists regardless of the Church's involvement, or lack thereof. Jesus told his disciples in Luke 9 to "go and preach the Kingdom of God". One important statement made is that He did not say to go and preach the Church. Instead, Pasley points out, that the building of the Church is Christ's responsibility. Jesus told Peter "I will build My Church" (Matthew 16).
Think about that for a minute.
Think about the countless denominations and church splits. The pettiness and scandals. These things have come about as part of the Church putting effort into building the Church.
What if that effort had been placed into preaching and receiving the Kingdom of God?
Pasley uses the analogy of goldfish in a bowl. The fish are the Church. The bowl, the life-sustaining atmosphere, represents the Kingdom of God. The fish may be able to survive outside of the bowl for a short time. To thrive and live the life they are meant to, they need to be inside the bowl.
To drive home the point, the bowl will continue to exist if the fish are inside of it or not.
The Church speaks of the Kingdom. We say things like "they are doing great things for the Kingdom", but are we actually understanding what the Kingdom of God is? Do we instead view it as a component of the Church?
Take this passage from Pasley:
"I am not sure how many people understand this failure because of the amount of effort we spend trying to build a better system and then we call it the Church. Our obsession with repairing the Church system is like an engineer's obsession to build a better mousetrap. The question arises, however, and we must pause to ask it: Why build a better mousetrap if catching mice is not even our responsibility?
Dear reader, why should we continue to obsess over building a better Church system if Jesus never asked us to do it in the first place? Why should we obsess over revolutionizing the structures of organizations if they have never been - and will never actually be - the Church? Has that ever been what God required of us?"
I don't know about you, but the backbone of this book has had me contemplating its ideas for the past week. Its thesis makes complete sense in my mind and causes a re-evaluation of past discussions.
We have missed the main issue, especially when it comes to discussions of the Church. At the very least it has become hidden and passed off as part of something much less important. Churches (the congregational idea of the church) continue to look to grow, to increase their numbers. Is that how we are to gauge what we the Church are doing to proclaim the Kingdom of God? If we are doing what we have been commissioned to do will Christ not hold up His end?
We become so wrapped up in the happenings of our small group we fail to see the vastness of the Kingdom.
There is a lot of room for discussion here and I hope that as a community this new year will see a growth in dialogue. That is my prayer for LvL Up in 2018. So let's get the ball rolling. This is a topic that has legs to exist far beyond this simple post, but what are your initial thoughts? Where does the perception of the Church and the Kingdom fall today? How can we train ourselves to be focused on the Kingdom?
Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
Click the image to check out "TOM and the Goldish Bowl" on Amazon.
