Practicing Ordinary Christianity to Serve an Extraordinary God...

Ordinary Means of Grace

By Ed Goode

Have you ever been bored in church? Of course you have! Have you ever gone home and scrolled through Facebook wishing the preacher at your church was a bit more engaging, the band a bit more rockin’, and the kids program a bit more entertaining? Probably so, but that’s okay, too. Church services are like meals. Just like we don’t experience one thrilling meal after another, we shouldn’t expect one thrilling spiritual experience after another. Life just isn’t like that, and that’s okay. Ordinary is a feature, not a failure of both our daily and spiritual lives.

God is the greatest giver, and He has given us ways of sustaining ordinary, daily spirituality. He’s given us ways to grow and to measure growth. We call these gifts ordinary means of grace—the Bible, both faithfully preached and systematically read; communion; baptism; gathered worship; and prayer. These means of grace are the ordinary ways in which the Lord Jesus gives Himself to His Church.

We need to remember these ordinary means of grace are great gifts from God, recover their role in our daily Christian lives, and rest in God's way of doing God's work.

The Bible

We must prioritize personal Bible study and biblical preaching, because to leave the Bible out is to leave God out. Paul made it clear in 1 Corinthians 1:21 that the preached Word saves people. Preaching isn’t, “This is what the Bible tells you to do later,” but rather, “This is who Jesus is for you now.” That’s why we should be careful about always pushing people to take notes during a sermon. Preaching isn’t a lecture but an offer of life. Preaching isn’t an information download but presenting the glory of God to feed people who are starving.

Gathered Worship

Hebrews 13:14 reminds us “the city to come” is previewed every Sunday at your local church. The local church is an embassy of the heavenly city on earth. Before I moved from England to North Carolina in 2008, I visited the U.S. embassy to obtain a visa. The U.S. embassy in west London is U.S. territory, governed by American laws and officials, even though the building is physically in the U.K. The church is an embassy of the city of Heaven regardless of where it meets physically.

A robust understanding of the ordinary means of grace reminds us God does things at church He has not chosen to do anywhere else. Jesus died for the Church, and Jesus will return for the Church. As the Sons of Korah sang in Psalm 87:2, “The Lord loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob.”

Communion

We are often forgetful people, so the Lord in His kindness gave us a physical reminder of the gospel: communion. The first command God gave Adam was to eat freely, and the last thing the Lord Jesus shared with His disciples before His arrest, trial, and death was a meal. Though Jesus did far too much to write in a single book, John found space to record the risen Lord’s invitation to “come and dine” (John 21:12). In John 6, Jesus told the crowds He is the bread of God.

The children of Israel were given manna; we’ve been given Jesus, satisfying sustenance for our wilderness wanderings. So, it’s no surprise we find a meal at the center of our faith and worship. In Luke 22:30, Jesus said that, after the judgment, we will eat and drink at His table. As we practice communion, Jesus reveals Himself and His grace to us through the broken bread, just as He did to Simon and the other disciple during breakfast after the resurrection.

Baptism

The Free Will Baptist Treatise reads, “This is the immersion of believers in water, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, in which are represented the burial and resurrection of Christ, the death of Christians to the world, the washing of their souls from the pollution of sin, their rising to newness of life, their engagement to serve God, and their resurrection at the last day.”

Martin Luther wrote “I am baptized” on his desk—not because he confused water baptism with salvation but to remind himself he was dead to sin, identified with Jesus, and given new life. Just as the children of Israel went out of Egypt through the water, and through the water into Canaan, so we go through the water into a new life.

Prayer

Through prayer, we take what the Bible tells us and apply it to our own situations, temptations, and sins. We pray in Jesus’ name, receiving promised answers from Him. His name is the pristine signature on the crumpled check of our distracted prayers. As we pray God’s own Word back to Him, we are reminded God loves us too much to give us everything we want the moment we want it.

Maybe, at this point you have a couple of objections. Doesn’t all this put God in a box? In a sermon from the 1650s, John Owen taught we should wait on Jesus and let Him appear as He pleases. In other words, Christ is promised in the ordinary means of grace, but not bound by them. If He doesn’t appear to us in them, He can appear to us out of them, but only to those who honor Him by seeking Him in the way He has chosen.

But isn’t this all a bit Roman Catholic? No! It is Jesus we’re seeking, not a ritual. Remember, the means of grace are the way Jesus chose to give Himself to His people. The ordinary means of grace remind us what we call grace is really the power and presence of Jesus in our churches and in our lives.

If we are not content with the ordinary means of grace, we always will be looking for a new experience, a new shock, a new attention-grabbing, social-media-post moment. If we are not content with the ordinary means of grace, we are not content with Jesus’ plan for His Church, our churches, and the Christian life.

About the Writer: Ed Goode is the lead church planter at The Bridge FWB Church in Champaign, Illinois. Born in the United Kingdom, Ed holds a history degree from Reading University. Before becoming church planters, Ed and his wife Rachel ministered in Richmond, Virginia. Learn more: www.fwbnam.com.