About Jesus

About Jesus Steve Sweetman

www.stevesweetman.com

My Journey Through The Ecclesiastical Maze

Part 13

The Horizontal And The Vertical

In the early 1970’s when my friends and I were attempting to walk the path of “koinonia”, we stressed the importance of our “horizontal relationships” with one another. These “horizontal relationships” were to be balanced with our “vertical relationship” with Jesus. Some of us emphasized these “horizontal relationships” in the Body of Christ because we felt that the Evangelical church neglected them.

Some of you might recall the term “me and Jesus” that was frequently heard in the early 1970’s. Those whom we called “me and Jesus people” were quite independent. They got their teaching and direction for life directly from the Lord, without any input from a human being. We’d sometimes hear them quoting 1 John 2:27 that says we don’t need men to teach us, but that’s a blatant misrepresentation of John’s thinking.

Concerning 1 John 2:27, you will notice that John says that we have an anointing within us that will teach us all things. This anointing is the Spirit of Christ who lives in Christians. In verse 26 John says that certain false teachers were attempting to lead his readers astray, bringing them into confusion. For this reason the Holy Spirit would teach his readers what was right or wrong. That’s what verse 27 means. John wasn’t saying we don’t need man to teach us or else he should not have been teaching himself.

Anyway, I recall in the mid 1970’s while at Bible College the raging debate between the so-called “me and Jesus people” and the so-called “shepherding people”. Don’t worry, I will get to the “Shepherding Movement” eventually, but until then, for those who don’t know, this movement arranged its people into small groups, where everyone in the group had his own “personal pastor” to care for him. Everyone was also encouraged to have others that they could care for, or shepherd.

While at Elim Bible Institute, I can recall one teacher being called a “wild boar” for his fierce independence and unbending allegiance to Scripture. The “me and Jesus people” imitated this teacher. They’d walk around campus as if they were Martin Luther reincarnated. Then there was another teacher promoting Christian community. He told us that if our Bible College actually lived out community as he saw it in Scripture, it would be a drastically different place to live. The “shepherding people” agreed whole-heartedly with him. Myself, well, I liked both of these teachers. I guess I was stuck in the middle again.

Bible College was funny at times. Certain students would imitate certain teachers. They’d follow these teachers around like little ducklings floating behind their mother in a pond. The “me and Jesus” people were actually split into two groups. Both groups had their independent streak, yet one was rugged while the other was very spiritual.

The “wild boar” teacher might come into the class-room and plop his coffee cup on his desk. With his elbows planted firmly on the desk, he might place his head in his hands and say, “I’m “veeeeery” tired today. God help us”. The more spiritually orientated “me and Jesus” students thought that was a pretty unspiritual way to begin a class, and besides, a spirit-filled teacher shouldn’t need coffee to lift his spirits. They preferred another teacher who appeared angelic-like. She seemed to float into class from the clouds, singing praises to the Lord. Her opening prayer could easily turn into a worship service. I don’t recall her ever bringing coffee with her from the clouds.

The debate between “me and Jesus” and “shepherding and community” took place throughout the Charismatic Movement of the 1970’s. It could be seen in Christian magazines and on Christian radio. I remember one radio host on a Christian radio station in upstate New York saying, “I can take you or I can leave you in the Lord”, meaning, “you’re my brother, but I don’t have to have anything to do with you if I don’t like you”. I liked listening to this guy, but on that point, I had to disagree with him, but that was all part of the debate.

Some of us thought that it was easy to be a “me and Jesus person”. Having a personal relationship with Jesus was a lot easier than trying to work things out with your brothers in Christ. I don’t believe that any more. I think having a good personal relationship with Jesus is harder than most people admit to. We get distracted with our lives and leave Jesus outside, knocking on the door of our hearts. The problem is that we don’t always hear His knock because our hearts are too noisy, too cluttered. I think our lives show that to be true. Many Christians claim to have a personal relationship with Jesus, but as so often is the case, it’s more talk than anything else. Besides, our brother in Christ is more likely to compromise with us in the process of building relationships than Jesus. Jesus is Lord and He’s not going to compromise. We are the ones that need to change, and if we don’t, our relationship with Jesus suffers.

I now think that the better our relationship is with Jesus, the better chance we’ll have good relationships with others. Thus, the vertical relationship with Jesus is fundamental and primary to the horizontal relationships with others. I believe this to be the Scriptural balance on this subject.

Relationships are fragile, as my friend Jim Williams says, and that’s why all relationships need tender loving care, and that includes our relationship with Jesus. This was what we were aiming for in the early 1970’s. We wanted a good relationship with Jesus, but we also wanted a good relationship with those Jesus had joined us to. But as the years went by, I think, and it’s only my personal opinion, our attempt to balance the vertical with the horizontal by emphasizing the horizontal, actually weakened the vertical.

First and foremost comes Jesus, then comes our relationships with our brothers and sisters in Christ. That’s the order of priority. We shouldn’t change the order of priority. We certainly can’t leave either the vertical or the horizontal out of our lives, but that is the tendency in the ecclesiastical maze.

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