The idea of total commitment is not new, and it goes back farther than those infamous 30 ‘would be’ back in 1979. Right after delivering the 10 commandments to Israel (Deuteronomy 5), Moses said this to the people:

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

Deuteronomy 6:4-9

God expected all of them. The things of God were to permeate their lives. This is the same passage that Jesus quoted in Matthew 22 saying everything else hinges on this command and the command to love each other.
God expects nothing less than everything we have. Total Commitment. One of the things the ICOC attempted to do was to legislate and regulate that commitment. We tried to define what total commitment looked like in terms of how much you read your Bible, how often you shared your faith, how much you prayed, how much money you gave, etc. We tried to do what God had, at least in the New Testament, not done – quantify commitment.
Few would argue that there’s a commitment problem in the broad expanse of mainstream Christianity. It only takes a cursory look at the lives of many who claim the name ‘Christian’ to see that the things of God are not the guiding force in their lives that Deuteronomy 6, Matthew 22 and other passages teach us that they should be. But there’s little we can do as individuals to change the whole of ‘Christianity’.
On the other end of that spectrum, in terms of one on one relationships, we can at times see in our close friends things in their lives that don’t reflect their professed commitment. In these close relationships there is much we can do to help each other along. We know each other well, we respect each other and we have the foundation for these kind of challenging conversations. Not only are they possible, they are necessary. If we fail to initiate them, we are not acting in love.
But in between, at the level of the individual church or small group within a church, how does this total commitment manifest itself? Churches have their own culture and personality. They can be healthy or not, they can be sinful or righteous, they can be committed or not. It’s the sum of the actions of individuals that creates this corporate personality, but that personality also influences the actions of the individual. It is truly a body of its own, made up of many individual parts, but with its own personality. The heart and actions of the individual and of the church are intertwined, each relies on and influences the other.
So how does a church or small group define what total commitment looks like in that context? In other words, what does a church that’s living the commitment Jesus called us to look like? We’ve all been to churches where we didn’t see the commitment. There are many signs that make us wonder and the more that are present the more we wonder. Low attendance, lack of zeal, struggling financially, lack of growth, little fellowship.
Before my recovering ICOC friends scramble for their heart medication and inhalers, I’m not going all old school on you. It’s a real question, though, how does a church practically live out and maintain the commitment to Christ that we are called to? What does growth, evangelism, zeal, giving, attendance, etc. look like within a group of the committed and, more importantly, what does a church leadership do if it feels that there’s a problem in one or more of these areas?
I am really interested in your thoughts on this. You might have guessed that this is something we are wrestling with here in Columbus. We do know what we should not do, that is go back to regularly checking every one’s calendars and checkbooks and making sure folks have evangelistic goals to make sure they are committed. Not that our calendars and checkbooks are off limits or evangelistic goals are never appropriate, however, it’s just that sort of constant monitoring for compliance is short sighted at best, producing temporary results while leaving the struggling behind. We want to take the long view. What does this family of God believe on such matters? Families have principles they stand and live by that define who they are, but they may be different for another family. In the same way, what are the Columbus Church of Christ principles that define us? Others may not follow them, but this is who we are and what we are about.
I think it can create a powerful sense of community and unity to have such things. But how does a church develop them without them going from principals that unify to rules that divide?
I welcome your thoughts.

I’ve spent enough time here pointing out his faults and sins, it’s only fair that I do the same when I see him get it right. From the latest article from Kip McKean:

I am so sorry to everyone who is striving to be a dedicated disciple of Jesus. Please forgive my arrogance and disrespect in the Portland Bulletin articles and in my Sunday sermons, which are online. I do believe there are church leaderships around the world that are trying very hard to restore the lordship of Christ and discipling. Particularly encouraging are recent reports I have heard from around the globe about the great progress being made in: Florida, Maryland, Texas, Virginia, Mexico, Central America, Africa, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. I’m sure that there is even more good news, but these are just a few that have come to my attention recently.
I am deeply sorrowful to all my brothers and sisters in the mainline Churches of Christ who are striving to seek first God’s kingdom and His righteousness. Please forgive my lack of respect and recognition to your efforts for Christ.
Though we are supportive of new congregations of dedicated disciples, let me extend a heartfelt apology to the churches in Chicago, Phoenix and Kiev for giving the impression of a “blanket condemnation” that there were no disciples in them or that their congregations “were spiritually dead.” Please forgive me. I know that there are many “sold-out” disciples in these congregations. I am also aware that every church faces trials of many kinds, including Portland and these new congregations. These new congregations, the Portland leadership, and I would like to apologize for things that we have said or done that hurt you or discouraged you in your faith. Going forward, we will strive to avoid these mistakes and would like to work together as closely as possible to evangelize each city and the entire world.
… Please pray for me and my humility as well as my wisdom and boldness in preaching the Word.

From a person who has felt targeted, excluded and condemned, if not directly then by association (or lack of association with Portland), Kip, I forgive you. This is one of the most humble things I’ve seen you write, and for that I’m encouraged. I will and have prayed for you that you will be humble and you will find a way to use your God given and amazing ability to motivate people for his glory and not your own. Kip, your zeal, passion and charisma is amazing and can do amazing good or amazing hurt. Find others in addition to Doug Arthur who will mentor you and have the courage to tell you the truth. It shouldn’t be hard, I think some 84 of them sent you a letter a while back.
I will ask one thing, however. Please understand and bear with those of us who have been your critics in recent months. We’ve have seen apologies from you before along with declarations of the desire to be different. We may be ready to forgive, but hesitant to trust. Understand why and allow us room to find a way to trust. Most importantly, give us reasons to.

But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

Mathew 3:7-10

This was inspired by a comment from our minister in his midweek lesson a couple of Wednesdays ago.
If you have small children, or any children (’cause they were small once), you are likely familiar with an establishment called Chuck E Cheese. If not, perhaps you know of similar establishments with cartoon characters, video games, a play gym and greasy pizza. Sugar, pizza and caffeine fueled chaos.
As adults, we look at the inside of a Chuck E Cheese and shake our heads a little. Sure, the kids love it, but they come to see a lame mechanical stage show with large shaking, plastic rodent, hug a strange teenager in a mouse suit, eat mediocre pizza and pay pointless games for tickets they can trade for worthless trinkets that will be broken or lost before they get home. It’s all pretty worthless, yet the kids run around in a zealous joy, loving every minute of it. They think it’s the best thing ever, and they will wail if they find themselves short of tickets to get the chrome plated whistle or the blow pop that we could buy at Wal-Mart for 50 cents.
We know, despite their passion now, it all means nothing and they’ll even forget about it in a little while.
I suspect that God looks down at us and our world and shakes his head too. Sure, we love life, but we run around in a silly kind of stage show with players in poor disguises, trying to hide who they are behind masks of contentment and satisfaction, we seek approval from men who are as fake and flawed as we are and power over others to puff ourselves up and convince ourselves that we’re not fake and flawed ourselves. We run in circles or on treadmills and lift heavy objects for no reason but to make our decaying physique last a few more short years. And we play silly games to acquire little pieces of paper that we can trade for trinkets like houses, cars and HDTV that begin to fall apart as soon as we acquire them. It’s all pretty worthless, yet we run around in a zealous joy, loving every minute of it, or at least we think we do. We think it’s the best thing ever, and we wail if we find ourselves short of little pieces of paper to get the 62″ wide screen that will be obsolete months after we get it home.
God knows, despite all of our passion for this life now, it all means nothing and we’ll even forget about it all in a little while.
Kids eventually grow up and see Chuck E Cheese for what it is. As Christians, we ought to be mature to see this life for what it is as well. Temporary, a shadow of eternity, a blip.
The question is, do we? We don’t act like it. We spend most of our energy chasing the things of the world rather than the things of heaven. If God would pull back the curtain to the spiritual reality of the world around us, how would things be different? Perhaps that’s why God allows things like cancer, AIDS, earthquakes, job losses, accidents, hurricanes, disease and tragedy. These shocks put this world in perspective, allowing us – forcing us – to peek under the curtain.
I’m convinced that Satan spends most of his time throwing the trinkets and concerns of the world in our face, keeping us busy acquiring them or maintaining them so we won’t notice God, quietly working in the shadows, waiting for us to leave the Chuck-E-Cheese games and join him in the work that matters.