"And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and you shall be my people." Leviticus 26:12

"But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people."  Jeremiah 31:33

   The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) was born out of a time when the frontier of the United States was expanding.  People were moving across the country like a flame across the plains. It is only natural that people who would move in such a manner would be people with a great spirit of self-sufficiency.  Who else would attempt such a bold move?  The “frontier spirit” was alive and well.  We owe a debt of thanks to those pioneers.  Among them were the evangelists and preachers who took the gospel to the people.  They, too, were pioneers.  They were like missionaries going to a foreign land.  A difference, however, was that the evangelists and preachers were of the same culture as the people to whom they took the gospel.  Both the carrier and the receiver of the gospel had great appreciation for the spirit of individualism, alive and well in the United States at that time.  In part, it was that spirit of individualism that helped establish the United States as a constitutional republic to which I referred in the last Dawn Breaker.

   Unfortunately that spirit of individualism has been carried to extremes in the church.  We have forgotten that God said, “…you will be my people.”  God also said, “…they shall be my people.”   In I Corinthians 12, Paul said the church is made up of many parts.  The songwriters from the 70’s, Avery and Marsh, wrote, “The church is not a building. The church is not a steeple.  The church is not a resting place. The church is the people.”  Notice: God did not say you will be my person, and Paul did not say the church is made up of one part.  I would go one step further and note that the church is not made up of one congregation, one denomination, or one “non-denomination.” 

   As important as is our history, it is time for us to recognize that the church is always evolving.  It is time for us to evolve into the covenantal relationship to which God called us.  What does it mean to be in covenant?  At a recent meeting in which Michael Kinnamon shared, he spoke to this concern.  Some notes I took were:
  - In covenant you are free to not live for yourself.
  - God is always a part of covenant.
  - Covenant will emphasize the authority of Christ, which strongly tempers accountability to Christ and to each other.
  - In covenant we are not accountable to another but to each other, because ‘discernment is key to a covenantal church.’
  - We commit to walk together while discerning God’s will.
  - A church built as covenant must respect differing points of view.
  - If church is a voluntary society, we can leave at anytime.  There will be lots of contention in a covenantal church, but not contention-ness.
  - A covenant has to do with freedom, but not as the world understands it.
  - Covenant involves limitations that lead to the real freedom of not living for self.

Dawn Breaker #81:  I would do well to develop some understanding of what it means to live in covenant, rather than democratically.
 

"There are a number of guidelines I try to follow in life and ministry. I find that when I follow them, situations sometimes become like the rising of the sun.  There is a luminous glow turning to great light, and occasionally, inspiration.  When I don't follow these adopted guidelines, they sometimes become Don breakers, making life frustrating at best.   I do not suggest you should live by all the principles I choose for my life.  If they are helpful for you, make them your own.  They work for me."
                                                                                                                 Don Shelton