Outpost or Fort???

So those that know me, know that I have a kind of weird of obsession with all things relating to military special operations, particularly Army Special Forces and the Navy SEALs.  I am fascinated by any man who is among the fittest in the world, can jump out of a plane from 30,000 feet at night, land without injury, speak three different dialects of Arabic when he hits the ground, and put a round on target from 1000 yards.  That, to me, is an impressive skill set. 

So I was watching a show on the National Geographic Channel a while back about a U.S. Special Forces ODA stationed in Afghanistan.  ODA stands for "Operational Detachment Alpha".  A typical Special Forces ODA is made up of 12 men each with his own specialty.  This particular ODA was stationed at a very remote outpost alone and highly vulnerable to enemy attack.  It was basically these guys, some support personnel and that was basically it. 

The program showed how they lived at the outpost and followed some day to day routines, but was mainly focused on their mission, and what they did.  What struck me about this group of men was how pro-active they were in their mission.  Their job was basically to find and destroy the enemy.  They did not sit around and wait for the Taliban to attack them.  They took the fight to the Taliban. 

Every single day these men went out into the fray.  They went out to battle the enemy.  The outpost was not their home.  They came back to re-arm, sleep, eat, exercise, and maybe catch a little downtime, and it was back out again.....looking for the bad guys.  They absolutely did not hunker down in the outpost, pray they weren't attacked and ride it out until their tour was over and they could go home.  They had a job to do, and they were going to do it.

This is a different picture than the forts or fortified cities that we see built throughout history.  These were guarded, protected, and kept the enemy from getting in.  They were designed to hunker down and fight off the enemy.  When an invading force attacked, those inside the forts would defend, and simply hope they weren't overrun.  These fortified cities were all about holding ground already claimed and had nothing to do with taking new, enemy held ground.

As I watched the show, it dawned on me that these are two contrasting pictures of the church.  Our churches (yes, I know the church is the people, but you know what I mean) were designed to operate like the Special Forces outpost.  We come in.  We worship.  We recharge.  We fellowship.  We learn God's Word.  Some may teach God's Word.  THEN WE ARE TO GO BACK OUT INTO THE FRAY.  We get back in the fight.  We go where the enemy is.  We seek out the lost, the broken, the poor.  We go to the difficult places.  BECAUSE WE HAVE A MISSION.  Our mission is to make Christ known, and HE will destroy the enemy.

But I'm afraid it's not like that.  Most of our churches have turned into fortified cities.  We are hunkering down in the proverbial fetal position among our other Christian friends and waiting on Jesus to come back.  We may go eat at Chick Fil A to support traditional marriage, or we may post scripture on Facebook, but we won't dare go to the dangerous places.  That would be crazy.  So we sit.  And we wait. 

Make no mistake, our God wins the war.  And He doesn't need our help doing it.  But He's inviting us to play a role.  Let's join Him.  He wins.

Today, 147 Christians were slaughtered at a Kenyan college.  Tragedies like this should affect us, but shouldn't surprise us. This world is getting darker and it's only going to get worse.   Are we, this Easter weekend, going to go into our churches and cover our heads, and ask Jesus what in the world is taking him so long?  Or are going to go to the outpost, re-arm and go back out and fight. 

The Apostle Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus, "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places." (Ephesians 6:12). 

Get up and go fight.