THE MAIN AND THE PLAIN

I was recalling one of John Wimber's statements that he would often say. It was to stick to the main and the plain. The reason was that there were so many distractions and side issues that we could get involved in, and we lost sight of why we are primarily here. This is even more relevant today, with people trying to pull you in and get involved in various causes that are not necessarily wrong in themselves, but nonetheless can become distractions. For John, the main and plain of scripture was preaching the Gospel, healing the sick, casting out demons, and making disciples. He would have people come to him all the time, asking Vineyard to get involved in all sorts of causes, even demonstrations, either opposing something or supporting some cause. He always said no, although he never stopped individuals from doing so. He said If you want to go and protest about something or stand against something, fine, but it’s far better to go and share Jesus with them and see them come to Christ. I remember my friend Lloyd Rankin giving some sound advice once. There are many mountains or good causes you can die on. You can’t die on all of them. Make sure you know which mountain you are meant to die on. And just because you choose a mountain to die on doesn’t mean others have to join you. As a church as a whole, we need to make sure we stick to the main and the plain.

For instance, is the church supposed to die, say on the mountain of climate change, or the cause of too many immigrants coming into the country? Maybe some individuals are called to that. That’s fine if that’s the mountain they want to die on, but Jesus already gave us the church a clear mountain to die on. And so we need to make sure we don’t stray too far from that. With modern media, we can be pulled here and there and everywhere and dragged into all sorts of rabbit holes. If we are not even doing the main and plain well, why look for some other mountain to die on?THE MAIN AND THE PLAIN