Eddie Fernandes

The mission given to the church remains the same as the one
first given to the early believers by the Lord Jesus Christ 2000 years ago:
“to go and make disciples of all nations (people)” (Matthew 28:19,20).
For a church like Riverside
International Church, in Lisbon, Portugal, to discover how to carry out its
mission in the fragmented, unique and complex world it is planted in, it must
first come to grips with the God who gave the mission it is trying to carry out.
The Bible does not give us a comprehensive definition of God. We know that He is
Spirit (John 4:24), but in truth none of us can fully comprehend all that is
implied in that Biblical teaching (I Cor. 2:16). Being Spirit does not simply
mean that He does not have a physical or material body. Some of the things that
are given to us to know about God are revealed in the Holy Bible. By reading it
we understand that Our Almighty God is loving, caring, personal, plural,
omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, unique, immutable, the self-existent
Creator of the universe and everything in it. These are but a few
characteristics God chooses to reveal about Himself to His people. The Bible
also reveals a God who is paradoxically transcendent and immanent.

So how does a church present such a wonderful and awesome God to
this generation? How do we deal with the paradox of a close yet distant God? We
are all called to be His witnesses to our generations (Acts 1:8). I truly
believe that every single person that walks through the doors of any church, on
any given Sunday, does so to try and find out about this incredible God. They
come seeking, inquiring, longing for, hoping and even desiring to meet with Him.
While some are not completely convinced there is such a God – often Christians
turned them off Him – they come because deep down they hope there is, and that
He will reward them by making Himself known to them. I am convinced that the
deepest cry of the human soul is for help – help from something or someone that
is infinitely greater than we are. God has placed eternity in the heart of every
human being (Eccl. 3:11).

When seekers enter churches all over the world, I submit that
they are presented either with a picture of a God that is primarily or
predominantly transcendent, or with a picture of a God that is primarily or
predominantly immanent. The goal of the church should be successfully to
embrace, present and live within the tension of both these pictures of God.

In churches predominantly focusing on the transcendence of God
the liturgy, the apparel of the “holy man”, the imagery, the structure of the
buildings, the ritual and ceremony – in short the whole approach to Him –
communicates that He is so great and so mighty that He is almost as inaccessible
as the crow perched on the high steeple outside (Is. 55:9). It has been my
observation that a large number of people in these types of churches struggle to
come to enjoy a personal, warm, real, living and intimate relationship with the
Lord God. Having visited scores of such churches I have sensed very little joy,
enthusiasm or excitement in these beloved believers. Everything about the
environment of these churches communicates distance: from the position of the
lofty richly decorated altar to the unusual ornamented robes of the clergy.

On the flipside of the coin we have churches that focus
predominantly on the picture of an immanent God (Col. 1:27). The picture of
Christ living with and in believers is strongly pursued whilst the picture of
transcendence makes everyone feel uncomfortable. The church buildings are
normally stripped of all imagery, meetings take place in all kinds of places,
the services have a relaxed feel to them, the dress of both “holy man” and
congregant is casual and whatever is considered “normal” in the societal
context; the music, message and format of the service is relaxed, contemporary
and, in some cases, relevant. Seekers feel more comfortable entering these
churches because they can relate to many things they see and hear. Yet too
often, the reverence, the holiness, the “fear of the Lord”, the “otherness” of
God so prevalent in the pages of Scripture is lost. God is reduced to the status
of a “buddy” living next door. We are encouraged in Hebrews 12:28 to “be
thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe.” The way God
is treated by many believers in so many of these types of churches today would
offend the vast majority of Christians who lived just 30 years ago. I am further
convinced that the patriarchs and saints of old would cringe at the disrespect
shown towards “the Ancient of Days” in so many of our more charismatic churches
today. The reverence and awe is replaced by disrespect for the holy.

Of course these observations are not intended as a blanket
statement. There are many exceptions on both sides of the pendulum. There are
many wonderful and healthy churches that correctly balance both pictures of God.
They are “walking in the fear of the Lord (transcendence) and in the
comfort of the Holy Spirit (immanence)” and as a result they too are being
multiplied! (Acts 9:31).

We cannot box God in. Everything about Him will always be
infinitely greater than what our finite mind will be able to grasp. The combined
knowledge and wisdom of the whole Riverside community I serve as pastor, indeed
of all the churches in Lisbon and beyond, will not even begin to scratch the
surface of the greatness of our God. The challenge ever before us is how we can
we present a balanced and objective picture of God.

The Bible clearly teaches that He is simultaneously transcendent
and immanent. There is no one correct way to approach Him. There is no one right
way to serve and worship Him. When all is said and done whatever we do to
minister to Him will always be infinitely less than what He really deserves. As
the Psalmist wrote “O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the
earth! You have set your glory above the heavens…When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for
him?” (Psalm 8:1, 3, 4). Whatever methods we mortals use, whichever way we
“design” our church services and ministries, all that we do to reach out to Him
and to His lost creation, will always be the results of our imperfect
attempts to serve a perfect God. Our comfort and our strength is the
fact that He helps us along the way by His Holy Spirit. But at the end of the
day we are still imperfect beings struggling with all of the imperfections that
so easily war against us.

The greater part of my past experience with God was one that
focused almost exclusively on His immanence. Some years ago when things began to
change I found myself criticizing and judging less what others were doing. I
started entering church buildings and attending services in churches that those
who experienced God the way I did had always labelled as: traditional, archaic,
outdated, conservative, boring, irrelevant, dead! I stopped pointing out the
“wrong way” others were trying to serve Him and their communities. I began
instead to be open and to observe what God was – and is – doing in the world in
the most diverse places. With eyes wide open (in amazement) as a silent
observer, I began seeing for the first time God at work in people who were more
ready than I had ever thought. I began to pray more, listen more and
speak less. I started hearing and seeing Him at work more than I had
ever done. The blinds I had worn had filtered out His obviously manifest
presence. Today I am a learner. There is sheer enjoyment observing God at work
in His universal church… with all of its flaws and shortcomings! Whereas in the
past I avoided those “dead” churches, now I am a student of the traditions,
rituals, liturgies, forms, images, writings and symbols. I am reading again, but
from a different angle, the history of my beloved church. Fascinated, I
fellowship with priests, canons, bishops, reverends and vicars. My hope is to
understand, to learn what can be learned, to build bridges, to open hearts and
to see God at work in people and places I had totally ignored!

Many of my fellow ministers misunderstand me. Sadly, as often
happens when one tries to unite instead of divide, they are shunned and cut off.
We seem to love our sectarianism and therefore we polarise towards division.
Strange how we continue to ignore the gut-wrenching, heart-cry of our dear Lord?
How do we continue to disobey this plea? “I have given them the glory that
you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May
they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and
have loved them even as you have loved me (John 17:22-23). We don’t have to
agree with everything. I am not advocating in any way that we should
embrace everything that is out there. We will continue to disagree over
belief, teaching, doctrine, practice and conduct. Unity does not mean
uniformity. Does a husband always agree with his wife? Does a parent
always see eye-to-eye with his teenage son or daughter? Does a brother argue
with his siblings? Division destroys our ranks. Satan’s work is facilitated. He
need not waste his energy doing battle against the church when the church is
successfully going to war against itself! Unity builds bridges, love opens
hearts, Christ mends the broken walls, and the Spirit takes care of differences
and fixes wrong conduct and doctrine (cf. Zechariah 4:6).

Mistakenly when we look at churches that focus predominantly on
the transcendence of God with all of their rituals and traditions, we, in the
immanent camp, believe they have missed the point by relegating God to a remote
place in the universe. Erroneously we believe that the rituals are but feeble
attempts to bring this distant God into their present reality. We struggle with
the fact that they do not understand that God is all around them, in fact,
desires to live in them! Today, I am beginning to understand that many, not all
but many, do believe that. Their approach to Him is not because of His distance
and isolation but rather due to a more correct understanding that He is distinct
from, separate from, and above everything known to man. For many the ritual has
nothing to do with His remoteness but rather His “otherness”. Many of these
believers have correctly grasped God’s incredible vastness and greatness.
Howbeit, the truth is that many still need to press further in order to discover
His nearness. They need to discover a God that desires to live inside each one
of His children and enjoy the fruit of such a personal and immanent relationship
(cf. Rev. 3:20).

The word immanent comes from the Latin word “in” and “manere”
which means to remain. God, the infinite Spirit, created everything and is
present in every part of His creation. He is not to be confused with His
creation. He is not the creation itself as Pantheism teaches. He is, however,
intimately linked to everything. With regard to mankind, the creation He loved
so much He died to redeem, He not only wants to surround, he wants to envelope
and “remain in” every human being! He actively permeates the entire universe.
Incredible as it may sound He is so close to each one of us that He will
never be nearer or further to each one of us than He is right now! He
is never safely out of range that He will not intervene to deal with our sin. He
is never so far removed that He cannot instantly help those who call on His
name. He is always just one prayer away from any and all who sincerely seek Him
(Rom. 10:9, 10). To those who have believed in Him and invited His Son to be
Lord of their lives, He has entered their finite and mortal bodies and has set
up residence in them by His Holy Spirit (I Cor. 3:16).

Yet as close as He is, as intimately connected to us as He is,
He is still God Almighty, High and Lifted Up, Holy and to be respected. He
should be feared by all of His creation (Job 28:28). What a wonderful God we
 serve!

Jesus taught the simultaneous transcendence and immanence of God
in everything He did. When He taught the disciples how to pray He said, “Our
Father (immanence) who art in Heaven (transcendence)…” (Matthew
6:9-15). Who can be closer than a father? Who is more intimately connected with
a child than a truly loving, caring and providing father whose very seed the
child is made from? Yet, where is heaven, yes even the highest heaven and who
can know the dwelling place of God? Which one of us can reach up into heaven and
see the place where He has established His throne? A million galaxies are but
the beginning of His universe. Truly we must agree with Job: “How great is
God - beyond our understanding! (36:26).

May we all become bridge-builders, peacemakers and promoters of
unity within Christianity so that the world may discover our magnificent,
incredible and truly awesome God who is unquestionably transcendent and
paradoxically immanent! It is not by our conceit, arrogance and haughtiness that
people will come to know Him. Isn’t it amazing that we all claim to have the
“inside scoop” on God, but the Bible teaches: “No-one has ever seen God; but
if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us”
(I John 4:12). May we love the world as God did, even to the point of giving our
lives for others we don’t really agree with… should it ever come to that! (John
 3:16).

(All passages from the New International Version of the
 Bible)