Small Group World

05.07.10

When You Have a Fanatic/Barbarian in Your Small Group

I had the opportunity to be part of a short video for an upcoming resource we’re doing with Erwin McManus. The content for the study comes from Erwin’s book, The Barbarian Way. When Erwin describes a barbarian he may as well be using the term fanatic. But who would have read the book if he’d titled it, “The Fanatical Way”? And how did Erwin define a barbarian? “They live their lives with every step moving forward and with every fiber of their being fighting for the heart of their King. Jesus Christ has become the all-consuming passion of their lives. They are not about religion or position. They have little patience for institutions or bureaucracies. Their lack of respect for tradition or ritual makes them seem uncivilized to those who love religion. When asked if they are Christians, their answer may surprisingly be no, they are passionate followers of Jesus Christ.” He goes on to say, “… they’re not about religion; they’re about advancing the revolution Jesus started two thousand years ago.”

Hopefully every group has one fanatic/barbarian in it. You heard me right. Fanatics/Barbarians raise the bar, boost a group’s awareness of her responsibility to the Kingdom, and motivate the rest of us to be willing to live for and if necessary die for the cause.

The Bible is full of fanatics/barbarians. In fact, almost every one of the heroes in the historical accounts in the New Testament (and all of the accounts in the New Testament are reminders of historical events) were fanatics/barbarians. Let’s just name a few… John the Baptist (no doubt about it), the wise men at the birth of Jesus (it’s pretty fanatical when you have enough faith to follow a star. Imagine one of your group members trying to recruit a couple of others in your group to blindly follow a star to find a new born), Jesus’ 12 disciples (can’t argue this one, they wouldn’t shut up about Jesus even when told they’d be killed if they didn’t, they healed the sick and cast out demons, and Peter… when Annanias and Sapphira dropped dead because they kept some of the money for themselves that they got for selling their land Peter didn’t counsel them. He said, "How could you agree to test the Spirit of the Lord? Look! The feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out also." (Acts 5:9) Sensitive guy, Peter). How about the everyday believers like you and me, the first century Jesus’ followers sold everything so no one would go without something (“There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need. (Acts 4:34b-35). And that Paul guy… This dude walked away from years and years of education to plant churches and live like a pauper. Fanatics/Barbarians and heroes, every one of them. By the way, almost every one of these heroes was murdered because of their passion for Jesus’ and His Kingdom.

Don’t you think one of the reasons God gave us their stories was to raise the bar, boost our awareness of our responsibility to the Kingdom, and motivate the rest of us to be willing to die for the cause? Imagine how much more motivated you would have been to live for Jesus if you’d known these people personally like you do the fanatic/barbarian in your own group.

We all know there is a fine line between a fanatic and a nut. But before we discard the fanatic in our group maybe we should consider whether or not they look more like first century heroes than the rest of us in the group. We just might find out that they play a very, very important role.

By the way… Erwin opens The Barbarian Way with a quote from the film Rocky III. Rocky’s trainer is speaking to Rocky… “But then the worst thing happened that could happen to any fighter, you got civilized.”

I wonder… Was the worst thing that happened to the church was that she got civilized?