Cages + Wings
A couple of years ago, I contemplated (for a brief moment) the idea of purchasing some birds to house in a beautiful ornamental cage I had collected. I shared this idea with a friend, who was a little mortified, to say the least.
To her, birds were created to fly free, made for wide open spaces - not the confines of a small cage and to look pretty. I completely understood her perspective and sensed she might have chosen to stop talking to me if I went ahead... So I let the idea be.
Shortly after, I felt like God started to really speak to me through the situation. Strange thoughts started to cross my mind.
"What if some birds actually found comfort in the security of a cage, where they were protected and free from predators?”
“What if they enjoyed not having to worry about where food would be coming from next?”
“What if some birds were quite content in their little cages, and our great concern for their freedom was not even something they worried about for themselves?"
I started to notice significant parallels with my current view of the modern Western Church and my growing frustrations with some of its systems and structures.
My personal experience with organised religious gatherings and church services 'per se’ no longer made me feel free; at some point, they had actually come to feel quite stifling. None of which reflected my personal relationship with God. There was a serious disconnect, and I was struggling to reconcile it.
Somewhere along the way, I had started to feel like a caged bird that desperately wanted to be free...
I had grown frustrated knowing there was so much more to explore. Still, my fears, insecurities, theologies, and beliefs had me firmly locked inside of tradition and a narrative telling me it was safer and wiser to stay inside...
But (as the age-old story goes)... something just kept compelling me and making me more restless.
Finally, I took the courage (and I can now say… there was some divine intervention) to break out of my religious obligation to a Sunday service as my act of worship and so many other ‘religious practices’ that had become my structure, keeping me ‘safely’ tucked inside and completely inactive to reaching the world around me, I might add!
Having made the bold move away from conventional church and after a lengthy season of feeling like my world had fallen out from around me... I soon adjusted to my new 'wide open spaces' and began to find the incredible freedom I hoped I would. Freedom in my relationship with God, with myself, with my family and with my interactions with varying forms of religious systems.
I had to learn to lean into Father God as my Protector and my Provider, but in doing that, I was finding a new meaning for Life! I had to truly grow into a deep dependence and relationship with Christ as my Shepherd.
However, as unravelling as all of that was, I now had another dilemma…
I felt like I had unlocked an incredible truth of freedom and a pure delight in adventuring with the Holy Spirit and wanted my friends 'inside' the Church to know it too... but for some reason - some of them thought I had lost the plot, and they seemed to be just waiting on standby for when I fell prey to the predator or began to starve, all ‘alone’ out there in the wilderness away from the safety of the cage...
There was no way they were coming out; that would be dangerous, and if they did dare, it wouldn't be long, and they too would lose their way…
Their Pastor (with the best, although slightly misguided, intentions) had taught them well. It was best to stay inside and to only ever open the door to people wanting to come in and never for those a little bewildered, wanting to go out - best to keep everyone safe inside!
Not only that… I began to see that some of my friends were like the birds who truly found comfort in the cage's confines and the protection and provision it offered.
They were content and happy inside, and freedom was not really of their greatest concern (or at least they had convinced themselves so)… Their safety and provision was their paramount concern.
It was a heartbreaking journey walking that season out, but all along, I felt a great knowing that I was growing in faith and in a deeper confidence in myself and my Creator… It grew every time my Heavenly Father was right there to protect me, right there to provide for my family and in the unfolding of the most astounding fullness of adventure we were all having together...
My thoughts continue to wander on...
How incredible would it be if churches were able to celebrate people like me, those who had earnt their ministry stripes, who had grown too big in heart and spirit to just know God in the safe places…
What of a Church secure enough to accommodate all types of birds, those who want to stay inside and those who want to come and go and come back again ... What would that look like?
A stunning image crossed my mind...
A beautiful ornamental birdcage, hanging in a forest with its door flung wide open... A flurry of colours surrounding it and streaming with an array of birds of all variations.
Some perched inside, building courage from the stories of protection and provision told by more courageous ones.
Others perch on the outside of the cage - calling for all to come and see, come and eat, come and sing of all the good things the Master had provided and others still, flying off to faraway lands, to return laden with stories of their adventures with the Creator amongst His Creation.
It was a beautiful picture, but it soon struck me; I was no longer looking at a birdcage; I was looking at a bird feeder (that's all a birdcage with its door open would be, right?)... yes, a bird feeder...
A safe haven, feeding the dreams, the faith, and the courage of all who chose it as their sanctuary. The feeder was streaming with life, a wellspring for rest and restoration, for encouragement and reflection, a flurry of the wildest of dreams, intrigue and the forging of friendships.
So how does this correlate to a modern Western church structure?
Firstly a church that operated as a feeder and not a cage would be one that knows and values every life that comes to its doors, those that come in and those that go out.
It would require confident and secure leaders, happy to release and leave their doors open. Ones who encouraged the adventurers and wanders!!!!! Who did not live in fear of predators or a lack of provision. Ones full of a greater faith and a desperation to see all their flock encounter the living God and the fullness of His freedom firsthand.
They would be open-handed leaders, open with the lives entrusted to their care, holding freedom as a human value - over the in-built pastoral desire to simply lock everyone in to keep them safe, to be sure they are all fed and to be able to keep them all in one accord.
What if there was a church and church leaders who offered the choice to come, to go or to sit awhile and were not threatened by the ebbs and flows of it all?
A church where you wanted to know people's stories, where questions and conversations were encouraged, where every believer was free to dream and released to do so, where everyone took the courage to go on the adventure of KNOWING God's provision and protection for themselves - and were compelled through that to step out in faith to love a hurting world.
What of a church that knows how to live with the Father and each other in the wide open spaces?
