Hardright: The physics of church (and life): resistance

The days of going simple are over in this physics lab. Resistance is an electrical force and all the formulas and calculations in the electrical lab are too remote for me to bring near. In short, then, resistance is a conductibility measure. Basically, it is the measure of how much current flow flows through a conductor per the voltage applied. Got it?? Maybe not.

So, there are poor conductors, super-conductors, and of course, semi-conductions. Most metals are super-conductors, and most non-metals are poor conductions. This may explain why copper will transmit voltage almost unimpeded, and a candy bar will melt when jolted.

Cool. So don't insert a bobby pin into a wall outlet, the physics lab lesson we learned when we were but toddlers. Perhaps the ultimate lesson here is that electrical current cannot flow through every element. Some materials are resistors to the current flow. So, the delivery of voltage to an electrically powered object can be inhibited by trying to pass that voltage through a poor conductor. So, take that lesson out of the laboratory and bring it to my house and to church!

It's obvious isn't it! I mean, the definition itself is a clue to how resistance affects us personally and in our corporate lives, even at church. Say the jolt of electricity, the charge of current, is the Holy Spirit of God. Yes, all the peripheral terms apply---force, energy, power, work---and they are transmitted to us (1) in our own spirit, and (2) through the Body, the church. Poor conductors can stem the flow of voltage to us in many ways. As Scripture affirms, some people can become disconnected from the Head of the Body, and the delivery system is totally kaput. Still, others, including ourselves, may be out of step with the Spirit, creating a disconnect that minimizes power and energy. Resistors---people, events, doctrinal error, ministry miscalculations, lack of prayer, Biblical variance, ineffective leaders, to mention a few--- can reduce the voltage to such a degree that the person and the organization are self-propelled. Then, all you have is the pop culture version, the fun and games church, with people driving the mechanism.

Church demographics aren't all that brilliant these days. It may be an electrical problem, a circuit that is broken, the voltage reduced because poor conductors are in the transmission chain. This may sound on the judgmental side, perhaps negative. However, it must be part of the explanation for the poor voltage in many people, congregations, and denominations today. Don't try to say the power of God is diminished or the Word isn't super-charged! Get real! If the church varies from the first century model in Acts we can't lay it off on Him. No, there must be some poor conductors or semi-conductors in the wiring!

At a personal level, this is significant as well. Life itself---the people who comprise our circuits, our activities, devotional routines, worship, study, habits, hurts and hang-ups (as they say in Celebrate Recovery), the places we go---may be poor- or at best semi- conductors, things that stanch the flow of the current from God to our spirit. When this happens we are often ill-equipped for the exigencies of life, unprepared for the more demanding things we encounter.

Believers are to be filled with the spirit (see Ephesians 5:18). This verse pre-supposes continuity of action, something that happens over and over again.

This is how to overcome resistance---in the lab, in my own life, and at church.