By Brandon Brown
My family moved into an old farmhouse on five acres when I was around nine. Our property was surrounded by land owned by two other families. On one side was a tobacco barn, and the other had cattle. There were fences and gates setup to prevent the cattle from leaving their property, but we would often look out the back of our home to see cattle grazing in our meadow. Our border collies would beg to be let out and when we released them, they would herd the cattle back into their fence and return to the house.
I have been thinking about this picture lately. The cows had no thought nor care for the fences and gates designed to keep them in a certain place. Instead, they wandered and sought grasses and other plants that they loved, regardless of fences or gates. Much like my analogy of the Spirit moving in unpredictable and often "wild" ways, the cows went wherever they may. The fences and gates setup by human beings had no real impact on their desire to reach other pastures.
Those of us in ministry often find ourselves gatekeepers of a sort. Denominations, churches, and other organizations setup boundaries which define who can lead, be ordained, and who is considered a member of the local church. However, God does not care about those boundaries, fences, and gates when working to reconcile creation. While it is our responsibility to follow doctrine and boundaries, we are not the authority on who is inside and outside of the Church catholic. The Spirit works and moves in the hearts of people and we often find that our gates have no impact on the ability of the Spirit to move and bring people into the Church. I have always believed that it is important that the Roman Catholic Church never declares whether it knows specific people are in hell. In fact, only those people who have shown remarkable faithfulness in life are certain to be in heaven; these are the canonized saints. Acts chapter two tells the story of the earliest Christian evangelism and gatherings. The last sentence in chapter two says the following; "And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved." (Acts 2:47b NRSV) It was not the apostles, disciples, or any human, but God who welcomed those into the Church. I like to think that when we find ourselves in the redeemed new earth that many of us will look around with awe and say, "it's bigger in the inside."