When the world "gets it"…
Folks, the world knows what this is supposed to look like. Years ago in New York City, I got into a taxi cab with an Iranian taxi driver, who could hardly speak English. I tried to explain to him where I wanted to go, and as he was pulling his car out of the parking place, he almost got hit by a van that on its side had a sign reading The Pentecostal Church. He got real upset and said, “That guy’s drunk.” I said, “No, he’s a Pentecostal. Drunk in the spirit, maybe, but not with wine.” He asked, “Do you know about church?” I said, “Well, I know a little bit about it; what do you know?” It was a long trip from one end of Manhattan to the other, and all the way down he told me one horror story after another that he’d heard about the church. He knew about the pastor that ran off with the choir master’s wife, the couple that had burned the church down and collected the insurance—every horrible thing you could imagine. We finally get to where we were going, I paid him, and as we’re standing there on the landing I gave him an extra-large tip. He got a suspicious look in his eyes—he’d been around, you know. I said, “Answer me this one question.” Now keep in mind, I’m planning on witnessing to him. “If there was a God and he had a church, what would it be like?” He sat there for awhile making up his mind to play or not. Finally he sighed and said, “Well, if there was a God and he had a church—they would care for the poor, heal the sick, and they wouldn’t charge you money to teach you the Book.” I turned around and it was like an explosion in my chest. “Oh, God.” I just cried, I couldn’t help it. I thought, “Oh Lord, they know. The world knows what it’s supposed to be like. The only ones that don’t know are the Church.” – John Wimber, “Jesus’ Mandate for Justice”, Cutting Edge Spring 2003, pg 6 (page 3 in the electronic version).
(HT: Bill Kinnon)
Thanks for sharing that qoute.
Dougald
Alan
That was pretty powerful stuff, dude. Especially “…they wouldn’t charge you money to teach the book.” As I’ve said before on this blog, I’ve become a little disgusted seeing a pastor paid more than what a church can afford and claiming that he deserves it. It is just sickening to think of the ministry that could be done if pastors were less interested in treating the ministry as a career.
Alan,
Exactly!
Excellent post, Brother. REAL Christian Faith looks almost nothing like “Christian” religion. I feel a soapbox moment coming on, so I’ll quit here and maybe take this up over at my place instead.
Just to make sure that I’m not misleading anyone, I did not write this. John Kimber wrote this. I simply copied it here because I think it is very thought-provoking.
Dougald,
My pleasure… thank you for reading and commenting.
Joe,
Great comment! Thanks!
Aussie John,
I agree.
Larry,
I think you should stay on that soapbox for a while longer.
-Alan