The Church as Relational Organism
A few days ago, in a post called “What is a ‘traditional’ church?“, I mentioned a new book that I was reading: Missional House Churches: Reaching Our Communities with the Gospel (Colorado Springs: Paternoster, 2007) by J.D. Payne. Primarily, I picked up this book because of the title and because it was written by a Southern Baptist. I haven’t read much concerning “missional” or “house” church from the perspective of other Southern Baptists, so I was intrigued by this combination.
Overall, I liked this book. As with almost all books, the author and I hold differing opinions on a few things. For example, when he is defining the Church/church (he uses “Church” for “universal church” and “church” for “local church”), I think he makes more of a distinction between “universal” and “local” than Scripture makes.
However, I appreciated his organic and relational definition of the church (I will use one term for both, like Scripture does):
What is clear from the Gospels is that Jesus came to establish a new community… The citizens of this new community were part of a divine kingdom and lived according to the kingdom of ethic that involved 1) love for the King, 2) love for others in the kingdom, and 3) love for those outside the kingdom. (26-27)
For the most part, the church today is defined and understood in institutional and compartmentalized concepts… On the other hand, the Scriptures advocate that the church… is primarily understood in relation to the kingdom of God through organic metaphors emphasizing 1) the relationship of believers to God, 2) the relationship of believers to one another, and 3) the relationship of believers to unbelievers. The church is primarily to be understood in simple relational terms. (35-37)
Similarly, when Payne discusses the various metaphors that the authors of Scripture use to describe the church, he begins with my favorite metaphor – the family:
The obvious meaning behind this metaphor is that the bonds holding together the citizens of the kingdom are as strong, if not stronger, than the bond of blood. Just as an earthly family loves, honors, protects, encourages, and cares for one another, the church must do likewise. (29-30)
My thinking about the church changed drastically when I began seeing the church as a family instead of seeing the church as an organization. I began interacting with people through the relationships that God created through his Spirit instead of interacting with people through positions and functions. We are brothers and sisters with the same father. That relationship is stronger than blood.
Demonstrating the heart of God
This post is part of the “Missional Synchroblog” organized by Jonathan of “Missio Dei“. Jonathan has proposed that we each publish one post per month over the next four month concerning four different topics: 1) What does missional living look like to me? (see my post “Living the love of God“) 2) What attracts me to missional? 3) Where is God calling me into mission? and 4) My best missional story. Since this is the second month of the synchroblog, the topic is “Why am I missional?”
Several years ago, when Jeremy was only about 7 or 8, I was sitting on the sofa with him one Sunday afternoon watching television. He took the remote controls and starting flipping through the channels. Eventually, he came to a professional football game. Now, you should know that Jeremy has always loved football. And, we had gone to high school football games and college football games together. We had also watched college football games on television often. But, since I had never enjoyed professional football, we had never watched an NFL game together.
But, when Jeremy saw there was football on the television, he stopped flipping through the channels. Over the next couple of hours (and few years), Jeremy fell in love with professional football. That afternoon, he asked me several questions about the NFL game, because many of the rules were different from the college games that he had seen before. I had to admit that I did not know much about the different rules.
As Jeremy grew to love professional football, something interesting happened to me. I started caring more about the NFL. Nothing changed about professional football, except now, someone that I loved cared about the game and the league. Since Jeremy cared about professional football, I started caring as well.
We do not have to read through the pages of Scripture long before we find out that God cares about people, especially the least, the poor, the hungry, the thirsty, the prisoners, the sick, the oppressed, the widows, the orphans, and the foreigners. God cares about them. Someone I love cares about these people.
When we read the Book of Jonah, we see that God cared so much for the city of Nineveh that he sent Jonah to warn them about his judgment. When Jonah finally went to warn the Ninevites (the enemies of Israel) to repent, they did… and Jonah pouted. In fact, Jonah cared more about a plant that withered than he cared about a city of thousands of people that was about to perish.
As much as I would like to condemn Jonah, I have to admit that I often have his attitude. I care much more about the things that directly affect me – no matter how minor those things are – than I care about the things that God cares about – especially the least and the lost people of the world. So, in reality, if I were to answer the question, “Why am I missional?” I would have to say, “Many times, I’m not missional”.
But, I know that God has called me – an all of his followers – to take his gospel and his love to the least and the lost of this world. Yes, this includes the good news of Jesus Christ. This is extremely important. But, as Jesus told his followers, what we do for the least, we also do for him. If we see a lost and thirsty man, and only give him a glass of water, we are not fulfilling our responsibilities of demonstrating God’s heart to see people redeemed to himself through Jesus Christ. However, if we see a lost and thirsty man, and only tell him about Jesus, neither are we fulfilling our responsibilities of demonstrating God’s heart. As Jesus showed us, we demonstrate God’s heart by giving him both the gospel and also a glass of water.
Why am I missional? Because God cares for people. And, because of my love for God, I can’t help but demonstrate the heart of God toward other people – unless, of course, I hinder what God is doing in my own heart.
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Here are some additional posts from bloggers who are takin part on the synchroblog question of “Why Am I Missional?”:
Jonathan Brink – Why I am missional
Jeromy Johnson – Why I am missional: Three Reasons
Ben Wheatley – WWSBD – What Would Shepherd Book Do
Bryan Riley – Jesus is the way and he was missional
Alan Knox – Demonstrating the heart of God
Tim Jones – Participation or Observation?
Blake Huggins – Missional Synchroblog: Why am I missional?
Mission and the Early Church
A few days ago, Jeff at “Until All Have Heard” published a very interesting post called “What Was the Secret of the Early Church?” In this blog post, Jeff quoted several authors in relation to mission and the early church. Here are a few of my favorites:
2. “In part, it seems to have resulted from an awareness that mission was the task of ordinary Christians and of congregations acting together. Professional agents and special boards did not yet exist. Unconsciously these early Christians grasped that mission was a total activity involving preaching, teaching, baptism, personal witness and service to humanity.†James Scherer
6. “The chief agents in the expansion of Christianity appear not to have been those who made it a profession or a major part of their occupation, but men and women who earned their livelihood in some purely secular manner and spoke of their faith to those whom they met in this natural fashion.†Latourette
8. John Gager maintains that while many external and internal factors contributed to the growth of Christianity, the single overriding internal factor was “the radical sense of Christian community,†which was open to all but required absolute and exclusive loyalty and involved every aspect of a believer’s life.
There are other great quotes in Jeff’s post. The common thread that I found running through all of the posts was that in the early church every follower of Jesus found themselves compelled to witness to the greatness of God and his work through Jesus Christ in their words, their life, and their community with one another. Even if the mission boards and professionals had been available, these “ordinary” disciples could not have stopped witnessing to the good news of Jesus Christ if they wanted to. Why? Because that good news permeated and changed every aspect of their lives. For them, everything had changed.
Give a little bit?
The topic of April’s monthly synchroblog is “Social Activism and Christian Mission”. This topic is very similar to the topic of the “Missional Synchroblog” that I took part in on Monday in a post called “Living the Love of God“.
In 1977, Supertramp released the album (no, it wasn’t a CD) Even in the Quietest Moments. The first track of this album was caled Give a Little Bit, and it started with these words:
Give a little bit
Give a little bit of your love to me
Give a little bit
Ill give a little bit of my love to you
There’s so much that we need to share
So send a smile and show you care
At times, I think this could be the theme song for the majority of Christians. We are willing to give to others, as long as we only have to give a little bit. We are willing to do for others, as long as we only have to do a little bit.
We like to think that our giving attitude comes from God, but I think our current attitude of helping those who are in need comes more from society than from God. Last week, on Tuesday, April 8, on the insanely popular (even in our house) reality show American Idol, the top eight contestants sang for a chance to become the next American Idol. For two hours after the show aired, over thirty million votes were cast (that would be 30,000,000 votes).
The next night, Wednesday, April 9, American Idol presented a show called “Idol Gives Back” in which the contestants, the host, the judges, and many celebrities and near-celebrities encouraged Americans to give toward many great relief organizations. Several stories were shown to elicit donations – stories involving infants stricken with malaria and children dealing with Aids in Africa, and stories involving poverty and illiteracy in the United States. Just over 24 hours later, on the Thursday night results show, it was revealed that “Idol Gives Back” has raised sixty million dollars so far (that would $60,000,000).
Sixty million dollars is a huge sum of money. Unless, of course, you compare that financial total to the vote total of the night before. By comparison, American managed to raise two dollars per vote (that would be $2 per vote). As a nation, Americans value entertainment, but when it comes to giving, we only want to “give a little bit”.
For the most part, this is the state of the church and Christianity in America as well. Again, we will give, if we can only give a little bit. We will do, if we can only do a little bit.
It only takes a quick perusal of Scripture to see that God’s heart is toward the poor, the homeless, the foreigner, the widow, the orphan, the weak, the needy. As we learn especially in the New Testament, God’s heart is not moved to give a little bit, but to give the best and to give all.And, the Gospel teaches us that we, as God’s children, are given a new heart that is being changed toward God’s heart. Thus, our thoughts and our actions and our priorities should be changing toward God’s as well. And our desire to give and do should be changing from “a little bit” to “all”.
Don’t mistake this post for a rant. I am not ranting. I am simply observing that social activism is not a concern for our society, for much of the church, or in my own life. I admit that in this area my heart is more attuned to the attitudes of this culture than it is attuned to the attitudes and concerns of God. Perhaps we need a twelve step program for those who realize they should be socially active, but are not:
Hello. My name is Alan. It has been two months since I have given to or done something to help someone in need…
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Below you will find links to other bloggers who are taking part in the “Social Activism and Christian Mission” synchroblog:
Phil Wyman at Square No More
Mike Bursell at Mike’s Musings
Bryan Riley at Charis Shalom
Steve Hayes writes about Khanya: Christianity and social justice
Reba Baskett at In Reba’s World
Prof Carlos Z. with Ramblings from a Sociologist
Cobus van Wyngaard at My Contemplations: David Bosch, Public Theology, Social Justic
Cindy Harvey at Tracking the Edge
Alan Knox at The Assembling of the Church
Matthew Stone at Matt Stone Journeys in Between
John Smulo at JohnSmulo.com
Sonja Andrews at Calacirian
Lainie Petersen at Headspace
KW Leslie: Shine: not let it shine
Stephanie Moulton at Faith and the Environment Collide
Julie Clawson at One Hand Clapping
Steve Hollinghurst at On Earth as in Heaven
Sam Norton at Elizaphanian: Tesco is a Big Red Herring
Living the Love of God
This post is part of a “Missional Synchroblog” organized by Jonathan from “Missio Dei“. Jonathan has proposed that we each publish one post per month over the next four month concerning four different topics: 1) What does missional living look like to me? 2) What attracts me to missional? 3) Where is God calling me into mission? and 4) My best missional story. Since this is the first month of the synchroblog, the topic is “What does missional living look like to me?”
A friend of mine moved into a new neighborhood almost two years ago. He bought a house that was in need of many repairs, and, in fact, he’s still working on the house now. In less than two years, he has met most of his neighbors, inviting them to dinner at his house. He has started friendships with several neighbors, some of whom are Christians and some of whom are atheists. Although he doesn’t necessarily enjoy fishing, he has been fishing with one neighbor a few times. He has also helped several of his neighbors work on their houses. Spending all of this time with his neighbors has meant that the work on his house has taken alot longer than expected. But, he thinks that spending time with his neighbors is important.
Another friend moved from the United States to another country a few years ago. She spends most of her time with local college students teaching them English. Some students come for one or two lessons, other students come back several times. One or two students have been attending her English classes for over a year. She is building relationships with these students as she is able, even inviting them into her home and spending time in their homes. It is very difficult for her to live in a strange culture, to learn a new language, to break old habits, to leave behind family and friends and comforts and familiar things. But, she thinks that it is important for her to travel around the world and spend time with these college students.
Another friend and his family spend their Saturday mornings at the community center of a local government housing project. For the most part, they spend hours playing with boys and girls. They play on the playground equipment, ride boys and girls on their shoulders, play football with the older children, and even provide lunch. They have spent so much time with the boys and girls that they have gotten to know many of them – and some of the stories will break your heart… stories of broken families, abuse, neglect, missing parents, drugs, alcohol, prostitution. But, they think it is important to insert their lives into the broken lives of these boys and girls.
Another friend spends much of her time helping people with nutritional, health, and lifestyle issues. She spends hours every week talking to people, praying with them, encouraging them, and helping them recognize the importance of living a healthy life. She shows them alternatives to over-medicating and teaches them how to thrive in spite of constant pain. Although it is stressful to deal with hurting people all of the time, and although she doesn’t get paid for these services, she feels that it is important for her help people live physically and spiritually healthy lives.
Another friend and his family have “adopted” a couple of people who are struggling both physically and financially. Several times this family has found money, or furniture, or food that someone needs. They have given people rides to the hospital or the doctor’s office, even if the trip lasts several hours. This family takes care of people together, with the entire family getting involved. Perhaps some would think that this type of service would take too much away from “family time”, but they think that it is important for them to care for those who need help.
There are many other friends that I could mention – brothers and sisters who consider it important to give up something of their own lives in order to serve others – both those who are part of God’s family and those who are not in God’s family. I could mention the brother and sister who moved their family to an urban area to demonstrate God’s love in a desparate situation. I could mention a brother who gives up nights and weekends to work on people’s cars without charge. I could mention many brothers and sisters who cook dinners for those who have been sick or need a break for other reasons.
Which of my friends are living missionally? I think all of them are. They are living the love of God as he has provided opportunity and means and passion. And, they are all inserting their lives into the lives of other people. Their lives have been changed by God through the good news of Jesus Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and they desire to demonstrate God’s love and proclaim that same good news to others in tangible ways.
There are dangers in describing the lives of some of my friends in the way that I have above. First, I definitely left out some people and some examples. God has surrounded me with many, many friends who are attempting to live the love of God in their lives. I could not mention all of them. Second, it is possible that someone could read my description of their own life and become proud. Knowing the people that I described above, that will probably not happen. Most will be embarrassed that I mentioned them, saying that they are not doing anything special. Third, there is a danger that someone will read my descriptions above and assume that those are the only ways that God works through his people into the lives of others. I would like to finish this article on this point.
Missional living means living the love of God in a way that impacts other people. As Paul said, we have been reconciled to God, and we are now to serve others with the goal of seeing them reconciled as well. This reconciliation affects all aspects of our lives, beginning with our relationship with God, but also affecting our relationship with other people.
However, the common grace of God and our common reconciliation with God does not mean that we all serve others in the same way. God has gifted us differently. He has given us different talents. We all have different opportunities. God has given us different passions and interests. Thus, we will serve others in different ways. There is a danger, especially among leaders, in thinking that every Christian will serve in the same way that I (or the leader) serves. This is not the way that God works.
Thus, missional living will look different for different people. However, in all instances, a life that mirrors the mission of God will love the love of God in the lives of others in order to reconcile them to God and to one another. This is what missional living looks like to me.
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This blog post is part of the “Missional Synchroblog” dealing with the question, “What does missional living look like to me?” If you would like to read other posts about this same topic, click the links below:
Jonathan Brink – Meeting God Where He’s Already Working
Ben Wheatley – Are Things You Are Living For Worth It
Blake Huggins – What Does Missional Living Look Like
Alan Knox – Living the love of God
Dave DeVries – The Missional Challenge
Bryan Riley – What Does Missional Living Look Like To Me
Tim Jones – Living Like the Word Says
Jeromy Johnson – What is Missional Living to Me?
Dave Wierzbicki – We are Missioning
Nathan Gann – Inevitability?
God loves the homeless
A few months ago, in a post called “Reaching Beyond the Bubble“, I copied part of a poem that I saw on “The Thin Edge“. The poem touched me at that time, and it still does today. Here is the poem in its entirety:
I am homeless
by Jamey Mills Wysocki
I came here because my house burned down last night.
We lost everything. We had no where else to go.
I am so scared and don’t know where to go from here.
Would you reach out to me?
I am homeless.
I am here because my boyfriend beat me so bad.
I was afraid for my life and for my children.
If you could see my battered body and broken spirit,
Would you reach out to me?
I am homeless.
I am here because my husband passed away,
and I could no longer pay all the bills.
I tried so hard, and could not do it alone.
I have five children with me. We are scared.
Would you reach out to me?
I am homeless.
I am here because I lost everything in a divorce.
My wife, my kids, my home.
I was broken financially trying to fight to keep them.
I am trying to put my life back together and I am scared and alone.
Would you reach out to me?
I am homeless.
I am here because I ran away from home.
I couldn’t take my father’s abuse anymore.
I have no hope left. I am scared.
Would you reach out to me?
I am homeless.
I need to see God’s love right now.
I feel so alone and scared.
Would you please pray for me.
I am homeless.
I had planned to post something else today, but yesterday, the person who wrote that poem (Jamey Wysocki) left a few comments on my blog (go to the post above to read all of her comments). What she said was too good to leave in the comments. So, here are some of excerpts to round out our understanding of this poem and homelessness:
I am a christian mom, who due to domestic violence found herself in a situation that I never thought would happen to me… I wrote that poem so that others could see the different situations which brings a person to homelessness. And there are many different situations which can bring someone to homelessness.
Homelessness can happen to anyone. I never thought it would happen to me, but it did.
And I seen homelessness in a way that I never thought possible. I seen the different faces of homelessness. People tend to stereotype homeless people, but in reality, it can happen to anyone and I wanted others to see what I had seen. So I wrote this poem “I Am Homeless,” based on my experience of being homeless and what I had seen while in the shelter. I seen someone there who had lost a home in a house fire, another was there because they lost their job and could no longer afford the payments on their home. I met a single mom who was escaping an abusive relationship. Can you imagine what it must be like to have no place to go? To have no family who can help you? It’s a scary place to be and I will never forget that experience… or the tears and the anguish I seen in the eyes of those who had no place else to go.
She also left this comment in reply to Aussie John’s remembrance of the love and care that his wife showed to the homeless:
“I have great memories of my wife putting her arms around a prostitute, setting a bath for her, washing her clothes and loaning some of her own, making a bed for her and welcoming her at our meal table.” (Aussie John)
That is showing the love of God. It’s not about money because money only provides temporary relief. But love…that lasts a lifetime and has the greatest impact on another’s life. To love another regardless of their situation in life. That’s how God loves us…unconditionally. He loves me when I don’t deserve it. He loves me when I have failed and made mistakes. He loves me. He is LOVE.
God loves the homeless. He loves the homeless family whose house burned down. He loves the girl whose boyfriend beat her. He loves the widow and orphans who could not afford to pay the bills. He loves the divorcee who lost everything. He loves the abused runaway. He even loves those who are homeless because of bad decisions, addictions, mental illness, and even laziness. God loves the homeless.
However – and I’m being as honest as I can here – I have never allowed God to love the homeless through me. When I read Jamey’s comments and I remembered the first time I read her poem and how it affected me, my heart was broken again. I desire to be a channel of God’s love to the least – to those who cannot repay that love – to those who may think that God has turned his back on them. That’s what I want, but that’s not where I am.
I think Jamey’s poem will help me. Why? Notice the title of this blog post: “God loves the homeless”. It is easy to make general statements like that. It is easy to group people together according to a certain criteria and state that God loves that group. Jamey’s poem pulls the individuals out of the amorphous, faceless group and makes them real people. Yes, God loves the homeless, but more importantly, he loves each individual person who happens to find himself or herself without a home.
It is one thing to look across a faceless blob and state, “God loves you”. It is another thing altogether to peer into the eyes of someone who is hurting and say, “God loves you”. The eyes looking back at you may require proof – and you may be the proof that God sends – I may be that proof. Am I willing to look into those eyes? Am I willing to peer into the eyes of the family whose house burned down, or the young girl who was beaten by her boyfriend, or the widow and orphans, or the divorcee? Am I will to state that God loves them, and then demonstrate that love as Aussie John’s wife did?
Yes, it is much easier to state, “God loves the homeless”. It is much more difficult – but also much more like Jesus – to look into the eyes of the homeless person and show them that God loves them. Like I said earlier, I’m not there yet.
Gathering suggests dispersal
As most of us – and most followers of Christ – know, the word translated “church” in our English New Testaments is the Greek noun εκκλησία (ekklÄ“sia). Some continue to make a big deal of the etymology of the word and suggest that εκκλησία (ekklÄ“sia) means “called out ones”. In fact, the word simply refers to an assembly or a gathering.
When, used to refer to the εκκλησία (ekklÄ“sia) of God, it would thus mean the assembled or gathered people of God. The discussion continues as to whether this is a fixed, continuous assembly or an assembly that may be in flux. Regardless, the phrase points to a group of God’s people as they are gathered together.
As you probably know if you read my blog regularly, I am very interested in the meeting of the church – that is, the who, what, when, where, why, and how of the people of God when they assemble. Primarily, I am studying the purpose for the meeting of the church. I believe that purpose is edification or building up the people of God toward maturity in Christ.
However, as I was thinking about εκκλησία (ekklÄ“sia) a few days ago, I realized that a gathering or an assembly, by its nature, suggests a dispersal. The people of God gather because, in general, they are not assembled – they are dispersed. Whether we meet weekly, bi-weekly, semi-weekly, or even daily, we still spend most of our time dispersed – separated from one another.
This is where we find our mission – while we are dispersed. Our mission – task, if you will – is not to assemble, but to be ambassadors of God to those who are not part of his family. If we find our time consumed with gathering – assembling – meeting – then we have missed our most important duty of being salt and light to the world – of taking the gospel to those outside the church – of speaking God’s grace and truth into lives who are far from God.
Gathering is important. It is very important. But, it is not everything. In fact, gathering suggests dispersal. God gathers us together with his family by his Spirit, because we are not normally gathered; we are normally dispersed. But, if we find ourselves spending all of our time and effort and resources gathering, then I think we are missing something important – very important.
Yes, gather together with brothers and sisters in Christ. Build up one another using the gifts that God provides, and thereby bring glory to God. But, also, don’t forget to disperse in order to take the gospel to your family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, even strangers that God brings into your life.
Missions-Minded?
Ken Sorrell has written a great guest article at “SBC Impact” called “Is your church missions-minded?” I love what Ken says about the relationship between the church and missions:
Matthew 28:19-20 and Acts 1:8 are two of the most popular biblical passages utilized in any discussion or motivation of missions. If indeed these two passages provide our Scriptural framework for being on mission with God, then many of our congregations are operation under a false assumption. Our understanding and practice of missions can never be reduced to an event, a project, or even a program of the church.
He also gives a few examples of how he thinks a “missions-minded” will act:
A missions-minded church is a church whose heartbeat is missions, whose thinking is missions, and whose doing is missions. From the Genesis to Revelation, the message is clear; salvation for all the nations of the earth. (Psalm 67)
A missions-minded church is a church where missions is so intertwined into all aspects of church life that church members assume that involvement in missions is normative for Christians. From their home and around the world, we are to be witnesses. Acts 1:8
A missions-minded church never goes somewhere else to do missions, but wherever they go they are on mission. Matthew 28:19
A missions-minded church is a church whose use resources reveal their true heart’s passion for missions. It has often been stated, “follow the moneyâ€. In a missions-minded church, “follow the heart and you will also find the moneyâ€. Matthew 6:21
A missions-minded church is a sender of missionaries to the nations. Acts 13:1-3
I grew up in several churches that considered themselves to be “missions-minded”. What did that mean? Well, it meant that there was a Women’s Missionary Union and a Baptist Men’s group. It meant that the church took up offerings for missions. But, for the most part, “missions” remained a job for professionals. “Missions” was treated much like teaching, evangelism, discipling. They were not “our responsibility” because we paid other people to take care of that for us (another example of “Representative Obedience“).
I think we begin to understand God’s heart for missions when we start to recognize that God has called all believers to be missionaries – to take the gospel and make disciples wherever they are. Thus, to me, to be “missions-minded” or “missional” is to be actively involved in the missio Dei – the mission of God.
Learning from an outdoor rave
Lainie at “Headspace” has published an article written by her husband called “Everything I learned about being ‘missional’ I learned at an outdoor rave“. Many of these nuggets of wisdom are very beneficial to people who are trying to live in community with one another. Consider these:
Everyone will forget to bring something they need. Everyone will remember to bring something someone else needs, even if they aren’t trying to.
Don’t spend all your time in one tent.
Telling other people they should dance is a bad way of getting them to dance. Dancing is a good way of getting other people to dance.
Sometimes, someone will overdo things. If you feel so euphoric that you don’t see someone who is overdoing things, then that person is probably you.
Everyone who brings their dog will be astonished at how quickly all such dogs form a “dog society” and form a gleeful marauding pack. Remember that people are not so different, for better or for worse.
Gather firewood and bring it to the campfires of people you don’t know, especially ones on the verge of going out.
Keeping things underground and word-of-mouth is a great way of screening out fake people who would turn the experience into Like Just Another Club, Except Outside.
The large green laser down at the end of the campsite that’s shooting through all the campfire smoke is also hitting clouds and generating UFO reports among the locals. No amount of planning can entirely prevent being misunderstood.
Bad weather has a way of separating the wheat from the chaff. The people whose feet are caked with mud, whose makeup is running horribly, and whose clothes are soaked through are probably worth meeting, because they are the ones who will help push your car out of a rut when it’s time to go home.
I hope you were able to see some of the community metaphors in these snippets. If so, share with us what you’ve learned about living in community – either from the sayings above, or from your own experience.
What if they thought of the church?
Last week, I published a short post called “Missional Christians in 360 AD“, commenting on the how Emperor Julian recognized that Christians took care of the poor and needy, even the poor and needy who were not Christians. Last Sunday evening, as I met together with some brothers and sisters to pray and discuss service opportunities, I thought about Emperor Julian again.
One of the ladies who meets with us on Sunday morning lives in government housing in our town. When we first met her, a man was living with her because he needed medical attention. He had been in the hospital, and when he was released, no one would take care of him, so she took him in. As I’ve gotten to know here, I’ve found that she is one of the most giving and caring persons that I know – even in the very difficult situation in which she finds herself.
A few weeks ago, another unit opened up in the government housing facility. They allowed the man to move out of her apartment, into the open apartment. However, he had nothing for his apartment – no furniture, no kitchen utensils, no dishes, etc. Nothing. Our friend asked her brothers and sisters in Christ for help. They responded by providing everything he needed plus more.
As we were discussing possible ministry opportunities last Sunday evening, I thought about this lady and her friend. What would happen if other people in the government housing facility heard about the generosity of the church? What would happen if they began to think about the church when they were in need? What would happen if they asked our friend if we would be willing to help them as well?
This may sound like a never-ending cycle of giving and giving and giving… perhaps to some people who would take advantage of our generosity.
But, would it not be amazing for people to begin turning to the church again when they were in need? I hope the church would be willing to trust God to provide for those needs.