Jesus was so interruptible
Yesterday, in my post “Walking as if other people are important,” I wrote that we should live – and even walk – in a way that demonstrates that other people are important to us. In that post, I quoted a post from some friends of mine who are now living in Africa. Some of the people they work with were talking about the way that foreigners walk: “with such determination that you don’t even stop to greet people on the way.”
In a comment responding to that post, my friend Art (from “”) said: “This begins to explain why Jesus was so interruptible.”
Jesus was so interruptible.
Let that sink in for a while… a few seconds… a few minutes… Or, like me, let it rattle around in your head for a few hours.
Jesus was so interruptible.
There’s a famous portion of Luke’s Gospel called “the journey narratives.” This is the last half of the book that begins in Luke 9:51 where he writes about Jesus: “When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.”
So, Jesus “sets his face to go to Jerusalem.” He was on a mission… determined… had a goal in mind. But, even while he was moving with determination toward Jerusalem, he was still interruptible.
In Luke 9:51-56, Jesus tries to spend some time with some people in Samaria. In Luke 9:57-62, he talks with some people on the road. In Luke 10:1-12, he stops to spend time with 72 followers before sending them out to proclaim the good news of the kingdom. He later rejoices with that same group and spends some private time with them. In Luke 10:25-37, he even answers questions from a man who was only trying to test him, and Jesus then tells a story. In Luke 10:38-42, he stays in the home of Martha and Mary.
And, it keeps going from there. Even though Jesus was walking toward Jerusalem with determination, he was still interruptible.
Jesus was so interruptible.
I want to live interruptible as well. I want other people to be important to me like they were to Jesus. I don’t want to see other people as distractions or interruptions. I want to live interruptible.
Jesus was so interruptible.
And, if we are following Jesus, then we will be interruptible also.
Walking as if other people are important
Love one another. Consider others more important than yourself. Serve one another. Care for one another. Encourage one another. Teach one another. Edify one another.
Did you know that there’s an important precept underlying all of the instructions above? Yep. That precept is this: For those who follow Jesus Christ, other people are important.
My friends Paul are Laurel moved to the Congo last year. They are working with Wycliffe Bible Translators, and they’re currently working with several local languages. But, it seems they are learning much more than just languages. Last week, they published a post called “Convicting Language Lesson.”
Here’s how they described an important lesson they’re learning:
A few days ago, I was sitting in the office along with the Komo translators when suddenly one of them, Tony, stood up and walked brusquely across the room with a very determined look on his face. Then they all started laughing. After a minute or two, Amisi, the director asked me, “Do you understand what we are talking about?” When I said no, he began to explain a very interesting verb to me. In Komo, they have a word for going somewhere with such determination that you don’t even stop to greet people on the way. He said “You know, like you foreigners often do” . . . Ouch! It’s true, isn’t it? We are often more goal oriented than people oriented and it really sticks out in a culture like this. Nonetheless, it’s a pretty cool verb.
There’s not much left to say after that, is there?
The way we live… even the way we walk from place to place… demonstrates whether or not we think people are important.
I’ve been to a couple of places around the world that are not event oriented (like most people are here in the United States). I’ve learned so much from the people of these culture. Primarily, I’ve learned how to live in a way that shows that other people are important. I’ve learned to talk to people in a way that shows that I care more about what they have to say than what I plan to say next.
Of course, sometimes my old American habits come to the surface. But, I want to live – and even to walk – in a way that shows other people that they are important to me.
But, then, they have to actually be important to me first…
Learning from what God is doing in others’ lives
I love listening to the life-stories that my brothers and sisters in Christ share. I get to hear these stories often: over coffee or dinner, on the phone, walking/running or playing in the park, even on Sunday when we gather with the church. There’s a power hearing what God is doing in someone’s life.
Over the last few days, I’ve read a few posts in which the blogger in sharing other people’s stories. I love that, too!
Here are a few that have encouraged and challenged me.
Gavin at “Simple Church Alliance” shares part of Jeff’s story in a post called “An Encouragement From Pendleton, KY.” In describing part of the journey that God is leading them in, Jeff writes:
As the weather slowly starts to turn over to the warmer months, our family is planning to spend Sunday mornings at a local park to see who we can meet, get to know better, build relationship with, pray for, etc. We started doing this just as the weather got bad last year, and we know this can be a great place to meet families who are disconnected from the Sunday morning church routine, for whatever reason. We’re not sure what God will do, but we’re going to show up and find out. I appreciate your prayers with us about this.
Joe at “More Than Cake” shared part of Amber’s wonderful story in a post called “Scars that Bring Glory – A Woman’s Perspective.” Amber writes about a difficult, painful time in her life:
In the beginning I prayed for what I wanted. Lord, take away the pain and make it as if it had never happened. Please heal my wound and make me as though I were new again. I knew it was in his power. As time passed, God showed me that to heal my pain and not leave a scar would defeat the purpose and take away from His glory and the good work that He had done. We had ugliness in our lives before the actual wound even took place. I was, in essence, asking to be placed right back there where I had started. God used a deep wound to create something more beautiful than what had been there before. The scar is part of the beautiful creation He stuck in place of the old. The scar is a reminder of what the original product was and how He had taken such imperfection and created something beautiful in its place.
Finally, in a new site (to me) called “Mennonite World Review,” Bethany tells part of her story in a post called “MWR: Define ‘church’“:
Back to last Sunday. After the killer breakfast, book reading and house straightening, we headed to our small group at 2 p.m. Our masks and guards were at home. I showed up in jeans, slippers, a sweatshirt and rocked a semi-greasy, mini-pony tail. I read verses on my iPhone and didn’t feel the need to explain that I wasn’t texting or surfing Facebook. We shared. We cried. We asked questions. We gave suggestions. We prayed with and for each other. And every two months we serve together. We meet in homes and don’t have mailboxes, but we communicate throughout the week. Without paper. Next time we’re even going to scrub each other’s feet and stuff after communion. Is that church? (HT: Robert)
I hope you enjoyed these stories as much as I did. (And, please click the links to read the whole story…)
But they seem so much more holy than me…
We are having a great time discussing Romans together. (Well, at least, I’m having a great time studying Romans with my brothers and sisters in Christ, and I’m assuming they’re having a great time also based on what I’m hearing and learning as we gather.)
Last Sunday, we worked our way through Romans 3. You know chapter 3, right? That’s the famous chapter in which Paul emphasizes that everyone is sinner, no one seeks God, no one is righteous – not the Jews, not the Gentiles – no one.
Of course, he also tells us that while we are not righteous on our own, we are righteous in Jesus Christ – apart from the law, apart from works, apart from ourselves, apart from anything other than Jesus Christ. Period.
The discussion moved in the direction of talking with people about our own sins.
While visiting his daughter, one of our brothers recently spoke to a college student who is a new believer. That night that they spoke, the student had been smoking marijuana with some old friends. He told my friend about this, and they talked for several hours about the student’s struggles with past sins and habits. Of course, my friend also shared some of his own struggles and how God’s presence, power, and grace continues to help him through those struggles.
At one point, my friend asked the student if there was anyone among the church who he could talk with, who he could share these struggles with, and who would help him through the temptations.
The young man replied, “No way! They are much more holy than me. They never do anything wrong. They make me feel so unclean.”
Now, I would assume that those brothers and sisters would be surprised to hear this student say this about them. I’m sure they would admit that they sin and that they rely completely on the grace of God through Jesus Christ for righteousness – not their own good works or life.
But, here’s the problem… regardless of what they may think about themselves, they’re obviously projecting a completely different vibe. From hanging around them, this student feels that they would look down on him and judge him because of his sin.
This tells me something about these brothers and sisters in Christ: they don’t talk about their own sin. They don’t admit their own failures. Even though I’m sure they know they sin, they present themselves to others as if they don’t.
This is a big problem… huge problem.
And, this story (true story, unfortunately) with my friend and this young believer demonstrates exactly what this is a big problem. You see, that student needs to turn to his brothers and sisters in Christ for help, for prayer, for example, for discipleship, for teaching, for admonishment, for counsel, for love, for forgiveness, for mercy… but he won’t because he thinks he will be judged (whether he would be judged or not).
Do you do the things you don’t want to do? Do you not do the things that you want to do? Do you recognize that the only help for you and this body of sin is the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord? Then, admit it openly and publicly to your brothers and sisters in Christ. They need to know that they can turn to you for help with their own temptations, struggles, and sin.
Guest blogger: When you can’t find a church to belong to…
I’ve invited people to write “guest blog posts” for this blog. There are several reasons for this: 1) To offer different perspectives. 2) To generate even more discussion and conversation between blogs. 3) To introduce other bloggers to my readers.
(If you are interested in writing a guest blog post, please contact me at alan[at]alanknox[dot]net.)
Today’s post was written by Felicity Dale. She publishes the blog “Simply Church.” You can connect with Felicity via Twitter (@FelicityDale) or Facebook.
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When you can’t find a church to belong to…
“I live in XXXX. Do you know any good home churches in my area?”
I often get emails like this, and here’s how I often respond:
“There are various tools that might help you discover a simple/organic church in your area, (I usually point them to the “find a church” feature on www.house2house.com) but I’d like you to pray about a different approach. You’ve been a believer for a number of years. Why don’t you start something? Work with those who don’t yet know the Lord or the unchurched—it’s much easier. We’d love to help you.”
Most Christians, especially those from a more traditional form of church background, assume the obvious way to start any kind of church is to invite a few Christians to their home for fellowship. As other believers join them and the group gets large enough, they will multiply out into two churches and so on.
This is not the best way for several reasons:
- The Christians will bring all their preconceived ideas about church with them. It will be more of a challenge to think in the fresh, out-of-the-box ways that simple/organic church requires. The temptation will be to do “Honey, I shrunk the
church!”
- It is more difficult to be missional. Existing believers tend to focus on the gathering. Many Christians don’t have non-believers within their sphere of influence.
- You are trying to create community where a natural one doesn’t exist. Yes, there is a “fellowship of the Holy Spirit” with all other believers, but as you add people to a group, it will take time for people to share their everyday lives together
outside of meetings.
- Multiplication usually occurs very, very slowly.
It is far easier to make a disciple of someone who doesn’t yet know the Lord. In Luke 10, Jesus told his disciples to pray and look for a person of peace, someone out in the harvest (Luke 10:1-10). You can recognize them because not are they a person of influence (either good or bad), but they will also offer you hospitality. Work within their existing sphere of influence using their home as the base for what goes on. Use a pattern simple enough that within a few weeks they can lead it. As their family and friends find the Lord, multiplying churches is the natural result. Your ongoing job is
to mentor the person of peace.
The advantages:
- The problems and issues that come up are those of life, not theology or ecclesiology.
- Community already exists and their shared lives will continue outside of the meeting context.
- New disciples have a natural mission field all around them and evangelism follows spontaneously along relational lines.
- It’s easy to create a vision and expectation of multiplication.
In the book of Acts, there are only two people recorded who became believers as individuals—Paul and the Ethiopian eunuch. The rest all were part of a group—Cornelius and his household, Lydia and her household, the Philippian jailor and his household. Each of these was a person of peace.
Several years ago we started a church in some low income housing projects. God led us to pray for this particular area, and one day, as Tony (my husband) and I were prayer walking there, we were surprised by a heavy storm. Running to take shelter under a balcony we joined two Hispanic ladies sitting in lawn chairs, chatting together.
They asked us what we were doing there, and we told them we were praying for their area. Long story short, one of the ladies, Rosa, invited us into her home to pray for her family. God began answering prayer and soon we asked her if we could share Jesus with her family too.
Would it have been better for us to invite Rosa to the church that met in our home? I don’t think so. We would have extracted her from her environment and her family would probably never have come. But we met in her home, and it wasn’t long before there were 20-30 of us in her tiny apartment, nearly all brand new believers.
It’s time to put our theology into action. What might God do if we let him lead us into the harvest?
Scripture… As We Live It #253
This is the 253rd passage in “Scripture… As We Live It.”
It is good not to Since you are free in Christ, go ahead and eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble that you want to do. (Romans 14:21 re-mix)
(Please read the first post for an explanation of this series.)
Replay: The inadequacy of seminars and conferences
Four years ago, I worked with some brothers and sisters in Christ to put on a “conference” called “Developing a Biblical Ecclesiology.” I put “conference” in quotes because it was different than anything I’ve ever been part of. But, that’s a different story. In the week leading up to that conference, I met a man named Art on Twitter. Art ended up coming to the conference, and we’ve been friends ever since. In fact, we now work together. After the conference, Art wrote me an email response that I published in a post called “The inadequacy of seminars and conferences.” I think Art shares some thoughts that would be good for all of us to consider.
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The inadequacy of seminars and conferences
We had a great time at the “Developing a Biblical Ecclesiology” seminar last weekend. However, seminars and conferences are inadequate for what the church needs. Why? Because spiritual teaching may include lecture and discussion, but it also must include example. Thus, we learn as much – if not more – from watching someone’s example as we learn from their words.
I “met” Art Mealer online during the week before the seminar. He attended our Saturday sessions and asked some very good questions. Then, he and I emailed back and forth Sunday. In one of his emails, he pointed out exactly why seminars and conferences alone are inadequate. (By the way, his email also explains why a Sunday sermon from someone that we don’t really know if also inadequate.)
I think you’ll enjoy Art’s email below.
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I think the time was well used. The first two segments laid biblical groundwork in a non-confrontational way. Personally, I was most touched by your balance and gentleness on these issues. As to the panel time, I doubt most people knew what questions to ask, and just having your panel share from the heart about experiencing community as a family together was a wonderful way of being the epistles we are meant to be for all of us there. A clear and compelling picture emerged.
But this means of shedding light on who we are as the church is a bit like the “evangelist” who wins someone to Christ and then leaves, at least for some of those attending (what was it, 16 assemblies represented?). Perhaps this is the most important thing I’d like someday to talk to you about. You may already be headed in the direction God has burdened my heart, or you may see something altogether different. So, forgive me for what follows if I am out of turn.
There is a formula for change that states C=D x M x P; Change= Dissatisfaction with the present x Model for the future way of being x Process for getting there. I know this isn’t a biblical thing, but observing the world around us carefully–the world designed by God to reflect His truths and principles–can (if not trusted as “gospel”) give us light (in the way we know gravity works from observing it, not from the bible directly). Let me pose the problem in these terms.
Many Christians experience Dissatisfaction with the isolation of “Church” attendance and those suffocating traditions that do void the commands of us being the church together. Yesterday, you folks presented a good chunk of Model, letting the saints get a glimpse of how things could be if we took a more careful, open look at scripture. While you hinted at Process in the language you used (framing the whole matter under “Developing,” learning, walking in some confusion as things are worked out in every day, messier-than-blackboards life). But “Process” for other assemblies regarding the major transition you present, do you think it adequate to produce change?
In your assembly, isn’t it in seeing the modeling day by day, the close interactions with one another, the personal experiences that forge and reinforce a more biblical way of being together that is the Process through which the Spirit works? It isn’t lecture alone that produces obedience and transformation; it isn’t even learning. It is being shown how to by example that births new behaviors and values. It is being held a mirror by the faithful wounds of brothers and sisters so we can see where we are off balance. It is being in a place where we are safe, accepted, for all of our flaws, that we can let go of defenses and face the fear of taking off masks. The place where we can admit sin and find help. Where we can take root in Him. Outside of being present at the birth of new life, nothing is more precious than seeing another man or woman as they learn to humble themselves under the Spirit in this moment and that, and be transformed bit by bit into an image of the Son, pure love beginning to work in and through them.
The panel spoke of this with tears. But most saints know nothing of this.
I think the patterns we see in scripture about how the church developed and grew and was brought back on track when it got tangled in errors presents a function in the church that was designed to provide an up close Model of how we interact/think of/love one another but especially for that Process element of change. How often when you present this material do you hear, “How do we get from here to there?” Sure, a New Testament, the Holy Spirit, and a yellow Highlighter should, in theory, be enough. But God has invited us (more, given us the unimaginable privilege to serve Him, our fellow saints, and our fellow doomed human family) to participate in His work. I think God not only provided for transformation of the saints within an assembly that is healthy, but also to have a sort of “white blood cell” team to provide a way to heal the body that has fallen sick. It seems to me the NT demonstrates that design in the work of itinerants like Paul, Timothy, Titus, etc. Church planters not only plant new churches. Church planters provide a servant leadership team that comes alongside troubled assemblies and quietly “sets in order the things that are wanting” and “ordains elders” (developing biblical leadership).
What if, for example, it would not be out of character for the Spirit to call one or two or three of the families at Messiah (etc.) and make them available to spend two months or eight months (whatever time it turns out to be), living among another assembly as they help them make the transition from a faulty church attendance model to becoming the family of God together?
Where are you sent?
Tim at “Synerchomai” has written a very good post called “Missional Because We’re Sent.” As you can probably tell from the title of this post, Tim is writing about living as those who are sent by God into the world.
I love that Tim is writing about this subject. Well, I love that anyone is writing about this subject, but especially Tim because the focus of his blog (like the focus of my blog) is gathering together with our brothers and sisters in Christ. But, like I’ve also learned, Tim has discovered that it’s difficult to talk about gathering without also talking about being scattered into the world.
Here’s a small part of Tim’s post:
What really struck me was that believers who otherwise would have had nothing to do with one another were becoming excited about collaborating together to proclaim and demonstrate the gospel.
From this meeting together we will scatter, each to our own communities. That is our missional function. We’ll hope to gather again, to build one another up in a way that is truly organic. There’s something here I don’t quite understand: how we long to be together as brothers and sisters, yet we are sent out into the communities where God has placed us.
I think Tim is investigating something (or 2 things) that God builds into all of his children: a desire to gather together and a desire to go to others. Sometimes, we live as if these are exclusive issues, even giving special names (like “missionary”) to those who are called to go, while us normal Christians are called to go.
But, in reality, and like Tim says, we ARE all called to go into the world. We’re all sent by God as missionaries wherever we are.
Sure, God sends some around the world or across the country. He doesn’t send us all around world or across the country, but he does send us all.
So, the question is not, “Am I sent?” The question is, “Where am I sent?” or perhaps even better, “To whom am I sent?”
These are questions that we should all consider. Our brothers and sisters in Christ can help us with these questions when we gather together. But, we can only live them out when we scatter.
Talking about being sent is not enough; we must live sent.
So, where are you sent? To whom are you sent?
Google Reader is dead. Long live Feedly!
In case you haven’t heard, Google is killing Google Reader on July 1, 2013. That’s only a couple of months away. If you’re like me and use Google Reader daily to keep up with many (too many) blogs, then this news may have come as a shock.
(By the way, in case you don’t know, Google Reader is a feed reader. It’s a way to keep up with new blog posts – as well as other new items published on the internet from many different sources.)
When I first heard the news, I was a little shocked then perplexed… What would I do about all those blogs? I certainly can’t surf to each one of them to see if anything new had been added. So, I asked on Facebook, “What should I use now that Google Reader is being killed off?”
I received several suggestions and looked a few briefly.
Then, I tried Feedly, and I LOVE IT! Seriously.
(No, I’m not getting anything in return for saying this, and no one has asked me to review or recommend Feedly.)
In fact, I think I like Feedly better than Google Reader. If Google announced today that they changed their mind about killing off Google Reader, I would not change back.
If you use Google Reader, I’d recommend looking into Feedly. Feedly will automatically sync to your Google Reader account, and you will not have to do anything to pull in your RSS feeds.
If you decide to try it, let me know what you think.
Seventh Blogiversary!
I started blogging seven years ago on March 21, 2006. On that day, I published two different posts: “Welcome!” and “Questions.” I wrote very sporadically for the next few months, writing about 80 posts through the middle of November. Then, beginning in November, I begin publishing posts regularly.
Since that day seven year ago, I’ve published over 4,000 posts. But, to be honest, that’s not very impressive to me. If this site was nothing more than 4,000 posts that I had written, then I would have stopped publishing this blog a long time ago.
Why do I keep publishing posts for this blog? Because of the 26,000 comments that have been left on this blog since I started it seven years ago. 26,000! That’s more than 10 comments per day average.
And, that’s one of the main reasons that I keep writing and publishing posts here. The comments and interaction and discussion that happens here are more important to me than the posts themselves.
In fact, I’ve often written posts that were little more than extended questions in order to hear from some of my readers. I remember once when someone I know here (“in real life”) said that he read my blog post, but that I didn’t really say anything; I just asked questions. I asked him if he read the comments, and he said, “No.” I told him that he missed the best part of that post. (And, no, I don’t remember which post it was… it could have been any one of hundreds of them.)
So, in the blogiversary post, I want to say, “Thank you!” I continue to enjoy blogging because of you. Thank you for reading; thank you for commenting; thank you for emailing; thank you for anything.
You are amazing! You are the reason that I continue to publish this blog seven years later.