This weekend, church happened in the fellowship in which I am privileged to serve. It occurred by way of my friend and colleague in pastoral ministry here, the Reverend Jeremiah Reeve. He offered a message which was, quite simply, the most clear and challenging presentation of the mission of the Body of Christ that I've heard in a long time. He focused on Martha Grace Reese's trinity of necessary relationships for disciple-making: our relationship with God, our relationship with each other in the Body of Christ, and our relationship with those who have yet to meet Jesus. (See her book, Unbinding the Gospel.) With emphasis on the latter of the three, he noted that the first thing Jesus-followers need to do is to listen to those living far from God. Too often churches presume that we know what yet-to-be-reached people need. All they have to do is to find their way to us, and they'll get what they need. To people outside the Body of Christ, this process and posture sends a message that says, "We don't care about you and what you need," whether we who are church people intend to send that message or not. Reese says, "If you grew up in the church, no matter how cool and young you are, don't assume that you know what people outside the church are thinking or what they want." (Page 74.)
We have to get outside the comfort zone of our church walls and start asking questions and taking notes. We need to listen more than we talk. If the love of Jesus is going to be real to people, it has to start by taking affording them the dignity of taking them and their issues seriously, rather than offering them an aloof assumption that we know everything about what they should need and want.
I commend Pastor Jeremiah's message to you. We hope to have a podcast of the message available soon at www.sikestonfirstumc.org. Or you can contact me by posting a comment on this blog.
The river was great on Sunday; running wild, fast, and clear! I'll see you around the next bend.
Raking Leaves
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Fall is here. The sun is moving towards the edge of the frame where, in
just a few weeks it will hit the bumper rail and start back towards the
other side...
2 years ago
4 comments:
Your description of Jeremiah's Sunday message is exactly correct. He showed us something that was in front of us all along, we just failed to hear and see it. Unfortunately, some of us (myself included) are all too ready to inform and tell others what they need instead of listening to them to discern their needs. Maybe my prayer this week should be that I learn to hear first and respond second.
Through my experience, I've seen that not only do we as Christians have a "know it all" attitude toward non-Christians...but we experience the reverse discrimination that non-christians have about us. They assume that we are pious, judgemental, set in our ways, closed minded....(just to name a few). Sometimes it takes developing a relationship over weeks and months and "LIVING OUT LOUD" your Christianity. By this I mean that you need to pay close attention that YOU are being watched. That the littlest decisions YOU make are being weighed as YOUR character. With each small right decision, trust is built(without words)...walls begin to come down...conversation begins. And then it comes.... "that slow steady rain" that encourages hearts to trust and grow. Because as we know..."A slow steady rain grows more corn than a hail storm." Take YOUR time...get to know somebody a little deeper....pay attention to YOUR character... They sure are!!!
Excellent observations by "diggin' deeper" and "swimmin' upstream"! They capture the heart of Pastor Jeremiah's message; both the sting of truth as to how we Jesus-followers are viewed by others, and the opportunity to allow God to reshape our hearts to align with God's approach to a lost world.
I missed Jeremiah's message Sunday since I was out of town, hopefully I can hear it soon. But even without hearing it, I know where he's coming from.
As I grow in my relationship with Christ I try to keep in mind, "you may be the only bible some people ever read". I spend a lot of time with people who don't know Christ, people who are afraid of God, people who don't feel "worthy" of God's love. They need to feel loveable before they can even begin to experience love. Bringing people to Christ, in my experience, is not an overnight deal, it takes holding their hand and walking with them through life, one step at a time, one day at a time, one life experience at a time.
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