Loving the fat smelly old woman

Our portrayal of the people Jesus healed, served and taught as being lovely, quaint and dear people is a disservice to our ministry and the kingdom.  In our mind’s eye we have depicted the people with whom Jesus interacted in an almost universally positive light.   Only Judas, the high priest, and the Romans are imagined as not being nice.   I think this causes us to have a false narrative about the folks we will deal with as we follow Christ. 

In Luke 13:10-21, we see Jesus in a synagogue for the last time in Luke's gospel.  On this occasion Jesus meets a woman who as result of the work of the demonic has for 18 years been crippled.   Jesus heals her. It is Jesus's default setting to have mercy.  We might recall the ancient prayer that reads, “But Thou art the same Lord, whose property is always to have mercy”.   We might assume that in some way this woman had opened herself up to the power of the demonic.  At some point in her life she had, perhaps, given herself over to the powers of evil and the demon took control, twisted her and held her. Jesus simply heals her without any expectation for her to clean up her life, reform her ways or realign herself spiritually. She may have been a mess, but Jesus didn't care. He simply healed her. She, and others Jesus healed, are presenting in our art and imagination as lovable people. The pictures I've seen depicting this occasion portray her as a grandmother who might be on her way to bake cookies.

But maybe she wasn’t like that.  Maybe she was like a lady I met this week.  She lives in a shabby, run-down trailer in a swampy part of Florida.  She came to the door with a broom, with which she beat at her dog, but if she had mounted it and flown off it would have fit Hollywood central casting.  When she opened the door the smell of body odor and dog feces was overwhelming.  Her conversation was laced with profanity; she seemed to live with a low-grade anger that boiled over into fury quickly and easily.  She disliked people of color and “other foreigners”; she hated the cars on the road and even the trees beside the road.  Her hair was greasy and needed washing, (apparently she burned her bra in a 1960’s protest and never replaced it), she wore a thin, dirty “wife beater”.  Her face was marked by anger and facial hair.   Maybe this is what the woman in the synagogue was like.  And Jesus saw the need beyond the symptoms and His default setting of mercy moved Him to act. 

The glory of Christ is manifested in His acts of power.  But it is also manifested in that He expressed His mercy to the most undeserving people, all of us, including those who never respond to that love and mercy.  We have no evidence that this healed woman became a disciple of Jesus.  Perhaps this woman held onto that which enabled the demon to dominate her and she never responded to Christ’s love.  Christ, far too kind to impose Himself, accepts that His love is at times unrequited.   The objects of His love can be most objectionable. 

As a disciple of Jesus, if I really want to be like Him, I must understand that no one should be outside of my heart’s reach.  This must include the awkward teen that strives for attention to the point of annoyance, the arrogant elitist so convinced of his superiority that they would be a racist but for the fact they consider everyone their lesser, the social and relational leech that demands and demands and then demands more, never lifting a finger to help themselves or offering a word of thanks, or the unhygienic old woman living in filth of a home and perhaps a heart.  

But I only want to deal with people that are nice and responsive and grateful and interesting.  This is not about walking in someone else’s shoes to try to understand them.  That can degenerate into so much psychobabble and lead to patronizing condescension.  No, what I must do is by the power of the Holy Spirit have my default setting reordered so that my first response is to have mercy.  I can’t do it by myself; this must be the gift of grace.  It will only come as I die to self and live for and in Christ.  What I can do is make that choice and ask for forgiveness for my past attitudes and seek the Holy Spirit’s judgment and help.  

Six steps to growing a small church

I recently attending a lecture by Dr. Larry Griffin the President of Midsouth Christian College (http://midsouthchristian.edu).  Larry’s college has developed a coaching/mentoring program called Rediscovering the Dream.  This is a yearlong discovery, or Rediscovery, of God’s plan for the local church, especially smaller churches.  What they have put together is really good stuff.  They are kingdom minded, servant-spirited and are focusing on helping churches that are often over looked.  If your church has hit a plateau, or is in decline, I recommend that you call the college about “Rediscovering the Dream”.  _{I am not compensated in anyway for this endorsement.}  

During the lecture Larry outlined six key elements that are present in growing churches.  These are aspects that are available to almost any congregation.  They are not easy; in fact, they demand high levels of commitment and sacrifice, but these are available to any congregation regardless of size, budget or location.  Larry, being a good preacher uses alliteration for the sake of memory. And being a preacher myself I use his outline and fill in my own material, so if you don’t like it blame me, if you do blame Larry.

• Prayer

This is likely the hardest part of growing a church.  Going through the motions of prayer are actually pretty easy, but passionately praying about what matters to God is a different thing all together.  God so passionately loved the world He sent His beloved Son to the horrors of the cross.  In most churches we pray very little about  evangelizing the lost.  In most churches the prayer list is little more than who’s who of the sick.  I am saving my rant on ‘church prayer lists” for another time.  We may need to begin with prayers of repentance that we have not been praying about what matters most to God.  (May I offer a “Cycle of Dangerous Prayers” http://beyondharan.blogspot.com/2016/03/a-cycle-of-dangerous-prayers.html)

In prayer we must wrestle, recognize, and submit to the Lordship of Christ in our church.

• People

A church will NEVER EVER out grow its leadership.  Therefore you must have a core of people committed to growing.  There must be people willing to make the sacrifices that are necessary for growth.  Ideally, these people will be your formal and recognized leaders.  If  the formal leadership is not committed to growth there will come a point of conflict over the changes growth causes.  In that day all parties involved will have to make some difficult decisions. Those people who are committed to the church’s evangelism and discipleship must be an inter-supportive team.  That team needs to be of no less than three highly dedicated people.  They will need to have relationships with each other that go far beyond their official roles or positions. 

• Perspective  

I once visited a church that was in the midst of a poorly managed and drawn out renovation.  In the entryway of the church materials for the renovation were stored.  In itself this is a bad idea, but to make matters worse among those stored items was a salvaged commode.  Yes, the first thing a visitor would see when they walked in was a used commode sitting off to one side.  However, when I asked the leaders about the commode they couldn’t remember if it was still there or not.  What we see frequently we do not see in detail.

You may not store a used commode in your foyer, but it is possible that you see your church so frequently that you fail to notice obvious problems.  We need to learn to look at the church with the eyes of non-believers or visitors.  The only way to do this is to get their input.  We are eager to tell people about our church, we also need to be eager to listen to what they have to say about our church.  (If you would like a simple practical tool to getting perspective contact me.) 

• Plan

When I consult or coach a church I use two questions that are foundational.  “Why are we here?”  And second, “What are we doing about it?”  I am astounded at how many churches have no answer for either of these questions, beyond clichés that are nearly meaningless.  Never do anything without asking, “Why are we doing this?”  Everything a church does must directly relate to the answers for those two foundational questions.  The answers to those two questions are the core of your calling.  If you have a ministry, program or activities that are unrelated to the core calling for your church terminate it A.S.A.P.  Make it a point of thinking things through and being intentional about everything in ministry.

• Programs

What is the difference between plans and programs?  Plans are where we want to go and programs are the things we do to get there.  Programs need to be an outworking of our plans.  Sometimes we have programs because we have a lack of plans.  Here are a few quick points about programs.  First, programs like mayo have a shelf life.  At some point every program will have out lived it’s effectiveness. Check the expiration date on your current programs and see if they need to be tossed out.  Second, programs should never be copied from successful congregations.  Learn from other churches, borrow ideas, and take advice but never just copy programs.  Third, make sure your programs meet the needs in your community and not simply focused on the wishes of your church members.

• Perseverance

Jesus never promised us that it would be easy or quick.  If you want growth in your church they will need Patience and Long Suffering.  Neither of these is the same thing as doing nothing and waiting for things to change.   Patience and long suffering is about the endurance of difficult circumstances and difficult people.  We endure circumstances and people while actively doing the right thing regardless of results.  All the while we are waiting for the Lord to move.  We live in a culture that wants instant results and those results had better be great.  There is a great temptation to try the latest ministry fad in hopes of quick success.  This is a temptation we must resist.

I would like your feedback.  Which of these will be the most difficult for you and your church to implement?

Offer this comment to your critics, but be ready to move.

A friend of mine used to say in response to critics who complained about growing Ministries,  “I like the way we are doing ministry better than the way you are not.”  I think that is a summation or paraphrase of what Jesus said to His critics in Luke 11:14-28.  When we face criticism in the midst of effective ministry that might be a good thing for us to say to those that meaningful ministry offends.

Anytime there is meaningful and productive ministry there will be critics and opposition.  We need not imagine or assume that these critics will come from the enemies of the church. More often they will come from supposed disciples and people within the church.  It is a mistake of Titanic proportions to believe that we can fulfill our calling as a disciple without the opposition and criticism of lukewarm disciples.  Write it in stone, “If you have an effective ministry you will receive false and unfair criticism from some quarter within the church.”  If the leadership of the church rebukes that criticism you have good leaders. If it is allowed, supported, or comes from leadership in the church you are more than likely wasting your time.    Do not give one second trying to work within that system. The goal of such bad leadership is to protect their comfort and the status quo and that will make you as ineffective and lukewarm as they are. Have you noticed by the time we get to the 11th chapter of Luke we almost never see Jesus in the synagogues? He had moved his ministry out.  The effective ministry of Jesus resulted in criticism and false accusations.  If you have been in a bad church and your ministry began to have positive results you very likely experienced this as well.

My deepest personal regret in Ministry has not been the failed projects. I have several of these; bold, creative, and exciting flops. In measurable terms they were a waste of time, energy, and resources. I regret these, but only a little. My biggest regrets are the occasions when in the midst of dramatically growing ministry I faced opposition from those who were threatened by the growth and who were supported by, or in many cases were, church leaders. In attempting to work with them, grow beyond them, or leave graciously, I only allowed the ruin of the good things the Lord had done. I misunderstood what “peaceful” meant and trying to prevent collateral damage to new believers I would acquiesce and walk away. Of the five churches I served in which this happened, the result was not the protection and sustaining of the ministry.   Three of the churches followed bad leaders and have closed the doors and two have become what I call religion clubs*.  If I could go back and have a conversation with my younger self, we would study this passage together and I would tell my younger self, “When good ministry produces opposition from within the church that is when the good fight for the gospel really begins.”

 

When the preacher Duncan shook the dust off his
feet it started the 1935 Dust Bowl 

*A word concerning the difference between the church and a religion Club. In short, the church concerns itself with making disciples and fulfilling the great commission.  A religion club is only focused on it own members.  A religion club is a group of people who gather consistently, typically on Sunday morning, for their own good pleasure.  They will study religious documents, typically the Bible, some religious music and will perform a few rituals. Religion clubs generally do not want a minister who focuses on reaching lost people. Religion clubs do not want a Shepherd or Pastor that will tend the flock and do the unpleasant task of disciplining wayward sheep. Religion clubs prefer a chaplain, someone who will hold their hand in moments of difficulty, tell them they're really wonderful people, and assure them that everything is just fine. The chaplain’s primary job is to meet the wishes and whims of every member of the religion club so that their religious experience can be pleasant on every occasion.  The point of the religion club is primarily about making members feel comfortable about themselves and the club. The conversation of religion clubs generally circulates around how bad people outside their religion Club are, in contrast to what good people the members of the religion club are. The religion club gives lip service to the idea of growing its membership, being a positive influence in the community, and bringing renewal to the moral character of their world.   But this is more pipe dream than reality.  There's little or no genuine repentance of the religion club members for even the most egregious of behaviors. Should the chaplain frequently speak about the sin of hard-heartedness or the selfishness of the members of the religion club he will soon find himself unemployed.

How can you tell if yours is a church or a religion Club?  You might find these questions helpful:

#1 Do the members of your congregation want to be challenged or comforted by the worship and the sermon of the weekly gathering?

#2 Do more than half of the events on your monthly calendar focus on activities for the membership or those outside of the church?  Is there a general expectation that new people will come to the church building and join in scheduled events?

#3 Is it more important to avoid change for the comfort and ease of members or is it more important to endure the discomfort of change in order to more effectively reach those who are outside of the church?

If yours is a religion club here is what you should do:

Go out to the curb outside of the church.  Shake you left foot then your right foot vigorously.  Once the dust is off your feet use those feet to walk away!

The Dentist, Devotions and the Holy Spirit

Not are real pleasant thought is it.

In the upper room discourse Jesus talks about the Holy Spirit and the Greek word is Paraclete. That word is often translated Comforter. One of the problems with translation is that we can assign our understanding to the meaning of a word. In our culture we have taken the word comforter and turned it into something soft, warm, and cozy, like a big fluffy blanket on a cold wintry day. If that is our understanding of the Comforter we badly misunderstand His ministry and roll.
Jesus said, "and when He comes he will convict the world concerning sin, and righteousness, and judgment.”  That is hardly a good description of a soft, warm, and cozy blanket. Allow me to offer a different analogy concerning the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

I have a tooth that I think is going bad. There's a low-grade ache associated with it and a growing sensitivity to things warm and especially to things that are very cold. A couple of years ago when the dentist was working on an adjacent tooth he commented how deep the roots on this tooth were and how they were shaped like a corkscrew or a fishhook. This would make it extremely difficult to ever do a root canal or to extract the tooth.

When I go in to have this repair done the dentist is going to do things to me that are very uncomfortable; he will stab me with a sharp pointy thing, he will drill on me, he may even have to pull things that might tear flesh. None of which will be warm or cozy or soft. But it will be absolutely essential to get to the cause of the problem and to prevent additional decay, additional hurt, and possibly life threatening infections that can go to the heart.

When the Holy Spirit works on my soul and my spirit and confronts me about sin, confronts me about ego and pride, confronts me about my agenda to be first, it is not warm, cozy, or soft. It can at times be quite miserable. The longer I delay the more it's going to hurt. The longer I delay the greater the danger to my soul.
The metaphor of a dentist as an expression of the Holy Spirit is clearly post-biblical.  But it may be more accurate than our concept of what we think when we hear the word “Comforter”.  Consistently through the New Testament the idea of the Holy Spirit’s comfort is associated with the aftermath of repentance. The dull ache and heat sensitivity of my tooth will only be healed, apart from divine intervention, by the painful work of a dentist. The decay of my soul can only be achieved when I find the Holy Spirit painfully dealing with the root problem.