In praise of the cockroach or at least grudging respect

A couple of weeks ago I talked about how the church should be like a cockroach in a growingly hostile world.  Some readers found the idea of pouring out 5 gallons of cockroaches on the floor somewhat disquieting.  What was the term that was used?  Oh, yes, “full body shiver”.  The Bible uses a number of animals to illustrate some truths.  Some are becoming like being a sheep, some are not like cunning as a serpent.  Our personal disdain for roaches should not prevent us from appreciating these marvels of creation and learning from them.  C. S. Lewis points out that we have imagined angels with bird wings and demons with bat wings not because birds are more holy than bats, but because of our own preference.  So, continue to hate roaches, at least the ones in the house, but let’s learn a lesson from them about what the church could be like.

____Amazing Facts about Roaches that Churches need to imitate.

1.) A Cockroach Can Live for Week Without Its Head

How long would the average church member survive if they were separated from the local leaders of their congregation?  While Jesus is the head of the church and the believer, most church members are dependent on the church leaders to spoon-feed them in their faith.  We need to help our people grow to be able to manage without us. 

2.) A Cockroach Can Hold Its Breath for 40 Minutes

Privation is not something we are good at and will not be tolerated by our members.  By use of the “seeker driven” approach to ministry we have created whole congregations that are utterly focused on their own interests.  If by some chance they are not happy over almost anything they will find a church somewhere that will “meet” their needs.  We need to train our people that the life of the church is not about them and that they do not always have to have their way.

3.) They Can Run Up to Three Miles in an Hour

Compared to body size that would be like a man running about 70 MPH or a sub one-minute mile.  How quickly can churches make the decision to take advantage of opportunities?  I know of a committee that took two years of discussion about a project before they could agree to pray for its success.  We do not need to act rashly or in ways that compromise the truth, but there are occasions in which we need to move more quickly that we do.

4.) Newborn German Cockroaches Become Adults in as Little as 36 Days

The maturation process for believers is often slow by design or to be more accurate as a by-product of the design of our churches.  We have church members that still act infantile in regard to their faith, service and life.  We need to emphasis that maturating in faith, including making new disciples is the baseline expectation.

5.) A One-Day-Old Baby Cockroach Can Run Almost as Fast as Its Parents

Baby cockroaches are really small, like the size of a spec of dust.  Nevertheless, they travel well.  What we often do with new Christians is try to lock them in a “Christian Ghetto” cutting off all the connections with their network of nonbelievers.  Rather than sheltering new believers away let’s go with them in their old circle and join them in making disciples. 

6.) The Cockroach Has Shown an Ability to be a Survivor

The radiation that it takes to kill a roach is about 15 times what will kill a human.  What if our church and our members were a little less likely to fall apart when faced with hardship?  Despite the millions spent to try to kill roaches they are in every community.  That is a worthy goal for the church.

7.) There are More Than 4,000 Different Cockroach Species Worldwide

They range from the arctic to the tropics and can adapt to almost any environment and survive and thrive anywhere.  What a message for our church planting mindset.  Look at the place in your community where you think a church would not do well.  If we think like roaches we would see that as an opportunity. 

8.) Cockroaches are social and they swarm.

As if you didn’t know it roaches live and do their thing together.  They actually are beneficial to each other.  What if the church membership was swarms of like-minded individuals that worked for a common goal?

I’m not saying you should like cockroaches or compare your churches or Christian friends to roaches.  However, in this amazing creation we see some attributes that we can imitate in our lives as disciples.