Somewhere between work and presumption

There is a task that needs to be accomplished, or a goal that needs to be met. You believe it’s part of God’s plan. It’s part of His calling on your life. And yet, the goal seems just out of reach. You do everything you know to do, and you just can’t seem to get there. Been there, done that.

Whose responsibility is it to accomplish the things that God calls me to do? His or mine?

I’d like to illustrate this problem with a recent event in our lives. We are missionaries with Global Partners. We have been assigned to Belgium, where Phil is working on his PhD. When we’re given an assignment, we’re also given a certain amount of time to build a team of people who will support us, both prayerfully and financially. During this period of time, we ask people to make “faith promises,” meaning they promise to give a certain amount of money over a certain amount of time in order to cover our projected expenses while we’re on the field. After being in Belgium for four years, we had to come back to the U.S. to “re-fill the coffers,” as some of our support had dropped off. We had been working toward this goal for about a year, and we had less than three months before we were supposed to go back to Belgium. We were still significantly under our target. We were running out of prospects, and, honestly, we were simply tired of asking and we were getting discouraged. I started wondering if I was working too hard and not praying enough. But sitting around praying and waiting for God to do something seemed somehow presumptuous. We had a plan. We were supposed to work the plan. There were more phone calls that could be made; more emails that could be written. We had not completely exhausted all possibilities yet. When people would ask about it, I’d say things like, “Where God leads, He provides.” I believe that, but at the same time I was still thinking about what else I should be doing, at times even questioning parts of our calling that we thought were clear.

I told Phil one day that I feel like we have to walk a fine line between work and presumption. On one side, we work too hard and don’t trust God, trying to accomplish everything in our own strength, and on the other side we sit back and expect God to do it all. Phil corrected my thinking – he said it’s more like a continuum. At one end is us working it all out ourselves, and at the other end is the presumption that God will do everything. Where we live is somewhere between work and presumption. There will always be a tension, but it’s not like an either/or situation, and we don’t have to have perfect balance. Do what is at hand to do, and trust God for the rest. Have I mentioned that my husband is pretty smart?

There is an ending to this story. Well, sort of, because the journey continues. While we were spinning our wheels, worrying about where we were going to find more support, God was working. I kept saying that the money would come from somewhere we didn’t expect. Phil kept saying that maybe we weren’t finding more money because we didn’t need more money. That didn’t make sense to me, because we had trimmed our budget as much as possible, and still didn’t have enough. In the end, we were both right. Seemingly out of the blue, Phil was offered a scholarship that allowed us to reduce our budget significantly. We still have a little bit of work to do, but it seems God did most of it on our behalf. Where God leads, He provides. “Unexpected” really does mean we can't predict what He’s going to do.

“The one who calls you is faithful, and He will do it.” – I Thessalonians 5:24

Get out of the church!

For the last year, my husband, Phil, and I have been traveling around the U.S., speaking in churches about Phil’s research into postmodernism and the church’s response to our changing culture. Many people have told us how “refreshing” and “eye-opening” his presentation is. After one presentation, a lady came to me to ask for some advice. She said that she understood better how young people view the world, and some of the strategies for speaking to them, but she wanted to know how we can even get them to the point of talking to us. I felt like I gave her a partial answer, and I’ve been thinking about it ever since.

What I did tell her, and still believe, is that young people who are not already in the church are not likely to come to the church to hear what we have to say. “Build it and they will come” does not apply to the church today. I also told her there is no “program” that will work in all locations for all groups of people.

I have come to the conclusion that the church needs to get out of the church! This is not a new concept, and is not unique to the postmodern era. However, as often as we’ve been told to do this, I don’t think it’s happening very often in our local churches. Most of the ministries in the local church are aimed at people in the church, with the hope that someone else might accidentally wander in. I’m afraid that if they did wander in, they wouldn’t understand most of our language, and they would feel like an outsider.

How do we get out of the church? I’ve come up with a few ideas that we can do as individuals, and I’ve heard of some things that churches are doing. If you have other ideas, please feel free to share them.

• If you have a job, you are most likely forced to spend some time outside of the church. Make sure you aren’t spending all of your breaks or lunches with the other Christians you found at work. They are your “church club” at work. Spend some time with people who don’t see everything the way you see it.
• Join a club or activity in your community that is not sponsored by a church. You might find some people who have similar interests, but who are not Christians.
• Attend parties given by non-Christian friends or co-workers. There may be alcohol at these parties. Go anyway. Be friendly. Talk to people. Jesus attended events hosted by “sinners.” These were the places where people came to him and asked questions. The only people who came to him in the synagogue or the temple were religious people.
• A growing church we heard of in Florida has members who go to the beach on weekends, where they give away free drinks and talk to people on the beach.
• We heard of a pastor who accidentally started a Bible study at his local Starbucks. He went there every morning and read his Bible while drinking coffee. Eventually another regular customer asked him a question about the Bible because he had seen him reading it regularly. That one man grew into a group of people who came once a week to ask questions and learn from the Bible. (An interesting aside about this – this wouldn’t have happened if the pastor had been reading his Bible on a Kindle or other electronic device. The other customer came to him because he saw the Bible. I’m definitely not against reading the Bible on electronic devices, I just think it’s an interesting point.)

It is important to know that your purpose in doing these things is not to preach to people or otherwise try to convince them to convert to Christianity. You are simply a witness to the change Christ has made in your life. That’s all Jesus asked us to do (Acts 1:8). Let people come to you with questions, and let the Holy Spirit convict them as you witness to what He has done in your life. On the other hand, if you’re so quiet about it that people don’t know you’re a Christian at all, your witness will be meaningless. You will be seen simply as a good, moral person, not as one who has been changed by the power of Christ in you.

After giving all this advice to everyone else, I realize that I have done very few of these things myself. Ironically, my excuse is that so much of my time is taken up with ministry. I am not an outgoing, talk-to-strangers kind of person. But I do care about people who are hurting and looking for answers. If I preach it, I should live it. Therefore, I resolve to take steps to get out of the church. What about you?

WHO IS YOUR SAMARITAN?

I've been thinking about Samaritans lately. Not that I know any actual Samaritans, but I have a feeling there are people who, in my mind, could wear the label. Not necessarily the "good" kind of Samaritan - I mean those people who don't believe in God in the same way I do. Here's what I've been thinking:

The Parable of the Good Samaritan

Luke 10:25-37 New International Version (NIV)

²⁵ On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

²⁶ “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”

²⁷ He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

²⁸ “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”

²⁹ But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

³⁰ In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. ³¹ A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. ³² So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. ³³ But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him.³⁴ He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. ³⁵ The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’

³⁶ “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

³⁷ The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”

Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

In Jesus’ time, the Jews hated the Samaritans. Basically, they were Jews who had bad theology, and were therefore heretics in the eyes of those who upheld the Jewish laws. In another story, in John 4, Jesus talks with a Samaritan woman. In this story he notes that the Samaritans worship God incorrectly, but it’s not the central issue for him. The woman is central.

In the story of the Good Samaritan, people are again central to the story. He does not comment on who in the story has correct theology or even on who might be a “sinner” in the eyes of the Law. His point is that the heretic was the person who pleased God.

I believe that God loves people more than he loves his laws. He gave us the Law for our benefit, not the other way around. When we hurt people in order to defend God’s Law, we are accomplishing the exact opposite of God’s purpose. When zeal for the Law overrides love for people, there is something wrong. At the risk of being repetitive, let me say it again: God loves people. Jesus died on the cross for people, not for the Law.

The title of this piece is, “Who is your Samaritan?” Which person or group of people do you attack because they are living outside of God’s Law or because you think they have heretical beliefs? Jesus never attacked or condemned the Samaritans or anyone else who lived outside the Law. On the other hand, he had an awful lot to say to the Pharisees, who prided themselves on upholding the Law.

Currently, we have a political situation in our state in which Christians have been urged to vote a certain way, in order to uphold God’s law. That’s not what bothers me. What bothers me is the way Christians have treated those who disagree with them, both in word and deed. We are attacking people for whom Christ died. We are condemning people God has called us to reach out to.

Can we find a way to uphold our beliefs and still love people who disagree with us? Jesus, who has the right to judge every one of us, was not sent to condemn us, according to John 3:17. It is not our place to condemn the world. Jesus told his disciples in John 6:8 that this is the job of the Holy Spirit: “And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.” (NASB) Our job is only to be a witness to what God has done in our lives.

Who is more pleasing to God? The person whose theology is wrong, but treats people with love, or the “Christian” who attacks them?

Who is your Samaritan?