Ministry Travels at the Speed of Life

I found this post on an old blog of mine that I let die. I still agree with what I said:

Life does not really slow down or pause to give us a chance to "do" ministry. Ministry takes place in the midst of everyday life and everyday conversation. Ministry happens in the midst of work, school, washing dishes etc... It is not some "other" thing or something that we do on the side kind of like some kind of hobby. Ministry is something that does or does not happen in the midst of every relationship we have. I often sit back and ask myself,"Am I keeping up or am I letting life pass me by?"

Evango-Spam

I loathe spam! As I sign into my e-mail each day I am amazed by the sheer amount of spam that I get (upwards of 100 spam a day). I resent spam and any company that sends me spam. First, of all people I don'’t know are abusing my e-mail by sending me thousands of e-mails that I never asked for and don't want. They waste my time in removing them. Spam causes me to miss out on legitimate e-mails that accidentally get sent to the spam folder. With over a hundred spam e-mails a day I have stopped looking through them for real e-mails and I am sure that sometimes real e-mails get tossed.

So what? Why I am I talking about spam? It seems to me that in this world of junk mail, spam, and unwanted phone solicitors that the church sometimes stoops to the world's methods of delivering its precious message. During my time in Spain I have seen well-meaning Christians who are so passionate about getting their message out that they don'’t pause to think that the way they deliver their message might turn people off to exactly that. Often they go about with the same mentality of the spammers, thinking in numbers instead of the person - something like, "I don't care how many I offend with my message because of the one or two who do respond."

What happens is that they end up doing the same thing to people with the Gospel that spammers have done to me with copious emails. The result is then that people end up shutting out the legitimate messages along with the junk because it is all too much to filter, and quite honestly they feel abused. The real message is discarded because it is delivered in a trashy way.

When I was in junior high I got a new Christian rap tape. I was in love with the music and the message. When we were riding around town in our big old seventies Cadillac with no tape player I would hold my boom box up to my head near the window. It looked like I wanted to hear the music right by my head, but the truth is I wanted people in the car next to me to hear the words at the stop light and be touched by the message. Passionate? Maybe. Embarrassing? Definitely. What a horrible way to transmit a message! Blast loud music at people while they are sitting in their cars. Was it loving? Spirit lead? More helpful than hurtful? I don't think so.

Spamming our message is the easy way. We can say that we have communicated the Gospel to a vast number of people. If they don't listen, then we can blame them. It takes very little effort and does not make us change the way we live. It does not call for us to genuinely love people and get down and dirty in the realities that people deal with and struggle with in their everyday lives. Loving people is hard. Sometimes, biting our tongue and not saying something is more difficult (and yet, more helpful) than blurting out the four spiritual laws. After all James said,

"Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it he will be blessed in what he does.

If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless."” (James 1:22-26)

Some closing thoughts:

-We live in a world where the manner in which we deliver our message is a message in itself.

-The world is inundated with information so we must be creative and seek ways to deliver the good news in ways that speak louder than just words.

-The message that we have should be incorporated into everything we do and say in our daily life and not just something that is reserved for accosting strangers in the park or those brave souls who are still willing to go to an evangelistic church activity.

-We need to discern when we should speak and when we should be silent. We are not part of a Christian factory that is producing Christian clones. We are organic, we are a body that is striving to live like Jesus, and Jesus himself had times of both silent ministry and public ministry.

-We must avoid the bait and switch tactic (basically lying). That is, purposely attracting people to one thing, while knowing full well that we are going to change gears and bombard them with the gospel when they are not looking.

-People are treated by spammers and advertisers as just numbers. There is no love, only using others to serve the spammer’s own purposes. That is the opposite of how Christians should treat people who are of the highest value to a loving and just God.

I leave you with three quotes from St. Francis of Assisi:

"While you are proclaiming peace with your lips, be careful to have it even more fully in your heart."

"It is no use walking anywhere to preach unless our walking is our preaching."

"Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words."

Love and Obedience

I am currently reading The Jesus Creed, By Scott McKnight. I was struck by the following excerpt as someone who is not only Christian by as a "spiritual leader". It is easy to get caught up following the law (even the law of love) but miss the point (actually loving). The following excerpt is from Pages 52-53.

"GETTING CAUGHT BY JESUS

Jesus tells parables that catch his readers in the web of a moral dilemma so they can learn. A good example of this is the Parable of the Good Samaritan.

An "expert in the Torah" asks Jesus how to inherit eternal life. Jesus says, "What does the Torah say?" The expert answers, probably because he has heard the Jesus Creed from others: "Love your God... and love your neighbor as yourself." Jesus says, "A+!"

Riding a little wave of Jesus´approval, he gets a little chesty like a first-year theology student: "Well then, who is my neighbor?" What the scribe is really asking is not just "who is my neighbor?" but "who is pure and who is not?" He´s asking about the classification system. The "who is pure" question is also a "who is better loved?" question. Knowing that the question masks a larger concern, Jesus tells storyto catch this expert in the web of a moral dilemma so we can all learn.

On a trip from Jerusalem to Jericho a man is attacked by a gang of robbers, leaving him nearly dead. A priest and a temple assistant (a Levite) come upon him seperately, but fearing impurity from contact with a corpse, the skirt to the other side of the road. They are following the Torah, mind you. One of Moses´books spells it out: Dead bodies spread impurity. In another of his books, priests are told not to contract corpse impurity unless from the body of a "close relative." If close enough to a corpse to cast one´s shadow over the corpse, the person casting the shadow becomes impure. So, they suffle to the other side of the road. This is not heartlessness so much as it is obedience. Therein lies the learning.

There is not a Jew who hears Jesus´parable who thinks the priest (or the Levite) is doing anything but what the Torah regulates. The irony of this little plot is that in "obeying" the Torah the priest and Levite are disobeying what is at the bottom of the Torah: loving others. Ironically, it is a stereotyped character that does what is right: a Samaritan. Samaritan in this parable stands for social hostility and religious heresy. The priest and the Levite get caught while the Samaritan gets the teacher´s thumbs up.

If we are to love God and love others, Jesus is asking his audience, what happens when love-of-God-as-obeying-Torah (the Shema of Judaism) comes into conflict love-of-God-as-following-Jesus (the Shema of Jesus)? That´s a tough one, for all of us. But for Jesus the answer is clear: Loving God properly always means we will tend to those in need.

A plot within a plot. Jesus catches anyone who attends to the Torah (like avoiding impurity) but fails to attend the person in need."