Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Apocryphal Renderings

I don't know whether you know this or not, but apparently there is a little known text that goes like this:

As Jesus was about to ascend into heaven, he said to his disciples, "as soon as you make disciples of me, forget everything else that I have said about the poor, the hungry, the lost. Forget about the sheep, they can feed themselves. Worry about yourself, your kind. As soon as you grow my church to be about the size that you want it - stop. Put a hedge around it, insulate yourselves from the outside and wait. I'll be back. And before I go - don't let too many people help others, I don't trust them. Let those who are paid, be paid to do your work."

I know what you're thinking - where did that come from? I don't know either, but it must be there somewhere. I say that because I have been a part of so many discussions this week with others that lead me to believe that we have a real struggle on our hands as the people of God.

When did we get to the point that we were more worried about ourselves than others?

When did we get to the point that we thought that it was the "paid professional's job" to care for our children?

When did we get to the point that we leave a church because we didn't get enough attention?

When did we get to the point that churches will poach, steal, and accept good disciples in the name of church growth instead of fulfilling the Biblical mandate - and I'm not referring to that fictitious one from above.

I don't care what church you are in (I know there are a few exceptions), but we have a lot of work to do. We have got to do a better job of teaching, modeling, preaching about our responsibility to those who are not here. It is not the paid professional's job - only - to care for those who are already here.

And just another thought. When did we get to the point when you were the number one priority?

Those are my thoughts - if you can tell me where to find that text from above, I'd love to see it.

6 comments:

Brett Probert said...

Wow Greg...you hit the nail on the head. I was just having lunch today with a fellow blogger (Chris!) and we were having this conversation nearly EXACTLY! God stuff!

Greg Cox said...

I think this has a lot to do with the empowering ministry issue that I think you are doing with the Romans 12 study.

This is every church though.

Greg Cox said...

I guess a text and story that relates is from the end of Acts 10 and following in Acts 11. Peter is criticized by those on the inside for eating with the uncircumcised.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Keith H. McIlwain said...

The quote may be from Shane Claiborne or Jim Wallis; it seems I read it recently myself.

I agree with you...and you'd be surprised how many conversations just like that I've had recently...and from some unlikely quarters.

We need to hold ourselves accountable to be focused on Jesus & the mission and not us, and we need to hold the laity accountable to be focused on their own responsibilities.

I agree with you...do you have any solutions?

Greg Cox said...

Solutions - I think often times I have solutions or ideas, but its all about implementation.

Preaching I think is a key. Leading others into a model of shared ministry, stephen's ministry, care teams are other ideas.

But it is also about modeling priorities and visioning with the church about what it means to be a church. It may be about moving the PPR to a place where they are ready to accept that a pastor is not going to be at everyone's doorsteps.

Tracy made an interesting observation at Willowcreek last week. 5000 people gathered for worship, and not one of them expects Bill Hybals to show up at their bedside. Interesting.

Keith H. McIlwain said...

Good point.

On another issue you cite ("sheep stealing"), which is a real problem, the ministerial group in Dawson (my previous appt) had a great solution. When someone left one of the churches - mad at the pastor or another layperson or whatever - we would not let them transfer.

It seems cold, but we actually would sit down with them and say, "You're welcome to visit anytime, but that's your church. I'm happy to sit down with you and your pastor and try and help work things out."

The first time we enforced that, it was awkward, but it ended up bearing wonderful fruit. The people of the town knew that the pastors were all on the same team, and that we weren't going to allow silliness or pettiness get in the way of relationships and reconciliation.

You've got to have a pretty tight ministerium to accomplish that (we did, and I miss them a lot!), but it can work. Sadly, some of the biggest churches in our Conference have terrible reputations in this area, and I'm not sure how to deal with that. Too often, we (pastors) enable, even encourage, pettiness. Maybe it's an ego thing.