ENGAGE

Grace and Peace,

I’m writing as a man concerned for and standing in the gap for our community! I believe you all to be sincere men in your desire to please God, dedicated to lead His people with wisdom and grace, and faithful to your calling. I believe that in your heart of heart, you desire to impact this community with the redeeming and transforming power of the gospel for the glory of God. I am also encouraged to hear that so many men who are concerned for the fate of the community, the plight of its people, reparations of its families, and the future of its children.

. . .Hear my heart. . .

Today, feel compelled to encourage you one and all to move from passive dreaming and praying to active obedience, together. I don’t confess to have things figured out, but it is unsettling and dishonoring to see so many “churches” in one area with no fellowship as believers or on mission together. I mention this because I came from a similar area, from a neighborhood in which the churches were plentiful and occupied by members who had no stake in the community, no mind for mission, no vision for really reaching the community with the gospel and thus no impact in the lives of broken people. I was raised in a church that would go to Palestine, Cleburn, and Allen, TX to “fellowship”, but did not partner with churches on the same street for any mission-al purpose. We would send money and people to convention and congress, but leave our ministry context without the gospel. We had a token offering for missions on fifth Sunday, but wouldn’t engage those right outside of our door. Is this not neglect and hypocrisy of the worst kind? Most churches in my neighborhood were the same way, and I fear that this may be the case here as well as other “inner-cities”. I don’t know if you feel that you are alone, if you are prideful, if you are uncertain as to how to proceed or if you are concerned for your church building than God’s people. You may be just plain old exhausted, but the work is as you go preach, and as you lead, equip for ministry, be HIS witnesses until He returns. A s long as we ignore one another, we bring no one and no honor to our God.

I confess that I used to think that I had ministry figured out and I’ve cried, broken through the steps of anger at church and its leaders for not being mission-ally engaged and present in the inner-cities. I’ve been broken over the broken-ness of the cities people. I have been “hot” at the hypocrisy of supporting missions a world away without concerning ourselves with those in our own neighborhood, and I’ve been withdrawn because of a world-view that convinced me that things are not going to change. For a while, I thought the church was worthless, a bad idea that’s not worth the emotional energy of praying for or presenting the word of God to. At times, I figured that God’s people were functionally hopeless. I know now that conceited and overly critical, I truly believed that my wife and I were the only Christians in the area that are really concerned with the will of GOD, but God is GREAT! He’s taught me that bi-vocational ministry has unique staffing and scheduling challenges that may hinder those with the position of pastor from fulling their ministry. Unique challenges restrict access to one another. God is teaching me that getting around to meeting one another, coordinating or cooperating with one another and brainstorming about what God can do through the people of God to be salt and light here, can be a challenge in itself.

Shepherd, although I may not have expressed these thoughts to you in the past, I still apologize for my private conceits and anger. There have been times where I have entertained the idea of planting another church right here, however, I’m convinced that another church is not what THIS neighborhood needs, rather it needs to redeemed people of God to become in tune with the will of God that none should perish but all should come to repentance. I’m convinced that if the good samaritan were more than just a Sunday school lesson to our children, but we teach God’s people to love God and love their neighbors as themselves, three things would happen in our communities,
    
     1) people would run into Jesus,
     2) people would have no justification to mock church folk and by extension the God that we "serve" as being irrelevant, unloving and hypocritical, and
     3) lives would be changed as the word of God begins to work its way into their lives through the discipleship process.

I’m writing, begging, that we chase the priorities of God. If truth be told, we all are in need of repentance for letting those in our ministry context struggle, search, die, without giving them the gospel. For not equipping our congregations to do real ministry outside of the doors of the church, for considering ourselves alone in a neighborhood with over multiple  “churches”. We need forgiveness for NOT seeking cooperation, for NOT seeking the peace of the city. I pray that God forgive us for keeping up the status quo, and NOT seeking the salvation of those around us. When all is said and done, God is not glorified in our fish dinners, pastor and wife anniversaries, church annual days, all day “church” services, or fund raisers, He is glorified in His people delighting in Him and being salt, light, holy yet approachable, distinct yet engaged, honest yet graceful Christians.

I understand some of you may read this and write me off as unteachable, angry, or conceited, I assure you this is no longer the case. I am not trying to tell you how to do “your”job, however as a man responsible for my actions before a holy God, I can no longer watch the hurts of people without trying to give them the good news. I can no longer just pray that God bring the leaders together to minister. I can no longer make excuses while waiting for the so-called church to join the mission of God. The gospel changes people, and God uses redeemed people to change homes, streets, blocks, and hoods.  He is more passionate for His own glory than any of us could hope to be and He alone is the one who deserves it.

-Quest

LORD please, don't let be our reputation be a worthless ruin.

Holes

"We’ve got a plague of holes in our theology, holes in our worship, and holes in the thinking of the folks in our churches. Holes in our mission, holes in in our witness, we have good intentions but a glance at our efforts show that something is missing. Is it love? Is it faith? Is it compassion? Or is the secret truth that we hate HIM? Is it energy? Vitality? Are we equipped to see reality? Is the simple truth that the church folk are happy and unconcerned with the plight of the unredeemed? Do you go to church once a week just to see and be seen!? While God is still on mission, and God is still omniscient, are we satisfied stuffing our own faces on religion?"- Quest-boogie, Quest-ions

Church boy sits in weekly service, and listens to repetitive expressions that we use in our gatherings to describe and honor our King, our LORD, and our redeemer. Listening in, I can’t help but ask the question . . .is this it?


Is this what the preacher tries to convince me to give my time, talents, and treasures to support? Is this the purpose of the church? Is this all I can expect from the God they told me about? Is all that I can expect from the faith, just 2 hours on a Sunday morning, most of it wasted with mundane chatter, listless "worship", low views of both God and scripture? Is our structure so removed from the God that we were told about that we breed people who go through the motions of worship service without engaging God in worship or others in service? Is this what Christ dwelled among us for? Is this the call of ministry, rhetoric? Are we content with a "Christianity" without Christ, community or compassion? Historic articles of faith without action. "Worship" without wonder? Religion without relationship?

I hear us describe the infinite, omniscient, holy, God who created heaven and earth, as "alright", merely "good all the time", "my homie" and any other number of distorted cliches.

How dare we reduce the incomprehensible God with whom all things are possible to an understatement? How dare we allow ourselves to hold and propagate such a low view of GOD? Have we really encountered his goodness? Do we really comprehend the value of His finished work? Is there anything of substance to our faith or is God just the stuff of cliches or is he more?

Church boy listens to our praise and our worship and observes our impact, or lack there-of, in our communities and remembers Fredrick Douglas' critique of the church,

"A worship that can be conducted by persons who refuse to give shelter to the house less, to give bread to the hungry, clothing to the naked, and who enjoin obedience to a law forbidding these acts of mercy, is a curse, not a blessing to mankind. The Bible addresses all such persons as "scribes, pharisees, hypocrites, who pay tithe of mint, anise, and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgement, mercy and faith." from Fredrick Douglas', What to the Negro is the 4th of July?

Is this us? Have we substituted being "wise" and common sense for being loving to our neighbor?

Are we truly concerned with the being witnesses to His worth and His person? Are we living as disciples, or merely engaging in self-centered entertainment? I want more! or is that less?

"We've got holes in our search and, holes in our purpose, holes in the revolving doors of our churches."

I wonder, is the reason that we aren't as effective as we could be is because we've erected barriers to the faith? Are we so consumed with programs, busy-work and professionalism, that we've lost sight of the gospel, community, life together, and maturity? Have we organized the organism into a static robot of status and structure? Have we lost sight of our purpose as the redeemed people of God in the world? Are we wasting the time instead of redeeming it? Are we waiting for the return of the Lord before we begin living in obedience? Are we really going to hide in a dark world without living a public faith that touches life where it happens. WE CAN BE MORE!

In the times where life slows down some, a sneaking suspicion peeks through the calm that there is a life that is more intentional, more selfless, more sacrificial, more loving and more authentic, "The good life".

Somewhere in the deep recesses of my soul, beats a desire for something less complicated, less busy, less shallow, less self-absorbed, "The good life". I want less waste and more life, less redundant, more abundant, LIFE less complicated, more simple. A life of loving God passionately, loving others sincerely, loving the body deeply, is that less? Is it more? Is it the key to plugging the, holes?