I recently came up to Kentucky to take two j-term classes at Southern. I forgot how much I loved this place. Louisville, Kentucky is by far one of the coolest places I have lived, and I’ve lived quite a few places. It has a real unique flavor to it.
For lunch today I hit up one of my favorite Louisville Originals, El Mundo. It’s this awesome Mexican place that could hold its own even in the streets of San Antonio, Texas. I ordered the lunch combo, took a seat, and admired the unique atmosphere as I awaited my tasty meal. They called out my name, and as I picked up my plate the cook made sure to mention, “Be careful, the plate’s very hot.” Which of course, drew my attention even more so the food that would soon be in my belly.
Taking the plate in one hand, I swung by the counter that held the silverware and I grabbed a fork, knife, and napkin, and made my way back to my table. I sat down, took a deep breath, and I caught myself in this paused moment… realizing and admiring the perfect messiness of my plate.
There was a carne asada filled burrito nestled right next to a cheese enchilada, both covered in enchilada sauce with melted cheese. This was complemented by a mound of black beans and Spanish rice, with a little scoop of diced tomatoes mixed with cilantro. The whole plate seemed unified by a layer of sprinkled cheese scattered across the plate with a light line of sour cream curving from side to side to complete the aesthetic appeal. Is your mouth watering?! Because it should be!
This plate was completely messy, but completely perfect, all at the same time.
I can’t help but reflect on the messiness of the church. As a minister it is so easy to get caught up in the programmatic nature of the church. We have a stinkin program for EVERYTHING… and this inevitably leads pastors to evaluating their success, or their effectiveness, by the smoothness of these programs playing themselves out.
We fall into this pit of thinking church has to be pretty, as if God could only move in a church that has clear cut lines. In this model church becomes an event that has to be well planned. While I am definitely a proponent of a church service being well planned and having a natural flow to the service, I am adamantly against a church service that might as well invite you to sit back and grab a popcorn and coke as you prepare to be entertained on the level of a downscaled U2 concert.
We cannot be so caught up with having all of our ducks in a row that we miss doing effective ministry.
Christ does not beautify the church by making it neat and pretty. He does not beautify the church by only inviting those from cookie cutter homes to join the festivities. He makes the church beautiful by showing his amazing grace and mercy to a completely undeserving people.
He unites Jews and Gentiles, Blacks and Whites, Hispanics and Asians… he unites intact homes with broken homes… he unites preppy people with biker people, tatted up people with white collar people, hip hoppers with punk rockers, and the list could go on and on. He takes the messiest, most undeserving people, and makes them complete. This is what makes the church beautiful.
Will you join me in celebrating the perfect messiness of the church?
Maybe if we celebrate this then we will be more effective in reaching the poor and broken hearted, the orphans and the widows, the absentee fathers and the drug addicted mothers, the homosexuals and the hookers… maybe if we celebrate this, then we can start making progress in doing our part in bringing God’s kingdom, for His glory.
Let’s stop getting so caught up in the wrong things, and let’s join together in worshiping Christ as a unified group of jacked up messy people. Maybe the worship won’t have an amazing entertainment factor to it… But, hey, I would rather worship with people who are spiritually poor, broken hearted, understanding of mercy, and hungering to know God more over a well polished group of modern day Pharisees any day of the week!
Thank God for his perfect messiness.
Rid Yourselves of Hypocrisy
7 years ago
2 comments:
I really like this blog. It makes me think about programming in ministry. Many times I feel like we try to do things backwards. We find a building, pull people who are not happy in their current church, implement a 5 step program to a perfect church, and then try to fit God in somewhere in between. In reality, we should be seeking what God desires first, connecting to those who need to be reach, and for Him to provide the building, whether it be a beautiful detail church or a barn shed. Many times we feel like these programs are what allow God to be most “effective.” When we are actually step by step pushing Him aside and saying to Him “we know best.”
We also fall to the false assumption that what works at one church or in one ministry will work everywhere; therefore, we jump on the band wagon break down the process into a step by step program and begin to try to mimic it (as to say…if we meet all 5 steps we have the perfect ministry and/or church….now we are becoming like the Pharisees checklisting our way into pleasing God..not possible.) This makes me question if we are trying to short cut our way through ministry or pat ourselves on the back for measuring ministry success based on numbers? (okay so a little off topic…and that is for God to judge what we have done)
The other aspect is we try to meet a need that does not exist (we think..it’s a great program; therefore, we have to use it..). We stop listening to the needs of others and stop praying for God desires but keep on pushing with our own agenda. We got to get over this idea of God needing us (because you know we got this all figured out..right?). He doesn’t…just like he doesn’t need our 5 step programs. We act as if he can’t be known in people’s lives without our programs or us. Or (my favorite it) if our ministry or church does not look like X certain way then we are just not being lead by God. (Can we get out of the box? Don’t get me wrong I know not every idea outside of the box is Godly) As to be clear I am not say that God does not want to use us because he does ( he definitely wants us to have a relationship with Him and others, to minister, to glorify Him) but He does not need us in order to be known (just take a look around you..He’s there).
To me the question is what are we doing to reach those who do not know Christ? What relationship are we building with them? (and yes that takes time) We perceive being involved in their (those lives who don’t know Christ) “messiness (per say)” as a reflection upon us as not being “perfect” Christians. When if we would get “dirty (per say)” and get over what we romanticizing to be the “perfect” church or ministry, we would see God’s ministry and that this is where He is perfecting us to more like Him.
I guess what I am saying I believe is that so many times we get caught up (whether we want to admit it or not) more believing in the programs are what brings people to know Christ rather than Christ Himself.
I also agree with you on this. A lot of times we like to look at the people coming into the church and which groups we are to put them in before we even get to know the person. Instead we need to look at the heart of each and every person that walks through the church doors. No matter where they have come from or where they have been, Christ loves them for who they are. He wants us as a body of Christ to reach out to those who need to feel his love. Jesus didn't go to the towns and look only for those who had money or were popular or had the biggest and best of everything. He went to those who were sinners and thieves. Those who would rather spit in His face before they would believe in His everlasting life.
I also agree with you on how our services should be every week. We do tend to get into a routine of doing things and lose the main reason why we are there. Just like you I believe that there shouldn't be just one way to praise God. But, just as long as we know who we are praising and we are not praising Him for our own glory but for His! Yes! What a perfect mess He has created! Young and old, rich and poor, all coming together to worship His name!
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