Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Pastor This


A couple years ago I used to lead a small group. We had one girl named Ru who was an amazing evangelist. She brought new people almost every week. After a while though, she started going out with a Buddhist guy she was trying to convert. Also during this time, she began to question parts of her faith that she had taken for granted before. She also began sleeping with her Buddhist boyfriend and I think she was a little ashamed of her lifestyle. Instead of coming to the people who she should have been able to trust the most, however, she ran. Our evangelist eventually stopped coming to group all together. As I've reflected on this and other incidents, it seems to me that people do not see the Church as a safe place to air their dirty laundry. People do not feel accepted if they really let people into their messy, doubting lives. And like Ru, they feel that they must leave the Church to explore their freedom! Why, is this the case?

You know why? Because the Church can't handle messy, searching, questioning people. The Church is threatened by doubters and question askers and intelligently searching people. And I think we're threatened because we just might not have asked that question and the foundation of our own faith may be rocked and split in half from the foundation if we do. So what do we do with doubters? We tell them to doubt outside the Church! We tell them to search elsewhere. And when young people asking questions get shut down, "elsewhere" is exactly where they go.

So here's what I say. Let people be messy in the Church. Allow people who've never felt ok cussing to cuss a little, let people figure out how far the purity line is. Let people drink. Let people mess up. Let people fail. Let people explore, question, search, and be messy, and let them do it in the Church!

The Christian life is not about keeping sin out of Christians. When we focus on getting rid of sin, we ultimately focus on getting rid of sinners. And unfortunately we unknowingly send the message, "Don't come back til you're done asking your questions. You can come back when you don't challenge the status quo."

This is exactly why our churches are filled with people who are dull and boring because they are people that never felt inwardly strong enough to ask the hard questions about God and life. If we want alive people, we need to be a Church that invites people who push the line. We need to be ready to pastor people on the edge of failure and unbelief. If we don't, we will not have sin in the Church, but we will also not have many people. So pastors, if you want alive Christians, then pastor the people who make life challenging. Pastor people who with hands in your face are screaming, "Don't come any closer," because underneath is a heart that says, "I'm so afraid to be loved." Pastor this.

4 comments:

melody joy wilson said...

amen amen amen!

lachicared said...

Word! Thank you for sharing what I myself have been living the past 6 years ...I now know the peace that transcends all my questions..but only because I stopped living "safely"

Jelcy said...

Well said son!

Me said...

BAM! That last paragraph was ON! Amen brotha!