The Bible is a book that has us cold,  that is, if we read it as having to say something to us instead of to other people.  And that brings me to one of my favorite categories of people in the Bible … the sluggard.  The word just roles off the tongue, like licking a lollipop.  But the implications are devastating.  And for those who will hear, healing.

When I normally think of a lazy person I think of a person who is apathetic, lost in video games or daytime tv.  But the book of Proverbs holds the description that gets to the heart.

“The desire of the sluggard kills him,
for his hands refuse to labor.
All day long he craves and craves,
but the righteous gives and does not hold back.” (Proverbs 21:25-26)

The lazy person is not apathetic.  He wants. He craves.  He desires so badly it is taking his life, his energy.

Have you ever felt that way?  You want something so bad that it feels like it is taking your energy away?  But you still won’t put forth any effort to get what you really want — you’re content with your desire to take your life.

In that sense, we can be earning income, but still be a sluggard.  We might want to write that novel, start that new business, but we never begin.  Sure we dream about how great it would be to do what we want to do, but we say, “that is just so unpractical.”

Here is the scary part.  That might sound responsible, but it is not righteous.  Because the righteous give.  The righteous connect their effort with giving something to their communities that they have been uniquely designed and gifted to do.  But when we do not do that good thing that is in our heart, not only does our life slowly drain away, but our community suffers from not having our creativity create some order out of chaos.

In short: You’re the bad guy, Jesus is the good guy.

When we read books or watch movies we naturally identify with the hero.  We literally become the hero.  That is why we love him.  That is why we want him to succeed.

Nobody identifies with the bad guy in the movie, or if they did, they would be considered odd.

But reading the Bible with you as the hero will, ironically, make you miss the point of the whole Bible.  If you think of yourself as the hero, the Bible becomes a book of principles that you should imitate in order to experience the hero’s success.

For instance,  the story of David and Goliath.  If you identify with David you will think the story is about facing your giants.  And you will think, “I most be bold before the things that scare me. I must trust God like David did.”  But you are not to read yourself in the story as David.  And you’re probably not Goliath.

You’re the Israelites.  You know?  The people of God that are cowering before a giant that both mocks them and their God.  So just ask yourself, “when it comes to telling an unbeliever about Jesus who am I really like?”  Do you cower hoping someone else will do the job?  Of course you do, everyone does.

But the story is really about a group of faithless people who will not fight.  But there is one person who will fight.  And he will be the faithless people’s representative.  But as he stands up to this giant he comes in weakness (a small boy!), but it is the weakness that makes the giant underestimate him.  And the boy, because of his “weakness,” slays the giant, and his victory is imputed to the faithless people.  And when they see the faithfulness of the one, his victory because of weakness, they are emboldened and defeat the army that formally stood against them.

Have you heard that story before?

“Organized religion’s” trust levels are only a few percentage points higher than our politicians.  This is a grave problem for the church.  Of course the term organized religion is a much broader term than the church, but most American’s are probably thinking about the Christian church since over 80 percent self-identify as a Christian.  This statistic is telling: the majority of Americans, over three quarters of them, view organized religion with the same suspicion of our politicians, which are often associated with incredible self-interest and pettiness.

THE CHURCH AS HORSE AND BUGGY?

This has not lead, though, to an outbreak of atheism.  Spiritual things are still a hot topic in many people’s lives and still has incredible influence over how people live their lives.  Many people will say that “they are spiritual, but not religious.”  Or say “I can have a relationship with God, but I don’t need to belong to a church.”  These statements are indicative of the wider attitude towards church: the church as an organism and organization is no longer seen as a credible source to know God or find life.  Instead the church looks like a horse and carriage in a world of automobiles — tolerated, but not the best way to get around.

IT SHOULD BE ABOUT TRUST

And that is why trust is so important.  Trust is the bedrock of all quality relationships.  All relationships that have value to us have trust.  Without trust there is no relationship.  So if the church needs a restoration it will need renewal in the area of trust.  At the core of all churches is relationship — relationship to one another, relationship to the leadership, relationship to the organization.  When trust is broken, just as in all relationships, the whole edifice crashes.  The church has a moral imperative, then, to not retreat into a enclave where they can perpetuate a community where trust is already established, but to do the hard work of restoring trust with individuals and in communities in which they reside.

But sadly this is often not the case.  To the outside world the church seems to be a container of hypocrites, money-hungry leaders, and people full of hate.  Sadly, this is also the experience of many Christians.  Many Christians now walk with a spiritual or emotional limp because the church broke trust.  Many have experienced the fallout of leadership who have covered over their sin because their church or vision was more important than their individual righteousness or morality.  Some churches have been captured by false teaching that leave people wounded and starving for the one true God.  Many have seen church people preach one thing and then turn around and do another.  This has left many wondering, “can the church really be a place where we can practice what we preach?” “can this really be a place that has treasure for the outside world?”

THE ABSOLUTE REQUIREMENT FOR CHURCH MEMBERSHIP

And the blueprint of building trust is simple, surprisingly, refreshingly simple.  It does not involve any new thinking or teaching, but actually rediscovering something very old: the gospel.

Because in the gospel message is embedded two characteristics that are vital for trust: humility and sacrificing for others.  Trust is never built ON perfection, but on the ability to own up to our mistakes and our flaws.  We even see this with church membership: the church is one of the only organizations in the world where the absolute requirement for membership is failure.  You have to own up to your bankruptcy before God to even get in.  So why would we destroy trust by pretending that we have performed for God?

“We don’t go to church, we are the church.” Of course this is correct. And when people started saying it I am sure they had good intentions. They wanted people to understand that the focus of ministry for christians was not on Sunday morning, but what the body of Christ carried out into the world

But what has it really accomplished? I am afraid the phrase has made many of us conceited. As in, “we are not those people who believe that the church is a building, but have a correct understanding of what the church really is.” It definitely has the flavor of the Pharisee’s prayer: “I thank thee oh God that I am not like other men…” The focus has not changed to “being the church,” “but being one who knows the correct thing to say.”

Is there anything wrong with saying “I’m going to church?” I mean, is it a sin? No.

But maybe if it is not a sin, maybe it is dangerous to even imply that the church might be something you go to. If that is the case then maybe the best question to ask is, “are some of the churches problems correlated to people thinking that the focus of ministry happens on Sunday morning in a building?”

Depending how you answer that question reveals something about you. If you answer yes to the question than you believe that the church’s flaws are based on methodology.

But I don’t think the problems of the church stem mainly from a Sunday-centric view of ministry. In other words the problems of our churches are not mainly methodological. And, therefore, a change in terminology can’t change anything in any deep way, and actually might make us into snobbish people who are self-satisfied that they believe the right things about church.

Have you ever been told, “You have so much potential!”

If so, then you probably took it as a compliment and maybe began to daydream about what could be for your life.

But potential has a problem…how do you know when you reach your potential? You don’t.

In school it was easy to see if you lived up to your potential. Because you put work in and your were immediately given feedback for that work in the form of a grade. If you did your best and got an A than that was your potential. Or if the assignment came easy and you got an A than you needed to be challenged further.

But when you get in the real world, effort and immediate feedback don’t always coincide. And if your like me, you start to wonder, “am I actually reaching my potential?” And your potential even begins to feel like a millstone around your neck, if the results you are seeing don’t correspond with your belief in your potential. “Your potential” can just be another thing you have to live up to in your life and the weight of your own “potential” can leave you feeling exhausted and rejected.

But that’s because you simply can’t know what your potential is. But one thing that has encouraged me to work hard without the weight of “reaching my potential” is when I realized that there are human beings who have no potential. There called dead people.

And the Bible actually calls me, before Jesus rescued me, a dead person. No potential with God. No potential to do anything for God, no potential to receive God’s love. But, because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, he made me alive (potential!), but not the kind of potential that makes me feel like I need to live up to something. But the peace which says, “I had no potential, but God gave me potential again, so my effort is not to prove my love for God or worth as a person, but a response to the grace that was given to this dead guy.”

Are you doing something you think you should like, or doing what you like doing? In your desire to be right, fit in with the crowd, or qualify yourself to someone or something have you settled for what you think you should do, or are you actually pursuing what you love to do?

For me this has been the constant temptation. God gave me certain passions and gifts and the desire to pursue and develop them. But not every WAY OF DOING MINISTRY fits those passions and gifts. For instance I have always loved preaching. I love to communicate God’s word, to groups big and small. I listen to sermons when I drive, not music. I am not really sure why this is; I come from a family who hates public speaking. But when God rescued me, that was his unique way of gifting me. But I have been constantly tempted to models of doing ministry that downplay preaching, or have contempt for it altogether.

Why?

Because I would rather fit in then make my unique contribution. It’s easier to be “right” than creative. Its safer to do what someone else thinks you “should” do instead of that good thing that God has put in your heart.

But this is a fool’s errand. You should never start the church, go after the career, etc, that you think you should like. Soon, instead of loving what you do, you will resent what you do. You’ll feel trapped in it.

Don’t be afraid to pursue that vision that is uniquely yours.

The Atlantic tells some advocacy groups, who are supposed to represent civil liberties, they often only represent those they agree with:

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2010/03/gay-rights-and-anti-gay-liberties/37382/

As most church planter’s know, the most direct discouragement and opposition to a church start comes from the pastors in the community of the new church. This is a bewildering experience because the planter mistakenly assumes that pastors would be the most excited about new works endeavoring to reach more people. But this is rarely the case.

It is important for us to ask why this happens, because it is easy for us planters to become those same pastors that opposed us when we started. We often become what we hate. And we need to also be able to show mercy to those pastors so that we don’t see them as our enemy.

Ignorance Is Not Bliss

First many pastors of established churches don’t think church planting is necessary because their church is THERE also trying to reach the community. They simply don’t see that the scale of the unchurched in their city is beyond what any one church can do. They see the addition of a new church as a subtraction from their influence. But I believe something deeper is going on the life of a pastor than just ignorance.

Ego Threat

Many pastors are deeply insecure about the potential success of the new church start. Pastor’s are experts in making excuses about why their church is the way it is. And if the new church start comes in and reaches people that the established church doesn’t reach, the pastor’s excuses are shattered, exposing the problem is not the community, but the way the established church is led. We think, “if this new church comes in and is successful, and we are not successful, what does this prove about me?” And so the pastor would rather oppose then be exposed.

But pastors, by the grace of God, need to be able to learn from the new churches, and vice versa, so the unbelievers of the community would be meaningfully engaged.