The Day I Started Stopping
Monday, March 21, 2005 at 04:01PM The Day are Started Stopping
The Power of Grace-fueled ministry
The painful yet liberating day began 15 years ago and it continues today. It was the day I started stopping. Let me explain. Before then, my life, ministry, family and mission was to change myself and the people around me so that we could all be better people, and in so doing become better Christians. What could be a more holy a cause? But I was unaware that this system of ministry originated from the world’s system and not God’s. It is a system that begs for God’s blessing but not for God Himself. Until that time I had taken tea cup sips of God’s grace when my soul yearned to dive into the deep, wide fountain.
I stopped trying to do the work of Christ alone and in my own strength
I stopped taking responsibility for the success of my ministry.
I stopped begging people to fall in line.
I stopped expecting people to meet my needs because I earned their attention.
As a recovering works guy this is more of a continual process than a destination.
The power of the gospel is not that God could make us into good people. Rather, it is that God’s love, mercy and grace could love wretched people. He didn’t come to make bad people good. That wasn’t the mission of Jesus. His mission was to make dead people live. And yet in so many instances in my life and in my personal ministry of the church I have been led to believe that our mission statement was to reform people in good behavior.
This ministry strategy doesn’t die easily. As Jesus once said, “There’s no way to get rid of this kind of demon except through prayer and fasting.” Legalistic, judgemental, appearance-centered ministry is a favorite tool of Satan because it looks so attractive and holy and yet it is poison to marrow. In Galatians, Paul lands powerful blows against works-driven believers.
You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? (Gal 3:1-3)
The heresy of works insidiously blends into the topography of most churches because it appears to be admirable and successful.
Envelope Christianity
If you are old enough perhaps you can remember those tally boards and envelopes that were innocently activated as a tool of accountability. You put your money in the envelope and then ranked yourself using the following scales: Tithed, Brought Bible, Read Bible Daily and a few other optional entries that varied from church to church, publishing house to publishing house. In many cases you would tally up the scores of the Sunday School members and put it on the scoreboard over the door that leads to the choir loft.
If you could check all five or so blanks you were a “good” Christian, two or three and you felt like you were a Christian that needed some improvement. One or none checked? Buy the fire insurance.
This is never spoken but rather implied. We paint the portrait of God as the accountant that tallies up the scores over a lifetime and at judgment day the scores are totaled so that you can receive the appropriate timeshare condo on Glory Ave. Bob Benson using the analogy of the marching band competition once stated that all of Christianity is based on where you see God. Is He in the scorers booth looking for the out of step band member, the unshined shoe and the noticeably flat trombone or do you see God as the Daddy in the grand stand cheering for you loudly while swinging his coat over his head?
It’s hard not to desire a God who is absolutely crazy about us. We’re drawn to love and serve a God who sees me as his beloved son in whom He is well pleased.
Heaven’s giant video screen
This portrait of Christianity leads to much repentance but even greater shame. The portrait is simply that God will have an eternal home movie showing of all our failures and tragically stupid moments on this earth for all of heaven to view. Can you imagine this? This would not be heaven. This would be hell. Really.
I recently saw this illustrated in one of those relentlessly forwarded emails we all get from time to time. This Christmas greeting is an urban legend of spiritual paranoia:
You'd better watch out. You'd better not cry. Better not pout; I'm tellin' you why... Jesus Christ is coming to town. He's making a list. Checkin' it twice. Gonna find out who's naughty or nice. Jesus Christ is coming to town. He sees you when you're sleepin'. He knows when you're awake. He knows if you've been bad or good; so be good for goodness' sake.
This concept is part glorious and part dubious. It is a picture of an all-knowing God who will return (Amen!) but who is keeping a record of emotional, imperfect people. (Oh my!)
Brennan Manning expresses it like this:
“The gentleness of Jesus with sinners flowed from his ability to read their hearts and to detect the sincerity and goodness there. Behind men’s grumpiest poses and most puzzling defense mechanisms , behind their arrogance and their airs, behind their silence, sneers and curses, Jesus saw little Children who hadn’t been loved enough and who had ceased growing because someone had ceased believing in them.”
As I teach and minister to people God continues to reveal that the fruit of authentic worship and grace is growth. Grace grows us into image of Christ. As leaders, from time to time we’re all tempted to do the easy thing- to appeal to peoples guilt, shame or even fears in order to make them do and be like Christ. Doing this is like ordering a pizza and expecting lobster. It will rarely, if ever, happen. The Christ-centered church reflects His nature;
Unshockable before sinners.
Relentlessly hopeful in Christ’s affecting love.
And an unwavering commitment to love.
Grace is not a movement, a trend or a strategy. The church has often discounted it as such. The undeserved, unmerited favor of God is the foundation of our relationship with Him. It’s not new. In 1876 God’s grace was revealed through the lyrics of Jean s. Piggot:
Ever lift Thy face upon me
As I work and wait for Thee;
Resting ’neath Thy smile, Lord Jesus,
Earth’s dark shadows flee.
Brightness of my Father’s glory,
Sunshine of my Father’s face,
Keep me ever trusting, resting,
Fill me with Thy grace.
What a picture- God smiling upon us as we work and wait for His return.
Andrew Murray, in the following century cried for the church and its workers to surrender. He said, “How many Sunday School teachers and leaders of Bible classes have the consciousness (attitude): I am feeble, stammering, ignorant, but I know my God is using me, for I have given myself into His Hands and I have consented to be anything for Him!”
In this century another unforgettable vision of grace was penned by the unlikely voice of Bono, the lead singer of U2, when he sang,
“What once was hurt
What once was friction
What left a mark
No longer stings
Because Grace makes beauty
Out of ugly things”
The act of total and absolute surrender allows the Holy Spirit unfettered access to me and to my mission. And then grace can make beauty out of ugly things.
Do you remember what Jesus said on the very night he was betrayed? After placing the basin on the counter to dry after washing dirty feet, He said, “I give you a new commandment: love one another. Just as I have loved you, you must also love one another. By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."
Jesus is not a motivational speaker. He was not a life strategies consultant. He was not a self-help guru. Jesus is not a boot camp sergeant. He was and is a lover of my soul. Every bit of earthly wisdom says that as Sunday School teacher, leaders, ministers, and elders, we should drive the people to the throne by any means necessary. In a sense it’s another step of faith when we choose to be obedient to his new commandment as bohemian and extravagant and scandalous as it seems. To simply say: I will love them. I will love them in spite of their warts, scares, eruptions, shortcomings, addiction, moods, appetities, and uncleanliness. I will speak the truth. But in every word I speak, in every act of service, I will love them and I believe that through my love, You Lord, Jesus, (not I) will change them.
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