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I don’t know about you, but that seems like an awful lot of work …for snails.
And of course, when I come across this week-long recipe to cook a batch of slimy slugs, I think of church.
Sometimes, we try too hard.
For example, we read in letters from Paul, the great evangelizer, that ‘I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some,’ and so we decide that we must try to please all people…all of the time. It’s true, isn’t it? We become people pleasers. We try not to offend, to scandalize, to bring up uncomfortable questions or topics. We put out fires. We run from conflict. Since some like it hot, and some like it cold, we settle for lukewarm. But that’s not what Paul meant. Paul was never a people pleaser. In fact, I’m pretty certain he took a little self satisfaction from being a bit of a pain in the…neck. Just read his sarcastic and pain-filled letter to the Galatians.
But it goes deeper than that. It goes down to actually being the church. We try too hard.
Don’t believe me? Visit a church and you will likely find somewhere (on the bulletin, in the newsletter, on the website, maybe even hanging on the wall somewhere) a mission and vision statement. Taking cues from the business world (who, ironically took the original ideas from the church), congregations spend countless grueling hours in prayer, committees, small groups, cottage gatherings, staff meetings trying to discern a mission statement and vision to help narrow the focus and give direction to its ministries. Some rely on the church’s equivalent of self-help books to offer advice (and find the ‘purpose’ that ‘drives’ them), some actually hire outside consultants, while others pour over demographic statistics and congregational questionnaires. And they come up with something like this:
(Fill in the blank) Church is a welcoming community of faith committed to proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ in a meaningful way that applies to people’s daily lives.
Surprised? And some add a line about service, some about prayer, some about salvation. But that’s basically it. The results are so generic, so nondescript, so lukewarm that they could equally apply to virtually any congregation in virtually any context. When I said “fill in the blanks”, I meant it.
So if we’re trying too hard, let’s get back to basics. Jesus. The rabbi himself.
When Jesus inaugurated his ministry of eating and unseating, he began by reading during the Sabbath worship service in his hometown a few lines from the prophet Isaiah: I breathe the breath of God because I have been chosen to give good news to the poor, freedom to the prisoner, sight to the blind, liberty to the oppressed, and to proclaim jubilee! This was Jesus’ mission statement. He didn’t need a committee (he hadn’t called the disciples at this point). He only looked out at the mess the world was in, and had the passion to do something about it. And the congregation was so unsettled by this mission statement that they tried to throw him off the cliff.
Jesus was not a people pleaser.
Proof that this was Jesus’ mission came when his former mentor, John the baptizer, was arrested and sent students to ask Jesus if he was ‘the one’ or where they to expect someone else. What did Jesus answer? Tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind see, the lame walk, the deaf hear, the lepers are clean, the dead live, and the poor have good news. Surprised? You shouldn’t be—it’s Jesus’ mission.
So, if that is Jesus’ mission—his sense of what he came to be and do—shouldn’t that be ours, too?
One of the enduring symbols (one of many, I will grant you) that we have of the church is that we are the body of Christ. What does that mean? Forget the spiritualized mumbo-jumbo for a moment and get real—it means that we corporately make up Jesus’ presence in the world. Jesus is no longer bodily with us to do the mission he began in that synagogue 2000 years ago, so we are that body. Our hands do the work, our feet walk the extra mile, our mouths proclaim, our abundance is shared, and our lungs breathe the breath of God.
I have recently heard an invitation to the Lord’s Supper that went, ‘Behold what you are—the body of Christ; may we become what we receive.’ Yes!
And if we, the church, are Jesus’ body in the world, then we need to start acting like it. Jesus’ mission IS our mission.
But Scott, we cannot heal or give sight or raise the dead or proclaim Jubilee. Are you kidding? Oh, ye of little faith! Become what you receive! You are the body of Christ!
I doubt any congregation anytime soon will take my call to arms to heart. They will try too hard. They will rely instead on committees, analysis, mission development, statistics, the latest church planting or renewal fad, questionnaires, feedback sessions, brainstorms, charts and diagrams, compromises and people pleasing, prayer and sweat and tears and burn out, and come up with another ‘fill in the blanks’ church with a ‘fill in the blanks’ sense of mission.
I don’t know about you, but that seems like an awful lot of work…for snails.