“Jesus heard about it and spoke up, 'Who needs a doctor: the healthy or the sick? I'm here inviting outsiders, not insiders—an invitation to a changed life, changed inside and out.'”
Luke 5:29-32, The Message
***
“I have been in enough churches to
know that Christians often avoid sinners. Rather than seek them out,
we run from them, often filled with fear about what issues they might
bring up or what types of situations we might put ourselves in.
Evangelism is a countercultural exercise that will produce its
awkward moments.” Luke: The NIV Application Commentary by
Darrell Bock, p. 166
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| Like that except without Alice |
I'll never forget the Sunday morning
when “the Johnsons” showed up at what was then Chetek Full Gospel
Tabernacle (now Refuge) for worship. They were a small tribe of 8 –
some of hers, some of his and a little boy between them. Now on a
normal Sunday we average about 50 people in attendance all heads
counted. On a good day we may be in the high 70s but 50-55 per week
is our average attendance. We are a small fellowship in a small
community and are not accustomed to receiving guests on a Sunday
morning. But on that morning without a lot of fanfare “Bob” and
“Sue” walked in escorting five and carrying a sixth and made
their way to the second pew in the middle of the sanctuary –
essentially the front row as in most North American churches the
actual front row is culturally off-limits for reasons that have never
been truly divined - and sat down as if they had been doing this
since the place opened up. Now, when I said we normally don't have
guests I do not mean to imply that we never do. But if they come they
usually put a comfortable space between them and the front of the
sanctuary and within lunging distance of the entryway (just in case?)
But Bob and Sue brought their family to the pool that is our
fellowship that morning and essentially cannon-balled in. After all,
in a small fellowship it's difficult to not notice a family of
eight sitting in nearly the front row.
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| Caravaggio's "Calling of St. Matthew" |
Bob's daughter, Shelly, was a regular
at our Wednesday night youth group and while she never came on Sunday
morning, I figured she had put something in their ear to give our
place a try. Or, maybe they were coming to find out just who it was
that was speaking into their kid's life. In any case, there they all
were and here we all were and so like I do with all our guests,
welcomed them, introduced myself and told them to make themselves at
home. I don't remember what happened at the worship gathering that
morning, whether worship was subdued or more upbeat, whether I
preached well or poorly but the following Sunday they were back. And
once again they walked in, came down the aisle and sat in the second
row. Apparently, they wanted more.
After attending our place three Sundays
in a row, I pulled Bob aside and asked if Linda and I could come over
to their place and get better acquainted with them. Later that
afternoon, we were sitting in their living room and having coffee
with them and doing just that. He had been married once before and
had Shelly and her sister, Allison, which he shared custody with his
ex-wife who also lived in town. Sue had children from two previous
relationships and now had a son with Bob. They had been together for
awhile now but not ready to get married given how much pain she had
experienced the last few times around. While Bob had been raised in
church, he hadn't gone to one in years. And Sue? When I asked her if
she had been raised in any kind of church at all she shared with us
that she hadn't. A moment later it dawned on me just what she was
saying:
Me: So....you're saying this is the
first church you've ever gone to other than for a wedding or a
funeral?
Sue: Yes.
I swallowed my coffee slowly suddenly
fearful as to how she was going to answer my next question:
Me: So....after three
weeks, how has your church experience been?
Sue: Honestly, I'm loving it.
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| There's a reason he was considered disreputable by the religious right |
Her answer simply floored me. I mean, I
love our fellowship and the people who are a part of it. But we don't
have a lot of musicians, whistles, lights, or bells. At that time we
still sat in pews (chairs came in a few years later) and still used
an overhead projector to display our songs (a digital projector now
handles that task). All the things those church catalogs imply a
happening, contemporary fellowship has to have to attract unchurched
people we didn't have. And after three weeks at CFGT – the only
church she had ever known (meaning I was the first pastor she had
ever had a conversation with) - she was loving it. She
had no beef with the order of service because she knew of no other
way of “doing” it. She didn't think the songs were too fast or
too slow or sung one too many times because she had zero reference
point for that sort of thing. If we had been still singing hymns out
of the ratty-looking hymnals we used to have that probably would have
been fine, too.
Me: Um…Why us?
Sue: Well, my grandfather was dying
of cancer and I was driving down the road one day thinking about that
when suddenly I had a thought: we needed to find a church and go to
it. So when I got home that night I told Bob that “we have to find
a church.” [This was a little bit of a shocker to him] Shelly
overheard and said, “Why don't you try Pastor Jeff's church?” So,
that's why you.
Incredible. I can understand a person
in fear for their relative's life crying out to God – even if it is
in a “If you're up there, help me”- kinda way. But for heaven to
respond by telling that hurting person to go and find a church
somewhere is just amazing to me. I mean, pastors say that kind of
thing all the time but for a decidedly unchurched person to deduce
the same thing is to me something remarkable.
A month or so after they began
attending, several of the fellowships in our community, ours
included, were hosting the Alpha Course. She went on it and three
weeks into it opened her heart to Jesus. Bob didn't participate in
the course but due to the change in his wife's life by that summer
had rededicated his life to Christ. Keep in mind during this time
they were still living together but frankly more regular in their
attendance than some of our own people. Some would probably disagree
with me but in their case I didn't think that the number one issue in
their spiritual journey at that particular moment was cleaning that
little awkwardness up. I just figured that in due time the Holy
Spirit would bring them to a place of “now.” So, week after week,
the Johnsons would come in, take a bulletin, shake some hands and
take what was now “their” pew prominently stationed in the front.
That June, Bob approached me with the
following invitation:
Bob: Pastor, I just want you to know
how much Sue and I appreciate how you and the rest of the church have
made us feel so welcome here. And to show our gratitude, we'd like to
have you all out for a picnic in our backyard a few weeks from now.
We'll provide the grilled chicken if people can bring some sides and
dessert.
Me: Sure! We'd love to!
And so their invitation went into the
bulletin and was duly announced for the next few Sundays. What a nice
gesture, I thought. All we had done is do what I think all churches
are supposed to do: welcome all comers to their particular fellowship
whatever baggage they might bring. But a week after I had announced
the picnic, I got a call from one of the dear (and few) senior
citizens that were a part of us at that time.
Dear Saint: [in hushed voice for fear
of being overheard?] Pastor…I am calling with a concern. I think
it’s great that the Johnsons are coming to church and that the Lord
is doing a good work in their lives. But by making this a church
event do you realize what you’ve done? You’ve endorsed their
living arrangement, that it's okay for people to live together and
not get married. What about all our young people? What do you think
we’re telling them? Aren’t we encouraging the acceptance of that
behavior?
Me: [Actually, a little stunned by the
question] Ah…well, I guess I never thought of it that way. They
invited us to chicken dinner and I said “yes.” They were
extending us a welcome – in response to the welcome they felt they
had received from us – and I simply said, “We’d love to.
Thanks!”
She wasn’t the only one that broached
the subject. There was another nearly-there senior who said as much
the same to me in a personal conversation wherein he questioned the
wisdom of accepting their invitation and announcing it as a
CFGT-sponsored event. And as I responded to the dear woman on the
telephone, I explained that Bob had invited us to dinner and I said
“yes.” Wouldn’t it be inhospitable to say, “No. You guys are
living in sin so I can’t eat with you?”
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| Like this...but without the quaint looking church |
But other than these conversations, the
picnic went on as planned. And to their credit both those who had
expressed their reservations of attending were there and had brought
something to pass. We had a wonderful afternoon in Bob and Sue’s
backyard and the chicken was, frankly, to die for (a few years later
our oldest daughter approached Bob and asked if he would grill the
chicken for her graduation party which he happily agreed to do so.)
A year or so later, on what turned into
a beautiful early summer day, our small building was packed to the
gills to witness Bob and Sue share wedding vows. Today, they both
serve in a variety of capacities in our fellowship and I consider
them part of the inner core of Refuge. They are different people from
that blended family that walked into our sanctuary eight years ago.
They have grown and are in the process of growing into that changed
life Jesus invites us all to enter into.
I think of that banquet Levi threw in
his home after Jesus had invited him to leave his career of choice
and become one of his students. It was something akin to amazing –
a disreputable guy like himself, who in the tax business had made a
good profit and a good living, had been invited to become a learner
of Rabbi Jesus, to close up shop and leave everything. Who does that
sort of thing? Who turns their back on security and a profitable
business to follow an itinerant and controversial teacher? Someone
who is persuaded that the life they are choosing is somehow
fundamentally better than the one they are leading. Jesus enjoying
table fellowship at Levi's was a scandalous thing. It wasn't so much
what the neighbors will think; it's what kind of message is he
sending to the religiously minded of matters of sin and separation.
Apparently, when offered the choice between keeping company with the
“righteous” or “sinners” - he usually chose to be numbered
with the sinners!
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| Talk about an awkward moment... |
I remember hearing Jim Cymbala of
Brooklyn Tabernacle fame share that when people who call themselves
Christians come to the Tab and are cohabitating together but ask him
to marry them, he insists that they must separate before he does. In
fact, if I remember correctly, he gets on the phone and asks
different members to house one or the other until the two are
properly married. He sees it a sin-issue and this is his way of
keeping the church contaminated from the leaven of sin. Maybe he's
right. Maybe I'm too loose on these sorts of things. It's true it
worked out – Bob and Sue are now legally married and of good
standing in our fellowship. But I think what Bock says is also true –
that when dealing with sinners awkward moments are bound to happen.
They say things and do things that are not necessarily “pc.”
After all, everyone in a church like Refuge loves the idea of lost
people coming to Christ – until they show up at our local place of
worship. I've done some fishing in my life but I've never heard of a
fish that came pre-cleaned when it was brought into the boat. They
all come in need of cleaning. When Bob and Sue and their family chose
our fellowship as their own (note: they did not actually become
members until after they were
married), we made room for them with no spoken expectation that they
clean up their act. What will we do when John and Bill show up or
Lisa and Caroline? God help us to show them the same welcome that God
in Christ has shown us all.
A good
friend of mine who pastors in the Twin Cities has made the
acute observation that it is typical of churches to insist on right
behavior and right beliefs first
before a person can belong to their particular group. But in reality
Jesus insists that we belong first and that it's in belonging that in
time we will behave in a manner that honors God. But first things
first. First he offers us love and acceptance and then the rest, in
time, will follow suit.
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