foolishnotions.net

so, i just read gary lamb’s rant about church planters who want to reach people who are disconnected from god. typically, anything with the term “rant” in the title gets an immediate “mark post as read” click. to me the term “rant” generally indicates that the writer is about to rake some poor unwitting soul over the coals at the mercy of the writer’s superior, no way i can be wrong intellect. but somehow this one alluded my mouse.

the past few weeks and months have been an amazing time at the rock. we have been setting the course, identifying the vision, dreaming the dream. we are on a course to reach out to the unchurched… and it’s all good. but are we really prepared for what god is calling us to do? honestly, i’m not sure i am. i’m not sure if i suddenly had someone dropped into my life bound tightly by the stench of sin; burdened by an horrific past; blinded by an intolerable present; and, hopeless for lack of a future; that i wouldn’t completely freak out, wimp out and run away.

gary is right about me. i grew up in church. i had a not perfect, but all-in-all a great childhood. i have some semblance of an education. i’ve never been beaten, drugged up, addicted or directly exposed to anything so ugly. so, my thought is – where does this leave me? i can’t change these facts about my life experiences. don’t want to. but god has given me compassion for imperfect people. so, again, where does this leave me? should i be discouraged by gary’s post and give up? does my lack of understanding or experience disqualify me from reaching these people? should i just give up and go get a secular job? if i have no hope of being effective should i pursue some other viable dream?

1 corinthians 12:12-26 says that we (christian’s) need each other. at the rock i am in charge of multi-media. i help our leadership with “relevance” (i really, really don’t like this word anymore – it’s so worn … anyway). i know stuff that our small group leaders don’t. 0ur small group leaders have experiences and gifts that our hand up outreach ministry doesn’t. our hand up outreach workers make contributions that our worship team can not. and so on, and so on. we need each other.

my point? the vision is good. it’s from god. and church leaders need all hands on deck to carry it out. no one man can be enough or do enough to bring about the vision god has given him for any church. am i ready for the ugliness? honestly… i don’t know. but i’m not doing this alone here. and, it’s not my vision. it’s god’s. and i / us / them – well, we’re all his too. so, i think today – i’m not disqualified. and, tomorrow – i will go to work.

great post gary… i will be pondering and praying about this for a while. and i think i received it in the manner which you intended.  but might i very humbly suggest a different title?