The Wrong "They"

I was at the Vision New England conference yesterday, and Ed Young Jr. challenged the gathered pastors and leaders to consider the they who surround them. You know how people say thinks like: “they are saying” and “they may not like that”? He challenged us to figure out who they are.

They are the very few people who want to be comfortable, want to be pleased and taken care of. They don’t want us to minister to each other and the community around us. They want me to be a chaplain to oversee their services, entertain them with preaching (SHEESH, do they have issues if they think of preaching as entertainment!), and do weddings/funerals. They are the virus that destroys the work of Christ.

We have such a phenomenal church, and I’m not saying that to please they. Our people are not perfect, but there is an honest environment of caring and love. We probably don’t do enough, but then again, can you ever do enough for each other?

When I first came on board as the pastor of HBC, one of the deacons shared with me, “As long as it is biblical, we’ll follow you.” That is a tremendous amount of trust, isn’t it? These men – everyone of them an established business man nearly my father’s age – were placing the steering wheel in my hands and saying, “You drive. We’ll make sure we stay on the map, but you take us where we’re going!” What a wonderful burden!

Can you pray for me? I want to be surrounded by the prayers of the right they. We have to join together in order for me to stay true to the Word as I lead. There is no greater joy for me than to see people reached – healed by the power of our God. But if the wrong they gets in there, telling me how to do things and how to minister, I may lose sight of the real burden.

I will be praying for you. I want you to be the right they. I want to know that you’ve got my back, and you’re supporting our ministries. You won’t necessarily LIKE every ministry or every direction we go. That’s ok. God doesn’t call us to like the direction we’re going; he just calls us to go. Everything in your human experience is going to scream out for things to be the same, predictable and reliably mundane. When we give in, we become the wrong they.

Honesty

I just finished reading a book, Blue Like Jazz. It was an interesting read. The author, Don Miller, had a life that pretty much shadowed mine. He experimented with a lot more and acted on some impulses I suppressed, but I could identify with him. For a time, he turned on Christianity even though he kept going to church and kept up appearances. He was even speaking in churches and working in Christian camps – all the while really just seeking after God.

He’s not my type of Christian – a little too earthy-crunchy for me. He likes Democrats, radical feminists and Green Peace. I have no problem with him having his own beliefs though. He’s free to believe as he believes and as long as he doesn’t tell me what to believe, that’s cool with me.

He did teach me something though – something radically, spiritually sideways. I was surprised to find that I thoroughly believe God really likes him. God likes me too, and that was a realization I had to remake while reading the book. While Don might enjoy living in Portland, Oregon (a sure sign of insanity), and going to protest rallies, he is not the enemy. He was; but then he came to Christ and found forgiveness and acceptance in Him. Now, I cannot judge Don’s differences of opinion or appearance from me. And if I could, I would question my own sincerity.

We have got to learn to accept that Christians can vary politically, philosophically and in appearance. God doesn’t do cloning. If he wanted clones, he would have given the apostles the technology to just clone themselves rather than reaching individuals with the Good News.