Jerry Falwell died this week. You had to know what was coming. One headline said, “He Rallied Some, Divided Others.” Another headline wrote, “The Face of the Religious Right Dies.” I am not sure if they were celebrating or not. Whatever you thought of Jerry Falwell, you had to think something. Hardly anyone was neutral when it came to Falwell. Like most of us, I think he was a mixture of strengths and weaknesses. No question, he took a stand for religious values in America. He led Thomas Road Baptist Church to great accomplishment and founded Liberty University, where today some 27,000 students are being educated. He had influence and the ear of most of the recent presidents of the United States. He was a frequent “expert” guest on many of the talk shows as pertinent issues would come up. I believe that Jerry Falwell in his own way served God the way he felt led to do so.
I started wondering this week, though. With all the talk of The Face of The Religious Right, what does the face of Christianity look like? Certainly different people would answer that question differently. Perhaps different individuals or different groups would suggest one of their leaders. Maybe it would be a political powerhouse like Falwell, or maybe it would be a compassionate activist like Mother Teresa. Some would certainly offer Billy Graham or Robert Schuller. Either way, it would be from our vantage point. No, I think we should use moments and phrases like this one to go back to our gold standard. The face of Christianity is Jesus Christ. He is the only true representation and the only one there ever will be. All the rest of us are imitators.
So, what was the face of Jesus? Would anybody recognize Him today? I doubt sincerely that He would come and dive into our systems of organized religion. He wouldn’t be one of the redeemed, self-righteous know-it-alls that claim to be following Him. Matthew 11:19 (NLT) “And I, the Son of Man, feast and drink, and you say, 'He's a glutton and a drunkard, and a friend of the worst sort of sinners!' But wisdom is shown to be right by what results from it.” Just a thought … why is it that sinners were drawn to Jesus, and yet today they run from His followers? We have turned Christianity into something it was never intended to be. Church is not a place for self-righteous snots to come and strut how much better they are than others. It should be a hospital for sinners. That is if we are at all interested in the true face of Christianity.
I received a kind, gracious and encouraging email this week from someone who said they were so grateful and excited to be a part of The Gathering. When they gave the rationale for such a statement, the person said, “You guys are real. There is no pretentious
façade.” They went on to say they were grateful to have such a warm, loving and safe place to worship. While I am very grateful for such a gift of words, I know that my face certainly doesn’t look like His yet. How about you? Does your life reflect the face of Christianity? A good way to test this question is this…do broken people run to you or from you?
Experiencing Grace,
John
posted by The Gathering's Leadership on 05/17/2007
Life is sometimes thrilling, sometimes hard, sometimes just plain weird. Recently, I had one of those weird days. In the middle of the busyness of a routine day, tragedy struck. A friend of mine walked in and asked me to help him break the news to his family of an unexpected death. As I made my way to the house, I thought about how unpredictable life can be. Most all of us seem to subconsciously think we will live forever. And in some way I think this inadvertently causes us to take life for granted. We just believe we’ll live to be ninety-nine, go to sleep one night and just not wake up. The truth is I plan to live a long time, but I don’t know if I will live another week. James 4:14 (NLT) “How do you know what will happen tomorrow? For your life is like the morning fog—it's here a little while, then it's gone.”
As I sat there with this grieving family, they were wrestling with the questions we all do at a time like this. Why did this have to happen? Why did this have to happen now? What are we going to do? You offer the comfort of God’s presence, but we all seem shocked by the obvious. Death, whether we think appropriately timed or not, is as natural a part of life as birth is. We just respond differently.
Grieving is a normal, natural part of our human experience. And I honestly
believe that when we grieve, God grieves with us. One member of the family looked at the children and said, “You know, this ole world is something else…some good, some not so good.” This made an impact on me. It is so true. One minute, you can be busy minding your own business, and the next high-jacked by the unknowns in this life. I walked out with a sense of sobriety about life. There was a heaviness to the moment.
Literally within a couple of hours, I drove to another part of town where I attended a wedding I was to perform that night. These people knew nothing of the first group. As every wedding should be, there was an air of celebration of life and love. People were smiling and laughing and enjoying the environment of a party. What a contrast from where I had just been. I felt a little weird at first as I walked in and smiled back at these happy people.
This was no ordinary wedding, though. For me, this wedding was special. Both the bride and the groom had discovered a brand new relationship with Christ in their lives within the last several months. Not only were they marrying with hope for their future, but they were also marrying with the hope of God now being involved in their home. They were my brand new brother and sister.
And there it was. The moment I guess I had been seeking. To just know whether you are laughing or crying, whether it is a celebration or a broken heart, God is there! So whatever we are going through in this life, I for one am grateful for the presence of God in all of it! Romans 8:38-39 (NIV) “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Experiencing Grace,
John
posted by The Gathering's Leadership on 05/10/2007
Lose hope, and you more than likely lose your grip. One of the tasks that we have as followers of Jesus Christ is to offer hope to people who seem to have run out of hope. Too many churches are camps for the members. Every desire and every want is expected of the collective effort. I believe from reading scripture that Jesus cares about and gave the bulk of His attention to those who were near the breaking point. He was a distributor of hope to help in the times of brokenness.
Now, we are talking about the serious stuff here. Not the pie in the sky, spiritualized, soupy stuff, that Christianese is notorious for spitting out. Too often, Christians tend to spiritualize life into phrases or clichés. No, this is a sincere hope. This is a solid, confident assurance that God is in control and that I can trust Him completely.
One of our team members recently made a visit to someone who is at the end of a rope. For confidentiality, I won’t give a name or a lot of detail. However, I will tell you that the person was in jail. And I will tell you that through the conversation, we discovered this individual to be a pretty tough case. Yet, it seems that God delights in the big ones, because He alone gets the credit for these breakthroughs. This individual, who has to maintain a pretty tough demeanor, became misty-eyed when he was reminded that God loved him. Where a chemical dependence and a whole lot of bad choices had left him in absolute despair, he regained a glimmer of hope, just in knowing that God loved him. We know this not only by his reaction in that moment, but because he later told his family he hadn’t felt this much hope in a long time. A turnaround of perspective from a simple conversation that clarified a reason to hope.
It is a powerful thing when you believe in the future. Optimism is one thing, but a true belief is something altogether different. I have found in my life, and those that I have crossed paths with, that hope provides strength to face tomorrow. It is the rock that holds us in the storms of life. Thus a life verse for me comes to mind…Jeremiah 29:11-14 (NLT) “For I know the plans I have for you," says the Lord. "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. [12] In those days when you pray, I will listen. [13] If you look for me in earnest, you will find me when you seek me. [14] I will be found by you," says the Lord. "I will end your captivity and restore your fortunes. I will gather you out of the nations where I sent you and bring you home again to your own land." Thank God for the way He restores hope to the broken heart, and how He daily offers hope to each weary pilgrim.
Experiencing Grace,
John
posted by The Gathering's Leadership on 05/03/2007
Recently, I had the opportunity to sit in a staff meeting. On an impromptu impulse, I asked everyone at the table to take a minute, and share what was going on in their areas of responsibility. They could share victories, struggles, needs, problems, or successes…whatever. They just had to share what they thought others in the room needed to hear and know about their part in our journey.
And so we were off. One by one, we went around the room and began to talk about our plans, our needs, (there are endless needs in a church family) and our celebrations. Incredibly, the power of our passion and commitment didn’t lessen the needs, but somehow made them seem more like opportunities. But it was the celebrations that made these brief moments special. Each person was able to talk about what they were seeing God do in their areas of responsibility. This was real stuff. Not the usual canned phrases of church people. We were individuals moved and motivated by what we were seeing, what we were hearing, and what we knew God to be doing.
We began to talk about how genuine community was breaking out in small groups all through our church. People felt safe, and so they were being transparent with each other. Tremendous struggles were being shared and others within those small groups were helping shoulder the load. Impenetrable bonds were developing in people’s commitment to one another. Others talked about truly seeing God provide for needs. (So often, it is nothing more than organizational resources) There was no mistaking these circumstances. This was God making sure He got the credit.
I guess the thing that moved us most though was how God still changes lives and destinations. Some of the staff had the chance to walk with Jesus as about a dozen of our folks reached out through The Victory Project last weekend. Those who were there had the chance to hang out with teenagers that are caught up in a system that intends to rehabilitate them. In the end, we were the ones who came away with the rewards. (and the burdens) We met one sixteen year old this weekend and his story broke our hearts. He had lost his mom and older brother within weeks of each other. He is looking for a home and looking to make sense out of this world. What do you do? Well, we’ll dry our tears and go put our arms around him. Just maybe we can lighten his load a bit.
Another friend will be walking out of jail in a couple of days. And since he has recently started a relationship with Christ, he will walk out a new person. Another lady lay on her death bed and thank God, she met Jesus this week too. She now knows where she is headed. The depth of these and other stories like them brought most of us to tears. These were the good kind though. The kind you cry and say, “thank you God for letting me be a part of something so special!” These are the moments you live for.
Experiencing Grace,
John
posted by The Gathering's Leadership on 04/24/2007
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