God Likes Us That Should Be Enough

A bishop, seeking to make Christianity relevant to the lives of people in the communities of his diocese, asked a group of secondary college kids why most of them don’t go to church anymore. He knew they had once done so as younger children with their parents. The answers they gave were pretty much the same as those given to me over twenty years ago when ministering on the streets of my community, ‘ it’s boring’ ‘it’s really outdated’ ‘all the hymns and whatever, it’s really kind of depressing in a way’ and, ‘you have to remember all the stuff priests did to children and adults, that’s obviously a huge factor why not as many people go to church’ … referring to sexual abuse.  

The bishop asked them if they actually cared about the church or not and how it should reinvent itself so that it would be relevantly important. Answers: ‘it needs to be more accessible and open to everyone’ ‘women should have a much greater role’ ‘better communication between the priest and the people’ and, ‘it doesn’t really matter, I wouldn’t care if the church wasn’t there’. Each enjoyed their brief time together. He’d never done such before and the students were glad for the opportunity of being able to listen and learn from the views and opinions expressed from one another. One said, “It was kind of more open. I learned more about my class and what they believe, so that was cool.”

The bishop said that he was really hopeful that community could be rediscovered and that, “we will actually start believing in what we can do together.” He glimpsed evidence of that when he next visited a rector in one of his parishes. This man had brought together a group of unemployed and retired men in his community to form a men’s shed club in an adult education center. Although the men were enjoying building a boat, it was the building of relationships with one another that gave meaning to it all. When churches get involved in something like this, the people often are looking for an alternative motive for, “why you’re doing this.” So he asked the rector if he was trying to get people to join his church. 

The rector responded, “Absolutely not.” He said he thought it would be almost deceitful, “in the same way as we hear stories of people offering soup for conversions. That’s scurrilous. This is simply being part of the community.” Then, “Certainly if people wanted to talk about God and the faith, then fine.” The bishop found his experiences quite moving. He said the main thing that came across was hope … hope in the individuals because they all felt they were contributing to a project. They loved being together and saw that this was something they really were committed to. In areas like this where there is a lot of loneliness and isolation, people unemployed etc, “to have something as riveting and as energizing as this is fantastic.”

Apart from learning that the bishop’s diocese is dwindling and that his church is facing a crisis of relevance, I know nothing about the man or his rector. I don’t know what each man’s future plans are in God. I don’t know what their individual relationship is like with the Lord. I don’t know if they’re born again by the Spirit of God. I don’t know if they’re led by the Holy Spirit and centered in Jesus Christ and I don’t know if they’re Holy Bible-based men in all they think, say and do. So this being the case, what is said from here on in this post, should in no way be taken as a slight against them or their ministries and the people they serve, nor the people they’ve recently met and are working with.

Some years ago, a born again, Spirit-led, Christ-centered, Bible-based, people-oriented pastor sought God in fasting and prayer about his community. He too was/is  out in the community, but he wasn’t/isn’t out there because his church is dwindling. The man knows the people; he lives among them. He knows their wishes, hopes and dreams for living a better life here. He asked how he could extend the Lord’s kingdom, breakfast hungry school kids, create a jobs program so people long unemployed could learn biblical truths, principles and skills to get them into the workforce and, discover what honor is, how to honor themselves, their families and others. The Lord gave him a one-word answer, “Preach!” 

I like that. “Preach!” For his obedience to the Holy Spirit, he’s being rewarded; his vision and desires are coming to pass. However, they are only coming to pass because the man is a lover of biblical truth and principles; and he will not compromise them in any way, shape or form. He waits on the Lord, he gets a word from the Lord and he puts it out there with absolute fearlessness. In other words, he doesn’t water the word down so the people will like him, stay in the church and pay tithes etc. He loves his people too … he’s told them he would die for them and they believe it. He’s also fiercely protective of them … no wolves allowed. He chops off all murmuring and gossiping before it gains a foothold.

Whilst there are some who love and respect him in his community, he is despised and hated by the majority. Why? Because he speaks out against the corruptions, lies and deceitfulness of church leaders, community leaders and politicians. He names them publically, and if they could, they would kill him for that. This man eats, lives and breathes God and the Scriptures, and anyone who’s made it clear to him that they’re not for these, he’s not for them! He’s not interested in the minds of people who judge him for his stand, he’s only interested in the mind of God. He refuses to cave in to the labels of ‘arrogant’ ‘intolerant’ ‘uncompassionate’ ‘unloving’ … that’s all water off a duck’s back to him.

“Preach the gospel always, use words if necessary.” I’ve heard that a lot since I’ve been a Christian. It used to impress me early on but not anymore. Besides, it’s not Scriptural Matthew 28:19-20. Too many Christians are using that as a cop-out not to speak up for Jesus and the gospel. Whilst people do take note of our behavior as Christians, they also take note of the behaviors of people of other religions like Buddhists and Baha’is and they see little difference between us. So for a Christian, the use of words, are very necessary because ours are the only ones to bring about transformation rather than reformation. In other words, other religions might have words that can reform a person, but only God’s words can transform him.

If as Christians we leave it up to the unbelievers we’re working within the community to come and talk to us about God and faith, they’re not going to do that. And if we don’t open our mouths and speak up about God and faith, then they won’t know if we’re Christians, Buddhists or Baha’is! In agreeance with the rector, scurrilous behavior is not the way to go about this … filling someone’s mouth with a bowl of soup is not the issue for me. I want to fill his or her mouth with questions about God and faith! There is a way I know of that guarantees that this can be brought about too and that is to go to God in intercessory prayer for him, her or them – “Lord, you know exactly where Bill is at, would You put some questions in his mouth today?”

God knows you’re serious when you intercede on behalf of another; He’ll make sure Bill has some questions. And I love the way Bill very often gets his answers. They touch him right where he’s at in the form of his work, interests or hobbies … something directly related or identifiable to him, not me, mine or the church. There’s no need for any soft-peddling on our behalf either. Provided we know what’s spoken through us is of the Holy Spirit we too can put it out there and leave the results with God. If Bill is not relating or identifying he may say, “I don’t believe that.” My response is always, “I didn’t ask you to believe that.” One thing I’ve noticed about Christians who don’t speak up for God; when asked a question they’re always on the back foot.    

It’s time for Christians to stop seeking to be liked. We must get delivered from the need to be liked. God likes us that should be enough. The fact is, we have a message from God which is not liked. None of us liked it when we first heard it. Why not? Because it’s a confronting message from God, telling us that our greatest problem is ourselves and the only way to get released from that problem is to get released from its root cause – our carnal, defiant, rebellious, self-willed self. Now, even the majority of born again Christians don’t like to hear it put like that. “Too harsh,” they say, “you scare them off.” Really? Scare who off – them or they? As long as we are prayed-up and Spirit-sensitive, don’t worry about scaring them off.

If your motive for preaching the gospel is love for God, love for His Scriptures, obedience to God, love for people and obedience to His call on your life, you know you are in the perfect will of God. Armed with those assurances, what does it matter who likes you and who doesn’t? The same goes for us bloggers. It’s nice to receive encouraging and edifying comments to a few posts, but if I thought for one moment that’s the reason I’m blogging, this would be my last post. Jesus didn’t get too many encouraging and edifying comments about His work, neither did the apostles about theirs; who are we to think it should be any different for us? Preach! People are looking for a demonstration of God’s power. It’s in the gospel Romans 1:16. 

There’s no need for the church to reinvent itself. That’s been the church’s biggest problem. It’s spent too many years listening to the community and not enough years listening to God. It is God who tells us what the community needs, not the community. That’s why He sent us His Holy Spirit. It is He who reminds us that every man, woman and child is made in His image Genesis 1:26. It is He who reminds us that the image has been marred by sin and it is He who gives the wisdom, power and authority on how to help them get unmarred. Yes, the methods of achieving this do change – but never the message. Message first; methods second. Preach! “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty the oppressed Luke 4:18.