[a former student and mentee, whose shall remain nameless, approaches me after church on Sunday after reading about UC in the bulletin and hearing an announcement from in front of church]CB: Wow, you use to have a rogue ministry, now you've gone mainstream. Have you sold out?
If Jesus were alive today, would he use blogs, bulletins and announcements to "promote" his ministy? Or would he skip all that and go straight to facebook?
What would he name his blog? Something like "Musings from Beyond the Jordan"?
Seriously, I struggle with these things. To promote or not to promote. I could argue both sides passionately. When something seems right do you take that metaphorical light and put in on a hill and let it shine? Or is this as ridiculous as Peter wanting to build an altar to enshrine the experience of the transfiguration?
Why promote? Well, something like this cannot and should not be done alone. Things like this are meant to be done in community. But how do you promote? Is it all programming and strategy?
A program can become like the shrine, immovable, or, to switch metaphors, like a gorilla on your back that needs to be fed. The gorrilla feeds off of programming. The Spirit, on the other hand, moves like the wind, looking for attentive and obedient Jesus followers to use to establish beachheads in the kingdom of God. It is hard to know when the wind is blowing when you stay busy feeding the gorrilla. It is hard to be nimble with a gorrilla on your back. The wind does not wait for the strategic plan or committee consensus. If programs are light and held lightly, they may be able to move with the wind, or easily be dropped to follow the wind.
On the other hand, we are charged with making disciples. We need cash to build the beds. We need people with various skills to help meet the needs of the families. How do we get these things?
I hate to have to go to the overused metaphor of the ridge, since it is our primary metaphor for how to rightly do good. But there is probably a right way that is narrow, with cliffs on each side. On one side, the gorrilla takes us off the path and the program takes on a life of its own, apart from what the Spirit is doing. The other side would be no programming at all. This is the waiting mode. We wait for God to do all the work. Do some miracles, God. Bring us some money. Bring us some helpers. We won't move until you do. In the meantime, let's join a discussion group.
What is the narrow path in this instance? Who knows, but a few things may be important. Do not forsake contemplative prayer and being mindful of the presense of God. That's where we stay plugged into the divine resources in our hearts and get our marching orders. And we can sense which direction the wind is blowing. Do not let program activities substitute for any of that. Use the tools at your disposal. Just recognize that they are just that. Pretty useless for the types of things we want to do without grace.
Who in their natural mind would want to purposely seek out the poor and spend all that time getting to know them and build them some beds? Lots of other things to do that would be more fun and interesting. So, promote away, just don't expect them to beat your door down because you have the right message or media. It has got to come from the heart. It is there where the knocking takes place and the door gets opened. There are ways to program for heart change, but they involve more than announcements. Maybe the announcement will get some there and we can hook them in to join in our journey. And all this needs to be done with humility.
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