This is a tough one to write about — because it makes me feel small. Let me explain.
A friend of mine, a little older than me, and his wife raised two children they adopted as infants. I think the happiest I’ve ever seen two humans was when they got the news of the first adoption.
The kids are grown. The younger child, a son, has been in trouble with the law.
Meanwhile my friend, his dad, is coping with a wife who’s lost her mind — early onset dementia. It’s sadder than I have words to express. It’s so tough that one of our small groups has been helping with cutting the yard, making meals, and otherwise supporting him as best they can. Let’s call him “Job.”
So this same small group invited the son to participate in the group. One member of the group gave him a job. And they poured out God’s love on him
The son has straightened up. He’s a regular in church and his group. He’s bringing his girlfriend. He’s been a good worker at the job. And he’s shared with one of our elders how very sad he is that his mother will never know him as a changed person.
Wow.
And now the small group is going to start meeting in a community room in the trailer park where the son lives. And this is an older, white-collar sort of group, by and large. But they’ve decided they can do some good by being present in a community that isn’t much like the culture of their home church. Rather than asking people to leave the park and visit a relatively wealthy house or church, they’re taking a piece of the church to the trailer park.
Will it bring any trailer park residents to Jesus? Will it change anyone in the trailer park? Only God knows. It’s already changing the members of the small group.
Reflection
I don’t like writing about people holier than me — except Bible characters, you know. It makes me feel inadequate, and I don’t like that feeling. Not at all. But facts are facts.
What they are doing does not require an M.Div. No seminars or books. Just hearts that want to love those who don’t deserve it — hearts being shaped by the Spirit to be like God’s.
Our small ministry is not that well organized. We don’t have much in the way of training material. Supervision is pretty minimal. No one would have us teach seminars on small group management or organization.
But it’s not the organizational charts and training classes that change people. It’s a vision. It’s seeing — by the power of the Spirit — how life could be if lived right, if lived as Jesus lived.
Who knows? The whole experiment may be a disaster. It’s the nature of being generous that things sometimes go wrong. If that keeps you from being generous, you don’t understand generosity.
But if you were to come back in 20 years, I have no doubt a world of good could be traced back to the decision for this group to leave their homes and meet in a trailer park.
An attractional church sends out peopleThe Holy Spirit sends out people from an attractional church into a community that is not the same as their own, to be Jesus to people who need Jesus. I’m excited to see what happens next.
My guess is that this example is more or an imitation of what Jesus did than anything we do on Sunday inside the “walls.” Wouldn’t surprise me at all if God didn’t show up and do something special among them… Thanks for sharing…
Jesus can work through us when we are willing to work for Him. That is not only attractional, but is missional as well is it not?
In other words, is it missional vs. Attractional missional and attractional
James wrote,
Yes, exactly.
BTW, I’m still struggling to find a better way to say it in 25 words or less. The catch phrases don’t really get it. It is attractional/missional, but the members of the church won’t understand those words, and it would take a while to unpack them. The cartoon at the top suggests “biblical,” which is, of course, exactly right but not helpful, since everyone on every side thinks he’s being biblical. “Being like Jesus” is closer, because he forces us to ponder Jesus rather than doctrine or how-to books. But that’s several steps removed from actually getting it. I mean, we tend to think of Jesus as a nice teacher of aphorisms. We hide from his radical character.
Hence, we need stories (I have one more). As Jesus showed us, sometimes the best way to communicate is by story: “Let’s do something like the trailer park family group” communicates much better than “Let’s be attractional/missional.” If someone has read that story, they’ll get it. It’s a great story because it’s real and it’s doable. It started with a God-driven love for a fellow member, which became so intense it led to an extraordinary outreach effort.
Personally, while I entirely agree with your conclusion, my feelings wouldn’t be hurt if I never heard those words again. I’d rather hear and tell stories.
And when are the readers going to start sharing their own stories? I know for a fact there are other Holy Spirit stories out there.
Jay,
There are great stories about bad things happening and then the good that came from it.
The problem in telling them is the concern that folks will think less of you when they know.
“God works in mysterious ways, His wonders to behold.”
Great thought when those bad things happen!
Jay, I agree. Buzz words are often insufficient and to me, somewhat nausiating.
Jay — I like the idea of doing something in a small group. I chair our Community Awareness ministry at my church, and getting things to happen on a large scale is like running in molasses. So micro rather than macro sounds good.
Stories: Exhibit A:
We had a father/son start coming to our CR (probably 55 and 25yrs old, respectively). They were always there waiting in the parking lot before anyone else even showed up to open the doors. We soon learned that they were homeless and lived in their car.
They were committed and active attendants of CR. They soon joined a 12-step. Soon after, some of our members were able to help the father gain employment. Soon after, we were able to get them into an apartment and furnish it. Soon after, the son was able to get back into school. The son also had terrible teeth, the result of neglect. One of our dentist members is in the process of fixing them (I’d guess a 10K job). Our 20-something class has been taking the son to all of their outings, etc. and he has stated “these are the first friends I’ve ever had.”
Exhibit B:
We started working with the Red Cross last year to house the homeless in our gym on cold nights. This happens on a rotation with other churches. We had large groups of men all winter long stay the entire night once a week in our gym with these guys.
Several started coming to church. One of our older single male members has taken in a guy to live with him — that guy is now doing 12-step, has a job.
______________
I don’t think about this stuff much because it is rather common. I’ve often sneered at the fact that our Wed. night attendance is extremely low — as in, a 500 member church with 50 people there on Wed. Turns out, we have members that have weekly “hang out” times on Wed. nights in a local homeless hotspot. We have members that are doing far bigger things on their weeknights than my meager Wed. night attendance.
What’s cool is that many of the people most involved in these rogue ministries are people that I saw as “80 percent’ers”, rather, the people that aren’t that involved. I am wrong.