Um...clarifications?

1. A whole Gospel approach to meeting the needs of "the least" includes salvation through Jesus Christ. I'm often tempted to blur the lines of holy calling and social action. Non-Christians can do social action, and do it quite well. But we are also called to "go" and "make disciples." Yes, it's one complete command given by Christ, but we often do one or the other. We're either really good at going and don't really make disciples. Or we're good at making disciples within our walls without going out. It's just gotta be both.
2. Speaking of "both" - huddling is not wrong. As a matter of fact, it would be terribly wrong to not huddle. I can't imagine how my spiritual growing curve would ever increase if I didn't have corporate worship with my local church family. That 2 hours on Sunday morning is my sustaining safety net that is absolutely necessary. The Bible is clear on that, and my experience proves to me that truth. My encounters with God in the midst of corporate worship have driven me to my knees (like in front of people. That's just weird, so you know it's a God-moment). Our service can't take the place of corporate worship, and our corporate worship can't be our only act of service. Both/and. Never instead.
3. So, Pastor Harvey moves his congregation out to the streets "instead" of Sunday worship, right? Not necessarily. He moves Sunday corporate worship out to the streets. In the crack house cases, they are just holding their worship service in a different location. In the Bible delivery cases, sounds like they gather for worship and then march out the doors as a way of giving the congregation a hands-on teachable moment. And the women meeting with prostitutes is the overflow of that understanding throughout the week. Perhaps in other churches, corporate worship will never look any different as far as time or location - the doors will never close on Sunday morning - but the teaching will be so compelling that every attendee actually plays the game all week long. Sometimes we need to head to the locker room. Sometimes we need some more training. Sometimes we huddle on the sidelines. But most of the time we huddle in the midst of the game. Both/and. Never instead.
   
4. I love analogies and sometimes carry them too far. Pastor Mike has warned me of this tendency of mine. Ahem.
5. Jesus really is the answer for the world today.
6. I think my clarifications will need clarification.
   

Train. Huddle. Play.

Warning: This post is raw and unedited. Translation: It's likely incoherent, uppity and offensive. And probably incomplete at best and flat out wrong at worst.

I'm processing the Leadership Summit from today and honestly, I'm not sure why I'm even at a "leadership" conference. I'm not a leader of a team, I don't have the role of leader in the church as most of the other folks attending do, and I've never even been in the business world. (Maybe that's why The Office isn't funny to me either.) This is not my first time at the Willow Creek Association's LS, but I pretty much came this year for two reasons: 1) My husband signed me up. 2) Bono is speaking tomorrow.

Apparently, God has some reasons for me to be here. For four years now I've been on a journey to be in the center of God's will for my life. Ever since I had malaria during pregnancy I have been struck with an insatiable desire to understand and change poverty at its root. While I hate trite answers that have little effect on people and generally make us cringe at their staleness, the answer I keep coming back to is: Jesus. Period. I can hear the song now, "Jesus is the answer / for the world today / above Him there's no other / Jesus is the way." It makes me cringe. How dare I look into the eyes of a starving child or a homeless man and say, "You need Jesus." But as I analyze that insensitive answer and break it down into all the things that are needed to alleviate the suffering that I see under my nose and across the oceans, I spiral to a deeper level of understanding that brings me face to face with the truth: Jesus is the answer.

But perhaps it's a broader sense that I've never considered before. While Jesus is the answer for hopelessness and poverty, it doesn't necessarily come from us bringing Him to "the least of these." It comes from us recognizing that He is "the least of these." So I can't walk up to someone with the "You need Jesus" proclamation. I have to see that I need Jesus. I need to know Him fully. I need to embrace the whole Gospel! I need to serve Him with the depth of passionate love that I have for Him. That's how Jesus is the answer. Me knowing Him and serving Him.

When I read Matt. 25 I'm struck by the fact that Jesus says when we meet the needs of the least we are doing it to Him. Not in His name. Not for Him. To Him. The Greek word is eis and indicates that the point is reached or entered with intent and purpose. That's wow to me. Perhaps because I've gotten just enough of a taste of Him, reached Him just enough, that I can't satiate the desire to know Him more - to enter into Him with intention and purpose.

So what's this have to do with the leadership summit? Well, right off the bat Bill Hybels challenges leaders to "advocate for the powerless and hold the powerful accountable." Gary Hamel, ranked #1 as "The World's Most Influential Business Thinker" in 2008 by The Wall Street Journal, questioned, "Are you more committed to redemption and renewal or to practices and programs?" A lesson on the prodigal son in which Tim Keller pointed out that the elder brother was as lost as the younger brother, and only one of them came in to the feast. Being lost isn't just about wrong-doing, it's also right-doing for the wrong reasons.

But Harvey Carey hit the homerun for me with this word-picture: You've purchased the best seats at your favorite game. Cost you a fortune. Crowd's excited; everybody's on their feet. The place is electrifying. The team comes out and gets everybody even more excited. Then they huddle up. Whoo-hoo! Five minutes pass. They're still huddled up. Thirty minutes pass. Still huddled. After an hour they finally break! Game time, right? They run right back off the field. That's what churches have done. We huddle up on Sunday morning and then run back off the field. It's time to get in the game! Go play! God has paid too high a price for us to just huddle up! We have to take ownership of the Word and quit letting ourselves off the hook! Sunday is the day to play the game! With one paid staff member, this church has taken a Bible to every home in their zip code. Suburban women show up in the middle of the night to walk with prostitutes and give them hope. They have shut down 8 (EIGHT!) crack houses by showing up on Sundays (when the rest of the Christians are huddled up and the people who need Jesus are on the streets) and holding church right in front of them! Ain't nobody gonna be walking in there to buy drugs!

Stop with the excuses. Believe the Gospel. Play. The. Game.

I've been trained for living the Gospel my whole life. I've been huddling for years. And now I'm trying to play the game. I think I've been running the sidelines and stepping inbounds every now and then. I'm still trying to figure out what it looks like for me. It's not Detroit. It's not Pastor Harvey's church. I have a mission right here in St. Charles County. Parts of it I know. Pieces are coming together. But I gotta play. And not just on Sundays.