WKOCIT? part 2

"OUTWARD"
January 11, 2009
with Matt Johnson

READ: Romans 12:9-18

Paul’s guidelines for loving the world with the Love of Jesus. Love with Genuine affection, honor each other, be patient, always be in prayer, help out others, have dinner guests, pray for blessing on your enemies, cry with friends, laugh with friends, enjoy ordinary people, don’t act so important, don’t be a know it all, don’t get revenge, live in peace.

Doesn’t that sound so much more enticing than memorizing a six point evangelism speech that you feel obligated to each stranger you meet not wearing a cross necklace? Isn’t it sad that this is what our world’s view of sharing Jesus love is with people now? It’s often viewed as nothing more than an exchange of information, a transaction between two people. Interaction with people becomes mechanical, a mere exchange of data with all other human aspects removed. Even in the church, this can be a huge and looming trap. We come into contact with people, we give them Jesus, and the transaction is complete. Transactions are mathematical, they’re controllable and definable. They’re relatively neat and concise, even if somewhat complex. But life and loving people can be messy and sometimes chaotic. We can’t compartmentalize emotions – anger, hatred, love, pain, frustration, etc… They overlap in a fluid range of emotions as we interact with other real people with real problems and real issues. That is what makes loving with Jesus love and dealing with people ugly and difficult – and beautiful and real and exactly what Paul was getting at!

Here at the Orchard, the last thing we want is to make loving people systematic and mechanical. That’s such a far cry from what Jesus wanted from His church. We don’t want you to memorize tracts, learn five point salvation lessons, or a specific prayer to pray with people – we want you to be you, and let Jesus be real and present in that. Let me give you three basic guidelines by which we work to share the love of Jesus with the world around us.

First, we want to be an organically driven church. No, it’s not inspired by the latest health craze, it’s the understanding that we want to live life unscripted. No agendas, no plans, no quotas. An organic lifestyle is one that is totally natural and void of filler. As you pursue a relationship with Jesus, loving the people around you should happen organically. With this in mind, we focus our attention on people, not programs to love those around us.

Second, we want to be a relationally driven church. As we live organically, we love relationally. We strive to serve others, meet needs, feed the sick, clothe the naked, heal the hurting. Loving Jesus and loving as He loves means being his hands and feet to a hurting world to meet practical needs. This happens naturally through organic relationships within our world. We don’t view relationships as a means to an end in order to convert people, but with genuine value as we invest ourselves into others just as Jesus did. Not only because of a desire to bring salvation, but also to bring love, joy, friendship, and value to life and relationships.

Third, we want to be a community driven church. The reality of life is that we live in community whether specifically Christian or not. We interact with the same people each day at work, each morning at the coffee shop, each night at the local restaurant or grocery store. There are people that are in our close proximity on a regular basis, and they are our community. As Jesus told the disciples in Acts before his ascension, start locally in Jerusalem. Reach your community first with the love of Jesus. What better place to love people with the love of Jesus than right in your own back yard? As our church family and our geographic community intertwine, we want to be a church that loves locally. A church that cares for those around us, a church that the community knows cares for them, a church that has a positive and practical influence on the world around us because of Jesus’ love within us.

That is what an Organic Relational Community looks like, and that what we strive to be as we love outwardly with the love of Jesus.

Prayer.

Tony...
was the first pastor I ever worked with. I was the part time youth minister for a small church in McLean Illinois about 15 miles north of Lincoln. I was a sophomore in Bible College, convinced that I had all the answers to life and knew exactly how to “do” ministry. I was also convinced of something else – Tony had compromised his position as a pastor and had become a “good ol boy” in the small town which we ministered. He seemed much more interested in being out driving a plow for the town supervisor, running a grain truck for an elderly local farmer, or drinking coffee each morning with all the locals at the Dixie Truck Stop. It was hard to catch Tony in the office doing ministry stuff. Meanwhile, I spent the majority of my free time in the office working on newsletters for the youth group, Sunday school lessons for the coming week, and activities for our Sunday night youth gathering. I was busy doing the work of the church while he was out playing around. It was honestly frustrating at times. One day I caught him in his office and we were sitting down talking about the church, ministry, upcoming events and so forth, and he stopped for a minute and just looked out the window. He said, “You know Matt, I do more ministry sitting on my tailgate with people than I ever could in this stuffy office”. I thought it was a cheap excuse to not be in the office. Until I tried it. On a Thursday night that I’d usually have spent at the office prepping for Sunday, I showed up at a Jr. High girls basketball game of one of my youth group kids. I sat with her parents, talked to them about life, heard their story of how they met and got married, heard their struggles about owning their own small business in tough times, and heard about how Jesus played a part in their lives. You should have seen the excitement on Autumns face when she looked into the crowd and saw me sitting there. I could tell instantly that I had done more in that one night to build a relationship with her and her family than months of Sunday mornings. I even got invited into the locker room to pray for the 8th grade girls before their game started. My understanding of ministry was immediately remolded. In my attempts to minister to people, I had forgotten about people. Tony mentored me in understanding the importance of relationships and loving people in your community more than he will ever know. He hadn’t sold out or compromised, he had gotten it right more than I could ever understand. Loving with the love of Jesus is about people first.

Tom...
was an older man that had recently lost his wife who lived in a run down house with only the company of his two dogs. He was a client at the animal hospital that Ashley worked at, and came in one day with one of his dogs very sick. It was obvious to everyone there that this dog was his best friend and his only companion in life. The dog was in bad shape. Bad enough that in order for it to survive Tom would have to come up with $800 to pay for surgery to keep his dog alive. Tom told the doctor, in all seriousness, that he wasn’t going to eat for a week or two in order to come up with the extra money he needed to pay for the operation. Luckily, a local animal rescue group was contacted and was willing to work out a payment plan with Tom in order to pay for his beloved dog’s surgery. Ashley didn’t see a guy with a sick dog, but a hurting man who needed loved. Even though it was probably illegal, she looked up his telephone number and address and brought it home. Tom’s story weighed heavily on Ashley’s heart, and she was determined to help him. We bought grocery store gift cards for a few weeks and mailed them to him anonymously since we acquired his information through Ashley’s job. Christmas time was approaching, and we found out that Tom had been laid off of his job as a delivery truck driver on the week before Christmas. Ashley found secondary contact information for Tom and found out that he had a son so we called his son. We explained that we were from a local church who had heard of Tom’s hardships and really wanted to help take care of him during the Christmas season. We told some of our friends about Tom’s needs, and gathered up some money and set out to meet some of his immediate needs - a new coat, gloves, and stocking hat for the fierce Rochester winters, enough food gift cards to eat for the coming weeks, and some cash to pay bills to keep his heat running. We boxed it all up and on Christmas eve, Ashley and I found his house and knocked on his door. There we were, two complete strangers bringing gifts to a guy who had no clue who we were or how we knew what his needs were. Until we were standing there knocking, I don’t think I realized just how absurd this would all look to him when he opened the door and then opened his gifts. Why would people possibly do this? We handed him his gifts and listened to him as he shared the struggles of his life with us. He was so hungry just to have someone to talk to and have someone listen. It was in that moment driving away from Tom’s house that night that the words of James finally came alive to me – “dear brothers and sisters, what’s the use of saying you have faith if you don’t prove it by your actions? That kind of faith can’t save anyone. Suppose you see a brother or sister who needs food or clothing, and you say, “Well, good-bye and God bless you; stay warm and eat well” – but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do?” Tom taught me that the way we love is more important than the words we say.

Michelle...
was a regular for about four months at the hotel that I worked at in Rochester. Our relationship was an odd one to say the least. You see, I am a pastor, and she a prostitute. That in and of itself is not all that odd. Ministering to prostitutes, although a difficult situation for some men to be in, is not all that unheard of and definitely a needed ministry. However, things were a little complicated in our interactions. You see, she didn’t know I was a pastor and I could not figure out for the life of me how to minister to her through our situation. I was the hotel desk clerk who rented her rooms three to five times a week for about four months. You can see the dilemma right? I’m a pastor renting out a room to a prostitute. My heart broke each and every time I handed her those keys, knowing clearly what she was doing, and yet feeling hopeless to try and reach out in any way from my position. I felt guilty, knowing that in some strange way I was actually facilitating her lifestyle. Sure, someone else or some other hotel would have done it if not me, but the guilt was still there none the less. My intentions were never to work at a hotel for long. I guess this is as good a place as any to give a little background into the story and into my life, so let me catch you up as succinctly as possible. Four friends from Bible College made the decision to move to Rochester, New York, directly out of school and plant a church. My wife and I, along with two other friends arrived in Rochester in late 2004 and dove into the ministry there as much as possible. We each got jobs within the local work force for two obvious reasons. First, we needed to eat. There was little funding for our ministry venture and it was up to us to make ends meet while still working full force at getting a church off the ground. Second, we needed to meet people. You can’t start a church if you don’t know anyone that you are trying to reach. Both of these issues posed immediate problems for us, so finding secular jobs was a simple way to kill two birds with one stone. I found myself working the front desk of a large hotel chain in Rochester. I wanted to meet people, but I was not really ready for the people God would put in my path. Two years later, still working at the hotel, the church plant now having ended, I started to see that God can teach you a lot when you’re not looking. I wanted to meet people alright – Christians looking for a church! What a novel concept ‘eh? Instead God introduced me to the hurting people that needed Him a lot more. Michelle came in pretty regularly, getting the same room whenever possible. I quickly learned her name and began to recognize her as she’d come in the door. She was somewhat of an urban legend so to speak at the hotel and I heard about her when I started long before I ever met her. Everyone there whispered about her, talking about her lifestyle and getting a good chuckle under their breath from the situation when she’d check in. I made a conscious decision early on to treat her as I would any other regular customer. I greeted her by name, smiled when I saw her walk in the door, and went out of my way to make her feel like she mattered. The first time I recognized her and spoke to her by name, there was a strange sparkle in her eye and I caught a glimpse for the first time of a slight smile. It was no doubt unusual for her to feel like someone cared enough to speak to her and that really struck a chord with me. I found myself praying for her from the minute she walked in the door until I saw the last car leave, knowing that with each random guy that she encountered she gave away yet another piece of herself that she’d never get back. It’s been nearly four years since this all happened. I think about her every once in a while. I wonder what her life is like; if she's safe; if she's still turning tricks? I miss Michelle. I miss her rare, but genuine smile. I miss the chance to call her by name and make her know that someone cared. But most of all, I miss seeing her because the lack of her presence brings with it the realization that I no longer have the opportunity to bring God into her life. I pray she's safe. I pray that some how, some one will break through the walls she has put up and love her for who she really is. Most of all, I pray that some how she'll get to know Jesus.

I’d like to say that I’ve shared these stories with you as examples of my amazing ability to share the love of Jesus outwardly in an Organic Relational Community. The first problem with that statement is that as I reflect on the people that I encountered, sometimes I pretty much stunk at doing any of those things. The second problem is that my motives are not nearly that pure. I need these stories. I need to hear them. Sometimes I need them so I can laugh and remember better days. Sometimes I need to hear them so that I don’t make the same mistake twice. Sometimes I need to hear them because I need reminded that real people and real relationships are messy and complicated and wonderful. Most of all though, I need to hear them because I need learn and grow from these experiences, both successes and failures, so that Jesus comes through more clearly as I love outwardly to this world. I think maybe you need to hear them too.