Who will go?
Renie is a woman who has worked in Baja Mexico for over twenty years. Please take a moment to read her words that were written in an email to me a few weeks ago. They are touching and quite challenging to read. Renie has given me permission to share excerpts of this with you.
Hi Ryan,
My husband Ted and I have lived in the Ensenada area for almost 20 years. We moved to Maneadero about 16 years ago after working under a Mexican Pastor for 4 years.
I had felt led to work with sick children for most of my Christain life. My husband Ted and I prepared ourselves to serve by finishing our degrees for service in the mission field. Ted who had been a career military man for 20 years and then finished a teaching degree at Western Baptist College. I finished my RN after working as a Practical Nurse for almost 20 years.
Our first 4 years in Mexico we were involved in learning the language, the culture and the ways God would lead us to help.
We are each almost 65 years old.We are ready to think about letting those younger and more physically able to take over, but there does not seem to be anyone who has a heart to lay down their lives for the most helpless of this society, profoundly handicapped and abandoned children.
The elderly and the handicapped are the forgotten ones in this society. When I first came to Mexico I was driving around the streets of Ensenada. I encountered an old woman sitting in the median of a busy street . She was a double amputee. She sat on the ground next to a battered wheelchair in sweltering heat, with a cup she extended to cars as they passed by. I was so shocked by this I stopped, picked up the old woman put her and her wheelchair in my car and drove her to her home, ( she directed me). When I got her to her home, her,”family” were not pleased with me. They had placed her there. It was her duty to “earn” her way in the family by begging. The elderly and the handicapped are not valued here. They are often considered a burden to the family, and their only value is how they can be exploited.
There is a place in Tijuana called El Refugio. At any time it houses from 60 to 100 elderly and adult handicapped whose family members have abandoned them. There are a few dedicated souls who work night and day trying to take care of a never ending stream of unfortunate elders and adult handicapped who suffer from dementia, malnutrition, abuse and exposure to the elements.They are turned out in the streets by their own families. The floors and the walls are filthy, the residents sleep on urine soaked mattresses on the floor, and the stench is unbearable……Most of the women that help us care for the children we serve are Christians. They are dedicated and selfless. They come to work during the rainy season when they have to slog thru mud up to their knees to get here. They come even when we cannot pay them for weeks because we have not received donations. That kind of dedication and value system is what they have learned in their local churches and speaks highly of the local pastors and what they are teaching…
Who will answer the call?
Who do you look like?
There’s a church planting couple here in the NW that came from a traditional church, had worked in established ministry for years, and felt “called” to work with people in downtown Portland. I do not know these people well so I cannot speak with much insight as to how their lives and hearts have changed over years of doing this ministry. But I can tell you that their appearance has changed. She has had dreads (and has since cut them off and started them again), they have many piercings, tattoos, and they dress the part too. It might be easy for us skeptical types to look at them and make jokes about how they’re trying to look cool or something of that nature. But concerning the way they look my wife heard the woman say that the two of them did not set out to look different and change their appearance. Instead, she said, the more time you spend with a people and the more you fall in love with a people the more you want to look like them and be like them.
As I processed this I remembered me and my other tall and skinny white friend who lived in Portugal together. We stood out. We looked different. We were loud when we road the bus. We wore t-shirts and baggy jeans. But by the time we left some things had changed. Without ever trying or even thinking about it we acted differently in public settings. We dressed differently (embarrassingly enough we began to wear tighter jeans). In many ways, small ways, we began to look more like the people we were with.
I’m intrigued by this idea in two ways.
- Are you loving the people around you to the extent that you might start looking like them?
- Is your Christian community living and loving in such a way that people who hang out with you are starting to look like you?
Sunday: Did we Find the Point?
In my previous post “What’s the Point?” I asked some questions concerning what the point of the churches weekend worship gathering. I must clarify one thing first. I am not standing on the edge of a bridge ready to jump off, ready to quit church, and wipe my hands of it forever. On the contrary I see my future as starting new churches for people who will not walk into our current church doors. But as I’m working toward planting this church and as I’m making whole piles of mistakes planting the Renovatus church I’ve begun to notice that not only does most of society around us not think that church is important, but even a large number of Christ followers do not see the value in the churches long standing tradition of gathering on the weekend. I think this is a problem. And to even further the problem I look at what I spout off as my own answer to the question “what’s the point?” and I think that my answers do not resonate with either jaded Christians or unbelieving others.
Let me do my best in one short paragraph to summarize the discussion that happened in the comments of this blog (as it was cross-posted on Facebook)…There were many thoughts and ideas concerning whether or not there is any reason to gather on the weekend as the church is known to do. Some have done away with it and gathering with friends during the week instead. Others have done away with it in part due to the churches corruption. Still others have taken breaks from the gathering because of burn out or disagreements. All in all this aspect of the discussion was much less tidy, and for the most part reiterated the original question: is there any important reason to gather on Sundays? Some of the answers as to why we should gather or why it is important to gather together include that we gather together to be reminded that we’re not crazy, or if we are crazy at least we have other crazies in with us. Remembering we’re not alone is a big deal especially when you couch your understanding of Christianity within the idea of living out an alternative society in our world. Living alternatively just doesn’t work well unless you do it with others in community. We need to know that we have support, a safe place, and encouragement. In addition to being a transformed and unique community of people Scripture also talks about how in Christ we as individuals become a new creation. Could it be that the weekend gathering is a public and open way for us to express and profess this identity to ourselves, God, and others. In my smaller group of friends I generally (and naturally) am around people that I connect with more easily. In the larger weekend gatherings an odd smattering of people are brought together under one banner, for one purpose (ideally right?), all united even thought they are extremely different from each other. In that larger gathering our uniqueness, our oneness, our unity, our transformation is all being proclaimed. It must be noted, however, that all this cannot be said without identifying the fact that at different points in history the church has lost its voice, forgotten its unique calling, and has wandered into some fairly destructive behaviors. And while this is true and must be said, the underlying theme of this discussion is that there’s something broken (in either huge or subtle ways depending on your context) that needs renovation.
I personally do not have any sort of great exclamation point statements to add to the end of this discussion. I can, however, tell you some of the things I’m processing through. I think that it is essential to the Christians life to gather on Sundays. I’m not confident of why, and I’m not confident that the manner in which we do it fulfills this need, but I do believe that God has wired us in such a way to need that communal gathering. The people that talked about how worshiping together reminds them that they’re not alone might be enough to answer this question, though I’m still uncertain. I believe there is something crucially important to being a part of a bigger gathering that is not about “me” in particular but about the community calling out to God in one voice. In smaller groups and amongst close friends its generally always about me or you, but in those bigger gatherings it’s about us and Him. I think there’s something important to that. I think there’s something important about being challenged to live like Christ more deeply which often happens (or is intended to happen) through the teaching. While all teaching doesn’t match this, I think the idea behind the sermon/message is to equip you and challenge you to live differently. I’m sure this could be accomplished in different ways and through different mediums but I don’t think it happens very well unless its intentional. It is super rare for a group of friends who are hanging out to spontaneously open up the Bible in order to grapple with some of the deep theological ideas that might challenge our daily lives. Generally the only times those conversations “spontaneously” happen is when you’ve got a group of seminary students together.
That’s all I’ve got for now. I mean, I could throw some stuff up there about how God commands us to gather, but I think that’s a somewhat fruitless discussion. It’s like telling an alcoholic to “stop it”. Well duh! Of course he/she should stop drinking, if it were as easy as someone just saying “stop it. It’s bad for you.” then there would be very few alcoholics! It’s not just about what’s right or wrong, what we’re supposed to do and what we’re not supposed to do, it’s about the journey there, it’s about the purpose of it, it’s about the person behind the commands, etc. Also, there are many good practical or technical reasons why we should gather together as the church is known to do. It’s easier to gain momentum as a group, it’s easier to support mission work, ministries, and to help people. You can have a larger impact on a neighborhood or city as a larger group and can additionally be a place where people feel like they can visit without being known or whatever. But I consider all these technical/practical which are of great importance but by themselves do not resonate as much as the deeper theological and heart ideas that the two paragraphs above talk about.
How am I doing? Are we tracking? Do you disagree? Do I make sense? Can you teach me something?
Thanks for engaging in this dialog, may we all be sharpened and grow together!
peace.
