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 Wreck the RoofAre you willing to take apart the church to bring people to Jesus?
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The deacons had called an emergency meeting for Sunday night, and the outcome would likely be that they'd use the church's savings (they had over $50,000 in the bank) to hang a chain across the entrance of the church parking lot and prevent any further damage. I decided, there and then, to preach Mark 2. I stood up, read the text, and asked, "What roof tiles do you need to break? What are you willing to suffer the loss of for the sake of reaching the thousands of people right outside your door?" The parishioners sat unmoving, unmoved. It was a dirge. I've never seen a congregation clear out more quickly. I don't think it was to join the festival outside. What Are You Protecting?Good story. Problem: it's taken me a long time to heed its lesson. I went back to my own church and happily resumed the business (in my own way) of guarding roof tiles, all the while speaking about how important it is to care for our community. And then one day I realized: this entire church body could perish overnight, and the community wouldn't notice us missing. It was doubtful they would care. We were huddled together, a barricade of backs, enjoying immensely the preaching of Jesus, but seeing very little of the bone-deep, heart-turning forgiveness of Jesus, lesser still of the heart-stopping, crowd-stirring healing of Jesus. We were avoiding controversy, to be sure, but by avoiding those who needed the forgiveness and healing of Jesus. Thus began my own revolution. In word and deed (slowly, slowly), I am changing. In word and deed (slowly, slowly), so is our church. We are repenting of being a barricade of backs, and training to be a posse of roof-tile breakers. Here's some of what that means. We started to ask two questions about our community:
The first question—what are their needs—led us to discover two groups, hidden in plain sight, within our community: low-income families (mostly single moms) and First Nations (Canadian for Natives or Indians). For a variety of reasons (low housing and rental costs, at least until recently, a year-round mild climate, easy access to health care, etc.), our community has been a magnet for single mothers on welfare and other low-income families. A few years ago, a lady in our church went, with abrupt suddenness, from being married, owning a new home, taking nice vacations, to being divorced, renting a cramped basement suite, and worrying about having enough gas to drive to church. |             |
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