Revolutionary

It's hard to feel like a revolutionary when you are sitting at home with a cold on a rainy day.

But yesterday was different.  Pat and I went for a walk.  She tried to encourage me for a few blocks and then we fell silent.  I even walked a little behind her for awhile instead of dragging her at my pace as usually happens.

Eventually, she asked me what I was thinking.  I'm always a sucker for that question.  I enjoy processing things verbally.  Part of what I said to her was one of the things I identify myself by.  I am a revolutionary.  I like to turn things upside down, especially things that have been left alone for so long.

That's why I asked some of the questions I did when I pastored.  "Why do we need Sunday School?  Why do we meet on Sunday mornings?  Why do we do things the way we do them?"  Those kinds of questions make people uneasy.  It requires them to think about things.  I requires them to substantiate their answers.  It's not good enough to have them say as the Amishman says, "because we always done it that way."

Part of what stimulated that question was an invitation from my neighbor to attend his church.  (He noticed that we don't rush off somewhere on Sunday morning like so many in the neighborhood).  He said things were good, okay or something like that at his church except for the changes in worship.  The age-old controversy between singing off the wall/scripture songs and singing hymns in perfect 4 part harmony without accompanying instruments.  But the sermons were good.

What makes them good?  Because they sound good?  Because they have 3 points?  Because they use a lot of scripture?  Or are they good because the Spirit of God uses the message to convict my neighbor and others of areas in their lives where they are far from God?  I'm afraid I wouldn't fit in his church.  I would shortly offend someone because I wasn't satisfied with the mix of music or the content of the sermons or the fact that I want to grow in my spiritual life.  I want to live on the edge.  I was to see the power of God unleashed to change the world we live in.

$100,000,000 isn't going to change the home situations of the children in Newark, NJ.  It isn't going to change the absence of parenting and moral teaching that their parents didn't get.  It isn't going to remove the hopelessness they have.  It isn't going to heal their hearts.  Only a spiritual, heart change can do that.  Only an encounter with Jesus and his healing power can do that.  Only the restoration of families and lives will do that.  It isn't about money, it's about love.

So I would probably be labeled ungrateful for not being excited about the grant of $100,000,000 just like I'm not excited about "good" sermons and lifeless worship.  I would be criticized for not celebrating the microscopic growth of a church over 25 or 30 years.  I'm looking for 3,000 added to the church in one day!  I'm looking for captives being set free!  I'm looking for permanent change in lives. I'm looking for the Holy Spirit to help us sort out the mess when we turn it upside down, shake it up and let him tell us what to keep and what to throw away.

If we don't do some revolutionary things in our world it isn't going to be around long.  It's time for the church to be salt and light...one individual at a time.  Does anyone out there need a revolutionary?  I know one looking to turn some things upside down.