While You Were Away...

July 26, 2009

Lesson Learned - Investing Our Time

What do you think about when you think about "church"? What does a minister do? How do Christians become stronger in their faith?

Your answer probably has something to do with singing songs, preaching, or Bible classes. Maybe helping people or eating fried chicken and deviled eggs one Sunday a month. For those of us who have grown up as part of a church, it can be pretty hard to see beyond these things. Jesus didn't talk much about our songs and the Bible doesn't record any of his recipes for potato salad. Instead, Jesus talked about the harvest, fishing for men, the Kingdom, and disciples. He told us to become servants, take up our crosses, and give of ourselves for our brother.

When Lisa and I first went to China we had almost no idea what we were doing. We knew that we wanted to tell people about Jesus and help the brothers and sisters there. But how should we do that? Our answer, of course, was to do exactly what we've seen other people do in the US. We had meetings with songs, a couple of prayers, and a lesson. We invited people to come to those meetings. We even had movie and board game nights like any good ministry in the US. After a while though, we realized that just inviting people to meetings and playing games wasn't having the effect we hoped it would. Some people were becoming very committed to us, but not necessarily to Christ. People got in the habit of going to meetings, but not of obeying the Lord.

Then without realizing it, we stumbled onto one of the secrets for effective ministry: investing our time wisely. We found ourselves naturally drawn to the brothers and sisters in Jingzhou with very sincere faith. The people who were willing to be taught. The ones who were eager to get involved and serve in any way that we asked them to. We especially liked a few of the brothers and sisters there and started spending lots of time with them; either one on one or as a small group. We still played together and we still went to meetings. But beyond that was a deeper sharing of our lives, our real ideas, our struggles, and joys. They saw Lisa and I argue and then resolve our problems. They heard us complain and encourage. They saw us having our quiet time and talking to our neighbors about our faith. And before we knew it, we realized that those few brothers and sisters were the strongest disciples in the church.

When Lisa and I realized what had happened, we decided to purposefully invest our time in a few people. We didn't really know how to "disciple" people and we weren't sure that it would work, but from just one year of ministry we knew that it must be right. I've been blessed with some great Christian examples in my life and I've been in congregations with good ministers. What I haven't seen is somebody spending time with just a few people for the purpose of helping them to grow as disciples. I've never experienced and I haven't heard many people talk about it. The New Testament is clear about the need to pass what we know onto people who will be able to pass it on to even more people. It also tells us that the job of ministers is to equip God's people to do His work.

Almost everyone in the world feels busy and, as a result, faces choices about how to spend their time. Too often, we in the church get busy doing church. Having church. Organizing meetings. Administering and managing. Attending church and visiting church. I thank God that He has shown us the importance of focusing on individuals. Worship meetings and BIbles classes are important, but they can never change someone's life like a personal conversation or helping hand can.

Lisa and I are about to begin our 6th year of work in China and we don't plan to be responsible for any meetings. Other capable people will plan and serve in that way. Instead, we're choosing to spend almost all of our time with four or 5 individuals. We'll attend meetings together and play together. Cook and pray together. And as God pours His love and grace into our life, we'll be close enough to these people so that His goodness can flow out into their lives. We will try our best to be more than a crowd, more than a congregation. We'll try to be a community. A family.

Posted by daleeatsrice at July 26, 2009 1:52 AM