The Luke 14 Mandate

What would happen if the church took Luke 14:13 literally? But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.

Jesus is talking about intentionally seeking out the marginalized, the poor, those with disabilities, and those who have nothing to offer us - from the world's point of view (of course they do have something to offer us and it is often profound). If we take Christ at his word, individuals and churches who intentionally seek out the marginalized and minister to them will be blessed by the Father. The reason is obvious: God blesses those who have a heart like Him. This is what He did, how He ministered, who He went out of His way to minister to.

Interestingly, congregations that reach out to families who have members with disabilities find that whole families show up because they want and desire the help and need the support of other families who have the same challenges. And frankly, because so few congregations make this an emphasis, those who invite and welcome the otherwise marginalized and forgotten will see a significant response.

One congregation I know puts on an annual dress up event for young men and women with intellectual disabilities. It is a joyous event as the guys are dressed up in suits and ties and the gals in prom dresses along with their families. A small thing? No, it is a huge event for these families who are being loved on by a congregation.

All too often we associate with and minister to those who are like us or have something to give in return. The Luke 14:13 mandate is that we also intentionally associate with and minister to those who cannot give us anything in return. In this case there is no selfish motive and God's heart shines through in powerful ways. 

For practical tips on ministering to those with disabilities, contact Joni and Friends and ask for their publication "Through the Roof: Assisting churches in developing an effective disability ministry and outreach." It is practical, easy to read and has been used by many congregations. 

God blesses those who take the Luke 14 mandate seriously. It changes our hearts as well.

The Five Why Questions

A simple technique for getting to the bottom of problems is to ask the question "why?" – five times, to drill down to the heart of the matter. I learned this from Toyota motors and their problem solving strategy.

Here is an example. I am meeting with a church board of about fifteen hundred whose board meets twice a month from about seven to midnight – terribly long and inefficient meetings. I ask “why do you do this? I can’t imagine those meetings being very productive.” “Well we have a lot of stuff that we need to do” is the answer.

“Why do you as a board need to do all that stuff?” I ask.  “Are there not staff or volunteers who can do much of it?” “Well, I guess we’re not that good at delegating and think we need to be on top of everything in the church” they answer.

“Why do you need to be on top of everything? Don’t you just need to be on top of the most important things” I ask? “Good question, they answer. We just assumed that we needed to know everything. As I think about it that is kind of impossible in a church our size is it not? I don’t think we do a very good job of differentiating between the small stuff and the big stuff.”

“Why is that?” I ask. “Hmmm,” one of them says. “We don’t really plan our meetings very well. We just have this list of stuff that we need to decide and then the meetings go on and on and on. Our agenda is sort of like a shopping list of stuff we talk about.”

“Why don’t you plan your meetings so that you cover the big rocks first and let the smaller rocks fall to someone else?” I ask. “We never really thought of that,” they answer.  “But we like it.”

By drilling down with five “why?” questions we got to the heart of the issue. This board did not differentiate between key issues they needed to deal with and mundane issues that did not need their attention. And they made faulty assumptions about needing to know everything that went on in the church. Modifying this assumption and paying attention only to the big rocks along with a disciplined meeting structure could reduce their twice monthly meetings from five hours to two. So simple, but they had never taken the time to ask why they did what they did how they did it – in spite of the pain.

The next time you have a problem you would like to solve, try asking the question “Why?” five times, drilling down to the heart of the matter. You may be surprised at what you find.

Want to drill down further? Check out this link.

The Heart of the Matter

Scripture is replete with references to our hearts – the source of our thinking, actions, priorities, motivations and attitudes. Everything important about us comes back to our hearts. Proverbs 4:23 puts this in perspective when it says, “Above all else, guard your heart for it is the wellspring of life.”

We know that God cares about the content and condition of our hearts. The question that we need to constantly ask ourselves is whether our hearts reflect His heart. A helpful exercise is to read Scripture with the constant question in the back of our minds, what does this text say about the heart of God – and therefore our hearts.

Ultimately, spiritual transformation is about my heart becoming more like His heart and the greatest gift we will receive when we see Him face to face is that our hearts indeed will reflect His heart. To the extent that we bring our hearts into alignment with His heart we will become the people He wants us to be and have the impact that He wants us to have.

This goes beyond good theology, biblical knowledge or legalistic obedience. It is about alignment at our very core. When God talks about caring about the orphan and the widow in the Old Testament – what does this say about His heart for those who are without an advocate? When He instructs the Israelites to treat the alien among them well, what does that say about His heart? When He is gracious to the nation of Israel in spite of their wayward heart, what does that say about His heart?

The Gospels are central to a quest for a heart like His because in Christ we see God as one of us living out the perfection of God’s heart in real life ways. Every passage of the Gospels reveals something significant about the heart of God – and in ways we can relate to. Paying attention to Christ’s heart toward His father, toward the hurting and the guilty, toward the poor and the downtrodden, toward the seeker and the religious hypocrite all tell us something about what our hearts should look like. Bring our hearts into alignment with Him and our thinking, priorities and relationships will follow. The very act of incarnation, God becoming man so that man can be reconciled to God tells us something about the amazing, loving, compassionate, forgiving, humble, missional heart of God.

Because the heart is the wellspring of life – out of which all of life flows, the key to becoming what God wants me to become is not trying harder but allowing Him to transform my heart so that it is always becoming more like His heart. A transformed heart brings transformed thinking, attitudes, priorities, actions and relationships. The heart is the heart of the matter. I want my heart to reflect His heart. The rest follows from that.

Pray for Japan

Japan is one of the hardest nation to reach in terms of the gospel. In the aftermath of the devastating earthquake, however, there will be many opportunities for God's people from Japan and elsewhere to share the good news. We should be praying that hurting people would be open to the truth as they experience the love that His people will shower on them.

Pray also for believers who were impacted by this tragedy along with the church in Japan that will be responding in practical ways.

Here are some pictures of the devastation.

Champions and systems

A wise person has observed that “nothing starts without a champion and nothing lasts without a system.”

That truth explains the reason that many organizations (including churches) that start well do not continue on that trajectory and eventually plateau out. And why other organizations and churches are able to transition into long term effectiveness.

Champions are those individuals who have the vision, drive and fortitude to start something new and fresh. Ministry founders are such champions. Church planters are such champions. Missionaries who forge new ground are such champions. Every successful ministry had a champion whose vision and tenacity along with God’s blessing are why they are there.

While starting takes a champion, actually lasting takes something very different: systems that allow the ministry to stabilize, grow and flourish for the long term. As long as the ministry is dependent on its founder for its glue one either has a personality driven ministry or one where everything comes back to the champion. The personality gives the organization excitement and drive but long term that champion or personality will not be present so the transition from founder driven to leader and system driven is a crucial issue.

On a large scale, this was played out with Prison Fellowship with the ministry moving beyond the wonderful leadership of Chuck Colson or Focus on the Family as it moved on beyond James Dobson. On a smaller scale it is played out in numerous ministries where there is a transition from founder to systems.

Founders and champions can make this transition but it is a hard one. Founders are visionaries who were champions for a ministry that had to run by the seat of its pants to get started, was messy in the process and were highly flexible because the founder was the voice and the decision maker. That works for a while. But eventually for the ministry to get to the next level, the founder must either become a leader and build systems or the chaos and messiness of champions takes a toll on focus and effectiveness of the ministry.

Champions are always necessary to get a ministry up and running. They must then transition to leaders with a developed leadership team and systems if they are going to be around for the long run and meet their full potential.

Do we really believe that all people matter to God?

We have made remarkable progress in overcoming the marginalization of people based on color and ethnic background – but there is still a group that the church and society at large have not seen as full members of God’s family: those with physical or mental disabilities.

In many parts of the world, those who are handicapped are “throw away people” as they have little economic benefit. Often, the only people who pay attention to them are believers who understand that God made all men and women in His image, that He does not have a plan A or a plan B for His people but only a plan A. And that includes living up to our full potential, dignity as a full member of His body, living out the unique role He designed for each of us (Ephesians 2:10) and contributing something unique to God’s work on earth.

Only a very small minority of churches in the United States are handicap accessible. Think of the statement that makes to one who is and shows up! Only a small minority of congregations have ministries designed to meet the needs of those with disabilities leaving families with disabled kids to struggle alone with the care and challenges that go into raising them. For many of us the people group that make up those with physical or mental challenges are a “hidden group” just like others in the past were not on our radar screen. It is a subtle overlooking of a whole segment of people who matter to God.

Those congregations who have gone out of their way to invite, welcome and design both facilities and programs for this forgotten group quickly find grateful families coming through their doors! And there is a vibrancy and beauty to those congregations because in learning to love people who others often marginalize and ignore, their hearts become more like Gods and they realize that their new friends have as much to give them as they have to give – if not more. Some of the most happy, loving and radiant Christ followers I have known are those who have mental impairment. Their simple, joyful faith is what God longs for all of us to have. Those with physical disabilities have had to trust God in ways many of us have not and often have a tenacity that is absent from those whose life is easier. Again, we have much to learn.

God designed all people in His image, not some people! As image bearers, there are no people that should be hidden from our view or the ministry of the church. And unlike our world’s evaluation, in God’s economy everyone matters, has something to contribute and is equal in the site of God and therefore should be in our sight as well.

My tribe or his tribe

I belong to a tribe – the EFCA. In a day when denominations are supposed to be gone and done with they live and breathe and are driving forces for church planting, church health, seminary training and missions. Tribes are a good thing. They provide fellowship, accountability and allow congregations to do together what they could not do separately.

All that said, I do not believe that our denominational tribes should necessarily be our highest allegiance. In the local setting it often creates competition, isolation from other churches and fragmented community impact. In fact, how we think about out tribe (if we have one) needs to be informed by the prayer Jesus prayed for us just before his death: “May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”

Our unity is a sign of Jesus’ divinity! That is a scary thought given the lack of unity among congregations in most local settings. When we compete rather than cooperate, do our own thing rather than work together for the reaching of our communities we actually hurt the reputation of Jesus!

Fortunately this is starting to change. Take Austin, Texas for example. Dozens of evangelical churches are working together to reach their community. The same in Lake County, Illinois and other locations. Rather than thinking independently, or only about their tribe, local congregations are coming together to form a local tribe – a coalition to reach their city or region for Christ. When that happens the community sees and experiences the church and therefore Jesus in a new way.

This really is about whether we think our thing – our church or our denomination – is more important than His church. Jesus did not die for the SBC  or EFCA or whatever tribe you belong to. He died for His church that is made up of many tribes. And our unity or lack of it says a lot about where our highest commitment lies. I love my tribe but I have a higher allegiance and that is to the cause of Christ and the spread of the gospel. And I am encouraged whenever local congregations band together to reach their communities with the gospel. When that happens, people find Jesus and His name is lifted high – because of our unity.

I wish we could call a halt to our competitive spirits for the sake of the cause of Christ and move from competition to cooperation. I take my hat off to all who have! May their tribe increase!