When Broken is Good

When Broken is Good
September 2006

Some time ago a bunch of us met after reading Shane Claiborne's "The Irresistible Revolution" and we began or continued to wrestle with the whole "feeding the hungry" thing. I was most surprised at how we view the poor. How so often we assume that thier situations are a result of thier poor choices and/or decisions.

This is a good place to start. Wrestling with Jesus' words and directions. To ask the question of what Jesus really meant when He taught about caring for others more than ourselves or where it says He is near to the broken hearted. So He must be near me. He must be near us. Is it good to be broken?

We've been discovering for quite some time now that "poor" means much more than just living in Section 8 housing or some government provided living space. The loneliness of people is becoming more and more evident as we approach Jesus. The closer we get to God the more aware of the suffering that surrounds us becomes.

We do an outreach that we call our "Grocery GiveAway" a few times throughout the year. Collect food from various resources and take it to the under-resourced. Someone had said to me one night that they see no purpose in our Grocery GiveAway Outreach. When they said this they didn't say it in cynical way but they had more like a “matter-of-fact” kind of tone. They see it as us just enabling or even prolonging a lazy persons current condition. They see it as us allowing them to not change.

I see it as an entrance. I see it as giving "hope". We are hope-peddlers. Or as Brennan Manning would say or was it Phillip Yancey who said, "we are to be conveyors of grace for these potential reservoirs of God’s mercy".

People who have never exposed themselves to those in poverty will only be able to either assume or speculate. Which is why poor people view rich people as having it all together. Same approach: assumption methodology.

Which is why there are so few laborers.(I better check myself to look for blisters on my hands and soars on my feet before I get all cynical.) There are plenty of churched folks but few laborers. Lots of vocal participation and meetings and little sweat and hurt. When pastors are actually taking lessons from the world of marketing instead of lessons from the Sermon on the Mount you have got to stop and say this is not what Jesus meant. This is not Christianity. This is Gospel-less.

Here is where I get into trouble with other Christians. It just happens that these are real situations that I have experienced in ministry. Someone asked why we don’t advertise our church. I said “We don't advertise because that costs money and the money for our name can feed a family for a week.” They get mad when I say that. They get perplexed because that doesn’t line up with what I feel is the “F Word” of ministry, MARKETING.

We're not afraid to let God lead us. We're not afraid to love. We don't count how many people show up on Sundays... ever! Because people are not cattle. They’re not some number or potential tither to base a salary cap on or the determining factor of me getting health insurance or not.

I've met with people that have traveled 2 to 3 hours to come to be with our community not for a great teaching or for cool worship songs that help them worship better - but for love. They've heard about our community that embraces people and loves them where they are at. They hear we love and they want to be loved more than anything.

So we're not afraid to can our "sermons" and eat a meal together instead. We're not afraid to literally leave our “church service” and go serve people in need. We’re not onto something new either. In fact the method is quite old. How does God put it, “there is nothing new under the sun.” We need to really hear that.

We do this thing we call our “Pizza GiveAway”. I hate to share too much about it because it’s so simple that overchurched people will jot down the idea on their list of things to do instead of do it as an act of kindness or an act of love. Anyway, we buy a dozen pizzas and go downtown at midnight right by all the bars and just give it out for free, by the slice, on a plate, with a napkin, and a sincere smile and occassional wise crack when necessary. But in the giving of a single slice of pizza without some church name on the napkin or some kind of 2 second “plug” on what time our church service is I have been given great opportunities like listening to a young man contemplate suicide or giving a staggering drunk a ride home.

That was my Kingdom work that evening. There was something broken that night that I got to take part in the fixing of it. Not totally fixed but part of it. That’s what Jesus had me do that night. Jesus didn't get mad at me for not "getting them" saved. But... somebody who goes to church too much(can I say that?) actually said to me, “Yeah that’s nice but did you preach to him?” I think I muttered some form of profanity under my breath and then cried. If you know me then, yeah, I definitley muttered some profanities. And yes, I did cry.

On occassion I do run into people that intentionally use us for our resources for thier own gain. Including the church. But what’s really cool is that almost all the time our practicalness provides an entrance into dark places full of despair, places full of loneliness and brokenness, and places where people have no friends. And see this is where we become light as we hope for those who have lost hope and we become like Jesus who is called the “Friend of sinners”. I need a T Shirt that just says SINNER. Like Rob Bell says in Velvet Elvis, “Some days I’m a sinner and some days I’m a Christian.” Think about that for a little while. It's called being broken. It says I'm broken to the God who fixes.

If church meetings could be like an AA meeting(Alcoholics Anonymous) the church would make less mistakes. What I love about an AA meeting is the fact that when you come through the door your actions are screaming out for help. A great silent confession is fired out like a cannon and people respond immediately to your arrival. Just simply showing up declares the fact that you are either desperate or in despair. That you need others. That you are indeed broken. And yeah, broken is good.