BEING CHRIST TO PEOPLE
(Read Matthew 25:31-46)
In my 29 years of ministry I have worked hard to bring about the changes that would help the Church of the Brethren be ever more faithful to the New Testament vision of the church. I can say to you today that the changes we have accomplished in the Illinois and Wisconsin District have been the most gratifying in all those years. Our district is poised to call out new leadership, to identify and unleash the spiritual gifts among us, to plant more and more new churches, and to join congregation with congregation in unprecedented ways to be a powerful witness to today’s world.
The work of this past year has been to deal with all the structural and organizational details required by our new structure, and our new commitment to a balanced budget. All of that has entailed a looking inward. But the most important aspect of that work has been to clear the way for a renewed, more sharply focused vision of ministry. The whole purpose of the transformation we have experienced and are continuing to experience is to help us more effectively accomplish our mission. Now it is time to look outward.
That doesn’t mean we don’t have more work to do within our district to make that possible. The changes we have gone through have not been easy, and relationships have been strained over unmet and changing expectations. The shift in my work hours and focus has meant that I have not always been there when you needed me. I regret that, and ask your forgiveness and understanding as we continue to move into a new way of working together. In addition, we find ourselves still confronted by the sense of division that has been a part of our district for so long. The truth is that there are many issues over which we strongly disagree. We still need to seek a shared understanding what it means to be a district and a community of Brothers and Sisters united in ministry and mission.
I don’t know where that will take us. But I believe that a renewed focus on mission, a renewed commitment to reaching outside of ourselves to minister to our neighbors, can have a powerful unifying effect. I recently spoke with a young pastor who expressed frustration over the tendency of the church to get caught up in internal fighting instead of uniting in reaching out to the world. He believes that is one reason why there are fewer and fewer young people willing to enter the ministry. He listed the needs he is aware of in his own community that are not being met. Then he said something I will not soon forget: “All I want to do is be Christ to people.”
I offer that as a powerful definition of mission--and a powerful call to mission. Matthew 25 makes it clear that when we stand before Christ at the Last Judgment he will not care what our district organization looked like, or who won or lost in our arguments over theology. He will want to know whether we gave food to the hungry and drink to the thirsty, whether we welcomed the stranger, clothed the naked, cared for the sick, and visited the prisoner. In fact, and we must never forget this, he will make it clear that when we did those things to “one of the least of these,” we did them to Him. And when we failed to do them for one of the least of these, we failed to serve Christ himself, no matter how righteous—or well organized—we thought we were.
Brothers and Sisters, I urge us to make this question a high priority for next year: How can we be Christ to people?
Jim
In my 29 years of ministry I have worked hard to bring about the changes that would help the Church of the Brethren be ever more faithful to the New Testament vision of the church. I can say to you today that the changes we have accomplished in the Illinois and Wisconsin District have been the most gratifying in all those years. Our district is poised to call out new leadership, to identify and unleash the spiritual gifts among us, to plant more and more new churches, and to join congregation with congregation in unprecedented ways to be a powerful witness to today’s world.
The work of this past year has been to deal with all the structural and organizational details required by our new structure, and our new commitment to a balanced budget. All of that has entailed a looking inward. But the most important aspect of that work has been to clear the way for a renewed, more sharply focused vision of ministry. The whole purpose of the transformation we have experienced and are continuing to experience is to help us more effectively accomplish our mission. Now it is time to look outward.
That doesn’t mean we don’t have more work to do within our district to make that possible. The changes we have gone through have not been easy, and relationships have been strained over unmet and changing expectations. The shift in my work hours and focus has meant that I have not always been there when you needed me. I regret that, and ask your forgiveness and understanding as we continue to move into a new way of working together. In addition, we find ourselves still confronted by the sense of division that has been a part of our district for so long. The truth is that there are many issues over which we strongly disagree. We still need to seek a shared understanding what it means to be a district and a community of Brothers and Sisters united in ministry and mission.
I don’t know where that will take us. But I believe that a renewed focus on mission, a renewed commitment to reaching outside of ourselves to minister to our neighbors, can have a powerful unifying effect. I recently spoke with a young pastor who expressed frustration over the tendency of the church to get caught up in internal fighting instead of uniting in reaching out to the world. He believes that is one reason why there are fewer and fewer young people willing to enter the ministry. He listed the needs he is aware of in his own community that are not being met. Then he said something I will not soon forget: “All I want to do is be Christ to people.”
I offer that as a powerful definition of mission--and a powerful call to mission. Matthew 25 makes it clear that when we stand before Christ at the Last Judgment he will not care what our district organization looked like, or who won or lost in our arguments over theology. He will want to know whether we gave food to the hungry and drink to the thirsty, whether we welcomed the stranger, clothed the naked, cared for the sick, and visited the prisoner. In fact, and we must never forget this, he will make it clear that when we did those things to “one of the least of these,” we did them to Him. And when we failed to do them for one of the least of these, we failed to serve Christ himself, no matter how righteous—or well organized—we thought we were.
Brothers and Sisters, I urge us to make this question a high priority for next year: How can we be Christ to people?
Jim
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