The following stems from conversations I have had with recent graduates who are attempting to determine where God is calling them. It is meant as a reminder to both myself and others:

If you truly believe you have been called by God to serve in the capacity your in…and…If you truly believe that you are in the place God wants and desires for you…and…If you believe God only ever desires us to be real, authentic and without pretense…then…you must also equally believe you must be yourself and yourself alone. You can’t be anyone else, no matter how great or gifted they might be. It is not only impossible but a worthless exercise that only will end in disastrous disappointment.

This of course is difficult. It is difficult because people often project their opinion of who you should be. However, the only expert, besides God, on you is, well, you. Then I would simply ask: What are you waiting for? Who are you trying to be? Why are you spending so much energy trying to be someone or something you can never be? Why, instead, don’t you just be you and allow God to profoundly use you as the exact person he wants in your present location and circumstance. To be anything else would simply be hypocritical and dishonoring to yourself and, more importantly, to the God who wonderfully and beautifully created you.

I had a great conversation with one of our church leaders the other night about the possibility of bringing someone from overseas to do a short-term ministry in our church sometime in the future. In other words, reverse the traditional North American mission’s model – which would be interesting to say the least. In the midst our conversation, I began to realize how much our culture’s colonial roots still exist in my thinking. I talked about the appropriate concern of making sure that this person was ready for a ministry like this and then I thought: Why don’t we assume that when we send a team to a different country that they would have those questions of us? Do we just assume that they should be grateful to have a group of North Americans minister to them? I guess it has just made me think about some of the things we assume when we interact with other cultures – often without even realizing it. Maybe our ancestor’s colonial worldview still lingers closer than we think.

I have noticed a trend in churches and Church growth material recently. There seems to be a growing theory or hypothesis that unchurched people are attracted to churches who reach out in the community, feed the poor, care for others, get involved in issues of justice, etc. I don’t disagree with this hypothesis at all and, in fact, think it is quite accurate. However, it is the result of this assessment that bothers me.

There have been a rash of churches who are getting involved in the community, helping the poor, and engaging the needs of our culture because of the belief that it will grow their church. I am not arguing that churches shouldn’t be involved in these virtuous activities but want to ask the question: “Does our motivation matter?” In other words, is it right to get involved in the community and engage the needs of others out of the motivation to the grow the church?

I am not against feeding the poor, being involved in areas of injustice or meeting the needs of the community we are called to serve (I fully support them and argue we don’t do enough), but shouldn’t we do them simply because they are good and because we are called to do them? I would argue that even if they didn’t produce an evangelistic response or if the church didn’t grow, we are still called to participate in them. This is part of what the Church is called to be and what the Church is called to do. What would happen if your church would decrease in size if it cared for the poor or issues of justice? Would it still do it with the same passion and fervency?

Does our motivation matter? I think so. If we become the Church we are called to be, people will be attracted to it, but we need to be the Church simply because we are called to be the Church that radically loves people and shows it through everything it does, regardless of the results.

In our Google Age we often “google” a term for more information about it. I thought I would try an interesting and telling exercise and post the top two pictures for the following terms…

Church

Community

Faith

Peace

Joy

Postmodernity

Preaching

Sermon

Forgiveness

Theology

Humour