When The Default Answer is “No”
If you've ever felt defeated by the very institution you're working to save
Recently, in the span of one week, I had two encounters with the institutional church that… disappointed me, frustrated me, and sucked the wind out of my sails.
[Weep silently with the rest of us if you know the feeling.]
I know, for sure, that I’m not alone.
I sense that many of this small band of folks who read this blog are people who have received scowls in response to their forward-thinking and innovative ideas for the church.
You’re the kind of people who have said, “What if we try this?!” Only to receive grumbles in return.
You’re the kind of people who have said, “I have a big idea!” Only to be made to feel small.
You’re the kind of people who have said, “Let’s GO!” Only to have been told you’re too fast, too loud, and too different.
It’s no wonder to me that the data folks and the research-y people keep claiming the local church is dying.
When the institution’s default answer is “no,” you know it has a fatal disease.
But, somehow or another, you all are still here. You are “yes” people. You still believe in the future of the local church, despite the naysayers and the curmudgeons.
And I still believe in the church too… because I believe in you.
Let me remind you as I’ve had to remind myself this week:
When Jesus is accused by the Pharisees of healing on the sabbath, he doesn’t apologize and quit. He reminds everyone of what is most important in God’s eyes, and he keeps on keeping on.1 (Mark 3:1-6)
Or a bit earlier in Mark, in the midst of a series of confrontations Jesus has with the institutionalists… as he is accused of breaking another of the Sabbath laws of the time, “Then he said to them, ‘The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.’” (Mark 2:27)
I think Jesus believes in you too.
Jesus was an innovator, like you. Jesus was a disruptor, like you.
Like you, Jesus wasn’t interested in dismantling or destroying institutions… he was interested in reminding them why they existed.
He chose the people in front of him.
Again and again.
Jesus kept doing the work.
When the world said “no,” Jesus kept saying yes.
When some guys started lowering their hurting friend into a room with Jesus from the ceiling, Jesus didn’t scold them for a lack of decorum. Jesus saw their faith. He said yes.
When children interrupted Jesus and his disciples’ busy schedules, just hoping to feel a connection with him, Jesus said yes.
When Mary of Bethany poured expensive perfume all over Jesus, and the others in the room were aghast at her waste, Jesus said yes.
When the crowd in Jericho is scolding a suffering and shouting Bartimaeus to “be quiet,” Jesus stopped. “Call him,” he said. Jesus said yes.
When the disciples looked at a hungry crowd and said, "Send them away," Jesus said, "You give them something to eat." Jesus said yes.
Over and over and over, Jesus says, “Yes.”
Blessed are you who are trying to grow your church or your ministry, but you keep encountering the big “no” machine of institutional protectionism. For yours is a company I would like to keep. And I believe Jesus would too.
I’m struck by a memory of a Christian event I attended almost a year ago. It was a large national gathering of innovative people starting new church expressions. These were experimental people. These were true believers and real “yes” folks. These were people doing incredibly hard work for absolutely zero financial gain.
After one of the sessions, I found myself in a wonderful conversation with one of the attendees. It took only about five minutes of me listening for her tears to start flowing. She was so worn down… not by the ministry, not by the feeding of her community and the spiritual nourishment of so many people she was serving… she was worn down by the processes, the sluggish pace of denominational politics, the constant “no” machine, and the subtle cues offered to her over and over that she was never quite enough in the eyes of the institutional authority figures.
I’ve received those cues too. Maybe you have as well.
And yet here we all are. Saying “yes.” Hoping. Believing.
I’m guessing you already know this, but I should say it anyway… I’m not suggesting that rules, policies, or polity are bad or should be circumvented. Here’s the irony. I’m actually kind of a polity nerd. I like that stuff.
But Jesus was kind of a nerd too. He didn’t hate “the law.”
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” (Matthew 5:17)
May you and I and other “yes” people keep on keeping on when it comes to making the promise of “on earth as it is in heaven” real. Keep imagining. Keep innovating. Keep experimenting. Keep running, and working, and saying “YES!”
Yes. I do realize that they started plotting to kill him after this. I don’t know what to say. The Gospel is risky. YOLO.