This is not a post about Tim Tebow. But I do want you to examine this quote:
“…unfortunately, many times people with the goal to
do evil work better than people with the goal to do good.”
Let this sink in.
We’ve said it here before. Christians, we need to be active in some way. Doing nothing is not an option. Not to say we are good Christians or to be proud, not because someone told us to, but because the King has commanded it so.
If we continue to see ministry unto the Lord and towards the lost as optional or only worthy of our leftovers, this quote will continue to be true. Our whole lives unto God are ministry. Our whole lives are worship. Worship Him in Spirit and truth, listen carefully for His direction, and respond accordingly. Do not delay to seek the Lord on these matters.
We will run businesses with the utmost excellence and achieve astounding results…but we’ll haphazardly minister to others or fit God in when we can.
We will run sports leagues with the highest excellence and be the best coaches or team parents, with all sorts of spirit and zeal…but we’ll have nothing left when it comes to reaching the lost for Christ.
We will enjoy book clubs, happy hours, and hobbies of every kind…and leave no time for missional living.
Trust me, I have to check myself here all the time. What is really getting my time and attention?
On the other extreme, we will decide for ourselves what we will do missionally, take pride in it, and close our ears to the Lord so that He can never tell us when to add, subtract, or divert from the plan we created. I’ve seen well-meaning people become so full of themselves and their idea that they just steamroll everyone else, having no understanding that “their ministry” isn’t really theirs and that such work is designed to work with the whole body of Christ.
We don’t need more ministry brands. We need collaborative mission work.
We are making decisions everyday and those decisions have consequences. Consequences exist for the things we do and for the things we do not do.
Are we going to accept that those who do evil are often more devoted to their mission, more organized, more zealous, more hungry for change (in the negative direction), more highly trained, more motivated (by evil desire), and more involved in community affairs than we are?
I don’t accept that.
Neither should you.
This realization hit me years ago and my response is now being lived out through the Parable Project. And “Parable Project” the brand is less the focus here than the mission that it represents. The work we are doing is a strategic response to the needs of actual people in Linden.
If we can drive through the community and see young teens wandering the streets, aimlessly walking around after school, then they are susceptible to negative influence. Such influences exist. Sometimes we see those influences and at other times those influences are hiding from the public view. But we know they are there.
So we provide an actual service in the form of an afterschool program, we provide the transportation, we feed the students, and all of that points the students to our reason for operating in the first place: Jesus. When we share the Gospel with students, when they hear how much God loves them, when they hear the Great Commandment and the Great Commission, when they hear about the payment for sins, all of what we do begins to make sense to them.
They see the miles we drive for them. They see the money that is paid for them. They see the time we spend with them. They notice when we listen. They appreciate when we respond. They are grateful for the carefully planned trips and adventures that we put together for them. And some, upon placing their faith in Jesus, realize that God was telling them about Himself through our program.
There are so many ways to bring about this effect in the world. The questions we want to keep raising are these:
- What needs do you see?
- What services can you provide?
- What is your role to play in serving?
- And how do your efforts work together with existing efforts?
I love talking with people about these questions. Consider this an open letter for us to dialogue and work towards a more robust witness for Christ in our cities.
Jason Seiple, President