Welcome to "Tuesday Mornings," a no-nonsense lift for Christian leaders who are gasping for fresh air in their ministry to others.

 

"Nine Eleven" took on an entirely new meaning for all Americans six years ago this week. It certainly was a day of infamy, but also a day that tore down religious exclusiveness for awhile and taught us the importance of opening our hearts to others who suffered so very much. Ministry changed that day, but in recent years the things that used to unite us have become less significant than the things that divide us. We may have fallen back into a pattern of exclusiveness in terms of what some churches offer that other churches do not. Have we so soon forgotten what happened in New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C. in September 2001?

 

In his classic book, Your God Is Too Small (The Macmillan Company, 1960), J.B. Phillips offered some timely advice to churches that want to tell the outsider (i.e., "the person who is outside all organized Christianity") what the Church of Jesus Christ has to offer. He said, "What sticks in his throat about the Christianity of the Churches is not merely their differences in denomination, but the spirit of 'churchiness' which seems to pervade them all. They (some churches) seem to him (the outsider) to have captured and tamed and trained to their own liking something that is really far too big ever to be forced into little man-made boxes with neat labels upon them."

 

Phillips argued that churches with this mentality are saying to the outsider, "If you will jump through our particular hoop or sign on our particular dotted line, then we will introduce you to God. But if not, there's no God for you." Phillips pictured the outsider responding, "If there's a God at all, then He's here in the home and in the street, here in the pub and in the workshop. And if it's true that He's interested in me and wants me to love and serve Him, then He's available for me and every other Tom, Dick, or Harry, who wants Him, without any interference from the professionals." Continuing this line of reasoning, Phillips suggested that "if the Churches give the outsider the impression that God works almost exclusively through the machinery they have erected, and what is worse, damns all other machinery which does not bear their label, then they cannot be surprised if he (the outsider) finds their version of God cramped and inadequate and refuses to 'join their union.'" (p. 38)

 

This week's "Tuesday Morning" addresses the attitude that some groups seem to have that is exclusive, narrow, and above all other Christian organizations. The title for this week's epistle is a quote from a book by the late Bob Benson. The title is, "Not Even Sick." Don't let that title mislead you. Read on below whenever you are ready, and discover what the noise is all about. You will be glad you did.

 

This is a new, unspoiled week. Live it to the full.

 

Tom Barnard

A Senior Encourager 

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“Not Even Sick”

Tom Barnard

 

he late Bob Benson was one of the most effective Christian communicators I have ever known. His family business, the John T. Benson Publishing Company of Nashville, was famous everywhere in the south for the promotion of great music and other forms of Christian literature. Bob served as the executive of the company for many years, but he also was a popular speaker at retreats, conferences, and especially on Christian college campuses. His sense of humor was like a virus. Everybody got it.

 

In one of his books, Come Share the Being, Bob told the story about the time he was the speaker for opening week at a Christian college. Part of his assignment included meeting with college students in dormitory “rap sessions” each night following the services. These were to be Q and A gatherings. He thought it would be a good thing to sing a chorus as an ice breaker (there never was any ice to break when Bob was present). He admitted later that he hoped they would sing long enough so there would less time for questions.

 

A popular chorus then was “God Is So Good.” You know, it’s the chorus where you can just add verse after verse spontaneously. They sang the familiar ones: “He is My Lord;” “I Love Him So;” “Coming Again;” and “He Answers Prayer.” Some wag suggested that they sing “God is Not Dead,” since that was a disclaimer against the secular “God is Dead” theorists of the day. After they finished that verse, someone else sang, “Not even sick; Not even Sick; Not even sick; He’s so good to me.” Not exactly Isaac Watts, but appropriate.

 

Bob told this story about what happened when he returned home following the college experience:

 

“They say that as you get older there is less and less room in your medicine chest. And Peg and I, for varying reasons and ailments, take an assortment of pills each night. Generally the last thing we do at night before we go to bed is to meet at the sink for our nightly ritual of pill rolling. Now she has some big ones that are prettier than mine, but I take more than she does, so I think it about evens out. The other night, just for fun, I said, ‘Let’s take all the pills we have in the house and line them up and close our eyes and have mystery pill time, and we’ll just bless some unknown organ in our body’…I know this is not an earth-shaking statement, but somehow it means a lot to me:

 

“I don’t think God takes pills for headaches or tranquilizers because He can’t cope.”

 

Bob went on to talk about the church. He said, “We act like God is sort of sickly and we had better take good care of him. It’s almost like we’ve put Him in a jar and keep Him down at the front of the church and we say: ‘Do you want to come down and see God?’ Oh, of course, we’ll punch some holes in the lid so He can get some air, but not big enough holes so He can get out. And the people come down and they say—yeah—take the lid off, let me see Him. Oh, no, if we did that, He might get out there in the world He created and get stomped or trampled. We’d better keep him in the jar here on the altar. I secretly suspect that He’ll be alright and that (actually) He is out there at work in a thousand ways we never suspect.”

 

The Church of Jesus Christ is not a museum where people gather to see God on display. God is at work wherever people are. The church does not “own him,” and it cannot control who will get to see Him and who won’t get to see Him. I saw a church sign that read, “We’re Small, But We Care.” It was half true—they were small—but that didn’t make them attractive. And it certainly didn’t prove that they cared. Perhaps they were small because their God was too small—small enough to be kept inside a jar and locked up at night.

 

I like this clip from the prologue of John’s Gospel, as rendered in The Message:

 

“What came into existence was Life, and the Life was Light to live by.

The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness; the darkness couldn’t put it out.”

 

God is not dead. He is not even sick! Spread the Word!