Here’s a follow-up to the story of William Carey that we started yesterday, and it falls under the heading of a definition of insanity often wrongly attributed to Einstein:   

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

But no matter who said it, we all fall prey to it. I recently failed to solve a puzzle because I kept using the same approach, the wrong one! When one approach doesn’t work, we should be open to trying something else or at least looking for something else. 

Some people who act like they have only one tool are pastors. One of our pastors used to say, “You preach yourself out of problems.” Maybe. William Carey tried that. He was desperate to involve people in missions, and he was captivated (as am I) by Isaiah 54.2, 3 (I review it every day):

Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes. For you will spread out to the right and to the left; your descendants will dispossess nations and settle in their desolate cities. (Isaiah 54.2, 3, NIV)

A biography on William Carey captures this story: 

In a sermon called the “Deathless Sermon” in 1792, Carey preached from Isaiah 54:2-3, where he sounded for a divine call to action, which formed his famous quote:

Expect great things from God! Attempt great things for God! -William Carey

He was convinced that God was saying to the Church, therefore to every individual Christian: “Rouse up from your complacency. Find larger canvas, stouter and taller tent poles, stronger tent pegs. Catch wider visions. Dare bolder programs. Rouse up and go forth to conquer for Christ even the uttermost parts and the isles of the sea.”

However, none of his congregation was moved by his sermon. They did not even pause to pray for those who did not have any access to a Bible in their own language. To them, it was just another nice sermon to listen to but not to be taken too seriously. –William Carey: Pioneer to India & Father of Modern Missions, emphasis mine

I’m reminded of God’s word to Ezekiel:

As for you, son of man, your people are talking together about you by the walls and at the doors of the houses, saying to each other, “Come and hear the message that has come from the LORD.” My people come to you, as they usually do, and sit before you to hear your words, but they do not put them into practice. Their mouths speak of love, but their hearts are greedy for unjust gain. Indeed, to them you are nothing more than one who sings love songs with a beautiful voice and plays an instrument well, for they hear your words but do not put them into practice. (Ezekiel 33.30 – 32, NIV, emphasis mine)

The solution, it turned out, was not more preaching. Carey himself responded to his own challenge. He and a few like-hearted men founded a mission support society, and Carey became its first missionary, arriving in India within a year. He served in Asia until his death in 1834, more than 40 years later.

Here are my takeaways from today’s blog:

• Don’t get stuck with one approach.
• With respect to God’s mission, I am the solution!
• A few people fully committed are always better than a whole congregation of people who listen only.

He climbed a mountain and invited those he wanted with him… He settled on twelve and designated them apostles. The plan was that they would be with him, and he would send them out to proclaim the Word. (Mark 3.13, 14, MSG)

Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” (John 20.21, ESV)

You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others. (2 Timothy 2.1, 2, NIV)

We are closing out our meditation on the churches’ sometimes failure to equip and release people to be “Minutemen,” a highly mobile, rapidly deployed force that enabled the colonies to respond immediately to war threats, helping believers implement Jesus’ command in Luke 12.35, 40:

Prepared for action at a moment’s notice, alert and ready at all times. (The Passion Translation)

I close with the story of William Carey, now known as the father of modern missions, pioneering mission work into India. Here is an excellent synopsis of his life which, of course, includes this infamous story:

At a minister’s meeting, Carey stood up and proposed that the local church should partner with other local churches in the region to send missionaries to Africa and India. Another man by the name of J. C. Ryland exclaimed:

“Sit down, young man, sit down and be still. When God wants to convert the heathen, He will do it without consulting either you or me.”

Actually, God does want to convert the heathen, and he does it precisely through ordinary people like you and me. Let’s just start where we are. As Lorne Sanney, the second president of The Navigators said back in 2003:

Luke 24.46, 47 says, “He told them, ‘This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.'” Why did he say, “…beginning at Jerusalem”? Because that’s where they were! You certainly cannot reach the world starting from where you are not! -Lorne Sanney, to the quadrennial gathering of Navigator staff, via video, November 2003

And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.“ (Mark 16.15, NKJV)

We are continuing to think about the church equipping people to be “Minutemen:”

A highly mobile, rapidly deployed force that enabled the colonies to respond immediately to war threats.

Such a force would be in keeping with Jesus’ command in Luke 12.35, 40:

Prepared for action at a moment’s notice, alert and ready at all times. (The Passion Translation)

Here’s a story, perhaps typical, about a church acting more like a roadblock than a highway. I was teaching this principle that churches ought to be in the business of releasing people for ministry in a church in Wisconsin a number of years ago. A lady told a story that went something like this:

We are German Lutherans, and many of our older members speak German as their first language. I thought it would be nice to read to these older members in German so I asked the church leadership for a list of our members in nursing homes. Three months later they still hadn’t decided whether or not they could give me such a list so I just went to the nursing homes and read to anyone who was interested!

The story has a good ending in that the lady was able to expand her ministry beyond the walls of the church. But it remains a mystery why church leadership likes to function as ministry stoppers rather than ministry enablers.

And it will be said: “Build up, build up, prepare the road! Remove the obstacles out of the way of my people.” (Isaiah 57.14, NIV)

Pass through, pass through the gates! Prepare the way for the people. Build up, build up the highway! Remove the stones. Raise a banner for the nations. (Isaiah 62.10, NIV)

We are thinking about the church equipping people to be “Minutemen:”

A highly mobile, rapidly deployed force that enabled the colonies to respond immediately to war threats.

Such a force would be in keeping with Jesus’ command in Luke 12.35, 40:

Prepared for action at a moment’s notice, alert and ready at all times. (The Passion Translation)

Unfortunately, churches and their members don’t always think like that. I was in a meeting with a lady who had discovered a Bible study that was very meaningful to her. She said something like, “I hope I can get permission from the church to lead some of my friends through this study.” I (in a very unofficial capacity) said, “Who is going to stop you? Why would you need permission to gather some friends together to do a Bible study?”

I don’t know if she ever got official permission, nor do I know if she ever shared that Bible study with anyone. But attitudes like hers mitigate against our being “a highly mobile, rapidly deployable force…prepared for action at a moment’s notice” – to combine the Minuteman description with Jesus’ call.

By contrast, I used to run a Tuesday morning, 6a, men’s program that I developed with the senior pastor. It was designed to teach the men how to do Bible study on their own by having them actually do the Bible study during the meeting. After a few years, it was not hard to notice that the attendance was declining from over 100 men in the early days to maybe 30 or 40. I couldn’t figure it out until someone told me, “Bob, remember how you introduced the study? You would say, ‘Men, one day you will figure out that you don’t need to come here on Tuesday mornings. Nothing is stopping you from running this play yourselves whenever and wherever you like.’ Bob, there are at least 13 groups meeting all over town doing what you told them they could do. That’s why there aren’t more people here on Tuesday mornings!”

I myself am convinced, my brothers and sisters, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with knowledge and competent to instruct one another. (Romans 15.14, NIV, emphasis mine)

I’m always on the lookout for ways to picture the church’s role in equipping disciples for their frontline. Recently, this was in my regular reading:

Be prepared for action at a moment’s notice. Be like the servants who anticipate their master’s return from a wedding celebration. They are ready to unlock and open the door for him at a moment’s notice. What great joy is ahead for the awakened ones who are waiting for the Master’s return! He himself will become their servant and wait on them at his table as he passes by. He may appear at midnight or even later, but what great joy for the awakened ones whenever he comes! Of course, if they knew ahead of time the hour of the master’s appearing, they would be alert, just as they would be ready if they knew ahead of time that a thief was coming to break into their house. So keep being alert and ready at all times. (Luke 12.35 – 40, Passion Translation, emphasis mine)

Be prepared for action at a moment’s notice…alert and ready at all times.

What would that look like? When I asked the Lord that, the Minutemen of Revolutionary War days popped into my head.

Minutemen were civilian colonists who independently organized to form militia companies self-trained in weaponry, tactics, and military strategies from the American colonial partisan militia during the American Revolutionary War. They were known for being ready at a minute’s notice, hence the name. Minutemen provided a highly mobile, rapidly deployed force that enabled the colonies to respond immediately to war threats. Wikipedia

A highly mobile, rapidly deployed force – that’s what believers are supposed to be! Not “church” – it’s not mobile: the church building stands there in its place on First and Main as Reggie MacNeil likes to say. The church’s job is to train “minutemen” to be effective on their frontline outside the church.

I’d like to explore this idea over the next few days.

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. (Ephesians 6.10 – 17, NIV)

Jesus taught his disciples, saying, “Listen to me. Never let anxiety enter your hearts. Never worry about any of your needs, such as food or clothing…Does worry add anything to your life? Can it add one more year, or even one day?” (Luke 12.22, 25, Passion Translation) 

Reminds me of Navigator Jim Downing who said something like, “I read somewhere that 92% of the things we worry about don’t happen, so I decided not to worry.” When he said that, he was about 102 years old and attributed at least part of his longevity to not worrying. (He passed away in February 2018 at the age of 104 1/2, having completed his last speaking trip just six weeks before.)

Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. (Philippians 4.6, MSG)

The worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. (Mark 4.19, NIV)

Speaking to the people, Jesus continued, “Be alert and guard your heart from greed and always wishing for what you don’t have. For your life can never be measured by the amount of things you possess.” (Luke 12.15, Passion Translation)

I don’t know who said this first, but it’s common now…

For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self? (Luke 9.24, 25, NIV)

He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. – Jim Elliott

I wrote about repentance from Luke 10 back on October 1. Here’s another call to repentance from Luke 11. Jesus said:

Yes, the people of Nineveh will also rise up on the day of judgment to accuse and condemn this generation. For they all repented when they heard the preaching of Jonah, but you refuse to repent. Yet there is one greater than Jonah who is preaching to you today. (Luke 11.32, Passion Translation)

I saw several lessons here: 

• What is my response to Jesus’ preaching (or anyone’s preaching)? The only appropriate response is repentance. Our pastor’s recent compelling sermon on the Good Samaritan wasn’t for entertainment, for example.
• Not even Jesus won over everyone. In fact, he didn’t win over a great many people, percentage-wise, with only 120 in the Upper Room in Acts 1.
• I can’t expect huge success with preaching. Most people don’t listen to sermons to see what they should repent of (but we should!)

Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. (Matthew 7.24, NIV, emphasis mine)

Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. (2 Corinthians 7.10, NIV)

Permit me one more (I think) post about our choices at election time or our choice of loyalties all the time. There is always a temptation to adapt our Christian belief system so that it REQUIRES allegiance to a particular political party or viewpoint. This has been going on for a long time. It can be argued that the New Testament book of Hebrews was specifically written to counteract “Christianity and…” Eugene Peterson’s introduction to Hebrews in The Message contains this sentence:

In the letter, it is Jesus-and-angels, or Jesus-and-Moses, or Jesus-and-priesthood. In our time it is more likely to be Jesus-and-politics,…

C.S. Lewis said much the same thing, way back in 1942. In Screwtape Letters (highly recommend!), senior demon Screwtape is writing to junior demon Wormwood on how to get a new believer off track. In letter VII, Screwtape asks Wormwood to find out whether the new believer is a “Patriot” (in favor of the war against Germany) or a “Pacifist,” and Screwtape really doesn’t care which. Screwtape writes:

Whichever he adopts, your main task will be the same. Let him begin by treating the Patriotism or the Pacifism as a part of his religion. Then let him, under the influence of partisan spirit, come to regard it as the most important part. Then quietly and gradually nurse him on to the stage at which the religion becomes merely part of the ‘Cause,’ in which Christianity is valued chiefly because of the excellent arguments it can produce in favour of the British war effort or of pacifism. – C.S. Lewis, Screwtape Letters

The application to our day is clear. I wrote on July 28: Where are our loyalties? that no political party has the five elements the early church had. Yesterday I made the point that we ought to be loving each other regardless of where we are on the political spectrum.

Our focus needs to be Jesus.

Regarding angels he says, The messengers are winds, the servants are tongues of fire. But he says to the Son, You’re God, and on the throne for good; your rule makes everything right. (Hebrews 1.7, 8, MSG)

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. (Colossians 1.15 – 20, ESV)

I have already voted, and I had no trouble deciding whom to vote for. That said, I have devout, Jesus-following friends who will vote differently, and I read strong exhortations from both sides regularly on how “real Jesus followers” should vote. I wrote about this way back in January.

I also shared Wesley’s rules for voting, which certainly imply that we have a choice.

An excellent article by Libby Sternberg, a novelist in Lancaster, PA, beautifully articulates that choice and what we should do about it. I know nothing about Libby except what I read in this article. She opens this way:

Should the faithful opt for a candidate who wants to “welcome the stranger”? Or one who puts immigrants in cages before deporting them? Should they support the one who’s bringing fractious nations to “live in harmony” with one another in the Middle East? Or should they select the fellow who was vice president in an administration that perfected the art of the drone strike? What about thinking of it as a choice between the man who wants to “heal the sick” with expanded health-care access and the man who wants to yank coverage away from the most vulnerable? Should they vote for the boor—the man whose rhetoric sends etiquette experts to the fainting couch? Or the borker—the man who helped redefine how low political character assassination could go? These simplistic and hyperbolic descriptions aren’t entirely fair to Donald Trump or Joe Biden. Welcome to politics. – Libby Sternberg, Wall Street Journal Friday, October 16, 2020

After talking about how different pastors and religious groups attempt to lead their members to vote in certain ways, she closes with counsel similar to Wesley’s rules for voting:

Yet there’s another approach that’s better than trying to prod congregants toward a particular candidate: the “way of love” … Loving your neighbor means recognizing that neither party in the U.S. has a lock on virtue or vice. To suggest otherwise is not only partisan; it’s deeply deceptive and leads to more political strife. Loving your neighbor means accepting that we sometimes disagree—passionately—but still can embrace each other, smile at each other, and do good deeds for each other. We can solve problems in our families and neighborhoods, and we can heal broken hearts with loving words and actions. – Libby Sternberg

Amen.

Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. (Romans 12.9, 10, ESV)

Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. (Romans 13.8 – 10, NIV)

Let me give you a new command: Love one another. In the same way I loved you, you love one another. This is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciples—when they see the love you have for each other. (John 13.34, 35, MSG)