(12/17/16)

Something there is that doesn’t love a wall, penned Robert Frost in his truly American poem Mending Wall. But, later in the same poem, he suggestively reflects, Before I built a wall I’d ask to know what I was walling in or walling out, and to whom I was like to give offense. Something there is that doesn’t love a wall – that wants it down.” That so aptly describes the challenge of the church to get beyond the walls of its building or meeting place.

How do we fight off the all-too-powerful tendency to let local churches become what ‘s been called “The Evangelical Ghetto”?
Well, we need to begin by being honest about the things that make us become – quite frankly – ingrown churches.

Often the cause is fear: Fear of not knowing what to do, fear because we don’t know where to start, fear of what will happen, fear of the challenges we’ll run up against. Fear of the unknown. And fear paralyzes us. We do nothing.

Sometimes – again being very honest – we are proud. We really don’t want to engage with those who are different than we are because we really (deep down inside) feel and think that we are better. We can become very self-righteous as we look down on others. That spirit demands one thing: Heart repentance.

Have you forgotten where you would be if it were not for the grace of God rescuing you from your sin – and from yourself?
In many cases, it’s just that we become too busy with other things. We do our church duties on Sunday and perhaps once or twice on other days; but we’ve got other commitments during the week. Our work, our families, our homes – all too often acting before those around us as if we are no different than those who are not Christians. In our busy-ness we lose sight of the fact that we are to be witnesses for Christ – and intentionally witnesses for Christ – in everything that we do. And, if we are willing to dig even more deeply, we realize that we waste so much of our time on entertainments, hobbies, and the idolatry of sports rather than invest our time on things that can further the Kingdom of God and have a genuine impact for eternity.

And, again very frankly, we can all be satisfied with words. We know the responsibility we have to show Christ and speak of him everywhere. We even say we need to do that. But we don’t. How the words of the apostle John rebuke us: Little children (and we really can be children of God and fall into this trap): Let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth.” In other words: Don’t just talk the talk (in fact, John seems to be saying to skip the words entirely) Just walk the walk!

We could even make the case that the walls of a church meeting place can hinder us in our duty to be “out there” as social creatures being blessings to those around us. We are comfortable in our “spiritual duties” in church, but somehow think that everything outside the church walls is less than spiritual (or worse, even “unspiritual”). How probing it is to our souls to be reminded that faith within church walls that does not show itself in work outside the church walls – all the time and everywhere – is simply dead faith. So says the apostle James in no uncertain terms.

Why get beyond the church walls?
The mandate of the Great Commission (which was originally given to a group of worshipping disciples) is “Go” and make disciples of all nations. That begins in our homes, our neighborhoods, and our work places – not only to foreign fields. Your sphere of influence is your mission field!

The Christian life as salt, light, and yeast. None of these things do their jobs if they’re not “out there” in the food, the darkness, and the dough of human society.
The command to love our neighbors as ourselves. Love gives itself for the good of others – and there is no limit to who those “others” are. Salesgirls in department stores. Checkers in supermarkets. Your postman or postwoman.

The single person or family that lives right next to you – Do you see your obligation to serve them just as your Savior serves you?
The privilege of being a blessing of God to all those around us. I don’t think that we consider that as much as we should. I am meant to be a conduit of God’s goodness and grace to everyone around me. And what a blessing that is to ME: It is, never forget, more blessed to give than to receive.

How do we get beyond our various church walls and really begin ministering in and to the communities in which God has put us?
That’s the topic of today’s edition of A Visit to the Pastor’s Study.