Quote:
Originally Posted by Evangelical
The DCP has many many articles available online that address all familiar concerns in a thoughtful, scriptural, and unoffensive way.
It's very hard for us to refute personal experiences and other matters relating to people and circumstances from 30 years ago. I don't think the ministries you mention can even do that.
|
Probably because most ministries do not have to explain systemic abuses going back 50 years. But if they did they would be forthright about the matter. They wouldn't try to sweep history under the rug and blame victims like the LCM does.
The fact is life is messy and church is messy. Jesus knew that, which is why he became a friend of sinners, healed lepers, made disciples of tax collectors and prostitutes, and walked around in public not afraid of answering any question that was put to him.
Genuine ministry means getting your hands dirty. It means putting yourself on the line, not being defensive and being willing to sacrifice and go the extra miles for people nobody else cares about and who probably can do nothing for you. It means giving everything from a heart of love, being willing to lose it all for one lamb.
Anyone can be a hero for the "New Jerusalem." But the real heroes are the ones who pour it out for those everyone else has written off, including those who have questions that cause our shiny but thin theology to buckle, and force us back to the drawing board.
Those who don't really care never go back to the drawing board. Why should they when they have everything figured out already? The only thing they have to do is brush off everyone who disagrees with them, and ignore that twinge in their consciences when they do it.
We have been entrusted with the Truth and the ministry of reconciliation. That means we should have nothing to fear from questions, doubts, confusion, challenges or even anger from "extra-grace-required" people. These are exactly the people Jesus died for. The Truth cannot be threatened by anything, so it hangs in there, it sticks it out and sacrifices. It doesn't hole up in a fortress and sneer at the poor fools who don't get it. It stays up all night to answer every question it can and when it can't answer any more it says "I'm sorry, I don't know. I'll work on it. Please come back tomorrow."
The LCM doesn't handle things that way. Its attitude is if you are not astute enough to know they are the best they don't really want you anyway. That's not the heart of God. Rather, it's an arrogant, elitist attitude that comes from believing you alone are "the unique move of God."
The true unique move of God is loving people like Jesus did. Nothing is harder than that, which is why it is the prize. Anything else, no matter how seemingly great, is a fake, and certainly not "the unique move."