The Wrong Questions

Ever notice how a person’s follow-up question can gauge their comprehension of what you just said? As I dialogue with various Christian leaders around Nebraska I am struck by how many people are asking the wrong questions. “How many people are coming to ___.” You fill in the blank. It could be: weekly meeting, prayer meeting, Bible study, outreach activities...whatever.

God comes to rescue the Israelites time and time again when they couldn’t save themselves. God comes to earth in the form of Jesus to save us when we had no hope of salvation. Jesus leaves his body (the Church) with the simple admonition to ‘go’. The overriding principle of God in the world is that of pursuit, yet we’ve somehow twisted pursuit to mean that we convince people to come to us.

God has demonstrated His pursuit of the lost and Jesus consistently taught that His followers should “go”, yet the overwhelming majority of Christian leaders today are asking “How can we get more people to come”.

We spend time and effort designing our large meetings of Christians as “seeker friendly” while neglecting to spend the same time and effort in being friends with the seeker.

“What Would Jesus Do?” What would happen if we began to ask ourselves the question, “What Did Jesus Do?” Be careful... you’re in danger of asking the right questions.

The Right Questions
Can you imagine a group of believers who would come together asking the right questions? They would open their Bibles hoping to discover “What did the person of Jesus Christ did with his time on this planet?”, and “What would the person of Jesus Christ do with my time on this planet if I fully followed Him?”

So...What Did Jesus Do? (from George Barna’s book, Revolution)
Jesus the Revolutionary:
“As you study the Gospels for lessons and clues, notice Jesus ignored customs, expectations, and even laws in order to be all that God intended.”

“The consistency of His words and behavior transformed every place and every person He encountered. He generally shunned the spotlight and avoided situations that would bring notoriety and acclaim. He consistently exhorted people to demonstrate humility and to realize that their stature is determined by God, not by what they or others say. He lived as a servant seeking to be used by God.”

“The picture He painted for fellow Revolutionaries was appallingly unattractive- and it reflected His acute awareness of His place on earth.”

“Jesus wasn’t a Revolutionary because he proposed a different philosophy. He was a Revolutionary because He lived differently.”

Jesus went to the sick...the healthy didn’t need a physician. If you wanted to find Jesus, chances are you would start looking in some of the more unsavory places in town.

So... what would Jesus do with me?
The right questions are: where was Jesus’ body (during His ministry)? And where is the body of Christ (the Church) now?

I imagine that a follower of Christ wouldn’t necessarily need to plow through drifts of snow to get to the destination...they could simply place their feet in the footsteps left by Jesus. So where are those footsteps? At times I wonder if we don’t ask the right questions simply because we know what the answer will require of us.

“I don’t know if God is happy or not, but we sure made Him a nice prison.”
-Homer Simpson (Courtesy of Dan @ CSC)

-Ethan Wiekamp