Outreach to the Irreligious?

"Jesus's teaching consistently attracted the irreligious while offending the Bible-believing, religious people of his day.  However, in the main, our churches today do not have this effect.  The kind of outsiders Jesus attracted are not attracted to contemporary churches, even our most avant-garde ones.  We tend to draw conservative. buttoned-down, moralistic people.  The licentious and liberated or the broken and marginal avoid church.  That can only mean one thing.  If the preaching of our ministers and the practice of our parishioners do not have the same effect on people that Jesus had, then we must not be declaring the same message that Jesus did.  If our churches aren't appealing to younger brothers, they must be more full of elder brothers than we'd like to think."  

Tim Keller, The Prodigal God, 15-16.

I often have discussion with folks about how to reach out into our postmodern world.  The state of Maine is a follower among the states in most social and economic categories.  Regardless of this status, we do lead in secular thinking!  What I mean is that most in Maine do not even think of religion as having any answers for their lives.  Most folks live a life completely apart from God.

In my discussions, it is often mentioned that waiting for someone to notice your life and have questions doesn't seem to work.  I could not agree more!  Why?  We have the largest population of "noners", those who claim no religious affiliation, than any other area of the country.  This means that most folks do not even think of religion as a category for providing answers to life's problems and issues.  In fact, most people are very skeptical of anyone who comes from an overtly religious position.  If an individual or church desires to reach out to others in this culture, you need to learn new strategies.

All of this to say that Keller's opening quote should provide us with a basis to think of these new strategies.  The point of his book is that the real gospel provides a basis to reach out to those with no religious background or inclination.  It also provides a basis for reaching out to the confused and moralistic religious folks.  

The Prodigal God is about the parable of the two sons, which some mistakenly call the parable of the prodigal son.  He points out that the parable is really about three scandalous people: the younger son, the eldest son, and the Father.  We only focus on the younger son because so many of us are eldest brother types whose lives are marked by doing the right thing and hard work.  Unfortunately, the elder brother also is marked not by his love for the Father (God in this case), but his desire to work for the Father so he can get something back in return.  As Keller argues, true or authentic faith is marked by repentance from both our outright sin and our religious self-effort.  In other words, we must repent of the evil we do and the good we do.  What a scandalous message!  I would recommend reading the brief book.  I have heard Keller preach on the topic, and it was life-changing.  His book carries on that life-changing message.

Overall, I was struck and affirmed by his opening quote.  I know as a young pastor, I was very good at attracting the "conservative, buttoned-down, type."  I preached the Bible, thought I was building people up in their faith, and felt pretty good about myself.  Unfortunately, I saw no one come to faith outside the mold of conservative, buttoned-down types or those repenting of a brief foray into sin from their conservative, button-down type upbringing.  In other words, I had a great ministry to Pharisees!

The problem is that Jesus did not have a good ministry to Pharisees, but he had a great ministry to everyone else.  In my life, I encountered the grace of God through a series of bad decisions and failures.  I was a strong man who had not failed.  All of that quickly changed when I experienced failure in life and ministry.  This failure shook me to my core.

From it and by the grace of God, I learned that success in ministry does not depend upon me.  I learned personally that I was, and probably still am, a Pharisee.  As I repented of my sin, I tied into the grace of the Lord Jesus.  I found unmerited love.  This is the same Love that the Father gives freely to both the younger and eldest son in the parable of the two sons.  As I did, I found that my ministry changed as did my message.

How?  Well, first of all I was attractive to the broken-hearted, downtrodden, and out-right sinners.  They liked me.  We talked about Jesus.  They felt comfortable.  Many came to faith or at least began a faith journey that I pray and trust will lead to faith.  I also became much more comfortable in my own skin, and I believe I became more authentic as a person.  I have even seen a few eldest brother types come to faith, though the going on that front has been slow.  Yes, the opening quote encourages me that I was doing something right!

Yet, my ministry also changed with the eldest brother types.  While I was once their darling, now I am an outcast.  I have found that the religious types just do not understand me.  They might like me, but they do not trust me.  I have found that religious types judge me and find me wanting.  I  have seen their sideways glances at their friends, and I know I have been judged not good enough.  Often these folks come to church or a class I teach and then walk away unchanged by the grace of God.

At first this reaction of the eldest brother types was very dismaying.  It even made me angry (a true mark of my eldest brother tendencies!).  Could they not see the grace of God?  Did they not want it?  I judged them.

Notice the Father in the parable.  He offered grace and restoration for the eldest brother.  We do not know if he took the offer since as an excellent story-teller, Jesus left that response untold.  Yet, the Father had an open heart.  I think in the past few years I have learned to a greater degree to leave my heart open to the eldest brother types, and to leave the grace of God wide-open for them.  I do not find myself judging them as much, and I repent when I do.  Still, the eldest brother types are the hardest to win to the gospel of grace.  They are so right that they do not need Jesus.

May all of us this day be amazed at the awesome grace of God.  May this grace shatter our younger brother and eldest brother tendencies to bring us to repentance and rest.