Have you ever read a passage of Scripture and had something hit you completely different than it has before? Sometimes I love that, and sometimes I hate it, and I haven’t decided which way I feel about this morning’s epiphany, but anyway here it is…
I was reading Luke 15 this morning. This is the chapter where Jesus is telling three parables: The lost sheep, the lost coin, and the prodigal son. It was kind of ironic, because I didn’t expect to be reading that this morning, but yesterday I listened to Erwin McManus talk about this parable in his podcast from Mosaic. His point was, in the last parable, how the son realized how bad he had screwed up in leaving his father, and realizes that he would rather be a servant to his father than to continue in the sad life he was living. So he goes back to his father, who doesn’t make him a servant but accepts him as a son as though he had never left, and celebrates his return. The picture here, as I’m sure you’ve heard, is that God accepts us as family when we recognize the error of our straying away from Him, and return for forgiveness. That was huge to me, because I was at a point in my life a few years ago when that described me perfectly.
The other two parables really resonated with me this morning, though, especially the one about the lost sheep. The shepherd’s passion here is for the one sheep that is lost. He loves the 99 that he has, and really would do anything for them. But his energy is forever focused on bringing back the one that strayed away. A few years ago, I was that one. Every other time I’ve read this passage, I’ve stopped there. But this morning, I realized something else: now I’m part of the 99.
This debate has come up recently among some of my friends about a “seeker-sensitive” methodology in a church. Some friends I know are a little upset because they don’t feel that a church using this approach (i.e.: my church) is effective in teaching Believers the “deep stuff” (i.e.: theology…you already know how I feel about that…, and really “exegetical” teaching) in an effort to be more comfortable to seekers.
I have a huge issue with “exegetical” teaching to start with (every Seminary student reading this just gasped in horror) because it quickly and frequently becomes the speaker’s opinion instead of a real analysis of Scripture. Very few people do this right. Honestly, I would rather be given the big picture, and analyze and unpack it myself later. Some people, though, aren’t happy unless it’s being handed to them.
Ideally, I suppose a church should do both. But as I read this passage this morning, God impressed to me that, if we must choose to sacrifice one or the other, His preference is always in favor of the seeker. We’re the 99. He loves us, He would do anything for us, He wants us to grow. His Great Commandment to us, after loving Him, is to love each other, and certainly that involves helping each other to grow in our faith. However, His Great Commission is to reach those who are seeking Him with the Good News. That’s our priority.
I get so upset with churches that are so focused on bringing in new Believers and increasing membership rosters, building new buidlings, and placing such an exhaustive emphasis on teaching that they apparently forget that there are unbelievers out there, seekers who are looking for God and have come to church in an effort to find Him. Analytical teaching (which is basically what I mean by “exegetical”) may be okay, but reaching those seekers is the priority. It must be. Its not an option. Our heart should beat for them the way His does, our passion should be such that we are forever trying to bring back the one that has strayed. As Believers, we were that one that had strayed, perhaps not long ago. And now that we have found God, we have allowed ourselves to become a snobbish elite.
No wonder many who seek Him don’t like what they see. We’re giving them the wrong image, because we’re seeing them from the wrong perspective.