12th August 2023
Normal but not normal
A few years ago, my husband got together with some guys in the neighbourhood to play poker. When someone mentioned to the group that he was a pastor, a couple of them got funny looks on their faces and started to back out. Then he said, oh, he’s not that kind of pastor, he’s normal. My husband took that as the best compliment he could have received.
A common perception in the minds of many is that Christians are weird, religious, and strange. Sometimes this is true! But it doesn’t help the cause, does it? The fulfilment of the great commission of Matthew 28 stops dead in its tracks when those we are trying to reach go running the other way as soon as we open our mouths. Sadly, this happens too often. Sometimes it even happens before we open our mouths. A couple who came to one of our church’s activities didn’t want to come to a service because they weren’t “religious.”
Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, revealed how to overcome this roadblock when it comes to getting to know people and eventually welcoming them to church. In 1 Corinthians 9:19-23 (MSG) we read: “Even though I am free of the demands and expectations of everyone, I have voluntarily become a servant to any and all in order to reach a wide range of people: religious, nonreligious, meticulous moralists, loose-living immoralists, the defeated, the demoralized-whoever. I didn’t take on their way of life. I kept my bearings in Christ-but I entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view. I’ve become just about every sort of servant there is in my attempts to lead those I meet into a God-saved life. I did all this because of the Message. I didn’t just want to talk about it; I wanted to be in on it!”
We usually think of this as the “all things to all people” speech, but we shouldn’t miss that Paul called himself a servant. Other translations use the word slave. And he also said he didn’t take on their way of life but kept his bearings in Christ, or remained under the law of Christ while putting himself in others’ shoes. This means we aren’t “normal” in the sense of becoming like those who don’t know God, and being a servant to everyone is about as far from normal as you can get. But we can, as Paul said, enter their world and experience things from their point of view, with love, grace, and compassion. And we don’t have to come across as weird.
Study by Tammy Tkach
First published on 18 July 2023, at www.gemsofgodsgrace.wordpress.com
About the writer:
Tammy Tkach is the Assistant Pastor of the Eugene, Oregon, USA congregation. She is a speaker and writer, and publishes a blog at www.gemsofgodsgrace.wordpress.com
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