(Thanks, family and friends, for your responses and giving me a reason to think about this more.)
I HAVE been thinking about this a bit more, especially in the context of what I believe Jesus’ gospel is: The Kingdom of God is at Hand; in other words, God is directly accessible to us. I’m also thinking about something else that I heard a lot from a teacher back home, which is that my relationship with God is something only I can have with God. With both thoughts, it’s interesting to factor in the idea of interacting with people who are hurting and unaware of how accessible God is, unaware of the peace and love available to them if they want it. Our job would be to “point them towards God,” somehow and I think we, embedded in our culture, look for shortcuts or formulas to make this job easier.
When I think of your ministry at Servant Partners, though, or what I know of it–the idea of living among people in order to show them Jesus, first by learning their language, next by taking care of their children, praying with them, going to the temple with them (I am thinking of Lexie’s post from a while back that totally kicked my ass), I’m really, I don’t know, grateful to know about it? Encouraged. I suppose there is good strategy and bad strategy and living among the people you want to introduce to God seems pretty great. It seems as though if you were talking and listening and living with those you were ministering to, you’d have a hard time thinking you could rely on a formulaic approach to God. The anecdote of marketing might be just what I see happening in your community: getting to know people well, forgiving them, offering them peace, interacting with them the way Jesus said.
Maybe the trouble with marketing strategies is that they are so impersonal. Or maybe, if we want to flip this thing around, we could see Jesus using a strategy that is personal. We see that he doesn’t have formulas when it comes to healing people (his healing methods vary, as do the methods of talking to people one-on-one. He’s all over the map), but when speaking to the masses, the strategy is to tell a ton of stories that force his listeners to seek God and ask questions. His goal is to bring them to God out of the masses so that they can be consumed by his love. He doesn’t want to give us five steps that are easy to remember because he likes it when we need to return to him to ask for a reminder of what to do next.
ALSO:
I just read Home and Gilead last semester. Wonderful, wonderful books. I wish you could meet Lisa, who introduced them to me. Which book did you like better?
ALSO:
I miss BKK a lot, too, though the fact that we have good pineapple in Florida does help with the sadness part.
