I’m sitting at Melbourne airport waiting my flight to Adelaide. Another good day with some great Salvation Army Officers eager to see church/corp transformation.
We talked many things included Sample’s 70/30 rule.
This rule states that you will spend 70% of your time doing trivial, routine tasks and only 30% of your time on the big, major, significant leadership issues.
This goes against the grain.
Most of us think we will spend 70% of our time on the big, important issues and 30% on routine, menial tasks.
Steve Sample says it’s the other way around.
To quote him “many people want to be leader but few want to do leader.”
This rule is always a reality check to leaders wanting to see growth and development. They imagine that when their church puts to bed silly arguments and specializing in trivial things they will spend all their time on the real stuff.
Not so.
Not long after teaching that rule today I received a 70% kind of email. The kind of email you want to ignore.
The kind of email you think a healthy church leaves behind.
The email was a guest who had visited our church several times telling me the things she/they did and didn’t like ……with obviously more that they didn’t like than like.
Two things bothered me.
Firstly – there’s no name. They have some weird email address and they omitted to place their name at the bottom of their essay! They didn’t care to tell me who they are.
Always sad.
Normally we immediately bin anonymous mail – but this one warrants a reply …..because of the second thing that bothered me.
They strongly disagreed with us putting our Scripture verses on the screens in both English and Spanish.
And I quote “by this time the Spanish community should be able to understand what it looks like to read the names of the books of the Bible, the reference verses and page numbers.”
We live in a community that is 70% Latino with many in our church fluent in both but eager to invite friends or family who only speak Spanish to explore faith and Jesus Christ.
I have to tell you I initially thought I had misread what they were saying and they must have been thanking us for having English and Spanish. But slowly I reread and yes – there are supposed Christians who are racist and bigoted. Simply put they are arrogant, proud and elitist. Or, to say it another way – they are not living the way of Jesus.
So I will count to 10, or maybe 10,000 or maybe I need to count to ten million and then compose an email reply that stops me from sinning in my reply.
I would count this as part of the 70% but perhaps this is more of a 30% work. This is one of the big, major issues – the Gospel is at stake, the truth of Christ is at stake, the testimony of His Name is at stake.
So ……… I sit in Melbourne Airport contemplating my words.
Tomorrow another day of teaching and another group of Salvation Army Officers.
Tomorrow I will be writing an email reply fully in Spanish!!!!!!!! LOL.
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6 comments:
The problem is they think the bible references and verses are just for them - exclusive, close-minded, got-it-all-figured-out Christians (English speaking or otherwise). It's not about them. It's about those exploring. Opening God's word may have its most profound transformation in someone who may be opening a bible for the first time. Or maybe it has simply been awhile, and it doesn't matter what language they speak. Much care is taken to be clear in helping people navigate such life-giving words.
Please write a response in Spanish! I dare you. I double dare you! (or at least a portion) I will donate $500 to When I Grow Up, a non-profit to empower children in extreme poverty, if you do. I admit I would do this gladly anyway, but I will absolutely do it in support of not only children that speak Spanish, Swahili, French, and English (many of whom sing beautiful songs to Jesus in these languages), but more importantly in this case, a proper response to so called Christians who need a reminder of what Jesus is about. Wonder how they would feel if the service or bibles were in Hebrew or Aramaic?
AUSTRALIA? I never seem to know where you are Gilbert but i'm glad that when i pray for you the LORD knows!keep safe down under and every blessing to you~sorry about the folks with the language problem,i was tempted to write in Broad SCOTS. but then would that offend skinny SCOTS?"THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS NOT IN WORD BUT IN POWER AND CERTAINLY NOT IN THE SPEECH OF THEM THAT ARE PUFFED UP!"T.F.W.
I under how they would respond if it were German or french. Or how they would respond to my my immigrant grandmother who spoke no English went to a church that spoke no English talked to Her kids in another language . Maybe it would be ok because she was a white German speaker
Wow, discrimination - heartbreaking. Recalling, James 2:8 - it says, If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing right.
It’s sad that there are still many Pharisees today, not doing right. God be merciful in helping them see who you are and help them understand who they are called to be! Because, If they truly belong to Christ Jesus… you can fill-in the blank.
And someone who doesn’t name themself – do they really even know themself.
To know thyself, is to know God and His Kingdom and the things of His Kingdom. In Romans 10, Peter finally understands that God shows no partiality. I’d say this is more than an opinion of likes/dislikes from this person, it’s an identity crisis.
Just pray for the person's change of heart. No Spanish email reply. Just continue to do what you do...making changes to reflect our community.
Wow. Unbelievable. But sadly, believable. I'm with Stephanie: Keep doing God's work and praying for those who refuse to even try to get what the Kingdom is all about.--Laura Sutherland, not nameless, not anonymous, I stand behind what I say.
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