Reaching the lost and 'The Lapsed'

Every Sunday, without fail, the Churchwarden would approach the lectern to lead the church in its intercessions and would, without fail, encourage those present to, Pray for the lost and the lapsed.'

It's an oddity of Christian life that those who are perhaps most effective in being evangelists are last in rather than first! By which I mean that those who have been the most faithful and longest term members are great at supporting the church structures and maintain its traditions, making the tea, rearranging the flowers and singing in the choir

BUT

When it comes to 'reaching the lost' - generally they have no real impact in the engagement and are reduced to adopting the role of those who sit far from the conflict of heaven and hell and the front lines. To take (a topical) World War One view of it: These are the folk who keep the home fires burning and knit socks and offer up prayers for those at the front.

The problem is that those who are most effective in this battle are those who have not yet learned the colours of the season and stand when others sit (and vice versa), who know what is is to use the 'F' word rather than the sanitised 'jolly' of the nice and sanitised Christian* and still tell the sort of jokes the Christian sighs at.

Wynne Lewis, an Elim legend, was a great influence in my life and he once said to me (over one of our shared can of Coke moments) that I should never lose the fact that, 'Whilst I looked like to world to many in the church (KT), I looked like Jesus to those outside it!' Oddly, this was a view reiterated by a lovely woman (Patience Purchas) during my journey to ordination and refined and tempered, and refined, by a wonderfully patient, gentle and twinkly-eyed (and slightly raised eye rowed) Gerald Hegarty as he advised, supported and (often) sighed at, and with, me!

Here we have the key to being able to keep our earthiness whilst fitting ourselves for heaven: To become a 'good Christian' is, for many of us, the death of being a good witness and soul-winner. It is here that the tension of being 'saved' rubs against the flesh of the world and, unless we are careful, the resulting blister will cause all involved to limp (and be limp too).

So here's a little plea in this five minute rant:

The day we forget where we have come from,
The thoughts that dominated our thinking,
The acts that brought us pleasure,
The desires that filled our waking and our dreaming too;
The distance from the Church (and it's hypocrites) that kept us sane.
That's the day we find that bit of us that said 'Life Saver' gone.
That's the day we find we have become the 'Church' we once so despised.
That's the day when the mission of Jesus, the Christ, is made that little more difficult.

But that's not going to be today, is it?

* listening to a 'good' Christian last week I heard them talk about how their 'jolly' car wouldn't start - the other person in the conversation responding with reference to the local garage being 'blessed useless'. Good Christian speak indeed ;-)

ps. I'm not encouraging the use of expletives (which are NEVER right in the Church setting) but pointing to the change of words where the mind and attitude appear to remains unchanged.