Platforms

"You don't need a platform, you did more today than all the preachers I've heard in my life"

I had never heard that before this week. But somehow God placed a customer in our path that overheard an entire day of the Kingdom. Steve and I spent the day as we usually do scrubbing floors and talking theology. Not your father's theology of 'ism's and 'ation's, but life values, biblical principles, and contextualized thought. Monday, Steve and I happened to talk about our "platforms" regardless of it's ministerial context.

We spent the day discussing the gospel matter of factly, thinking that our customer was watching tv or playing with her dogs. We voiced our frustrations with those who cheapen the gospel to a mere western context and those who teach without living out the very values they speak of. Overall, our conversation was another day of deconstructing and rebuilding of our understanding of the church and the kingdom.

Without our realizing it, our customer listened to our entire conversation. At the end of the day as I was closing out with her we talked for quite a while, long enough for my team to call my cell phone to see if everything was ok. The conversation was rich in compliments for our team and our work, which she called art, but more than that she let me know that everything that had been said she had been listening to. She informed me that she wasn't religious, but she said, if more Christians presented themselves as our team did then she might think about it. She went on to make the statement I posted at the beginning. Then she handed me the check, hugged me and walked me to the door.

As I shared the story with the team they rejoiced with me in the fact that God had used something as small as refinishing a floor to touch the heart of 60 something woman. The rejoicing has turned to inward thought and contemplation as I try to process the events of the day. Generally I take about 24 hours to process an event and begin to have an understanding. After some 48 hours I am still perplexed by the events that unfolded Monday evening. God had Steve and I in her house for a reason, and I believe a prophetic word.

We are to be about the Father's business (Thanks Ken) no matter the context of our work or calling. Do we even stop to realize that as a child Jesus said, do you not realize that I am about my Father's business? The greek word used throughout scripture for business is the same exact word used for ministry. There is no seperation between the two. There is no "Higher Calling" Every waking moment we are to be about the Father's business.

There really is no need for a platform or a soap box to live out the gospel in front of people every day. If we have to resort to always using words to share the gospel then we are failingto truly be followers of Christ. Words are used for teaching and instruction, our lives are to be living examples of Jesus Christ. When we do the Father's business the world knows it. When we do the Father's business, people are drawn to it.

Why is it that we seperate ministry and work? Why do people react one way when I say I refinish wood, and react another when I say that I am a pastor? The two are the same, in fact I would argue that what I do when I am in someone elses house is more important to the kingdom than what I say from the pulpit on Sunday morning.

I am increasingly aware of the piety and superficiallity of those who claim the pulpit is of higher calling than those who see ministry as life. The pill that is hard to swallow is that I love to teach, preach, and be behind the pulpit. But just because I can doesn't mean I should. Current sociological patterns would suggest that traditional institutional church is passing away, and the role of the pastor is shifting to a more biblically based version that states the pastor is to care for souls. Scripture never suggests that the role of pastor is behind the pulpit.

Sure there is a context in which we teach and preach, but that context is devoid of the former platform. Discipleship is apprenticing Christ, or becoming His protege. But we have to ask the question, what would happen if pastors released control to the businessman to disciple and train followers within the context of the real world, not the fantasy land we go to on Sunday mornings.

The platform that transform society is one that isn't removed from it, but is an intricate part of it. Why is it that we expect the world to come to the church? Missional life dictates that the church go to the world. What better platform could we ask for than the one already provided, Business?

The church is not bound to four walls, a pastor, deacons, and pot luck dinners. The world will be reached by the example lived out in front of it. The world is our platform and abundant life through Christ is our message. We don't need pulpits, or street preaching. We don't need committees or sessions. You can reach more people today through your network than I ever will from a pulpit or classroom.

Change your platform, Change the world!!!