Where Do You Dare To Go? by Pastor Tom Hodges

Where Do You Dare To Go?

 

I was watching a very old movie last week called, "Time Bandits."  In this movie these bandits travel to various points in time and steal valuable items to bring them back and make profit from them in their current time.  In one scene, the leader spreads the map that gives them the coordinates to the various times they can go to and as he is looking over the map, he stops, looks up at his compatriots and asks, "Where do we dare to go this time?" 

That is an interesting question...where DO we dare to go?  Where did Jesus dare to go is a good starting point for those of us in the church.  Where did He go?  To what group of people did Jesus find himself gravitating towards?  There was the time He was speaking with a woman at a well who was a foreigner and as He spoke to her, she was extremely shocked that a Jew would dare speak to her.  Jesus was all about daring...all about going...all about shaking up the culture of complacency.  He challenged His own followers to dare to go and do the things He was doing...he sent them out on their own to show them they could do it. 

Where has the church dared to go in the recent decades?  Is it possible that we need a cultural shakeup of the sort that Jesus did during his ministry?  I admire the efforts of the Vine as they DARE to go to a place full of the unknown.  Many of us, and I'm talking about the universal church including our own, are comfortable with our "club" setting.  We're uncomfortable with change, with newness, with things that might change our sense of ownership.  Church goers have found a level of comfort with coming in and sitting in THEIR seat or pew and hearing great worship music and a sermon and seeing the same people we've always seen.  When leadership poses a challenge, we sometimes get this feeling that change is on the way and we get our defenses up.  When someone comes in dressed differently or smells differently than we expect they should be, we find ourselves pulling away and wondering what's going on and complain about how "our" church is changing.

What happened to our daring?  Our calling might be another name for that!  What happened to our teaching from Scripture to GO!  We call that the Great Commission and it explicitly tells (read:  Commands) us to Go!  Into all the world (not just our seat or pew).  We are called to go and make disciples...not sit and wait for them to come to us when they're interested.  If we don't go and tell them and if we don't act and show them...how will they know?  If we, the church, don't break up our own little culture club and go have dinner with the sinners...if we're not willing to venture out beyond our comfortable borders and speak to the "foreigner"....if we're not willing to be the hands and feet of Jesus....then who will?  The church should be a hospital for the injured and dying and sick...not a place of comfort for the well!  I love the statement by a singer named Steve Camp in one of his songs that pretty much sums up my little article above...."Hell is burning while the church is asleep!"

Where do you dare to GO?

In His Love,

Tom