Method to our Madness
There is this old idiom about there being a method to one’s madness, and it implies that our actions seem crazy, or at least meaningless, but have actually been carefully thought out and purposefully put into place. As I consider the outreach plans of the Athens Vineyard, I wonder what people think.
Here’s the dig. In our teaching at the Vineyard, we emphasize serving. Jesus modeled serving in many ways, and told his disciples that serving was why he came. As a matter of fact, he is modeling the Father in this, who works for his people. Besides, the meaning of he sabbath is that God is meeting the needs of his people. This is what God did in the garden, throughout the whole OT, and when Jesus came, instead of performing some religious act of rest, like the Pharisees, he continued to practice the sabbath like his Father did, by healing and delivering and providing the needs of his people. Now we are called to enter into that sabbath rest. How do we do it? By loving people and working on their behalf in order to meet their needs.
So we call people to enter into service for others. We have opportunities in house, and we have a growing set of opportunities for community service. (I’ll explain more of this in a minute.) New members understand that we expect them to serve. Plain and simple, it’s a big part of what love is. Serving/loving others is our mandate.
And we’ve decided to make service the hallmark of our outreach. In order to reach who we’re called to in our town, we aim to love what they love, and join them in service. Lots of churches create their own Christian organizations for work. But at the Vineyard, we believe in joining the causes and efforts where the people (often non-Christians) are already serving and volunteering. We intend to love people in practical, often surprising ways. We also want to ‘blow our cover’ and allow people to discover that our service is rooted in and motivated by a living God. At this juncture we will have opportunities to tell our Jesus stories. Our evangelism training will prepare us to do this.
People think we’re crazy. They really do. They don’t get why we do what we do. They say, “I don’t see how y’all do it.”
But I look across the crowd, at a growing number of people who are putting their name on the paper that says, “I want to make a difference! I want Jesus to look at me and say, “Well done!”" These men and women have chosen a harder path, one that requires more faith, more dependence on God. It’s the faith of a farmer who plants seeds and doesn’t see fruit for a long time.
Well, I’m proud of you! I commend you for latching on to the call of God, and not choosing to worship where your needs will be massaged, and your ears tickled. Thank you for holding on to the confidence that people will learn to love/serve because of what you’ve modeled. But, most of all, know that you have honored God by serving others in his stead.
