Going Deep: Lets start today with talking about Paul and
Barnabus. For those of you that may not know, let me give you a quick history-
Paul (who was named Saul) was a religious leader of Jesus’ time that really
hated these followers of Jesus- not just disliked them- He was the one
basically leading the charge to hunt down and kill/injure or destroy anyone who
even thought about following Jesus- so needless to say was not a very popular
guy among the followers. God ends up reaching through to Saul and he ends up
becoming a Christian himself. Its really an amazing story and I want to
encourage you to read it.
So Saul converts/becomes Paul and goes off to Arabia for
three years and then comes back and wants to join the disciples in building
churches. So when Paul comes back to Jerusalem- the early Christians want
nothing to do with him. The scripture says that the people could only remember
what he did to them. You could imagine
people saying: Saul- the guy who hunted us? The guy who imprisoned my brother?
Who beat my mother and sisters? You cant be talking about that guy! You must
not know about HIM. He is the worst of
the worst! There’s no hope for a guy like that! There’s people like that
around us aren’t there? The people who it seems everyone has just given up on.
People that everyone seem to talk negatively about- People that have made
choices in their lives that seem unforgivable. I see them. And in my job I
work with them.
Enter Barnabas. In my opinion a man that receives less credit
than he deserves. Barnabas sees something in Saul. And when everyone else has
given up on Saul/ has discredited him (in fact some wanted to kill him)
Barnabas takes him in as his student. Sticks up for him even. Barnabas risks
his own reputation and probably his own life. And subsequently they become
friends. Barnabas mentors him, and builds him up, leads him. And what happens?
A little later in the book of Acts we see a little shift.
After years of mentoring, after years of teaching, after
years of leading him hand in hand through trials and hardships- the student
became the teacher. And what a payout! Paul goes on to plant churches
everywhere- and takes the gospel of Jesus worldwide. Thousands became
Christians through Paul in his time and BILLIONS
have become Christians through Paul since, as he was the writer of the
majority of the New Testament! Barnabas, through his discipleship, through his
love, fostered a relationship that subsequently changed the entire world.
You may or may not know, but our United Methodist Conference,
and some surrounding conferences have recently undergone an “audit” of sorts- a
consultation that evaluated all the ministries that the “church” offers, and
the effectiveness of those ministries. What was discovered? Well like you might
imagine, we do a lot. The Upper New York Conference of churches has a list of active
ministries so long that I wouldn’t have the time to list them today. And that’s
incredible. It’s a testament to the passion we have as a people to serve
others. But what was also discovered is that there aren’t many ministries that
we are doing effectively. And that’s the part that makes me sad. Because the
heart is there. Its just that we are trying to do sooo much- that we aren’t
doing anything really well. On top of this- church numbers continue to dwindle.
So whats the answer? It may even sound good to you. And it’s
the title of today’s message. We need to go deeper. Instead of doing a lot of
everything- we need to do less and do it better. Instead of scratching the
surface with people- we need to reach out to them and go deep with them. Mentor
them. Be there for them. To literally be Christ to them. It’s by doing this
that we create disciples.
After all, and forgive me for thinking of things thematically
(which is how they train us social workers) this is how Jesus did it. He didn’t
just call the disciples- he built them. Years of his ministry and energy, was
poured into them. So that they could take the message of Love, and carry it
throughout the world.
