Articles Youth Ministry Articles Is it ok to be a sinner?
| Is it ok to be a sinner? |
|
|
|
 By Adam McLane I've been thinking a lot lately about the pressures on those of us who work in churches in contrast to those of the particular ministry we help lead. All too often I meet people who are deeply conflicted about working for the church.The conflict works like this. On one hand, all of us would agree that while Jesus makes us whole through our relationship with him, we are a mess, as Mike Yaconelli so often reminded us. We are sinners. We mess up. We try our best but just keep on messing up. Holiness is our goal but depravity is our reality. On the other hand, working at a church is a position where we represent a holy God. Our life position has hypocrisy built in. We live a paradox. I've actually encountered people who think that their work is holy. They somehow feel it is somehow ok to sin in their personal life but consider their motives for working as completely pure. We see this play out all over the church. It plays out in funny ways, too. I suppose it isn't truly funny... but it is odd and, clearly, this paradox messes up people's perception of themselves, here are some positions: 1. Self-righteous response: these folks believe that others' mess is somehow less stinky than their own. They are fairly indignant that the church could be a place for sinners. It's more fun to create a church as a place where we all lie to one another. 2. Hedonist response: these folks feel like their church work makes it ok to live a crazy personal life. Drunkenness, sexual sin, outright lying about their finances, etc. 3. Lonely rider response: these folks reject everything as unholy and intentionally isolate themselves from the flock as well as the greater community of ministers. 4. Hidden from view response: these folks think it is ok to struggle with sin, they just put on a front that their personal life is great, they have no worries, etc. Here is the thing. While we all respond to this inherent hypocrisy differently, we all acknowledge we are sinners. We need Jesus' love and forgiveness each and every day. Yet, our ministries often don't reflect that! My encouragement for you is this: build your ministry as a place where sinners can come. Make it a place where it is ok for people to be who they really are, and one where you can be who you really are. There is nothing worse than going to a church or a youth group where everyone wears a holy facade. There is much power when we say to sojourners, "This is a place for everyone. I may be called to minister to others but I am just as bad off as you." Build your ministry upon that profoud truth. Is it ok to be a sinner? Of course not! Can you stop being a sinner this side of heaven? Absolutely not. What you can do is build a place where sinners can come to connect with God. You can do it! | |||||||
|
|||||||
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|