I was watching a show on hurricanes a few years ago. I saw something that was devastating.
The show focused on the power of the hurricane itself. And the sheer force the winds could carry. The Hurricane went as far as to uproot established trees leaving hundreds of years of history in waste… to be burned as fire wood.
So it got me thinking about the Church, and the way things are progressing. At first I was convinced that I was supposed to be that Hurricane and uproot what I thought was wrong with the church, the greed, corruption, selfish actions, capitol campaigns, violence, acceptance of war and so on.
I was pumped, I was geared, I WAS a Hurricane. I picked fights, showed those conservative so and so’s that there was a new kid in town and he was kicking butt and taking names. One day I even yelled in the middle of a Mexican restaurant at a 50 something year old man about peace and war and how he was wrong and knew nothing about the Bible. I WAS a Hurricane!
I listened to Scorpion, wore tight leather pants, and sang in the face of the church “Here I am, Rock YOU like a Hurricane” (not really, that was more of a metaphor, except the leather pants… so comfortable).
I was the voice of change. But nothing changed.
I had conversations that turned into screaming matches with friends, family, people on the street… anyone who would listen. I went to a family reunion where my Dad sat me down and said “Ryan, Don’t talk about politics or world issues around your family.” I became a clanging symbol. I spoke and all people heard was “I HAVE NO LOVE FOR YOU, AND NO RESPECT FOR THE CHURCH.”
I had a passion for the people who are dying in this world both physically and spiritually but cared nothing for the Church.
That’s when I began to question the Hurricane model. I knew that I was saved, rescued, and changed with the force of a hurricane. My life was a mess and God dealt with it. I had deep seeded issues and God uprooted them. I had things that were not of God in my life and he blew them away. So I was acting like God to the Church, being my own violent force, but the thing I love about God is that I am not him, and that I cant save, I cant provide salvation, I can only reflect. So all my work and my violence were for naught. The Hurricane model was out the window.
I believe that God desires change in the church. Jesus yelled at Pharisees and called them hypocrites. He called them unclean, white-washed, selfish, poison… he was so upset with how they turned God into profit and a divider amongst the classes, how they got the message wrong and didn’t care. But the thing about the words and actions Jesus used that separates him from me is that EVERY part of his being was motivatedby love. He died for those hypocrites.
So the Church today needs an uprooting, a sifting, and new life. Fresh vision and fertile soil. So I began to use the image of the till. A tool that is used on the small scale and the large to take dead, dry, unusable soil dig up life and bring it to the surface. It’s amazing how this image can change the tone of how we approach the topic of change. That we don’t violently uproot the Church but use the Church to change the Church. That we can take the dry, dead soil that we see stir it up and bring new soil to the surface. To take the dead American church and bring life to it. We don’t uproot and burn but we till and grow.
Life isn’t produced through a hurricane, it’s destroyed.
But through the loving revitalization of the church life will produce.
