Brazil 2010

100th sheep... Does Anyone Care?

"What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost." (Matthew 18:12-14, NIV)

"Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, `Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.' I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent." (Luke 15:4-7, NIV)


This is the Bible... The WORD of God... Not a story of the "Good Sheep & Bad Sheep"... Those who deserve to be sought after and those who are not worth our time because of better prospects!

It seems to me that that front and back door language has replaced the language of how the Bible puts it: "Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them." The church is the "place of Worship" rather than the "100 sheep being the church"... Beautiful costly spaces for expensive programs that the sheep carry burdens to provide for themselves, and keep up and expand ever more! Not simple fields of pasture for the sheep to graze with the protection of a loving Pastor...

Since I have been in Brazil this year I have been made aware of a practice taking place in the church meeting places by the Pastors:

Different close friends in different churches dealing with their Pastors... Here are just a couple of examples of what I'm talking about:

When "A" asked for a letter of transfer to attend a different church, her Pastor said that church membership was as serious as a marriage commitment and the only thing he would give her if she left the church would be a "curse" (maldição)...

When "C" had the opportunity to go to another Country for a mission trip and she wanted to tell her Pastor, thinking that he would be happy to see her stepping out in faith. He responded:

"Did you come to me to inform me of your plans or to ask for my permission and my blessing?"

She replied, "I just wanted to tell you of my plans..."

Her Pastors response was, "And what if I dont give you my blessing?"

"V" had a rumor that was started about her in the church of taking indecent liberties with a minor. She was condemed without ever being visited or talked to! Then accused by others who attend the church and live in her building of visitors coming to visit at different times. Since she already had one cruel accusation placed on her its all to easy to find more to talk about! One of the sweetest, kindest women and yet burried in a scandle without any Pastoral help. Convicted and sentenced without so much as one visit or conversation... So much so that when members of the church see her on the street, they turn around and walk the other way and refuse to even say "hello"! Broken hearted, and tortured inside about how "this" could have happened! Today, out side of the church...

I could go on and give you story after story of people that I know that are being terribly hurt by the churches that they freely joined thinking that they were joining a fellowship of like minded brothers and sisters coming together to Worship Jesus. Many of these people are out of fellowship now. Pastors that feel that they have the God given authority and right to "curse" you if you feel its time to look for a new place to congregate!

What about the 100th sheep? It seems to me that the mentality is not what the biblical account encourages, rather, it appears that the image is one of, "Why bother with the one that has strayed when we have the 99 in attendance that are following our cell group plan to multiply into so many more, so why worry about the few that are unwilling to get into the vision!"



We as sheep give ourselves to a place and group of people of Worship. We give a certain few authority over our lives because we believe in them to be Pastors. Lovers of the things of God! When we place barbed wire fences around the flock, not for their protection, but for the sake of egos and financial stratagies and other like motives what we will see is that the sheep will get fed up and squeeze through the fences and take their chances amongst the wolves. Will they get "picked off" by the wolves outside? Well, maybe, but they are already getting picked off in the very place they were supposed to be loved and protected!

This should not be! Is this parable too idealistic? Or is there something else wrong? Now there are entire shelves in book stores dedicated for books like, "Why I Left the Church". Now you hear teachings from the pulpits to explain the problems of the sheep that stray, and complain that they were never once called or visited. The sheep are saying, "see, I knew no one cared", and the Protectors of the sheep are saying, "It's wrong for you to have the expectation anyway of having a Pastor call on you! We're too busy to bother with that."

Lost in the Sea of Hands

When you hear the call at the end of that lovely sermon about "YOU" being transformed and becoming a new creation in Christ...

When you are led to a back room and prayed with and given a copy of the book of the Gospel of John with an invitation to become part of "that" particular church family... Something happens!

The Transformation part maybe very real because Jesus does Save your soul! AMEN! Becareful with the human element though, because at that junction the ideals are instilled and the promises are made and you are walking in your new relationship with Jesus, while also finding yourself in a man-made minefield of Gospel ammendments. Well intentioned travelers that are dedicated to the same Jesus that want to instruct you towards godliness. Sometimes you find great help along the way; sometimes you find yourself being molded into something less beautiful and more institutional.

Pilgrams Progress and Hinds Feet High Places put a lot of characters in their stories of the Christian life that would represent the people that we would meet along the journey of the Christian life. It occured to me thinking of these two books about how "alone" the characters are, guess what! The Christian journey is traveled alone! Many cross your path, and many are temporary traveling companions. Almost none will stay for the "long haul".

Once you raise your hand and walk forward in the church you are put on an "obsticle course" of discipleship classes and membership classes and baptism preparation classes and this you do without even thinking really, because your "Going places"! You are becoming a part of a family! The family of God! Sounds exciting! In Brazil at Igreja Batista da Lagoinha the 2nd largest church in the Country at every service they would lead the congregation in the sinners prayer and while everyone is praying banners would be held up with phrases like: "Welcome to Heaven", "Welcome to the Family of God" and those who are standing at the front with their backs to the congregation repeating the words of the Pastor are afterwards instructed to turn around and meet their new family! When they turn around to an audience of 6000 people cheering and singing "We are a family, with no falseness, living the truth, expressing the glory of the Lord..." You are so overwhelmed the you cry and then are hugged 40 times before you are led to a room for your first instructions into the Christian life.

Wow! What a bursting forth exciting birth into the Kingdom right!? Well in my many years of working in different churches including the one mentioned above, I have found myself repeatedly standing in different sea's of "here today and gone tomorrow" faces. Obviously, of course, these people were those who weren't serious about their Altar call moment...Right? Those who weren't ready or "loved the world". Right?

Hey! critical writer guy, dont be a part of the problem complaining about what is wrong with the system! Be a part of the solution! Right!

I'm one of the Hands that was raised! I came aboard whole heartedly and gave my entire life to God and to the only thing I understood to be "The Church" and its purposes. Oh, I remember the Sunday morning that I became a "member"! In the Methodist church you read from hymmnal as to your promises to the church and then they respond back with a resounding "We Will" with promises back to you. Now, do we not individually have voices? Can we not speak? Will no one hear? What about the promises the church made back? The church can quickly become a cold brick wall in which "the powers that be" that speak on love and forgiveness and Christ-likeness are allowed to with hold those attitudes when they see fit, and thousands, like grains of sand fall through the cracks.

Where is the loving arms of Jesus? Where is the support structure of love, fellowship and unity? If Jesus taught by example, why cant we just immitate Him?

HELP! Sorry, no help for you. No love for you. You are a disappointment to us. We are cutting our losses, you'll just have to find your own way. The collective "we" would do better without the individual "you"... Let none of us forget that the CHURCH is US, and not a building! No matter what crises we may face, groups of "men" may loose their faith in you but Jesus died for loosers! Promise breakers! Liers! Thieves! The worst of the worst! So if you are not shaping up to mans standards, know one thing... No man shapes up to the only Standard that matters and for that reason we are all on the same level playing field!

No judgement against you is Jesus' final Word! That must be your comfort! AMEN!

The Washing Tank & The Bride...

Once upon a very real time in a very real place there lived a woman who cared for a family of four men: Her husband and her three male sons. Everyday she gladly and lovingly cared for these four men with love and affection...

Everywhere that these men went they were complimented for their impecable appearance. As the beautiful young woman aged she began to have health problems; her hands once young and beautiful fingers were aged and even gnarled, curving outward.



Always with a smile on her face she traded her dreams and her youth for these four men. They lived, loved, and created each one for themselves their own identities and directions. She chose to stand behind them and take care of them forsaking herself...

Time passes and her faith, love and dreams fade into one reality... Mountains of laundry and a never ending series of meals to be cooked and chores to be performed.

One day one of her sons had an idea... "I want to show mom how much I love and appreciate her." So he went and bought a washing machine for his mom!

What a beautiful machine it was! It did all the work she had formerly done without stressing mom's hands or back! She was now "free"... Free to have more time to cook or clean the rest of the house... Even though it wasn't freedom to persue a life of seeking other hobbies or explore personal interest.

How do you think the idea was received by the other men in the family? Joy? Happiness for mom? No. They were upset because of the "cost" of electricity that would now be added to the bill at the end of the month!

The son that bought the washing machine stood amazed at how they had all taken forgranted their mother for all those years! The clothes she washed, afterall, wasn't for her! Is mom not worth the small possible extra cost of energy to pay on the bill each month? Would the men of the house be willing to wash their own clothes the way mom did for so many years if mom were suddenly no longer on this earth to perform the seemingly meanial function?

My Question for you to reflect on:

How do you feel for this mom?

This is a very real true story that happened with a friend of mine in Brazil, and it made me think of another image: "A Bride"... The Bride of Christ to be more specific...


The Bride of Christ is not a building, or a sound system, or a program...

The Bride of Christ is called the "Church" and it is individual and Composit in nature.


I am the Bride of Christ, and We are the Bride of Christ.

I am the Church, and we are the Church!

I am the body of Christ, we are the body of Christ.

If I started a list of folks that are either "out of fellowship" or that are thinking of changing churches it would be quite long. People that belong to an address of composit fellowship that are being hurt or ignored. The list would be and is so long that I feel bothered enough to write about it.

Stories that I know to be true of when a popular leader disapproves of someone, that others in that fellowship make intentional efforts to "shun" them as well. No accusers, no trails, no defenses. Just those who are "in" and those who are "out". So the leaders, and Pastors do not have to be more honest than the sheep they are supposed to be "Protecting".

This will heap more judgement upon me by those who see me as a rebel in the church to say this, but it seems to me the "Christian" is more often than not, the woman at the Washing tank while "the brethren" are the four well dressed men being taking care of so that they may appear well in public only to be offended at the notion of a slight increase in the energy bill rather than the investment into the life of the one that has labored for the sake of the family.

Those who are in Leadership and in the Pulpit sin everyday just as those who are not. They need the same forgiveness and grace that everyone else needs everyday! When did Jesus turn His back on someone who reached out for Him? The disciples said, "send her away, send them away" more than once, but Jesus didn't... The woman caught in adultery... The woman at the well... Who is the church supposed to imitate: Jesus or the disciples?

Who am I? Nobody... Or maybe I'm still, somehow, the church, bride, & body even if I'm not seen, heard.

Happy to be in Brazil!!!! 2010

Arriving in São Paulo! June 16, 2010

I've missed them! I have ached without them! Now I am so thankful to have 45 days to get time with them. This is what it is to have "it all"!

Happy Birthday Theodore!

I Love you!

Crossroads 2004!