Disciples more than dollars - no: really!

"The harvest truly is plenteous, but we don't have enough money and our work falls through the cracks of any government programs."
-- Jesus, upon looking at the multitudes with compassion.
-- Not.

Actually, in Matthew 9:37, Jesus says the problem is the lack of labourers, and the resurfacing of Cherie yesterday at The Lord's Rain hammered that home for me again. Cherie is a woman whom I mentioned back in March in a blog posting, and she's sadly typical of one of the challenges we face on the downtown east side.

For all the optimism of that post, Cherie still appears to be lurching through her life from day to day, from fix to fix, from "customer" to "customer" -- you get the idea. She had that "hard" look on her face, that cracked briefly with a smile, but got paved-over when we refused to put more sugar in her coffee (I'd say 90% of the people at the Mission actually do respond to and respect the boundaries we set -- and these boundaries are purely economical -- but there are some who pout more than somewhat).

Anyway, you think you've found a chink in someone's armor, a way to crack through and reach them with true, unconditional love; but once they step back out onto the street -- into the world, with its constant temptations and its reminders of how they've fallen before -- without the support of others ministering that same kind of love to them, they slip again.

Often, I believe it's not the "fall" that does the damage to a person who's begun to find their way to the Lord: it's the guilt trip that comes from believing that they're just as rotten as they'd thought they were, they're really not worthy of any kind of forgiveness or new life, and that they'll never be able to make it back now.

All of which is The Big Lie and is easily countered by Grace. Just as love never fails, Grace trumps everything. But even if you get that message through to them, they need other people around to encourage them and build them up, especially when temptation looks like it's getting a foothold again. When I see Cherie -- or some of the others, even those that I've known for years -- slip, my first thought is that I wish I'd been close to hand to try to talk to them, encourage them and otherwise Be There for them.

Then I realize that there's only so much of "me" to go around. I can only speak for myself, but I'm pretty sure that, if you ask Barry or anyone else ministering in Christ on the Downtown East Side, you'll hear a similar reaction. After all, we have jobs and families -- don't forget that the Apostle Paul had a job and the Apostle Peter was married. Other laborers are needed to pick up the slack, to water the seed we've sown and to sow new seed themselves; to be the "fresh legs off the bench".

Or even -- the right legs: there's no guarantee that, even if I had been there with Cherie or whomever, I could have said anything more or different than what I'd said already. Sometimes, people need to hear a variation on the message, in order for it to sink in deeper. Case in point: when our late sister Candy gave her testimony about how Jesus saved her from drug addiction, it got through to some people who'd been hearing me preach for over two years. The testimony of another sister, Charisse, also struck home where the words of others had just bounced off.

Having more labourers also proves to people in the area that ministry in Christ is not just being done by a handful of sin-busters out to save the world with Bible in hand. Knowing there are multiple people who care and are motivated by the same thing can have a major impact by itself.

All of this is by way of encouraging people to consider forming teams to operate The Lord's Rain on early Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday mornings. This would give people in the area more opportunity to stay off the street during those hours -- especially those in shelters, who get booted out a few hours before other programs open. When The Lord's Rain is available, they get invaluable exposure to what Pastor Barry calls "Jesus with the skin on" -- love, experienced through serving one another. You might even want to pitch it to your churches and see if others are interested.

It doesn't take much: the best team size would be four -- two is the minimum; the early-morning hours (6:30 or 7 until 9) would work well for those with jobs downtown. I believe you'll discover gifts that you didn't even know you had.

It's all about building relationships, really. That, as much preaching the Word, helps instill the hope they need. Indeed, I can't think of a time when Jesus quoted Scripture at people -- save for the times when He used it to bring up the religious leaders on their own hypocrisy. Instead, the Gospels tell us that Jesus reached people through fellowship: eating with them, walking with them, sitting beside a well, standing them a round of drinks at a wedding.

It's through relationships that love starts to grow; and it's through love that hope takes root; and it's through hope that people start to experience true transformation in their lives.