|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Hindsight 101
It's easy to talk about all the great moments that happened during the coffeehouse years. Yet there was a problem that I never saw completely remedied. I still hear folks mention it from time to time. Two times recently since launching this website. One from a brother who had seen the site and another from a sister I happened to bump into at work.
Both times as times before I heard a common thread of complaints. "I didn't feel accepted. I tried to be a part but my help wasn't wanted. I made only one friend and the rest didn't seem to want to have anything to do with me." I've heard it said different ways. I heard the term "click" too many times down through the years. At times and to some folks, Christian Brothers Association pushed folks away rather than pull them into fellowship. We were "Christian Brothers" after all, why did we have such a difficult time welcoming people into the ministry? We were a tight family but the family should've and could've been bigger. To this day I wish we as a ministry could have focused more energy and attention to every last person that came our way.
Now there were those that I recall that individually had their own specific idea as to how a ministry should be run. They would eventually dust their feet off of our lowly spiritual ignorance and never return. I remember one evening when a couple frankly told me that they weren't coming back because we weren't doing things right. They weren't even around long enough to understand what we were doing in the first place. It wasn't about a program, it was about relationship. Good riddance to all those ways that seemed right unto man!
If you're going into the ministry, you're going to have to reach out more than those reaching in, walk a little further for a stranger. Our purpose after all was about accepting and befriending folks from every walk of life. We apparently failed in this area more than once. Maybe we were so close that we became closed at times. That's not good thing. Maybe the actual tasks of our ministry sometimes overshadowed our real mission, PEOPLE. Keep the sound check short, forget about the room acoustics and take time to welcome a stranger. The things that happened on that small stage were wonderful but sometimes we let new comers sit at a corner table without a friendly encounter. They came and they left without experiencing what we really had to offer. The importance of each Saturday night, concert or festival was not the event that happened on stage but rather what took place around each table.
To be honest, yes we failed on various occasions. I do hear the negative stuff every now and then. A lot of it I know and admit to be true. But I can attest to the fact that we succeeded much more than we failed. As always, God used us in spite of ourselves.
So here's a parting tip for anyone in ministry. Simple things work. I remember reaching into my pocket on many occasions and buy a coke, cup of coffee, or bag of popcorn for a stranger. Sometime this simple device showed a new comer that he or she was welcomed. A free coke, silly banter, casual conversations have led to deeper things.
-David B. Finlayson
January 22, 2002.
|
|
Response
David, Hear, Hear---well written and I agree wholeheartedly, Christian Brothers was what it was. Something different to each of us. It met or filled a void in each of our lives, sometimes for a season, sometimes longer. It can't be duplicated, taken apart to see how or why it worked the way it did. It was a ministry that had the Holy Spirits hand all over it, and when He had accomplished what He needed He withdrew His hand and sent us out to do minisrty in 100's of other areas and ways. I am the minister I am today in part because of how I learned missions at the coffeehouse. As long as I live, and others like me live -Christian Brothers will continue to minister.
Pastor Richard Bradford
Jasper, AL
|
|
|
