tracheotomies

I know, I had to dig deep for the title on this one. 

One of this semester's lecture series guests was David Pierce from Steiger International. That man has so much passion for what he does, I am continually impressed and convicted listening to him speak. I hesitate to mar that truth with what really amounts to an impression, a feeling about some of the things he told us. 

When I was in the military, we had these emergency tracheotomy kits. They were essentially color by number surgery packed in a Lunchables tray. Obviously, having an actual doctor would be preferable to being sliced up by some random soldier reading his instructions off a peel-away food tray. But if your life is in danger and there's no other way, Lunchables it is. So when I hear about all the amazing things that are happening in David's ministry, I recognize that he is being used by God as one of those emergency kits, saving souls where the 'official' church cannot or will not go. And that's a very good thing. 

What bothers me is the subtle and scary idea that somehow the rawness, the simplicity of the emergency kit makes it superior to a doctor in a hospital. I am in no way accusing David of thinking or believing this, but some of his statements make it something I can't ignore. I hear in his words, quiet and subtle, that the church (meaning the people) has abused and injured so many so greatly that it isn't worth serving. We should all yank up our roots and serve on the extreme fringe; to do otherwise is to choose the 'wide path' and ignore what God must be calling true christians to do. 

David mentioned many times that because Jesus left the 99 and sought the 1, so we must abandon the 'proper' sheep of the US and witness to those in the most alternative lifestyles we can find. I worry about any system or leader that is willing to cut off so many from redemption and transformation in the Spirit. I worry what kind of church can possibly be built on the foundation of animosity toward the church as an institution to begin with. If the Church is simply the interrelations of those called by God here on earth, and the sins of the institution are the fault of its members, what grand scheme can possibly condemn that Church as worthless and yet still hope to build its superior with the same base material. 

Yes, seek the lost. No, do not forsake the Church.