Have Pity on Us

My friend, Amyjo F. has written a wonderful little essay, and she has given me permission to share it here:

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The other day I announced to my husband my newest church growth idea:  “Have Pity on Us.”  Instead of advertising our merits, we might as well begin looking for people who feel bad enough about our situation to want to help.  “Have Pity on Us.”  Things are not going so well.  In the words of Henri Nouwen:

“You could say that many of us feel like failed tightrope walkers who discovered that we did not have the power to draw thousands of people, that we could not make many conversions, that we did not have the talents to create beautiful liturgies that we were not as popular with the youth, the young adults, or the elderly as we had hoped, and that we were not as able to respond to the needs of our people as we had expected.”

“Have Pity On Us.”

I am not Rick Warren.  I have no grand new ideas for what the church ought to be doing.

Have Pity on Us

I am not Mark Driscoll.  My wardrobe is not classy or hip and detailed discussions of sex make me blush.

Have Pity on Us
I am not Rob Bell, because I have seen love lose over and over again.

Have Pity on Us
I am not Kay Arthur.  I am too reliant on experts and I cannot stand to write in my Bible.

Have Pity on Us
I am not Joyce Meyer.  I am not Beth Moore.  My teaching is neither that powerful, nor that loud.

Have Pity on Us
I am not Darlene Zschech.  I cannot write songs, sing like the angels, or even play guitar.

Have Pity on Us
I am not T.D. Jakes.  I do not make $1.6 million a year and I doubt my ministry is worth that much.

Have Pity on Us

My church is not the Crystal Cathedral.  It is neither beautiful nor large and it has a funky smell.

Have Pity on Us

And although this will certainly be a point of contention and might cause others to denigrate me, I am not so certain that I wish to be any of those people.  I am not nearly so disappointed by my failure as to change into someone that I am not . 

Have Pity On Us.

Perhaps that is the point.  Week after week, I keep hoping for someone to show up and praying for the few we have to stay not because I am something great or my church is some terrific edifice, but because Jesus abides in those places desperate enough to seek him…because we are really truly in need…because the staff and the pastor at this church are not nearly talented enough or good enough to accomplish it all alone. 

Have Pity On Us.