And He answered and said to them,
“Go and report to John what you have seen and heard:
the blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed,
the deaf hear, the dead are raised up,
the poor have the gospel preached to them.”
Luke 7: 22
Lately, God has been pushing me in a direction that is neither comfortable or easy. The closer our building comes to completion, the harder He pushes. When I ask Him to stop, He keeps pushing. When I ignore Him, He gets in my face.
The shoving match began when Hiram and I, curious about the construction progress, walked through our church building awhile back. The building’s handicapped accessibility – no steps, wide halls and doorways, handicapped bathroom stalls – pleased me since I remember how hard Mom worked to get Dad and his wheelchair into my childhood church. That’s when God started pushing. Could our church reach out to disabled people in Boone?
About the same time, I spoke at a church with a bang-up ministry for families of kids with special needs. I interviewed the program director, thinking her expertise would be a valuable addition to a chapter of my new book. The more she shared about their ministry, the more God pushed. I asked Him to stop, but He pushed harder. Families in Boone could benefit from such an outreach at Grace.
Next, I interviewed Dr. Jeff McNair, a professor of special education who also teaches a Sunday school class for disabled adults. I began reading his book, The Church and Disability, which says things like this. “Rarely are children with disabilities included in Sunday school to the degree such children are present in the community. In interactions with Christian kids at church, I have asked them where they have had experience with children with disabilities, and most often they will say in their class at public school.”
When I tried to ignore what God was saying, He got in my face, using McNair’s words again. “All levels of Christian education are wrong…because they overlook some of the most needy, the poorest, the most disenfranchised people in the world. How could any group that claims to be Christian be so blind as to miss this group? To miss such a group in the light of the gospels and the example of Christ is so wrong.” Could Grace Community Church help right that wrong?
Our church could, but do we want to? Right now, I want Him to let us rest. After 9 years of unloading a trailer every Sunday and doing Sunday school in hallways, don’t we deserve some time to rest instead of reaching out to people who require a great investment of time, energy and discomfort?
But I suspect He didn’t provide the building of this church so we could rest. And I suspect He’ll keep pushing us until the most compromised of Boone’s citizens have the gospel preached to them. After all, our new church building is equipped to welcome the blind, the deaf, the lame, and intellectually disabled. But are we?
Oh God who provided a building, would You please equip our hearts?
