Outreach and the Image of God

What is our goal when thinking about Christian “outreach”? Are we picturing ourselves as simply carriers of a valuable service to a market which needs this service? If so, then that individual’s significance or importance to us rises or falls with their response to the product or message that we are seeking to convey. Hence one of non-believers main complaints about Christians. “They are only interested in me gettin’ saved.”

People are not stupid. Actually most are fairly perceptive, especially when it comes to sniffing our sincerity in relationships. If they are being treated as a project or feel that they are being “sold” something or coerced into something, then they are offended, and rightly so.

Okay, I get that we are called to take the gospel to our neighbors and the nations. No argument from me at all. Where I tend to push back is in how we are going about that task.

It really comes down to the foundational truth displayed in Genesis 1:26-27.

26Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."
27So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

So God created man (meaning male and female) in His own image. We are image bearers of the Creator. There are characteristics of God that we bear, in our humanity that resemble and reflect something of Him in our world. Now here is the real kicker, this all takes place before Genesis 3 and “the Fall”. Implication? That all humanity, both believing and non-believing, both Christian and non-Christian, bear in some way, shape or form the image of God. Whether we are called a child of God or a child of wrath, we are all walking around through our daily lives reflecting something of the image of the Most High. For some the image may be more brightly reflected while in others it is barely perceptible, but it is there.

I come back to the original question now. What is our goal when thinking about Christian “outreach”? Are we seeking to treat people we come into contact with as a market for a product? Or are we seeking to honor those we come into contact with as bearers of the image of God? This kind of changes things. Actually it turns the whole concept of outreach on its ear in a particularly painful way for Western Evangelicals. (Maybe more on that at a later date.)

Are non-believers converts to be won or image bearers to be honored? Actually that was a trick question. Of course the answer is “both”. But how do we win them? This is the core issue. We pursue relationships, honoring individuals where they are, seeking to discern and encourage those aspects of their character that are most recognizably reflecting our Fathers image in their world, all the while trusting in the one who places his image there and faithfully calls. Of course hard questions are asked. Of course truth is spoken, but it is spoken within the context of a relationship where mutual honor and respect are evident. This is what we are seeking to pursue, in our own humble and limited way, as Christ’s church in the city of Birmingham. Love God and love people. Hmmm.. what a novel concept.

Can a tomato have eternal significance?

I have been thinking alot lately about gardening. Don't ask why. Just another random thought bouncing around in my head. Actually the whole gardening thought stream is a small branch off a larger flow thinking about what it means live life, ALL of life, as if the gospel was truly meant to have impact. So instead of "ministry" being strictly limited to a 6AM men's Bible study or sharing the gospel with inmates at a local jail (although it is surely all of those things), what if it also looked like teaching a neighbor how to grow a fresh tomato.

I remember this past summer watching a CNN special on "Being Black in America". One lady's comment stood out to me. She said that in order for her to get a fresh tomato, she had to walk something like 6 to 8 city blocks. Now for those of us who exist solely in white collar suburbia and can drive our SUV's (or Prius') to three supermarkets within 10 minutes from our front door, this might seem odd. But drive downtown in any midrange to large urban area and count how many grocery stores there are. They have almost all followed the population flight to the suburbs leaving those who cannot afford to move with them at the mercy of whatever cheap potato chips and boxed processed foods decided to stay. Or if you have $5 and have to choose between two heads of lettuce or 5 boxes of mac and cheese to feed an entire family, what do you do? Now those statistics about heart disease and diabetes within minority communities starts to make more sense.

So what does the mission of God call us to do in response to these realities of living in a world that is so obviously broken? Well, maybe it looks like developing a small plot of land on an urban block where people gather on Saturday mornings. Maybe it looks like a group of people coming together and planting fresh vegetables in a series of pots. Maybe it looks like some of those people going home with containers that will provide a few fresh vegetables throughout the entire summer, so that instead of walking 8 blocks for a fresh tomato a person simply walks out of their back door. And maybe, just maybe at some point during all of the digging in the dirt, the planting of plants and spreading of manure, just maybe a person sees that they are not alone. That there really are others who care and (surprise, surprise) they are actually Christ followers.

So I ask the question again. Can a tomato have eternal significance?