Signs: Asking or Giving?

Everywhere you look you see signs asking you to do something: vote for me in the upcoming election, buy this product, use this service, attend this concert, support this cause, give money, give time, give blood — each competing with the others for your attention. Eventually, these signs become invisible — or perhaps more accurately, we get so that we simply don't see them any more.

Church signs, for the most part, look just the same as every other sign — they advertise times and events, and given the genre, seem to be asking for your attendance, just as the other signs do. The information is useful to those who want it, but largely invisible to everyone else.

For the past several years, my son and I have been involved in changing a church sign every week. What has made this sign different is that we have tried to avoid as much as possible asking anyone for anything. Instead we have tried simply to give thoughts, insights, encouragements, reflections to whomever is passing by, whether or not they would ever come into our building, or identify themselves with us in anyway. To be sure, there have been times when the sign has advertised an event or service — along the same lines as other signs — but up until recently, we have been able to resist those influences that would tend to turn the sign into just another asking sign.

That time may be coming to an end — we've been getting repeated, and more pointed, requests to have service times up on one side more or less permanently. To me, this is a sad development — it seems in some way to be breaking faith with the community and selling out to the ask mentality. And so I don't know how long our involvement with that sign will continue.

From time to time over the years, we would get encouraging responses back, directly or indirectly, that these messages have been greatly appreciated in the community. We have learned of people who make a point of reading that sign whenever they pass, others who copy the messages down and disseminate them in other forums, and others who have been moved or encouraged at a particularly sensitive point in their lives. And, of course, a few who find something a bit too close to home, perhaps, and become irritated or offended.

Our intention, of course, is neither to offend nor to never offend, but simply to give something of value to the community — to give freely and indiscriminately, without regard to return. Much the way I think the gospel is intended to be given out. Hearing stories of how people have been affected is encouraging, but that is just pure gift, not something that drives the giving.

Many times, however, I feel that I am totally alone in this sort of thinking — our culture is so obsessed with seeing, indeed measuring, results. And our churches are no different. Consequently, to come upon something that another has written that sounds similar is so very encouraging. In this particular case, it is Rob Bell who writes in Velvet Elvis the following:

I am learning that the church is at its best when it gives itself away. ... God has no boundaries. God blesses everybody. People who don't believe in God. People who are opposed to God. People who do violent, evil things. God's intentions are to bless everybody. Jesus continues this idea in many of his teachings. In the book of Luke he says, "I am among you as one who serves." He not only refers to himself as a servant, sent to serve others, but he teaches his disciples that the greatest in his kingdom are the ones who serve. For Jesus, everything is upside down. The best and the greatest and most important are thones who humble themselves, set theirs needs and desires aside, and selflessly serve others.

So what is a group of people living this way called? That's the church. The church doesn't exist for itself; it exists to serve the world. It is not ultimately about the church; it's about all the people God wants to bless through the church. When the church loses sight of this, it loses its heart. This is especially true today in the world we live in where so many people are hostile to the church, many for good reason. We reclaim the church as a blessing machine not only because that is what Jesus intended from the beginning but also because serving people is the only way their perceptions of church are ever going to change. ... (T)he most powerful things happen when the church surrenders its desire to convert people and convince them to join. It is when the church gives itself away in radical acts of service and compassion, expecting nothing in return, that the way of Jesus is most vividly put on display.

Oftentimes the Christian community has sent the message that we love people and build relationships in order to convert them to the Christian faith. So there is an agenda. And when there is an agenda, it isn't really love, is it? It's something else. We have to rediscover love, period. Love that loves because it is what Jesus teaches us to do. We have to surrender our agendas.

I am learning that the church is at its best when it is underground, subversive, and countercultural. It is the quiet, humble, stealth acts that change things.

I wonder why it is so hard for us to see this.