Barnabas File

Eliot and Emily Roberts are two of my ministry heroes.  When they started Neverfail Community Church on the Cumberland Plateau of Tennessee about 20 years ago, they realized that the challenges were significant.  This area has one of the highest rates of production and use of methamphetamine in the nation.  At  least 33 percent of those in the area have not achieved a high school diploma or GED. Only a small proportion of families have heads of household with year-round full-time employment.  Early in the life of the church, Eliot told me a key part of their philosophy:  ministry must be done with people rather than to them.  Often, we assume what others need and seek to supply it, then we are disappointed when they do not embrace our generosity.  The rejection is not necessarily due to hostility but because we are not offering what they really need. Before we invest in helping others, we might first ask ...

“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied:   “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.   And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:36-40, NIV) Like others who identify with the Cooperative Baptist movement, I have been reading both the report of the Illumination Project and responses on social media.  My only conclusion so far is that we don’t all agree on this decision.  I have friends who express widely divergent and opposing opinions, so I continue to reflect on the implications of the decision, pray about it, and even look at scripture like the passage above. Of course, Jesus was not trying to start an organization.  If anything, what he was creating was a very messy, chaotic organism which was to be led by the Spirit of God.  ...