A Movement from the Margins, Part 2

By Jonathan Kindberg

To do great things for God we often assume that we need great resources: power, influence, renown, intelligence and have written best-selling books. But these kinds things are usually hindrances rather than aides to God’s work. God delights, rather, in using those who are unequipped and unresourced in the eyes of the world. Those who are powerless and weak; those on the margins ignored by the rest of the world and by the Church herself. These kinds of people he uses to fulfill his mission and do great things. Why? Because these are the kinds of people who recognize that they don’t have what it takes and that they must depend fully on God. Through this God shows himself to be great. This is the story, for example, of Patrick of Ireland. An uneducated, slave boy who encountered God in a powerful way, launched the Celtic missionary movement, and despite fierce opposition from the Roman church impacted all of Europe.

Many of the folks I minister are potential Patricks. As immigrants they are often ignored, invisible and powerless in a society that benefits from their labor and yet forgets the laborer. Many do not have legal status and live in fear of deportation and of the night. Often they come from humble origins in Mexico and have little resources or education. They did not go to Sunday school growing up (much less seminary) and are just learning the books of the Bible. They are often ignored and invisible to the Church at large. And yet many have a desperate faith in God and nothing left to lose. They are exactly the kinds of people God always uses to do great and amazing things: A potential movement from the margins.

Steve Addison in his book, Movements that Changed the World, describes the key elements of movements this way: “God takes the initiative and chooses unlikely people, far from the center of ecclesiastical power. He works to remake them from the inside out. He inspires innovative insights regarding his mission and how it is to be carried out. Biblical truths and practices are rediscovered. A growing band of ordinary people emerges who have a heartfelt faith and missionary zeal that knows no bounds. Despite opposition from powerful forces within society and the existing church, the gospel spreads into unreached fields. The existing church is renewed, and society is transformed.”

If this is the case then I have the responsibility to steward and encourage a potential world and Church changing force. There are present here the elements for a movement from the margins in the making. And there’s no doubt about it in this place, day and time: we need renewal and we need a movement.

May it be so. Come Holy Spirit.

God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs. - Matthew 5:3 (NLT)

Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful. - 1 Corinthians 1:27 (NLT)

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A Movement from the Margins, Part 1

By Jonathan Kindberg

One of the most satisfying and exciting aspects of my ministry has been discipling some new believers who I’ve tasked with going out on mission from the earliest days of their new walk with Christ. In each case God has met them in profound ways as they are sent out. In this I’ve sought to follow the pattern in Luke 9 and 10 of Jesus sending out his disciples.

Many might ask: Why did Jesus send out his disciples so quickly after they had begun to follow him? You can almost hear the complaints that immediately arose from the disciples:  “We are doing what? But, Jesus, we aren’t ready yet!”  or “Jesus we haven’t had enough training. What if we don’t know what to say?” And in reality they didn’t have enough resources and training… and this was exactly the point.

Jesus purposefully sent them without the resources they “needed:” “Take nothing for your journey,” he instructed them. “Don’t take a walking stick, a traveler’s bag, food, money, or even a change of clothes” (Luke 9:3). They had no resources and very little training. They hadn’t even been with Jesus for 5 chapters! But this he gave them: his own power and authority (9:1).

When we go out on mission something quite mysterious happens. We immediately recognize that we don’t have what people need. People bring their problems and pain and we don’t have the right answers or things to say. Immediately we recognize that we are empty people trying to fill others’ vacuous souls and we have come up dry. At that point, though, of recognizing our emptiness, a miraculous exchange occurs. God fills us, meets us at our point of need, so that we are able to meet the needs of others. We come to the end of ourselves and begin to depend on his authority and power to work in our own lives and in the lives of others.

Discipleship or spiritual formation without mission, even from the earliest stages of growth in Christ is incomplete to say the least. It is, as a friend of mine pointed out, a rediscovery of what it means to be truly human as God intended, a “being for the sake of others.”

Evangelical discipleship often emphasizes being “filled” which most often translates into a passive receiving of unidirectional teaching/preaching and a host of small groups, books and Sunday school classes. No wonder so many leave our churches looking for greener pastures and complaining of not having been “fed.” The problem often is that they have actually been “overfed” but haven’t been feeding others. Their hearts have become a stagnant pond of water without an exit strategy.

So what happens when these un-resourced, untrained disciples go out? By chapter 10, the 12 have suddenly become 72. A movement from the margins has begun.

In the next post we’ll talk about how movements usually begin in this way and are carried by the poor and outcasts of society, by those on the margins, and what one could look like here in Chicago started by Hispanic immigrants.

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