Steve's Letter: "What do you think about my proposal?"

As some of you know, I preach/teach fairly often at Perimeter Church in Atlanta. I love the people there and their pastor, Randy Pope, is one of my heroes.

It's as close as I'm ever going to get to being a pastor of a mega-church.

I've always asked God to make me the pastor of a mega-church and told him, if he really loved me, he would. Or, at any rate, that was my prayer until I started visiting Perimeter.

They have more staff people than I ever had as church members where I served as pastor and I've come to realize that God's decision to never make me the pastor of a mega-church was because he likes me. Frankly, if he had answered my prayer, I wouldn't have known what to do. It is far better to make a fool of oneself with a small group of people who love you, forgive you and make excuses for you than it is to do it in front of that many people.

Besides, I would be sort of like my German shepherd who chased motorcycles. It was fun for him to chase them, but he wouldn't know what to do if he ever caught one. German shepherds look silly trying to ride motorcycles.

But I digress.

Generally, when I'm at Perimeter, I preach on Saturday night and then twice on Sunday morning. Randy said I wouldn't have to go to meetings and didn't have to be nice to anybody. All I had to do was get on an airplane, fly to Atlanta, preach and, when finished, get on an airplane and come home.

I know, I know. It's hard work, but somebody has to do it.

The last weekend I was at Perimeter, some of the folks there asked that I spend some time with them at a meeting of one of their ministries called "Celebrate Recovery." Frankly, that isn't what I wanted to do, but Cathy (my assistant and events person at Key Life) insisted that I do it. "Trust me on this," she said. "These are your kind of people."

So, while there were heel marks from the church to the home where the meeting took place, I went. And God (because he really does like me) gave me one of the best evenings I've had in a very long time.

I thought I was supposed to speak for a while and answer questions. It turned out to be a meeting with no other purpose except to pray for me and to thank me for being faithful to the message of God's grace, mercy and love. Not only that, they gave me a gift certificate for ice cream. (I would have preferred pipe tobacco, but they decided not to encourage my sin/addiction.)

There were 30 or 40 people there...all "in recovery" from some bad stuff. They are leaders of Christian 12-step program groups and all of them have been there, done that and have the bloodied T-shirt.

You would have loved these people. Do you know why?

It wasn't because they were so "religious" or "spiritual"...it was because they weren't religious and spiritual, and knew it. Not only that. They admit it; support, love and encourage one another; and are so authentic and real that they would blow you away.

They opened the meeting by going around the room with each person introducing him or herself the way they do in A.A. For instance, a man would say, "Hi, my name is Jim and I'm addicted to drugs. While I still struggle with recovery, I've found love and freedom in being a follower of Jesus Christ." And then the whole group would say in unison, "Hi Jim."

It went on and on with every addiction and painful, sinful behavior you can imagine...each person saying the same thing, "Hi, I'm _____ and I'm...an adult child of an alcoholic, a drunk, addicted to sex, addicted to pornography, addicted to prescription pain pills, addicted to anger, abused by my father and addicted to approval, co-dependent, addicted to...

It went on and on and on. After each introduction, the person was greeted by name and sometimes applause.

I may have told you and, if you don't know it, you haven't been listening. I'm probably the most cynical friend you have. It is impossible to shock or surprise me. When you're as old as I am and have been around as long as I have, you get so you don't expect too much from others or from yourself. You live with the principle that when a dog plays checkers, one doesn't criticize the dog's game...one is just pleased and surprised that the dog is playing at all. And when you've seen as much as I have, you've learned that the "victorious Christian life" is really just keeping your nose above water and the goal isn't winning the world to Christ, but simply not losing too many.

Because God likes me and because he knows how discouraged I get about myself, about others and about the church, he regularly allows me to see the "real deal." If I didn't see the real deal sometimes-in others and even sometimes in myself-I would throw in the towel (if I knew where to throw it) and become a turnip farmer.

So I was mightily blessed and decided to bless you by telling you about what happened.

And I have a modest proposal.

At least once a month, all our churches should have a Sunday morning worship service for S.A.-Sinners Anonymous-where everybody who comes to the service is required to introduce himself or herself, and name his or her sin, dark secret, addiction, fear or doubt. Then, after each introduction, the rest of the congregation would be required to say "hi" and to applaud and shout in unison: "God loves you anyway!"

And there's more. As we went through the introductions, the pastor would be required to go first, followed by the staff, the elders, the deacons and then the ministry leaders and Bible teachers.

Steve, are you crazy?

Yeah, crazy like a fox.

You think it would destroy the church. You think you simply couldn't do it because of the horrible embarrassment, so much so that you could never show your face in church again. You think the cause of Christ would be irreparably damaged and that the Kingdom of God would come crashing down.

None of it.

Do you know what would happen? There would be revival in America! That's what would happen.There would be another Great Awakening that would make the one of 18th century look like a small Bible study group. We would start getting better, becoming more obedient and far more loving toward one another and the world than we have been.

You see, it's a lot easier to serve Christ without a mask. You're far freer, you laugh and sing more, and you get to dance without caring what people think about how well you dance.

Well, what do you think about my proposal????

Is that cool or what?

You first!

Me?

Are you crazy? Do I have "S.T.U.P.I.D." written across my forehead?

I need this job.

But nevertheless, he told me to tell you.

In His Grip,