Horse Manure

I heard evangelist Louis Palau say, 'the church is like manure, pile it all up in one spot and it sure stinks, but spread it out over the earth and see what grows!'

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The early Church often made the mistake of thinking the gospel was for them. They were very wary of any contact with outsiders, (read for yourself the reaction of the early church to the idea of a mission to the Gentiles on the pages of the Book of Acts). The reality, however, is that the gospel is never for us, it is always for them! One of the major subplots in Luke's account of the early church is precisely the way God of Israel began to reveal Himself as the Lord of all people.

We too, can make the same mistake; thinking the gospel is about christians and Jesus. We retreat to ghettoized seclusion in christian music, suburban homes, Martha Stewart colors on our newly built suburban worship centers, preventing our children from worldly corruption (and so preventing them from engaging in God's mission), informed by all the latest church growth techniques in how to attract all of the christians from other churches to ours...

...hold your nose!

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All of us, however, recognize the real beauty of the church acting as fertilizer instead of excrement. Mother Teresa holding dying lepers, William Wilberforce spending his life and health advocating for the end of slavery, untold missionaries who died on the field; there are those who fight child prostitution, those who teach in poverty stricken urban schools, and those who serve in mental health facilities, all without applause.

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Manure for its own sake is just a pile of poop...

But when it is used to 'bless' the soil, all sorts of beautiful, fruitful, and nourishing, things are produced.

How could we begin to think this way about the Church?