The One Thing the Church Must Be

In case you didn’t read it, this was posted over TheOoze.com last week. Hardly anyone ever comments over there, so now that a 48-hour waiting period is up, I am reposting the article here. It is similar in content to my post from yesterday.

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As I have read and thought, written and talked about the church over the past few years, I have come to realize that the purpose of the church includes something the world gets nowhere else. The church must be a humanizer.

If there is one thing the world, sin, and the devil does to people, it is dehumanize them. In this world, we become numbers, statistics, projects, targets, customers, consumers, and victims. We are told to sit down, shut up, and let the powers have their way. We are reminded that the majority rules and while individuals have a say, it is only money that talks.

The church has the chance to step into all of this, look a person in the eye—a person who has been beaten, battered, and trampled by the world—and say to them, “You matter. I hear you. I love you.” Remember how Jesus responded to the leper in Luke 5? By most accounts, this leper was no longer part of the human race. He was less than human, treated worse than a dog. He was dead, but simply didn’t know it yet. When he shouted at others, they threw rocks at him, and told him to get away. But when he shouted at Jesus, Jesus not only heard him, but walked up to him, and embraced him. In that one little touch, which was not so little, Jesus humanized the leper.

This is what the church must do. We are called to humanize. It doesn’t take much. A touch here. A smile there. A word of encouragement where criticism is the norm. Treat people like the image of God that they are, even if that image is buried beneath months of unwashed grime and the smell of urine. It’s not about preaching the gospel to crowds of thousands or inviting people to church. A gentle word or a generous tip are better than any gospel tract.

Who can you humanize today?