I have been doing a lot of reading and exploring these past few weeks and came across the following article. I was so moved by the simplicity of Keith Seckel’s message. It is posted here for your benefit.
Kerry Denten
John Wimber cast a tremendous vision for the Vineyard movement (and for the Kingdom of God!) when he said church was a Hospital and a Family and a School and an Army.
I agree but want to re-phrase it to move away from the building mentality.
It is not a Hospital: It is not a place. It is a people. It is a group of Doctors and Nurses who grew up sick and were helped and healed by people who volunteered their time to go help people. So these kids grew up and are now volunteering significant portions of their time and money and energy to work with “Doctors without borders” and go help and heal people who cannot or would not go to a hospital. And when they heal those kids, they also help them meet teachers, so they can grow up to become able to give themselves away to others in a similar way.
It is not a School: It is not a place. It is a people. It is a group of teachers who grew up with learning disabilities. In their youth they were helped immensely by volunteer tutors who came to their communities and taught them not only academic information, but also modeled the principles of impartation. And so now these kids who grew up to be teachers spend significant time and energy to drive into the inner city and out into the rural areas and go wherever they hear about kids who have trouble learning — they go to the kids, because the kids’ parents and the kids’ themselves think they are too stupid to waste school on them — so they would never go to school (or maybe they’ve tried and been ridiculed, and vowed never to go back, and to always see them selves as just being stupid.) And as they teach them, they train them not only in academia and the art of impartation — they also teach them they have a destiny and purpose and can give themselves away to serve others.
It is not a place. It is a people. It is an Army, but not a class-driven officer vs enlisted organization. It is simply a people. A people with a purpose, yes — but first and foremost it is a people. It is a group of soldiers who were once POWs. They have been rescued by fellow soldiers. They were then helped and healed and strengthened in a mobile hospital setting. Now strong, they have banded together to “go back in” and rescue other POWs still suffering in captivity. They took very little time off. They did not go back to the States. They “went back in” as soon as they were physically able to. Some really weren’t physically ready, but their heart of compassion (having been a POW until only recently) drives them back into the jungle to look for others to rescue. And when those new POWs are rescued, they make sure they get into the care of healers and helpers and teachers. They make sure those soldiers get strengthened. And then when they are strong enough, those now-rescued POWs are led back into the jungle by the only-a-little-bit-earlier-rescued POWs.
It is not a place. It is a people. It is a Family. But not a Ward & June Cleaver family; not even a blended-type Brady Bunch or “Cheaper by the Dozen” family. It is a bunch of orphans who were adopted and given homes and a chance in life. They were given love freely, so now that they are grown up they spend time and energy and money going to orphanages and adopting children. They intentionally budget small in their personal lives, and do not have children “of their own” — so they can devote significant time and energy into loving kids that no one else wanted. They don’t sit at home or at the office of a non-profit organization they’ve started in order to help the kids — they don;t sit in that office waiting for the kids to show up. They don’t advertise in the yellow pages or postcards in an attempt to get the orphans to come to their office. They go out to the orphanages. They take the kids they’ve adopted with them and they love the orphanage kids right where they are, even if they cannot bring them home with them (yet) they can love ‘em and give ‘em a family right where they are.
The church is not a Hospital it is Doctors and Nurses. The church is not a School. It is Teachers. The church is not an Army. It is Soldiers. The church is not a traditional family. It is a rag-tag used-to-be-orphans family.
What do you think?