Whilst having a discussion with the religious leaders of the day in Matthew 16:3-4, Jesus made an interesting observation about them: “You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times”.
This was not a problem unique to them. We, in the church, often can find ourselves out of step with society. The world shifts in its worldview very rapidly, but the church often gets caught in a time warp. This is not a bad thing, when it comes to morality and Biblical values, but unless we stay in step with how people around us think and respond we can often find ourselves becoming irrelevant. The church can be so easily found sincerely and earnestly answering questions that people are no longer asking. Jesus was effective because he responded to the heart’s cry of the people around Him. He used language they understood and interacted in ways they could relate to. In many ways, He was one of them. He understood and related to “the signs of the times”. The religious leaders had problems with Him because He didn’t speak their language. Rather He came speaking the language of the people.
Do we, as the church in the 21st Century speak the language of the people as Jesus did? Are we interacting with our world in ways that are causing the hearts of people to open, first to us, and second to our message of hope? This is our challenge. How does the church reach a society that has turned off religion? How do we open doors for the good news where, in many cases, the doors are locked and barred to anything Christian?
The answer is relatively simple. We need to do what Jesus did. We need to go to where the people are. We need to take the time to listen to their stories and feel their pain. We need to learn to listen first and speak last. The old adage is still true: “people don’t care about how much we know until they know how much we care!”
It is this that makes Chaplaincy so powerful today. At the heart of Chaplaincy is a heart that is open to people, ears that are willing to listen and hands that are quick to reach out. Chaplaincy today is simply people reaching out into the world of others and being the presence of Jesus where they are.
Recently, in Dunedin, 23 ordinary, everyday Christians signed up for the Alphacrucis Chaplaincy course. They came from Invercargill, Dunedin, Mosgiel, Christchurch and Sydney Australia. Why would 23 ordinary people make the sacrifice of cost, time and a bit of fear and stress too, to give a year of their lives to do a Chaplaincy course? The simple answer is they all had a passion to be effective reaching out to real people in the world around them. Their training has only just begun but already we have Christians spread strategically throughout several South Island (and one Australian) cities and towns connecting with people they would never ever have had a chance to connect with before. We have trainee Chaplains in such locations as factories, old folks homes, youth facilities, businesses, prisons and schools. The reach of the church has, in four weeks, extended out in ways that could not have been possible before. They are learning to be the presence of Jesus in very secular work places. They are embarking on “front line ministry”. At the same time similar courses are running or about to run in Northland and in Palmerston North. How exciting and encouraging it is to see the church in action in this way. It is the church of Jesus Christ, reading the signs of the times and responding appropriately.
We can all have a slice of this action. How wonderful it would be if we had Chaplaincy courses running in every region at least once a year. Think how many people we would release into active ministry into our communities. At the least we would have people in our churches well trained and highly skilled in the much-needed art of effective pastoral care. May I suggest that we all begin to actively promote Chaplaincy as a means to bringing the heart and hands of Christ into a world that seems closed to Him. Yes, our world has changed. Yes, some things are not as effective as they once were. Maybe it is time for us to see there are new methods required … new skills to be learned. Our world is still very reachable if we, the church, are prepared to modify our approach and embrace methods that actually work. Chaplaincy is one of those methods. It is definitely a very relevant response to an increasingly changing world.
