Pete VB from Voices posted a lovely article on the Problem Trap from the Alban institute. Nice article. http://www.alban.org/conversation.aspx?id=9895

I posted this to Voices:

I appreciate the comments and perspectives in this thread. When I was a seminary intern in the Dominican Republic I came to the field and found lots of things wrong with the Haitian churches I discovered. Pastors can’t read. Sermons were moralistic and petty. Church services would be unbearably long and hot. Some pastors were corrupt. Money wasn’t always getting to the people who needed it. People were engaging missionaries out of ambition to get US connections, money or visas, etc. Ray Brinks, my mentor and supervisor who founded the field would often tell me (when I lamented to him) “you don’t know what it was like when we started (10 years before).” In my better moments I would listen.

I pastor a church where many visitors head for the door before I can even get back there to greet them. I know what they are thinking. “The music wasn’t exciting enough. The sermon was too intellectual. There were a lot of empty seats. The church looks like it’s dying. Between the crazy, creepy guy standing in back, the scary big guy who looks like a killer, the crying babies and the autistic kid who kept charging the stage and whose mother wrestled with him for 10 minutes before she finally gave up and saddled the nursery with him, I just couldn’t get that worship buzz I can get at the big box churches.” Yep. It’s all true.

What was also true was that _______ got 45 minutes of respite, and _______ had people speak decently to him in a place where he feels like he belongs, and ________ heard “There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” and glowed as she thought about what that means for her life, and ________ took notes, and _________ got to talk about the letters she gets from strangers after her husband’s funeral, and ________ got to share her sorrows and _______ and _______ got the hugs and attention they crave and need and the other 50 or so people got to see their friends, thank God for the simple things, hear something that helped them out, ask God to help in their sorrows, and help each other get through another day.

When I get problem focused I sometimes think about the seven churches in Asia Minor that John wrote to. These churches had serious problems and scary challenges, the likes of which we wouldn’t swap for. John then proceeded to tell them an outlandish story that somehow the God of the universe was on their side and in the end these struggling, persecuted overcomers would inherit the earth. It seemed like crazy talk, but we know it happened. So then I don’t feel so bad. 🙂 pvk