In the movie Cool Hand Luke the Prison Warden addresses a group of shackled, chain gang inmates and surmises that the issue behind a rebellious prisoner is that (now infamous line), “What we got here is failure to communicate.” Now, I don’t have much experience with a chain gang, my profession deals more with chain breaking. And being a Christian is more akin to breaking out of prison than being imprisoned. But I do think this line has some wisdom for the Christian Church today!
In Acts Chapter 6 the early Christian community faced a dilemma. It reads, “In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Hellenistic Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. Brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.”
What just happened here in these passages? What happened was the first ever church committee meeting! You think we invented such things in this century? Not even close! But seriously, the early church was facing a very difficult situation. Their ministry was growing and multitudes were coming to know Christ, but the church began to be consumed by the mission of taking care of the needy. This became so much the case that the Apostles realized, “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God.” So, they appointed others to care for this particular ministry, while they continued to preach the Good News.
There are two main takeaways from this, the first being that the Christian church holds multiple areas in which people can serve and proclaim the Gospel. Each act of service is essential to the work of God’s Kingdom and should not be looked upon as greater than or less than.
The second is that the church is called to both care and preach, minister and mission, proclaim and feed, it is a dichotomy of word and service. A church that merely preaches the Gospel but does not live the Gospel through mission is an empty shell. It may be flashy or have a great exterior, but it is empty in its authenticity. Likewise, if a church is merely a church of mission and feeding others, but they do not feed people the Word of God, they are sending people away to starve spiritually. Those that merely do mission without the Gospel are nothing more than waiters upon tables (as the scripture points out).
Perhaps what we have here is a failure to communicate. Each true Christian church is called to both care for their communities needs, but also unashamedly and unabashedly preach the true of Jesus Christ. There must be refreshment and repentance, reclamation and redemption. Our unifying message as Christian is to bring others to the Gospel Feast, where you will be fed physically and spiritually.
The preaching of the Gospel and the living of the Gospel through mission go hand-in-hand. A church is not a Christian church without both of these qualities.
Your Cool Hand brother in Christ.
Pastor Mike McVey
Minister – First United Methodist Church, Fairfield TX
ACS Chaplain – United States Coast Guard, Station Galveston TX
Chaplain – Texas Game Warden Service, Freestone County
Cell: 919-935-2513
Email: pastormike@fumcfairfield.org
