Two weekends ago I had the delightful experience of leading a deacons’ retreat for Cradock Baptist Church. Taking a break from PowerPoint presentations we looked to the internet for inspiration and found it on YouTube.
I first saw the Battle at Kuger several years ago, but every time I view it, I am impressed (http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=LU8DDYz68kM). A herd of water buffalo follows the lead bull around a small lake toward a crouching pride of lions. Although wary and pausing occasionally to sniff the air, the leader moves, step by step closer to the predators. Finally, sensing the danger he and the herd turn to flee, but too late. The lions converge on a calf, and as they attack, the calf falls into the lake along with the lions.
As they attempt to drag the unfortunate calf up the steep bank, the lions’ progress is arrested by a crocodile pulling the calf back into the lake. Their tug-of-war, though intense, is brief as the lions win and pull the calf onto the bank.
Meanwhile, the herd has regrouped and is inching its way back toward the lions who are watching with concern. As the buffalo nearly surround them, most of the lions take up defensive positions leaving only a couple to deal with the calf.
Closer and closer inches the herd until one cow charges and heaves a lion into the air with its massive head and horns. The other lions become intimidated and begin to look for an escape. One by one, they race along the lakeside to the open field with a buffalo in hot pursuit. Incredibly, at this point the calf rises to its feet and moves to the herd which closes around it protectively.
What lessons can the church possibly learn from this African wilderness scene? The Bible speaks metaphorically when Peter writes, “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8, NIV). But the message is clear.
A casual or careless or even reckless approach to our spiritual welfare can lead to trouble. By ignoring the dangers around us, we can become vulnerable to powerful forces that feed on our souls, so to speak. These dangers lurk unseen while we inch our way along, adopting the mores and sometimes even the morals of contemporary society. Before we realize what is happening, we have been caught in the vice-like jaws of the metaphorical lion. Corrupted morals and character corrosion often result, leaving us to deal with their unpleasant and heartbreaking byproducts—addictions, violence, and crime are just a few.
And, while some of our church herd are falling prey, where is the church? Too often the church has not been moving even slowly back to rescue our own fallen. Instead, we have sometimes become fixed in opposing and judging our own for falling victim to the evil that ensnares them. The mantra of the judgmental, contemporary church has too often become, “We told you!”
But the lions also attack those outside the church. While some un-churched people seem to be self-sufficient with no need of being rescued, others are being gnawed to pieces by forces and impulses beyond their control. This group knows it needs help and is often receptive to ministry.
Too often, the church herd remains within our walled fortress, unaware of the needs that exist just outside our doors. Perhaps church members are preoccupied with meetings. Or maybe we are enjoying worship that brings us meaning. Perhaps we even regret that people living nearby no longer attend. Our herd may even believe that outsiders are just too hard-hearted, have little concern for spiritual matters, or are unwilling to adapt to our long-held worship traditions.
To authentically be the church of Jesus Christ, we need to see needs within and around us and strive to meet them. We need to consider our worship to be a celebration of what God has empowered us to accomplish in the jungle rather than as a perfectly executed performance. Jesus calls us to “rescue the perishing and care for the dying. Snatch them, in pity, from sin and the grave.” He commissions us to “weep o’er the erring ones, lift up the fallen.” We are to “tell them of Jesus the mighty to save!” When the church herd hears and heeds our calling, our worship will become an outpouring of praise rather than a perfectly choreographed experience.
Every congregation needs leaders who see the primary work of the church as seeking persons who are being mauled by life’s forces and their own bad choices. A couple sitting under a beach umbrella sipping piña coladas may not sense their spiritual danger and will perhaps scoff at the notion that they need to be redeemed. But a man or woman being eaten alive by guilt or drowning in self-doubts or being crushed by financial woes may actually be aware they need to be saved. For instance, people enslaved by human trafficking or those who have sacrificed homes, families, and jobs on the altar of substance abuse usually identify their need to escape from the lions.
But the church too often seeks people who will help the institution. Our church herd works hard to attract members who will minister to us, not vice versa. We often lack the money and the motivation to move toward the hurting and pry them loose from the lions who pin them down. What church could possibly help with all the needs around it?
Another story comes to mind. This one is about the boy who saw hundreds of stranded starfish on a beach following a particularly fierce storm. A man chided the boy for wasting his efforts in throwing them back into the ocean since the boy could not possibly rescue them all. But the boy held up a single starfish. “I can rescue this one,” he said as he returned it to the sea.
Attacking life’s lions to rescue our prey is a scary proposition. But such an endeavor has never depended on an abundance of our resources. Instead, it has always depended on the presence and power of God’s spirit and upon the willingness of the church herd to follow the call. What we need are spiritual leaders who will interpret the mission, rally the herd, organize rescue parties, and reclaim struggling calves for Christ. The new front doors to our churches may be a recovery group!
Jim White ([email protected]) is executive editor of the Religious Herald.