One of the most important decisions you make as a leader is this: who are you going to offend? You're going to offend somebody. I promise you that. In the immortal words of Abraham Lincoln: "You can please some of the people all of the time, all of the people some of the time, but you can't please all of the people all of the time." You will offend someone. The only question is who.
I wonder if we try to appease the people Jesus offended. Jesus offended self-righteous Pharisees. We ought to follow-suit. If you want to reach the unchurched you're probably going to have to offend some Pharisees along the way. Why? Because Pharisees find lepers and prostitutes and tax collectors offensive. So who are you going to offend? All I know is this: Jesus reached out to the people the Pharisees found offensive! And offended them in the process.
Thou shalt offend pharisees.
I wonder if we try to appease the people Jesus offended. Jesus offended self-righteous Pharisees. We ought to follow-suit. If you want to reach the unchurched you're probably going to have to offend some Pharisees along the way. Why? Because Pharisees find lepers and prostitutes and tax collectors offensive. So who are you going to offend? All I know is this: Jesus reached out to the people the Pharisees found offensive! And offended them in the process.
Thou shalt offend pharisees.
8 Comments:
I like that. The very ones who need Jesus are overlooked and ignored because of somebody who has an agenda. It amazes me how some can totally dismiss and excluded the very ones in society that Jesus would have helped and embraced.
Excellent word, Mark! But I have found that offending Pharisees isn't that hard... they are soooo easily offended :-)
Mark, I love it. Lately I've just been reading through the Gospels and this truth just jumped off the page! I completely agree that most of the time we try to keep the Pharisees happy while hurting those that really need help. Question though: How do we show the Pharisees that they are Pharisees? Is that even our job?
Man i needed to read this today.
As someone who often feels like a Pharisee, I'm highly offended.
In other words, great post. Thanks for calling out some thought-provoking ideas.
Thanks, Mark! I needed to hear this today. We are governed so often by the way we have done things in the past, and not offending the ghosts in the membership.
Personally, every time I get offended or defensive about my faith, I later realize that it's my religious ego reacting, not love.
At the risk of offending everyone who reads this, we are ALL pharisees in one way or another, offended in proportion to our lack of Grace.
Jesus, I would offer, was offended by religion and would probably be railing against well over 2/3 of today's christendom.
Great post, Mark. I agree with your thoughts, but to be honest, I'm growing tired of people using the word "pharisee" without giving clear definition of who that is in today's culture. Could you help define this a bit? Are they fundamentalists? Right-wing Republicans? Grumpy church-goers? Anyone who disagrees with pastors?
I think there needs to be some clarification, otherwise, people may use "offensiveness" in destructive ways in order of doing what they want. Thanks for your ministry...it's doing a great work even here in Seattle!
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