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Neatness and Order
May 7, 06:32 PM
“News about Him spread all over Syria and people brought to Him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and all the paralyzed, and He healed them.” ~Matthew 4:24
Jesus’ church was a mess. There is no way you can have that kind of crowd and not be messy. Demonic manifestation and seizures are not normally neat and orderly. Illness, disease, and pain are rarely tidy and clean. Neat freaks and control junkies would not fare well in Jesus’ church.
I have noticed that in most of the leadership training one hears in North America, there is an emphasis on planning and order. Everything is done so well. There is process for everything. It is extremely well organized. Discipleship is organized into carefully orchestrated programs. Churches are run with the best corporate strategies and efficiency. Staff and finance are subject to the very best business practices. Planning is held as one of the hallmarks of the best people and organizations.
And who would argue against it? Who could possibly advocate that we do things in a haphazard, sloppy, inefficient manner?
Neat, orderly, and well orchestrated programs tend to attract people who want neat, orderly, well orchestrated programs. They rarely attract the diseased and suffering. Such organizations tend to attract and form people into their own likeness. They can produce well organized and orderly people but not necessarily whole people. Unfortunately, people have come to believe that order is the answer to the chaos of their lives when it is divine healing they really need. Even worse, we have tended to portray a good Christian as one who has it all together complete with perfect teeth and hair.
Order, neatness and structure are primarily North American concepts motivated by our incessant desire to control everything around us. Our houses are neat, our neighborhoods exquisitely manicured, our children carefully managed. We pass it off as the mark of a good Christian. We have taken our maniacal perfectionism and labeled it “God’s excellence.” We base it all in Scripture by asserting that God is not the author of chaos but of order.
There is no doubt that human beings can accomplish great things when they put their best organizational skills to work. It’s not all bad. No one wants to go back to the Stone Age. But the real power of God cannot work through us until we let go of some of our obsession with neatness and desire first and foremost that God use us as instruments of His healing.