Attraction Not Promotion

In the 5th chapter of John's gospel you remember the story about the the pool called Bethesda in Jerusalem where throngs of sick people waited around the pool for God to send an angel and stir the water. The first person in the pool once this happened was healed.

I was thinking about a modern day equivalent of this sovereign move of God's healing mercy. My thoughts went to the years I spent as a pharmaceutical salesman walking through the waiting rooms of hospitals and clinics, including our own Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. There people from all over the world came for a healing touch from great doctors and surgeons.

As an outreach pastor, a good deal of my time and energy goes into building the image in the community for our church. We appeal to the business and civic community through service projects and serve our local schools as tutors. We design special ministry to attract youth and provide hunger relief with food drives. This is good and necessary, but not the ultimate solution.

I am a very practical thinker, but when God begins to move through miraculous healings like the pool at Bethesda our outreach ministries will be quite different. Sick will be waiting in the lobbies of our churches 24 hours a day. The church parking lot will be jammed with ambulances. Clinics will call you because they have immediate openings. Pharmacies will slash their prices because of over supply of medications.

The reputation and image of the local church will change dramatically. We will scurry to keep up with the demand, not wait for the community to visit our Sunday service. Sick people will see that health care is no longer the property of doctors and Washington lawmakers but a product of the Great Physician.

When our prayer brings God's healing flow, like the pool at Bethesda, our houses of worship will no longer require promotion, the gospel will again become attractive.