A Church That Is Willing To Take Risks

I have felt led, during this particular season, to encourage each member of our church toward a life of bearing witness to Christ. As a result, I have begun a series from 2 Timothy titled Passing On The Faith. It is impossible today (as it has been impossible over the last 2000 years) to share your Christian faith without putting yourself at risk. Someone might get offended. Someone else might misunderstand. Your attempt to share might be seen as arrogant, inappropriate or unwelcome. In some circles, sharing the Christian faith might be called "hate speech."

John Wimber, the founder of the Vineyard Movement, of which we are a part, said for years, "God spells faith R-I-S-K." There is no way to be a follower of Christ other than to take risks. We do not share our faith because we are guaranteed success. It is perfectly fine; indeed, it is entirely Christian for us to attempt a grand and glorious thing, even if it turns out to be a dismal failure.

Several years ago I read a biography of Teddy Roosevelt, the American President at the turn of the 20th century. Roosevelt had a life philosophy in which he summoned men and women to what he described as "the strenuous life." Some of Roosevelt's statements perfectly apply to the risk required of Christians in sharing their faith. Roosevelt stated:

"A life of ignoble ease, a life of that peace which springs merely from lack either of desire or a power to strive after great things is as little worthy of a nation as of an individual. Who among you would teach your boys that ease, that peace, is to be the first consideration or the ultimate goal after which they strive? We do not admire the man of timid peace. We admire the man who embodies victorious effort, the man who never wrongs his neighbor, who is prompt to help a friend, but who has those virile qualities necessary to win in the stern strife of actual life. It is hard to fail, but it worse never to have tried to succeed. In this life we get nothing save by effort. Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered occasionally by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat."

He finished his talk this way:

"...I preach to you then, my countrymen, that our country calls not for the life of ease, but for the life of strenuous endeavor. Above all, let us shrink from no strife, moral or physical, within or without the nation, provided we are certain the strife is justified. For it is only through strife and through risk, through hard and dangerous endeavor that we shall ultimately win the goal of true national greatness."

The church that takes risks is a church that God can use. The individual, who takes risks, is an individual God can use. Brothers and sisters, wouldn't you rather spend your life being filled with the joy of heaven when the Father recovers his lost children, rather than playing it safe, aiming at security, and missing the great adventure? It is scary to share your faith. But the Christian faith is only fun when it's scary. Faith is spelled R-I-S-K.