This past week I enjoyed an annual golf outing with some old friends from college. For the past thirteen years we have gathered somewhere in the U.S. We laugh, eat, drink, and yes, play some golf. Riding with my buddy Henry on the way to the course, he turned on his stereo and simply said, “Listen.” A track from Sons of Anarchy blew through the car, a cover of the Bob Dylan/Johnny Cash song “Girl from the North Country.” Maybe you’ve heard it, but The Lions had my attention.
Whatever you think of the original, or the cover, I have shared that song, in the past 24 hours since arriving back home, with a multitude of friends and family. I have evangelized on the internet from my house. The impact and enjoyment I found from this song is something I immediately wanted to share with others. No arm twisting. They didn’t plead with me to pass it along. No, my soul was bursting and overflowing.
It led me back to thoughts I’ve had regarding the typical approach to evangelism in our churches. Pointing to their/our mission statement of The Great Commission (side note: is there any church anywhere that doesn’t have this as their mission statement?), ministers wield the call to share the gospel with others as yet another law for us to obey. Perhaps your experience has been different. But in the myriad of churches of various denominations of which I have been part, it has always been the same. “Please invite your neighbor/friend/unsaved relative to church!”
Of course, it’s usually the last thing I want to do. Why? Maybe my experience hasn’t resulted in my soul bursting and overflowing–predominantly that is true. It’s more reminiscent of the Emperor’s New Clothes. We convince each other that what we have at church is good news. But isn’t it odd that we have to be persuaded to share it?
This might be a stretch, but it’s something that has been rolling around in my noggin for a while: perhaps the Great Commission wasn’t actually a commission. The disciples had lived with Jesus for three years or so and primarily heard him tell people, “Don’t tell anybody what just happened to you.” Once he had accomplished his purposes on the cross and in the resurrection, maybe he was now simply telling them, “It’s okay. Go for it! You don’t have to keep it hidden any longer.” This certainly seems to align with what naturally happens when our lives are impacted by something so good we can’t help but share it.
And with that, here’s “Girl from the North Country,” of a different variety than the way you probably first heard it. Oh, and it’s best if you crank it up…
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Z3QDBsQTsQ&w=600]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9n83VFE83kM&w=600]
COMMENTS
7 responses to “Ministers from the North Country”
Leave a Reply
What an interesting idea. The Great Commission as simply letting the wraps off the Good News.
“Now you can tell.”
And – in many a mainline church, we best imitate the women who – “said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.” (Mark 16:8)
My next bit of pondering is to wonder at what it would take to have the people in my congregation be excited enough about who we are and what we proclaim and how we live and worship, that we might be a people who do invite others. (If they feel they have permission to.)
I’m not exactly sure what I mean by this rambling – but I ramble none-the-less.
Thanks for this nice reflection JMG.
I have been thinking about/struggling with something much the same. I don’t think I believe in “evangelism” any more – at least what we have created in the Evangelical world . It’s as though we are playing dress up but when we take off our costume we just go back to our “real” lives. Are we the fragrance and aroma of .Christ … Because He is the center … For real. Wouldn’t our lives be evangelism if we actually believed what we say is true and it oozed out of us? I’m rambling too but there’s got to be more ….
Thank you both for your thoughts on this. It really seems counter-intuitive that, if the good news is really good, why don’t we talk about it? Perhaps people are embarrassed and fear rejection. Predominantly though, I think it has more to do with the lack of a real encounter with God’s grace which takes looking at ourselves without masks and make-up. And Phil, it sounds like you are an ordained minister. For what it’s worth, so am I.
I am hearing and agreeing with you on not encountering God’s Grace but I wonder if it runs even deeper. Sometimes it seems in our religious and evangelical cultures that we “do” Christianity more than we actually ARE Christians. Even though we love to preach against moralism, we still LOVE our systems and set of rules and programs we can check off our to-do list rather than the deepest part of our beings being that our “lives are hidden with Christ in God,” that we “have the mind of Christ” so that the love of God oozes out without is having to do a task or get up the courage to “evangelize.” Taking the masks off would be a good start. Oh btw my husband is an ordained minister. After 13 years in “formal” ministry … My thoughts about what “ministry ” means have drastically changed.
Agreed Lynn.
I believe the “doing” versus “being” question to be key. If we are having our eyes opened to the truth of God actually delighting in us, and learning to live life loved; then simply in our “being” there is a tangible peace and joy displayed.
I so identify with the connection between the resonance I have with a song (or show, or movie, or commerical) I’ve just discovered and the desire to RUN to share it with others.
I do it often enough that my friends and family just kind of “put up with it”” now.
Whatever the song or medium is, It’s always something that I find beautiful, or life giving, or redemptive, or a picture of grace, or transcendent and nuanced…….i.e. “Gospelesque”
The wonderful notion that I would be so captivated with Gospel-good-news that I would want to run to tell everyone this same way is compelling.
In reality, I think we’re sharing the good news of the Gospel when we’re doing any of the above, we just need to not be afraid to suggest that the beauty we are resonating with resides outside of ourselves, and perhaps, in a person who’s knowable….and just let that percolate a bit.
BTW – thanks for the SOA reference! I know it’s not much more than a motor-cycle-gang-soap-opera-on-steroids, but it’s also consistently the most entertaining show I watch.