Lessons from The Tuesday Kitchen - Lesson 2

Know your agenda.

There is a common phrase around mission thinking that we should serve as Christ would serve - without an agenda. This is not true, or at least it is not a true representation of Christ-centred mission. The message of being agenda-less is made in response to those who live with an agenda but do not make it explicit.

In the days when IBM was the most important conglomoration in the world a friend of mine, who worked in a company who was an important customer of theirs, saw the diary entries for his visit to an IBM establishment. This was highly confidential information and he should not have seen it but on the computer screen he saw two entries: one was entitled 'Reason for Visit' and the other was entitled 'IBM Reason for visit'. In other words, my friend wanted to discuss something but IBM had their own, hidden agenda, which was usually about selling something.

The church is often guilty of the same thing. We offer a service to people in order to get them into church. That is fine if people know the purpose is made explicit but it cannot be truthful if hidden. An example - running a kids club labelled 'Fun Club', you tell parents and children that there will be songs, games, etc but then you eventually sneak in prayers, Christian messages and invitations to Sunday school. The proper thing would be to advertise it as 'Fun Club run on Christian principles' and be up front with what you are going to do. Or keep it Fun and omit the evangelistic element. Or "yes you can come to our soup kitchen if you come to our meetings"!

I used to be in that camp. Go back over 5 years and I would say that the purpose of a feeding programme would be to get people to have an encounter with Christ. If it did not meet that objective after, say, 5 years it should be closed as unproductive. But I don't think like that any more because I have looked at the life and teaching of Jesus afresh.

Luke 14: 11- 14. Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, "Jesus, Master, have pity on us!" When he saw them, he said, "Go, show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they were cleansed.

What is clear is that Jesus did not look at the 10 and say "If I heal these people maybe some of them will become my followers." He healed them because they were sick. Therefore we feed, or clothe or heal people because they are hungry or naked or sick - not because we want to get them into church. It is not that we have no agenda but that our agenda is to follow Jesus and do what he would do. Actually it becomes a bit more compelling for us...

Matthew 26: 34-36. "Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'

To follow Jesus is to take his agenda into our lives. I am not saying that I don't think that those who we minister to will not come into the knowledge of Christ. During the months that we have been we have not been short of conversations about God with our friends. Some have come to church, others have listened to what we believe about Jesus, others have simply enjoyed a bit of peace and friendship that a Christian community can give.

Salvation is on the agenda. It is not about their salvation but about ours.