Testimony
One of the Hope House guys got up to do the reading from 1 Samuel; it was the story of David and Goliath. The reading was fairly monotone and definitely not expertly done, but there was still a power in it as the reader slowly thought out each phrase in the text. It was a slow and methodical build to a high point in the service: the testimony of Kristi “Sweetie” Brown.
Coach ascended the stage with Kristi and introduced her as someone who had slain giants in her own life. Kristi then talked about how, growing up, her parents had a black velvet painting of the devil in their house, and surrounding the devil in this painting were a syringe and a joint and a pair of dice and all sorts of other vices, and Kristi explained how that image haunted her as a child, and then later in life, she fell victim to many of those vices herself. She talked about her eight-year struggle with substance abuse and how she had even been forced to give up some of her children because of it-- children with whom she was just now becoming reacquainted. She had been clean for fourteen years now, but she realized that the main problems in her life were not the drugs themselves, but the things from which the drugs provided an escape. She realized that the real problems were in her way of thinking and that getting clean didn’t make those problems go away, but it did make them a little clearer and a little easier to address. She explained that some mistakes take entire lifetimes to correct, but that, above all else, as the scripture for the day proclaimed, the battle belongs to the Lord, and we have to turn our burdens over to God. It was a powerful story and fit very well with today’s message.
As the congregation sang “What a Mighty God We Serve,” the children (including Lil Spidey) departed for children’s church, and Coach ascended the stage once more. It was time for the sermon.
Overcoming Our Giants
After offering another prayer of thanksgiving for Kristi and her story, Coach launched into his sermon. Keeping a pair of reading glasses stowed safely atop his head, Coach was clad in jeans, an untucked short-sleeve dress shirt, and a pair of brown dress shoes. He paced about the stage, making sure to make eye contact with everyone around the gym and referring occasionally to notes on the screens on either side of the room (which, sadly, I was sitting in the worst possible seat to view). Coach’s tenor voice was being picked up by a headset microphone, but with his volume --which corresponded to his nickname quite well--, I found myself wondering if the extra amplification was even necessary. In his left hand was a nice, leather-bound Bible; in his right was a metallic-looking controller for the powerpoint on the screens, and with the exception of the notes visible to all of us, Coach was speaking extemporaneously.
Over the past week, the church had been engaging in SSSPP (vocalized as “triple-s two-p”), which stood for solitude, silence, scripture, putting it in writing, and prayer-- all of which were methods that Coach hoped would help the congregation spend just thirty minutes a day with God throughout the week. Coach appealed to a few Scriptures to excite the congregation a bit, including a recitation of Joshua 24:15,
Now if you are unwilling to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served in the region beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.
Coach repeated the last line a few times at rising volume to amens and clapping, and when the congregation gave this response, Coach commented, “We’re prayed up right now!” After a week of reflection and prayer, it appeared that the congregation were in a very spiritual zone, and Coach informed us that God was going to work in our hearts today, after which he launched into a retelling of the David and Goliath story.
Coach started by talking about the sheer size of Goliath, who, according to scripture, stood nine and a half feet tall-- two feet above even Yao Ming. Coach pointed to the basketball goals around the room and explained that Goliath would have come in just below these nets and would barely have to reach in order to dunk. Coach’s speech patterns were moving in impressive cadences as he described Goliath pacing around the battlefield and blaspheming against God, and he was generating pieces of talkback here and there in the gym. I was relieved by this; I could finally talk during a sermon again! Coach talked about how Goliath’s coat of scale armor weighed 125 pounds, and this was probably what David himself weighed, if not more. But what about David? How did this scrawny little guy get on the battlefield anyway?
Coach revisited the story of David’s anointing by Samuel and talked about David’s outrageous courage. When David walks to the battlefield to deliver food, he becomes angry when he hears Goliath blaspheming, and his response is to say, “Alright, Israelites, let’s go get him!” Of course, people begin putting David down at this point and telling him that he can’t do it, but we all know how that story ends. David and Goliath is a classic story that even folks outside the church are usually familiar with due to its significance as a cultural meme; we hear struggles around the world getting compared to David and Goliath all the time. Coach even mentioned a little kid coming up to him after the morning sermon and saying, “I saw that on VeggieTales!” This produced laughter, especially from me. Coach then emphasized that what really matters most in this story is the heroism David displayed, and it was to this topic that Coach devoted the rest of his sermon.
How did David win this fight? Well, for starters, David faced Goliath. After all, you can’t defeat an enemy without first facing it. David relied on his experience. Even though he was “young, dumb, and full of bubblegum” (as Coach put it), David had faced many dangers while serving as a shepherd. David had God’s blessing while Goliath did not. The text says that Goliath was uncircumcised, meaning that God’s covenant did not extend to him. David, on the other hand, was a child of God, and it was from God that David’s power flowed. It is God who changes lives and makes victories, not David and not us.
Coach talked about the humorous image of Saul dressing David in his armor and explained how David removed the armor and stayed true to himself. He didn’t go into battle bearing Saul’s image, but God’s. He didn’t rely on Saul’s sword, but on a set of stones from God’s earth. Coach put a picture up on screen of the Valley of Elah and showed a visual aid: a stone that he had picked up from that valley during his travels in the Holy Land. David knew that the sword was not his way; he used a sling and some stones instead. We can’t go into battle using someone else’s weapons, just as we can’t solve our problems with anyone’s skills except our own. We have to be ourselves and use our own gifts when confronting the giants in our lives.
As he continued to move through the passage, Coach also reminded us that the battle is the Lord’s and not ours. As Kristi’s testimony earlier showed, faith in Christ can help us overcome the obstacles in our lives. Coach called on a popular example: trying to break a bad habit, and he made the church crack up with the hypothetical example of trying break off an affair. “Yeah, if you try to do it without God and rely on yourself, then you make amends with your spouse and say everything’s okay and that you’ll have the will power to work it out, but then three days later, you’re picking up the phone again and saying, ‘Hey, baby!’ Yeah, it doesn’t work. It has to be Christ, not you!” David runs right at Goliath, and he does so in God’s name. We all have giants in our lives, but God helps us face them head-on. In Coach’s words, “Oh man, God is something!”
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| John Perkins |
At this point, Coach referenced an author and thinker that I keep wanting to read: John Perkins, one of the most respected figures in the field of Christian community development. Coach gave a little bit of background, telling the story of how, in 1970, Perkins was pulled over in Brandon, MS, by white sheriffs without clear reason. He was jailed and brutally beaten, tortured all night with repeated kicks and punches to the face, stomach, and even groin. It was a beating from which Perkins’s digestive system never fully recovered, and he still feels the effects of it even today. As Perkins lay in that cell, he vowed that, if he lived through the incident, he would do everything in his power to combat racism. He survived and became a great reconciler, working to form intentional Christian communities in the South. Perkins’s work is one of the main foundations of the Christian Community Development Association, and he and Coach are close friends. Every Sunday morning, Perkins calls Coach so that they can discuss what they’ll be preaching, and this morning, Coach decided to ask Perkins what his biggest giants had been. Perkins responded, “Money, sex, and power-- same as any man.” Coach was a little caught off guard by this. “You know, I was really expecting you to say racism or economic injustice or some bigger social thing.” “Nope. Money, sex, and power.” Just goes to show that there are some obstacles that we all face.
Coach asked the congregation: “What’s the giant in your life?” He asked that we take a minute to think about it, name it, and, if we so desired, write it down.
Our giants may seem insurmountable, but Coach described a three-step process to overcome them, and it’s the same process that David used to defeat Goliath:
1- Get in the battle.
2- Be yourself.
3- Rely on God.
We all have giants. Coach pointed to the example of the Hope House guys, who proudly wear their shirts to church as if to say, “Yeah, we have problems, but we’re here anyway!” We should own up to our problems rather than walking around the world with a plastic smile like everything is alright when we’re really about to explode on the inside. “Plastic smile” was Coach’s expression that I’m totally stealing for later, and I think it’s a great rebuttal against Joel Osteen’s idea of needing to have a positive attitude to win God’s favor. Rather than constantly forcing yourself to wear a plastic smile and maintain a chipper demeanor, it’s better to be honest about the problems in your life so that your community and your God can lift you up, but I digress.
Coach pulled a small stone from his pocket and explained that he had procured it in the same valley as the larger rock he had shown earlier. The stone was the same tan color, but it was worn smooth from constant rubbing. Coach explained that he often reaches into his pocket to rub it for reassurance whenever he’s about to “go into battle,” and he uses it as a reminder that he works for God and carries a stone rather than a sword. Coach launched into an example about his regular meetings with Mayor Daley, but at this point, something distracted me. As coach talked about praying for the mayor, the woman in the chartreuse suit next to me clicked on her Bluetooth earpiece. She didn’t even bother to lower her voice as she said, “Yeah, I’m still in church. . . . Uh huh. . . . No, Coach is still preaching, but he’s almost done. I’ll be home in a little while. . . . Uh huh, no, he’s doing good. Good message. . . . Overcoming out giants. . . . Uh huh. . . . Yeah, we can do that for lunch. . . . Uh huh. . . .” Ugh. You’re killing me, lady. I gave her a look as if to say “For real?” but she brushed it off and kept talking without so much as an apologetic shrug. Everyone else just tuned her out, but given where our seats were, I had a very hard time accomplishing that. Whatever Coach’s example about Mayor Daley had been, I’m sure it was good, but I completely missed it thanks to this woman’s talking in my ear, so let’s review:
People talking back to the sermon = awesome and deeply spiritual.
Kids cutting up in church = funny and kind of adorable.
Woman talking on cell phone = annoying and disruptive.
Yes, I have a double standard, but I figure the kids at least have an excuse due to their youth, and the talking back very much enhances the sermon and fuels the pastor. This woman was just being rude though, and my innate Southern sense of etiquette was having a minor conniption. Every pastor knows that there are certain interruptions that can’t be avoided --crying babies, medical emergencies, forgetting to silence a ringtone, etc.-- but a phone call right as the sermon is reaching its culmination? Arg. She wrapped up her conversation just in time for me to hear coach’s conclusion.
God will not test us beyond what we can endure, and God gives us the tools to face our giants. Whatever God asks us to do, we have the ability to do it! As 1 Corinthians tells us,
No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it. (1 Corinthians 10:13)
You’ve got what it takes to face your giants, so rely on God for strength, and work hard at it, and there is no problem in your life that you can’t handle. Just remember: the battle belongs not to us, but to God.
Given the struggles with poverty and addiction in that room, it was very much a sermon for Lawndale, and yet, it had wider-reaching applications, and I felt like people out in the suburbs could have learned just as much. It was a very practical sermon, built on a careful, allegorical reading of David and Goliath. Overall, I liked it, and I found it pretty useful-- a fitting end to my time in Chicago even if I missed out on one of the illustrations.
Coach dismissed us with prayer, and the musicians played as we departed.
My Giant-- An Introspective Moment
When Coach asked us to think about our giants, I had a pretty major one jump to mind immediately: ambition. I love the community of Lawndale, and I love what that church is doing in Chicago’s Westside, and I really want to emulate it somewhere and be a part of spreading that mentality of Christian community development. Still, I worry about my motivation sometimes. Do I want to be a part of a system like that so that I can point to God’s success or so that I can point to my success? Am I doing it out of a desire to lift people up and be a servant of God’s kingdom, or am I just looking to have my contributions remembered after I kick the bucket? Do I want to help a church make a difference in people’s lives, or do I just want to get in on “the good old days” of a church before it dries up and stops growing? What’s my real intention in wanting to help plant a church in a depressed area? Is it to serve God or to serve my ego? Do I love God so much that I can still love a church member who talks on a cell phone during a sermon, or am I just looking for a church that will produce a series of Hallmark Moments and give me the warm-and-fuzzies when I come home from work each day?
Am I just in it to feel like I’ve accomplished something? To merit some sort of cosmic pat on the back? To feel like “I done good”? Has the generational desire to “make a difference” really permeated my soul that deeply?
As I moved through the receiving line, I wanted to ask Coach about all this because my gut tells me that it’s something he’s had to wrestle with as well. I started formulating my question in my head, “Coach, how do you have the desire to make a difference and yet still be a humble servant? How do you check your ambition and still do great things in a community with God’s help? How can I dream big without brushing over all the beautiful, little things that God puts in our lives?” As I got to Coach and shook his hand, I realized that this wasn’t the time or the place for that line of questioning, and, as great a guy as Coach is, he couldn’t just give me all the answers I wanted. I thanked him for the excellent sermon and headed to my car. In his sermon, Coach had told us to acknowledge and confront our giants, to use our gifts and strengths accordingly, and to rely always on God. That sounds like a good place to start.
So long, Lawndale. So long, Chicago.
My Methodist friends would know better, but I think the John Wesley quote is “Preach faith until you have it.” C.S. Lewis said something similar when he talked about it being better to do the right thing even if for the wrong reason. Maybe instead of having dreams about trying to plant a church like Lawndale right out of seminary, a better approach would be to go out and help people through an existing church and get to know a community and see where that takes me. Step one is really just to find my Calcutta, to find the place that I feel called to serve, not to make a list of things I want to see in a church.
Sure, I’m gaining a lot from these communities this summer. I’m having amazing worship experiences and learning at the feet of some great Christians (both the ones in the pulpit and the ones in the pews). Still, even though the thought definitely crossed my mind early on, I’m not just approaching this summer as a chance to compile a to-do list for a church plant. I’m taking note of a lot of things, but I’m not consciously sitting here designing my dream church. I’m learning what the church in America already looks like and how it already ministers to the community outside its walls.
Of course, in the process, I’m learning a good bit about myself too. So now the question on my mind is:
Where can I serve?
Next stop: St. Louis, and then it's on to Memphis.
Peace and Blessings,
Tom
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