Bar Ministry

A friend of mine recently received this story in email from his dad. He showed it to me and I liked it so...

I thought you might like this story, since you were (are) involved in the "bar ministry"!!

Love, Dad

I recently listed to Dr. Adrian Rogers' message entitled "The Dangers of Extremism" (which Art Rogers linked to here). Dr. Rogers (Adrian, not yet Art) does his usual masterful job of pointing our problems with those who ignore the plain text of Scripture in favor of their zealous going beyond it.

One statement he made, and I'm paraphrasing, had to do with looking into a cafe and seeing Jesus eating with a pimp and a drug pusher. Of course, he was updating the gospel's reference to Jesus being called a "friend of tax collectors and sinners." (Matthew 11:19)This reminded me of a story from my own ministry.

Several years ago, I had been frequenting the same local eating establishment in our community and befriended one of the waitresses there who was exceptional in her work. Each time I ate there I asked to be seated in her service area, and without even asking she always brought a glass of water with a lemon and a bowl of chips and salsa. I had several opportunities to speak with her about the things of God, to ask about prayer needs and, though I never was blessed to lead her to Christ, some seeds were planted.

Eventually I showed up to eat one day and asked to be seated in her service area. I was told, "Oh. She works over at the bar now. Do you want to sit there?" Shoot. My inner pharisee rose up and began to debate with the Spirit of God over what to do. Eventually I caved in to fears of reputation and sat in the regular part of the restaurant. But, my conviction allowed little enjoyment of my meal.

A week or so later while preaching, I told that story. In tears I shared with my congregation my sorrow over that decision and warned them that at a future point they might possibly see me seated at a bar if it gave me the opportunity to share the love of Christ. Following the service on of our faithful members came up to me and said, "Pastor, if you had done that 5 years ago, you might have sat down next to me. I think you ought to do it and not worry about what people think."

I've often considered what it means to be called a friend of sinners, tax collectors, prostitutes, gluttons, politicians and fools. It means that Christians have to do more than pray for them. It means that we have to more than not hate them. It means that we have to spend time with them. We have to get to know them. We have to laugh and tell stories with them. We have to enjoy their company. And they have to enjoy ours.What is the number one excuse people give for not living this kind of life? "I don't want to harm the reputation of Jesus by associating with people like that." DO WHAT!? In case you didn't notice, Jesus already has that reputation and it was well earned.

No wonder His favorite title for Himself was "the Son of Man." Jesus was a culture-chaser if ever there was one.This morning I was reading Romans 5:10, "For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life." [Emphasis obviously mine.] While thinking on this it dawned on me that I had always considered the term "His life" to refer to the resurrection. But, the resurrection did not instill any new character or deity to Christ. Even His glory was only temporarily hidden while on earth and was not "created" at His ascension, only "returned" to Him (John 17). This means, I think, that Jesus earthly life was not an aberration of action, only of location. How, precisely, would the Almighty God have lived if He had become a human being? To the very thought, breath and action just as Jesus Christ did. There was no differential.

Why then have we come to believe that isolation from sinners is Christlike, when, in fact, it is anti-Christlike. The reason we fear what "other believers" will think about us is because far too many Christians, like the Pharisees of old, have lost Jesus in His word, and we haven't taught the Jesus of the Word."You say you believe the Scripture? Well, these are they that testify of Me."What similar stories have you experienced and how did it turn out?