Doug Rea

Recidivism is a very common occurrence in the prison system. I learned the term and the concept from Fonta High, our lead counselor at Connections.  According to Merriam-Webster.com recidivism is "a tendency to relapse into a previous condition or mode of behavior; especially : relapse into criminal behavior" 

Do you ever do the wrong thing over and over again?

The Apostle Paul did as well, (see Romans 7).   Frankly, I was somewhat glad to see that I am not alone in the world and that others have daily issues to deal with. No wonder Paul said, "I die DAILY."  I began to pray about this matter, I asked the Lord to show me in His word a way to defeat this particular enemy. Was I going to be bound for ever? Is it true that once a sinner always a sinner - that the old dog can't learn new trick?  Is the leapord doomed to never change his spots?  

So how do we break these patterns and cycles of behavior?
I believe that in Acts 9, the well known conversion chapter of Paul, may just have  the key.

GET A NEW LANGUAGE 
The first thing that Paul needed was to stop saying about Christians what he ha been saying and learn what God wanted him to say. No longer was he breathing threats but rather he was saying to The Lord, "What will you have me do." Notice the total surrender that was flowing from his heart. Later Paul would address the use of our words in a number of places in writings. I have a daughter who is mastering weight and health issues. She is using a well known program that may be against this site's policy to mention by name - so I will refrain. But in that program I noticed some distinct patterns of behavior that had to be changed before the shackles would fall and a new language is part of it. I know when the cults get a hold of a new convert they quickly teach them what to say and what NOT to say in a given situation. Either way we know that there is a power to using the correct "language". My daughter uses new terminology now then what she did before she lost so much weight. Where she would have said, "pass the potatoes", she now asks, "How were these prepared?" The bible speaks much about the words we use. To get ourselves free from doing the same old thing over and over again we must first have a new language starting with, "What will you have me do?"

GET A NEW COMMUNITY
Paul's old friends' sought to kill him! At the same time, the new friends were lowering him over the wall, in a basket at night. A NEW COMMUNITY! We are fools to think that we can hang around the same ole crowd and still change for the better. I am not saying converse only with Christians. That violates what Jesus said, "Father, don't take them out of the world." The bible also says to be in the world but not of the world. How will they know unless we are in the world - shining brightly? Support groups are essential in most every addict recovery situation. We must find people that are in the place where we want to be and do what they do. Want to be broke all your life? Find broke people and do what they do. Want financial stability? Find those people and mimic the principles that they operate by. It will work because God is no respecter of persons. A new community is an essential part of breaking recidivism.

GET A NEW MENTOR
I wrote on this a little at the end of the last paragraph. Paul went to all the best schools and was no doubt exposed to the greatest minds of his day. But he was taught wrong. His first new mentor was a guy by the name of Ananias. Dear friend, I am sorry to say this but as much as you love your mom and dad...you had better ask your self if everything they taught you was correct and aligned with what The Lord says. Who is teaching you about morals and of the value of life? Is it your favorite political party? Do you get your information from you friends or what is heard on the news? Ask the Lord to send people into your life to help you deal with a specific issue that seems to always get the best of you. I know the world of sociology and psychiatry would like to take credit for solving recidivism. As we can see, though, it was God's word that had the answer all along.

How then to we change those patterns that seemed to be rooted deep in our minds? 

1) Learn a new language, a biblical language, say what God says. After all, that is the real meaning of the word "confess"

2) Find a new community - go to church if you don't already. Take a class for the local community college or attend a seminar. Don't go after this alone. The body of Christ joins together in such a way that each part supplies the other. I didn't say this - the bible did. Find a support group if you must. Most of all, stay away form those who will take you down that some old path of destruction. Be friendly but let no one into your inner circle that can't help you to grow.

3) Then of course - get a mentor. Timothy had Paul. I have several - an overseer for church matters, a spiritual father to help me with life and family, a business man to help me in that area, and my daughter is teaching me healthy eating and exercise habits.

What do you think?

How wonderful to start a church in a home or similar small space.  We were all so excited to simply have people gathering in a family environment.  Their opinions mattered, and their needs were met.  The tiny congregation felt at home with the leaders, and with each other.  There was no event, no performance, no dress codes (that includes casual) and no rules. True connectivity took place between people and leadership, with each other and with God.

But the whole time this wonderful ministry was functioning, it wasn’t complete…at least not in our minds.  We in leadership had a driving agenda.  We did not hide it. In fact we promoted it to the forefront.  We leaders let them know that these meager beginnings were only a start. “Someday we will look back on this as laugh.”

For centuries, ministry was about the building; The “House of God,” and dare we defile it.  The church building was the holy sanctuary of the Christian faith.  There we could once again have our sins resolved, our offering taken, our songs sung, and our service to God performed. (Sound familiar?)

Even as late as the 20th century, ministry successs was defined by the facility.  How many it could hold, family life centers, and coffee shops redefined what the church has become.  Now we had praise teams, choruses and projected our words using the overhead.  Finally we come to today. How silly to wear a 3 piece suite like the 80’s and to use hymnals. Now we can now relate the message to people in a manner that is relevant thanks to video, iPhones, Facebook, Twitter, podcasts, blogs, and other means of modern communication.  I am pro-use of all these things.

But I have to ask, “Has anything really changed since the Gothic days of cathedrals?”

I am speaking of those days where a certain pattern of behavior known as worship was performed each and every Sunday, by a few trained professionals, to an audience who was basically spectators.

I submit little has changed.

Just as in the days of old, the pinnacle of ministry is about a facility and not a people.  The defining moment in the life of a church is more often the first service in the new building than it is how the people meeting the needs of one another.

Think I don’t “get it?” If your organization will be honest, you are probably praying that the Lord will “bless you” with the right facility…and for the right leaders, to form the right ministries, to attract the right people, to the facility.  Any of that sound familiar? I commonly hear comments like, “If we can get a good worship leader” or “If we can ever get our sign up” – or whatever, it still speaks about a facility and not people.

Nothing has changed.

“For most” (my disclaimer), we will have “arrived” once the building is complete, the trained people in place, and some 80-90% of all income goes into making the facility go.  Of course we have to have a pastor who writes, has a couple thousand Twitter followers, and a moderately priced hair cut…and an iPhone.

I think there is a better model than that of a weekly pep rally with forced energy and a good media promotion and production.

It’s deep but here it is:

Ministry is about people – period.

We tell people to come to this building, act a certain way, sing a certain song, and “go do ministry.”  Then we have the audacity to call it a “service” to God, and wonder why they aren’t “getting it.” I can sit a group of people in a room and show them a golf club, have Tiger come in and speak to its physics and strategies, but that won’t make them golfers.  How are we really equipping them?  We are not.  We are simply providing a Christian education.  No real ministry, for the most part, is taking place in what we call “church.”

Where would we be without our facility?  Would the Church, His Body, know how to feed the hungry without a “feed the hungry day?”  Would we even HAVE a facility if we had to pay taxes on the property?  Could the people worship without a worship team?  Can the worship team worship without the team?

Here’s what I ask myself: “am I preparing a bride for her wedding day or am I building a church?”  I would say that more of the latter is true in most so-called ministries.

I can’t think of any other non-for-profit organizations that only give away 10-20% of their income.  Look at the local shelters in your area.  They would NEVER consider buying or building anything that didn’t speak to the immediate needs of people.  Our local Goodwill will gladly receive the old stuff from your church in an attempt to minister by giving jobs to a certain group of people.  Who’s got ministry figured out in that illustration?

There was a time, early in most of our ministries, where we would have honored to take a semi-working sound system, decent chairs, and a workable seating arrangement.  Now we have made ministry NOT about people first, but the facility housing that Sunday event, hoping to get “some saved.”  This model is nowhere in the New Testament.  We made it up.

As I see it, nothing has changed since our Gothic roots.  We have it arranged differently, using a 21st century flair.  But most of everything we do will be more about creating masses of spectators as opposed to truly connecting with people and meeting them at their needs.

I know what you are thinking – we have small groups for that.  I would argue that if small groups are so great, get rid of all the overhead of the facility and go 100% small groups giving the rest to the poor.

We use terms like “every member in ministry.”  What we really mean is that our goal is to have as many as possible working as a volunteer to feed the needs of the facility so we can bring in more people to the facility.  The cycle never ends.

To our benefit – we are getting better…but not by much.  We are not much different than our fathers before us with the exception that we do it in Prada.

I am not impressed by anything ministry has to offer except one thing – “How have you equipped the Bride of Christ to minister to the world around them?”  The rest is rather irrelevant man-made religious efforts to impress God.