Messaging in Polarized Times

In these incredibly divisive, polarized times, pastors are having difficulty navigating these tricky waters.  

 

Nuanced critical thinking appears to be a lost art. Messaging has become more than challenging. 

Pastors, you have a very tough job.

This weekend I spoke at a church and was given specific texts to fit their current series, “Everyday Missionaries”—how God uses ordinary people to share extraordinary news.

The passage I was assigned was the “woman at the well” story in John 4.

I was happy to do that and identified five specific phases that Jesus walked this unnamed woman through, somewhat reflecting what I believe God does with each one of us. She’s so flabbergasted that she literally runs back to her village to tell everyone what happened, even exaggerating, “Come see a man who told me everything I ever did!”

She became a missionary because of her personal Jesus-encounter.

But the overarching theme is simply Jesus breaking down multiple barriers. I’m sure you’re acquainted with the reciprocal hatred Jews and Samaritans had for centuries.

After the Assyrians conquered the northern kingdom of Israel seven-hundred years before Jesus, they resettled foreigners in Samaria, eventually creating a mixed-race population. These Samaritans developed their own religion and version of the Hebrew bible. The animosity was so great that Jewish leaders refused their offer to help rebuild the temple in the 5th century BC.

It got ugly fast.

So here we find Jesus leading his gang on a shortcut through Samaria on the way to Galilee.

Crazy. And not cool.

But while his disciples left to score some food, a hot and exhausted Jesus engages a woman at Jacob’s well. I won’t rehash the story, but shockingly, not only was she a half-breed heretical Samaritan, but a woman as well.

The meta-message is obvious: the love of God breaks through all barriers. In the Kingdom of God, there are no ethnic, racial, or gender divides. When the woman at the well says, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman,” she is expressing genuine surprise that not only a Jew but a man would talk to her. Plus, as we learn her story, it’s possible she was shunned by her own community because of her reputation.

It may be why she was at the well alone. Ostracized.

So here’s the bottom line: Spiritual leaders don’t succumb to an “us-and-them” culture.

Is this easy? Of course not. But we should be radicalizing our love in ways that break down the fences our societies build. Think for a moment who the hero is in the Good Samaritan story: today it would be the person you most avoid because of their social, racial, political, and religious views.

Blessed are the peacemakers. I’m still striving, often failing, for that heart condition.

But Jesus leaves us no alternative. 

Dave Workman | The Elemental Group

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Every healthy organization is marked by four essential traits: Integrity, Passion, Servanthood, and Imagination. With a practitioner perspective, author Dave Workman offers common sense guidance and tools to maximize leadership. Filled with insight, humor, and reflective exercises, this is an indispensable exploration of these four universal values. Check out Elemental Leaders: Four Essentials Every Leader Needs...and Every Church Must Have.