When Jesus was talking to his disciples and started talking about his imminent death, Peter was not happy. “This shall never happen to you,” he said. And Jesus whirled around and … actually… let’s pause and grab the Bible… go ahead… I’ll wait. We are in Matthew 16:21-24.
What did Jesus say? Oh thank goodness… I’m so glad you are here! Umm, no. He said “Get behind me Satan! You are a stumbling block to me.”
Hang on now… Peter is supposed to be the foundation of Church. And Jesus just called him Satan?! What is going on here??
So we read on… “You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”
When we make our plans for anything in the church, no matter how big or small, do we have in mind the things of God or the things of men?
When we plan an event, we make decisions on how all the pieces will function… identifying a location, what will happen, when it will happen, who is it for, how it will all work. Each and every decision is a building block to constructing the event as a whole.
But did you know those same building blocks are actually stumbling blocks to others? If we choose to host an event for single moms on Tuesday at 10am, while it may work for many, it will not work for a huge portion of the population. We are excluding those single moms who are employed and required to account for their time during the typical work day. That may be fine, as long as you are aware and perhaps even intent on doing the same event at another time to give those left out a chance to participate as well.
Do we chose a certain process because it will make our job easier? Or do we choose what it best for blessing others in spite of the extra work it may cause us?
When we use a room upstairs without elevator access we limit who can participate. When we chose a video that requires us to read, we limit who is able to receive that message. How many decisions do we make that, likely unintentionally, leave out people just because we didn’t think about it from their perspective?
When brainstorming event details, would you consider asking a few other questions:
“Who are we leaving out?”
“Is there anyone who cannot participate if we do it this way?”
“Is there a way to accomplish the same goal but include more people?”
“Does making this task easy for me, make anything about this event hard for someone else?”
“Do our decisions reflect the values we hold dear?”
This isn’t about pleasing everyone. And this isn’t just a disability thing. This is a petition for honest and thorough evaluation of how we do things.
Who are we unintentionally putting up stumbling blocks before and how might we fix that? We have a mandate to avoid creating stumbling blocks. We know we will be held accountable for creating stumbling blocks, and I believe even the unintentional ones. This may be a tough conversation to explore and may add to your planning process, but I am absolutely convinced it will be worth it.
Michelle