Just like me

March 29, 2007

By Randy Mantik

I remember an evangelist, Brother Schloop, who visited our churches in Wisconsin years ago. He was a grand character. With a wide grin, he bounced his way through life. He could preach like a house-a-fire! One of his favorite things was to play the piano and sing with the congregation. A song I remember so well was called, “Just Like Me.” It goes something like this:

Just like me, just like me,
Let me look at heaven’s glass and let me see,
What kind of church would our church be,
If every member on the roll
Was just like me!

And all God’s people ought to say, “OUCH!”

I’m 46 years old and I’ve been in church for the majority of the Sundays during those years, first as a layperson, then as a staff member, and now as a senior pastor. I’ve seen first-hand the challenges and joys of being a part of the local church family.

Conflict is part of any healthy community, church included. But more often, I’ve found our complaints about church come from a wrong or overly critical attitude of others or from unresolved sin in our own lives. We’re having a hard time keeping our own lives straight with God, so we try to straighten out everyone else. If that’s the case, we need to close our mouths, get on our knees and “clean house” in our hearts before God and leave the rest up to Him.

When we realize the grace and mercy God treats us with, then it’s so much easier to treat our pastor and our Christian brothers and sisters that way. “[God] does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities” (Psalm 103:10, NIV).

Each of us must honestly ask ourselves the hard questions: “What would the church look like if everyone attended church with the regularity or irregularity that I do?” “How well would the work of the church be supported if everyone gave or didn’t give the way I do?” “What kind of love and unity would there be if everyone related to others and dealt with offense or conflict like I do?”

It all boils down to our own heart, no one else’s.

Recently, I was with a group of ministers and we were talking about picking rocks out of a field. One might start by finding all the big, easy-to-see rocks and pulling them out. But as you look at the field more closely, there comes the daunting realization there are many more small rocks to pick out.

It is the same with the “field” of our hearts. If we concentrate on “picking the stones” out of our own lives, we’ll have precious little time to pick them out of anybody else’s. We gain by this kind of focus in two ways: (1) We tend to be more merciful towards others. (2) We remember from our own experience how to help someone if we are ever called upon to “pick the stones” out of their heart’s field.

Paul says in Galatians 6:1, “Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted.”

We do well to remember how desperately each of us is in need of God’s grace.

Randy Mantik is senior pastor of Crossroads Church of the Assemblies of God in Pembine, Wis.