I have, from time to time, heard and been heard saying in fact, that it is difficult to find the one’s who need Christ in a small community. This is lightly veiled code for the challenge of finding the poor so that one can minister to them. In the urban environments like Toronto and Winnipeg etc. the poor are easy to find because they wear the uniform of brokenness out in public – unkempt, torn, dirty clothing, and outstretched hands to beg with.

In a small town they seem to hide or are non-existent. They are the working poor who do not let you know their circumstance due to issues of pride, fear of judgementalism and a myriad of other understandable reasons…and so when ministry teams burst forth from the walls of churches they tend to pack into vans and drive to the city where missions are easy to find and conveniently contain the poor in one location making ministry “simple”.

I wonder sometimes at a few things that have created this cycle of hide and seek ministry that tends to move people outside of their own communities to other cities and other countries to minister. I am guilty of it.

The reality of course is that the sick and sinful are all around us and within us too…it is the state of our existence and we need look no further than the mirror to meet one in need of Christ. This leads me to believe that our often frustrated comments about how challenging it is to minister in a “Christian” community betray a narrow vision of who exactly needs to be ministered to in the first place and what ministry is.

The other thing that has been nagging at me is the apparent need to hunt/find those who need to be ministered to in the first place. We are the body of Christ in the world and if one considers Christ’s ministry one comes to realize that he did not so much seek people out as he was sought out by people.

Don’t get me wrong – that God would deign come to earth in human flesh is the ultimate act of seeking out…one need not read further than Genesis 3:9 which says “But the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?”” to realize that God seeks us.

From a ministry perspective however we most often find Christ simply available in the world…teaching, preaching, healing, comforting, forgiving, casting out demons and generally wandering through the small rural towns of Israel as people flock to him.

What I learn from this is that the authentic presence of Christ in the world attracts those who need him.  It is Christ being Christ in the public sphere that draws us like moths to a flame that we would come and die only to be born again and live truly as humans were intended. It is Christ speaking truth before crowds that causes people to climb rooftops, dig through the ceiling and lower our sick friend into his presence.

This then is our model for ministry but only if we really believe that we, followers such as we are, are the true and real presence of Christ in the world today…his body given up for you…not a metaphor for Christ…REALLY him here and now.

The trick of course is to truly believe that we are, in fact, Christ in the world…to take forgiveness, healing, love, compassion, teaching, preaching and serving into the world with us wherever we go knowing ultimately that it is not us but Christ in us and through us that is at work.

When Christ is authentically present in any community outside of the walls of the church (there is only one report of Christ in the synagogue) and available to all those in need of him – they will come…there will be no illusion that there are none to minister to.