The Damage of an Inside Job

I love watching Breach, whether on DVD or when cable networks have the guts and cojones to broadcast it late at night.  It deals with espionage and government secrets. However, the underlying thematic undercurrents deal with personal betrayal and undermining the person more than the system.  


It is a lot like the Gospels and the rest of the Scriptures. 






Then one of the twelve, whose name was Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, “What will you give me if I deliver him over to you?” And they paid him thirty pieces of silver. And from that moment he sought an opportunity to betray him.  - Matthew 26:15

Judas was a disciple of Jesus.  We tend to see his betrayal without getting a glimpse of his beginnings.  We hardly ever hear or read about him as a zealot or how he was the one who was not a Galilean disciple.  Yet, we are certain to remember that he betrayed the Master for thirty pieces of silver, that he kissed the Lord as a sign to the Lord's captors and that he hung himself some time afterwards.

We rarely get an authentic, biblical view of Judas because his tragic betrayal stands out beyond anything else he could have ever done.

But Judas was a follower of Jesus.  In fact, Judas was one of the Twelve.  Judas did not choose to walk away when Jesus shared one of His so-called hard sayings (John 6:66).  The truth of the matter was that Judas was trusted among the disciples because he handled the treasury of funds for the ministry.  We know that Jesus said that one of the Twelve was a devil, but he never tossed Judas out nor called him on his eventual betrayal of Him.  

But Satan entered into Judas' heart.

For it was not an enemy that reproached me; then I could have borne it: neither was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me; then I would have hid myself from him: But it was thou, a man mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance.- Psalm 55:12-13

Judas was subject to many of the troubling things that we all experience while serving beside great leaders.  Wasn't Benedict Arnold a trusted leader serving with General George Washington for the Colonies?  Wasn't Brutus a comrade and friend of Julius Caesar? Oftentimes, it is the inside job's betrayal, deceit and disloyalty that damage us more than the act itself.

We come to realize that Judas' betrayal of Jesus was part of the prophecy.  Judas was used as part of the plan for salvation; no betrayal = no conviction, no cross.  Judas was a necessary evil for the good to come about for us all.

Think about it.  If all of that can occur with someone who walked with Jesus for three years, what is going to happen in your in-house small group or local ecumenical association? Jesus' ministry was not immune to the treachery of a traitor or the deception of a devil, so you surely cannot expect the Lord will not allow you to suffer in a similar fashion.  He knows that you can recover from the damage.

If you ever find it hard to believe that you can live on after having been bruised and battered by betrayal, read Isaiah 53 and Psalm 55 then read Jesus' words to His disciples upon His resurrection.  His words comfort and heal.  We see the betrayed innocence emerging as beautifully clothed in holiness.  Look at Jesus.  After all, He lives on as the result of the after effects an inside job.

Extreme Experiences of Edification

Key question: Have you built a ministry that builds up people to be better servants of the Lord?

Take your time.  Think about all of the people who serve under you.  Let things play back in your mind. 

We need people experiencing edification.  We need people being built up within our midst.  We need to get busy building folks up.

Why?

Their responsibility is to equip God's people

to do his work and build up the church,

the body of Christ.

- Ephesians 4:12 (NLT)

We are called to do so.  We have been commissioned to do so.  It is our calling.  Let us live up to it.

Give the people who come to you an extreme experience.  Offer an edifying experience.  Take people to the edge by standing on the cutting edge as opposed to the status quo.  Let people experience Christianity beyond the stuffy, Sunday morning sermonized Savior that seems so distant that He could not have possibly walked on earth.  Give them the real deal when you share about the Savior.  Show them the Jesus who saves.  Share the Jesus who sacrificed for the sinful.  Provide an opportunity to experience Jesus in spirit and in truth.

Look at some examples of radical Christianity. . .

Each One Reach One

⁴⁰ Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. ⁴¹ The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). ⁴² And he brought him to Jesus. - John 1: 40-42 (NIV)

Imagine if we sought to grow our ministries one member at a time.  What if we sat aside the church growth theories that say otherwise for a moment? Think about what the Bible says about reaching others.  Take a look at Andrew's example.  Each believer can reach someone else.

I believe that everyone is not connected to everyone else, but every one of us is connected to someone.  We all know somebody who we could reach for Jesus and share about our personal experience and encounter with Jesus.  That's genuine growth.  It's based on relationships.

Train your members to reach out to other people.  Challenge each member of your congregation or your small group to reach twelve other people.  Make it doable.  Tell them and train them how to reach another person each month and bring them to your Bible study, prayer meeting or Sunday school class.  That's just one person per month.  That's three people per quarter.  Challenge them to do it based on their relationships.  If you have ten people in your ministry, you could potentially have 120 people touched by your ministry within the first year.  Imagine how much more that you could do through your people once they get comfortable doing such a mighty work.

Scale Down to Start Up

"People often say that motivation doesn't last. Well, neither does bathing – that's why we recommend it daily."- Zig Ziglar

Starting up a business may require you to scale down your big dream.




Don't read into that.  I did not say it may require you to drop or dump your dream entirely.  I just said you may need to scale it down at the start to get things started.


You may need to slice it up into manageable pieces, so that you can get things set up and in place to advance to new levels, stages and phases.  I tend to favor a modular approach when I work with clients on programmatic funding or business planning, identifying phases where new components, services or features can be added based upon the state of the core business.  There it is.  I seem to have have given it away, but that should be the focus; your core business.  Scale things down to the core.  Get things down to the bare essentials and build from there.

I think Avon does an excellent job at providing a business model based on a similar cocnept.  You may like fashion or cosmetics, even costume jewelry.  Avon isn't trying to get you to open a kiosk at the mall or storefront on Main Street.  The company provides each "Avon lady" with the essentials to the catalogs and ordering forms as well as support that allow her to experience success on a small scale and grow from there.  It is obvious that Avon's core business is beauty products, not blue jeans or handbags.

Start out small, while continuing to think and dream big.  Post photos, sketches and anything else related to your dream above your PC's monitor, on your car's dashboard and taped to the fridge.  Keep it visible, but be sure to set things in order first. 

 

Don't get tripped up that you haven't accomplished or achieved the full dream yet.  Just get started. Get started right.  Get started doing the core business of your dream and build from there.