The Ragamuffin Church - Part 2

The reality is that we are all fellow-strugglers - we’re just at different stages of the journey! We’re all ragamuffins saved by grace.

James 4:12 - God is the only lawgiver and judge. He alone can save and destroy. Who do you think you are, to judge someone else?

I read of a young man who had the job of laying a pipe line through a rural country area. Part of the pipeline had to be laid through a farmers land, and he wasn’t too keen on having this pipeline running through his lands, even though the necessary permission had been obtained. The farmer’s land was protected by an electric fence, and when the young man got there, he carefully checked to see the electricity had been switched off. He then carefully straddled electric fence to climb over, when out the corner of his eye he caught sight of the farmer running for the farmhouse. It never crossed his mind that the farmer was running for the electric switch! Needless to say, what followed was a shocking experience – with this young man caught straddling the fence in a very vulnerable position.

Many times the church is like that farmer running for the power switch. Instead of turning up the grace, we turn up the power and heat – especially if their weakness makes us look better.

Matthew 7:1-5 - DO NOT judge and criticize and condemn others, so that you may not be judged and criticized and condemned yourselves.
For just as you judge and criticize and condemn others, you will be judged and criticized and condemned, and in accordance with the measure you [use to] deal out to others, it will be dealt out again to you.
Why do you stare from without at the very small particle that is in your brother's eye but do not become aware of and consider the beam of timber that is in your own eye?
Or how can you say to your brother, Let me get the tiny particle out of your eye, when there is the beam of timber in your own eye?
You hypocrite, first get the beam of timber out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the tiny particle out of your brother's eye.

By the way, there is a difference between judging and disagreeing.

I hear people referring to gays as faggots or moffies. Now that’s personal. I’m not attacking the person’s view anymore – I’m attacking the person – his/her individuality. In a ragamuffin church there is no room for that! I know that we can NEVER all agree with each other on what we all believe in. I don’t expect us to! I don’t expect you to have to embrace a homosexual lifestyle, but we can disagree with what the other one believes, without making it personal.

The fact is that regardless of what someone thinks or believes, they are still valuable, unique creations of God, who have gifts that God wants to use. You have no right to undermine that value and gifting!

Jesus is a brilliant example of this: When he walked the earth, he encountered many different groups. But his eyes were always fixed on the individuals, never on what the group stood for. He refused to reject and label people. Instead he reached out to tax collectors, Samaritans, lepers, prostitutes, beggars and the rich.

Wherever you find Jesus, you would find a bunch of sinners. Sinners liked him and they felt comfortable around him and they felt the need to be near him. The more screwed-up somebody was, the more they liked Jesus. Everybody who was rejected by society felt comfortable when they were around Jesus.

I have to tell you that I wish people felt the same way about the church today. But the reality is that we are the last people sinners want to be around in this world. If you are really messed up, if you’re an evil-doer, you don’t want to be around church people!

Matthew Shepherd was a young man who was openly a homosexual. One day he was literally crucified against a fence. His family were obviously distraught. At his funeral, where the family were trying to grieve their loved one and find closure, some Christians gathered to declare; “This is God’s judgment on gays.”

Probably the best example we have in the Bible of God’s attitude to sinners and people who have really stuffed up is the story of The Prodigal son in Luke 15. The emphasis of this story does not fall on the errant ways of the son, but rather on the unconditional love and grace of the father. Here is a boy who makes a very conscious decision to go his own way and do his own thing. When he eventually comes to his senses, he decides to go home to his father, but feels unworthy and thinks that he will ask his father to take him on as a servant. When he arrives home, the amazing thing is that the father is WAITING for him, and the father runs out to meet him. The boy immediately starts apologizing. Now if I were that father, I would have let the boy grovel for a while! And then I would have laid down some very strict conditions for his return. I would have put him on “probation” to see if he had really repented and to make sure he wasn’t going to go back to his sinful ways. But not this father. The boy was still making his apology – but the father wasn’t listening! He was too busy telling the servants to bring his finest clothes to put on the boy (a beautiful picture of God taking our ragamuffin garments and replacing them with garments of beauty and righteousness when we don’t deserve it). The father tells the servants to prepare for a party, because a lost child has come back to his father.

Now God wants the church to reflect his attitude to wayward people. There needs to be a “house” somewhere, to which wayward children can return, without fear of rejection and condemnation. A place of unconditional love and grace.

The Ragamuffin Church - Part 1

“I contend there is a place for unique local congregations. Churches not based on any one camp’s values. Groups that discover their identity listening to the leading of the Holy Spirit, and evaluating the makeup of their unique communities.” - Ragamuffin

You broke the bonds

You loosened the chains

You carried the cross

And my shame

You know I believed it…

But I still haven’t found what I’m lookin’ for…
- (U2)

The debate surrounding the validity and effectiveness of the local church is one that rages on, and quite frankly confuses me. I’m confused because of my own conflicting emotions on the subject. Some of the very best times of my life have been in a local congregation, and some of the very worst times in my life have been experienced in a local congregation. So, based on my own history, and reading and listening to the widely conflicting views of so many people’s own experiences and opinions, where does one discover balance, and more importantly, truth?

What adds to my confusion is the apparent presupposition that you have to join a “camp” that you believe in – and then be prepared to be labelled as one its adherents. There’s the emerging church camp, the purpose driven church camp, the seeker sensitive church camp, the fundamentalist camp, the list goes on and on. Out of the bunch I probably identify most closely with the emerging church. But to be perfectly honest, I cannot identify with all that they stand for. In fact, I can’t identify fully with any of the camps. So where does that leave me? A vagabond schmuck out in the wilderness? Frankly, I don’t think many identify fully with any particular camps’ values and beliefs. For example, I might identify with 90% of a particular groups values, but when it comes to the gay and lesbian issue, we’re miles apart. Within the perimeters of their values, if I declared my church to be gay-friendly, I would become an instant outcast. But when I check out the websites of the self-declared gay friendly churches in our country, I find certain values that I cannot subscribe to. And not subscribing to those values would probably make me unwelcome there too.

So where do I go? What do I do? I have an inherent desire to “belong”. The fact is that I generally love the values of the emerging church. But there are some aspects of Rick Warren’s philosophies, and Max Lucado’s views, and Kobus van Rensburg’s opinions, and Joel Osteen’s style that I think SHOULD be incorporated into the local church. Particularly mine – knowing the needs, values, culture and history of the community in which I live. I LOVE the worship at Buckhead Church, but there’s something about the majestic worship at Robert Schuller’s Crystal Cathedral that hugely appeals to me, as much as Vineyard’s values concerning worship resonates with me.

I contend there is a place for unique local congregations. Churches not based on any one camp’s values. Groups that discover their identity listening to the leading of the Holy Spirit, and evaluating the makeup of their unique communities. What and who is their target group in that community? Then go for it and set your own values, working within the confines of your own conscience regarding remaining true to Scripture.

Mike Housholder, pastor of a Lutheran church once said in a sermon that the local church is a broken, often sinful entity – but at the same time, it’s also the very best answer for encountering the living presence of Christ on earth.

So yes, I DO think that the local expression of church is valid and still has a divine role to play in the world. With all it’s issues and politics, I do love the local church.

Over the next few weeks I’m going to explore several aspects of local church – sharing some of my own successes and failures, and sharing some of the insights I’ve discovered and found useful. I’ll also share some of the resources I’ve stumbled upon. Just maybe there is a ragamuffin out there that find a bit of inspiration and usefulness in my chronicles. I want to speak about attitudes, values, worship and whatever else is important to local church.

In keeping with the theme of my blog, I’m going to refer to it as The Ragamuffin Church. No, it’s not a NEW movement that I’m starting! It’s simply an exploration of how ordinary people (ragamuffins) in ordinary (ragamuffin) churches can explore their individuality, and become something that it valid, highly effective and relevant to many people.

I still believe in local church. It’s just its mechanics that confuse me. Ragamuffin Rambler quotes Nouwen – I think it’s apt for me to conclude with these wise words.

"The Church is an object of faith. In the Apostles' Creed we pray: "I believe in God, the Father ... in Jesus Christ, his only Son … in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting."We must believe in the Church! The Apostles' Creed does not say that the Church is an organization that helps us to believe in God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. No, we are called to believe in the Church with the same faith we believe in God.Often it seems harder to believe in the Church than to believe in God. But whenever we separate our belief in God from our belief in the Church, we become unbelievers. God has given us the Church as the place where God becomes God-with-us." (Henri Nouwen, Bread for the Journey)

I’d love to hear some of your views on local church, and particularly some of your experiences in local church. Please let me know what has worked for you, and what you’ve discovered in your experiences of local church.

The Ragamuffin's Dress Code

RAGAMUFFIN (def.) – a dirty, shabbily-clothed child; an urchin.
(According to Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable) – A muffin is a poor thing of a creature, a ‘regular muffin’; so that a ragamuffin is a sorry creature in rags.

I am a ragamuffin. A spiritual ragamuffin. A spiritually dirty, shabbily-clothed child; an urchin. And I suspect that you may be too. In my own righteousness, this appears to be my regular dress code. A blogger, Carlos Whittaker, puts it this way: “This whole ragamuffin thing is simple. I’m just a screwed up man, in need of adoption, trying to be real. Real with myself, others and God.” But try as we may to be different, we’re still nothing but regular ragamuffins. Sorry creatures in rags.
But of course! Speaking of rags…it actually makes perfect sense! Isaiah wrote, “For we have all become like one who is unclean [ceremonially, like a leper], and all our righteousness (our best deeds of rightness and justice) is like filthy rags or a polluted garment.” 1

You see, according to the Bible, the ragamuffin is incapable of a decent dress code. Brennan Manning once said that for a ragamuffin to try improve his/her dress code is as arrogant as the young apprentice plumber standing beside the majestic, overwhelming, cascading waters of the Niagra falls, and declaring, “I can fix that!”
Nope! If you haven’t discovered it for yourself yet, let me assure you it’s a futile exercise. Can’t be done. Never has been, nor will it ever be done. Some of us are just a little better at pretending, but deep down inside of us we remain rotten to the core – ragamuffins of note!

So can this ragamuffin ever be at peace with God, self and others? If my best efforts are like grease stained rags in God’s sight, what hope do I have? Can God ever, looking through my most clever masks, seeing my lust, my lies, my insecurities and fears and all the deceit within, see me as anything but a ragamuffin?

It’s at this point of hopelessness that the grace of God, shown through Jesus Christ, comes into play. One of the most important aspects of grace is the concept of an exchange. The display of grace by God involves a change in my dress code. No, it doesn’t mean that I now lay down my dirty rags and don garments of beauty. It means that God, incarnate in Jesus Christ, comes down from heaven to where I am, He takes off my dirty rags, and He takes off His garments of beauty and perfection and He drapes them over me.

“He has sent me to provide for all those who grieve in Zion, to give them crowns instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of tears of grief, and clothes of praise instead of a spirit of weakness. They will be called Oaks of Righteousness, the Plantings of the LORD, so that he might display his glory.” 2

Eugene Petersen, paraphrasing Paul, elaborates on how this exchange is made possible; “I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not "mine," but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” 3

Does the exchange mean that the ragamuffin in me now instantly becomes a perfected creature of holiness? Does it mean that the inherent ugliness of the ragamuffin now magically gives way to godliness and utter devotion? No, it doesn’t. But, because of my new clothes, God now looks at me, and sees a perfected creature of holiness. He looks at me and sees the clothes of Jesus, and “assumes” He’s looking at Jesus, and therefore treats me as He would treat Jesus.

Now this act of grace is an inspiration to the ragamuffin. An inspiration to deal with all the issues of lust and lies and deceit and arrogance and fear and hypocrisies. I’m inspired because of this incredible act of generosity. Suddenly the kindness of God inspires me to want to face my demons.

Or are you [so blind as to] trifle with and presume upon and despise and underestimate the wealth of His kindness and forbearance and long-suffering patience? Are you unmindful or actually ignorant [of the fact] that God's kindness is intended to lead you to repent (to change your mind and inner man to accept God's will)? 4

And I’m reminded that whilst I was still a ragamuffin, Christ died for me to give me a change of garments. 5

Some ragamuffins in religious garb disguise out there will accuse me of making grace cheap by contending for this truth. My simple response is that they don’t have even the remotest understanding of the power of grace. It is the grace and kindness of God alone that gives us the power to change.

The New Testament is abundantly clear that it isn’t rules, or a no-nonsense approach from God that changes the ragamuffin within. Self-help is rather futile when it comes to a ragamuffin trying to improve his/her sense of dress. There is only one source of true change, and it is the unconditional grace of God.

So, to all you self-acknowledged ragamuffins out there, it’s time to change the way you think about your clothing. It’s difficult for a ragamuffin to seem himself/herself dressed in anything but dirty rags, because they reflect the person within. This is where faith is required. Because I have to make a choice to believe what God has said about me. It’s time to step out of those hand-me-downs of guilt, fear, insecurity and condemnation. Step into the finest of heaven’s boutiques. And let God, the master fashion designer, fit you with clothes that are worthy for kings. Start seeing yourself clothed in righteousness. 6

A ragamuffin somewhere will protest, “But I don’t feel righteous!” You don’t get it. Your opinion of yourself, and someone else’s opinion of you counts for nothing. There is only one opinion that counts, and that is God’s opinion. God says that you are clothed in garments of royalty and righteousness – not because you deserved them, but because Jesus bought them for you on a cross.

Hey, you! Yes, you! You look soooo cool in those threads!


1. Isaiah 64:6
2. Isaiah 61:3
3. Galatians 2:20
4. Romans 2:4
5. Romans 5:8
6. Ephesians 4:22-24