Milk Out Your Nose (Acts 19)
Church planting is a stressful adventure. The stakes are very high. The odds are absolutely stacked against your success. You’re being trusted to spend other people’s money wisely. There are huge decisions to make. People are looking to you as their leader. There’s no clear path to follow. It’s something that needs to be taken seriously. But probably we take ourselves too seriously. And for sure sometimes we just need to laugh. And some of the things that happen you realize, in retrospect, were very funny.
I hope Paul and his buddies were able to laugh at the events in today’s reading – Acts 19 – because they were flippin’ hysterical.
- The seven dudes who tried to do ministry in the name of Jesus (even though they don’t believe) and all seven get the crap beat out of them by the one guy, and they end up running away … naked … that’s funny.
- Verses 23 – 24 are almost straight out of Star Wars. George Lucas should have paid royalty fees. For real.
- Verses 32 – 34 are straight out of a Monty Python movie. Some people are yelling one thing, some another, most are asking, “What are we yelling? Can someone please tell me what I’m to yell? Help a poor chap along please.” Finally when the crowd settles down enough for the people to hear the main chant, they all join in, and everyone shouts it, in unison, for two hours! (One time in a small group, I had everyone chant “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians” just to hear how it’d sound. For the first minute it was kind of fun. After two minutes everyone was like, “Seriously, we have to keep doing this? Are we idiots?” But the Ephesians did it for TWO hours!)
So, a lot of church planters read this blog: What’s happened recently in your church plant that you’ll laugh about in the future? Why not get a few people together today, talk about it (feel free to exaggerate a little and use goofy tones of voice and facial expressions for comedic effect) and laugh as much and as hard as you can about it? Now. Don’t wait. If possible, laugh till you pee your pants.