Beautiful Risk

A month ago, our team facilitator, Emo Yango, sent this article to his partners and the team. We want to share this with you and hope that we all learn from it as we all continue to engage in God’s Kingdom Work. May you keep risking beautifully for Christ!

A Beautiful Risk by Emo Yango

James Olthuis, a psychologist and professor at Toronto's Institute for Christian Studies, wrote a book called The Beautiful Risk. In the book, he provided a framework for doing evangelism set on the backdrop of "caring for the other." He also coined a term called "wild spaces of love." It is in these spaces that we get to demonstrate "out of the box" expressions of love and care to "the other" and invite "the other" into the presence of Jesus Christ.

Yesterday, while in Manila, I attended church service at Greenhills Christian Fellowship (GCF) -Ortigas. It was also the Sunday that Operation Compassion (the medical mission outreach work of GCF-Ortigas) had invited Gamar (the key community leader God has blessed us with in Zamboanga-Rio Hondo) to share about the impact of Operation Compassion (OC) to his Muslim community. When I first heard that Gamar had been given an invitation, my first thoughts were "this will be a fun to witness this 'wild spaces of love' in action." On the one hand, there is Gamar, a Muslim who is growing in his paradigm shift about allegiance to Jesus Christ based on his articulation of just how much he has been changed by the caring love that OC medical professionals have demonstrated to Muslims. On the other, there is the GCF-Ortigas congregation, who has been guided by the facilitation of OC's committed leadership to live out the integration of word and deed based on the character of their discipleship. All I could think of was how God is so happy to see His people in these "wild spaces of love."

As I was listening to what Gamar was sharing, I was reminded of Mk 1.15 The key word in this passage for me is repent. The Greek word that Mark used is "metanoia." "Meta" means to go beyond, while "noia" comes from nous meaning mind or heart. The core meaning is "to go beyond one's mind/heart", which we would normally understand in English as "change one's mind or purpose" (Strong's definition). In layman's term, to repent (as in Mk 1.15) is "I am seeing things anew and I've been changed by what I am seeing because I have chosen to look beyond what I just normally see."

As I sat listening to Gamar share, I was witnessing a process of repentance. As Gamar was sharing, he was describing how he is journeying through seeing things anew because GCF-OC has chosen to enter these wild spaces of love. As GCF-Ortigas was inviting and listening to Gamar, they were allowing themselves to enter into one of these "wild spaces of love" as they hopefully see Gamar's presence as an affirmation of the missional character of GCF.. God couldn't be any happier as one more story of the good news was being lived out.

In his sharing, Gamar had premised his journey with GCF-OC based on historical events that had flawed his perception of (or way of seeing) Christians. When GCF-OC entered one of their many ventures into these "wild spaces of love" in May 2006, Gamar began to see things differently. Even as a Muslim, because GCF-OC continues to enter these "wild spaces of love", he has begun a journey of a series of paradigm shifts that he now speaks of Jesus with the same reverence as Mohammad, the prophet. We continue to pray that God will continue to guide his journey so that he will see Jesus as the STRAIGHT WAY (one of the names that Jesus Christ is given in the Qur'an). Gamar, himself, named Jesus as Christ as he used "Isa al Masih" (Jesus Christ in Arabic) with a corresponding honorific/reverence title (normally said after mentioning the name of a prophet named in the Qur'an). This is significant because Gamar is in a position of power in his community, yet the community in Rio Hondo continues to appreciate his humble character. And based on previous conversations with Gamar, he has attributed this attitude to the Godly and loving examples of the medical professionals from GCF-OC: "If they can love and care for us Muslims, why can't I, a Muslim, show the same love and care for my fellow Muslims."

More than anything else, however, as I listened to Gamar, I have seen the depth on just how the impoverished and peripheral community of Rio Hondo is being transformed by the "wild spaces of love" that GCF-OC gladly enters. They have not just changed the community's outlook on health and physical needs. In addition, they are changing the social and religious perceptions of a community of Muslim people concerning Christians. Gamar will take with him his story of:
speaking at GCF,
what the church looks like,
how the people accepted him (not just patronize him but felt warmth from the congregation),
how the preaching was very practical to everyday living (read: how God is indeed a God who lives with his people),
and how he was housed, fed, cared, loved and respected by strangers.
With his social perception of Christians changing, the religious perception is also changing. Gamar will tell his people that GCF does not have statues in its church (and basically, except for the chairs and A/V technology, it looks like the inside of a mosque). Gamar now knows there is a big difference between the God of GCF-OC and all the other cultic figures in the Philippines who also herald the name of Jesus Christ but for a different purpose. He will take these to his community and give clarity to the misperceptions that has historically divided Muslims and Christians, socially and religiously.

More than anything else, Gamar saw the faces of the people of a church who share wilfully their resources so that Muslims don't feel discriminated and left out. I thought this was the most powerful part of the whole event. Gamar was not seeing a church building or a religious institution anymore. He was seeing faces of people who support GCF-OC to bring transformation/changes into his Muslim community. For this, GCF-OC is indeed living out its vision and mission statement. They are transforming communities: as GCF-OC enters these wild spaces of love, the people in the communities they enter have been entering a process of repentance so that in the end, they will believe in the good news of Jesus Christ. The continuing paradigm shift in Gamar is an evidence to this. His transformation, though, is not just an individualized experience. He is bringing with him his community.

A beautiful risk, indeed. Gamar is what we will term as a "man of peace." GCF is a "place whose people seeks to bring peace." By wilfully risking to play in these wild spaces of love, GCF-OC has shown a taste of the kingdom of God when "a man of peace" is invited to "a place whose people seeks to bring peace." What happened yesterday was way more effective and transforming than any dialogue on peace or joint statement of peace could ever accomplish. The story of the good news continues to be lived out. My prayer now is that God will sustain the good work He has begun as we all keep learning how to enter these "wild spaces of love".

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N.B. I'm still not sure how much GCF fully understands the impact of yesterday's event. Muslims are not invited to speak in Christian services in Zamboanga. Where fear against each other (Muslims and Christians) continues to be sown in the minds of grassroots people by religious institutions, GCF broke that barrier down (intentionally or unknowingly). This may seem to be outside the parameters of "evangelism" for those of us who equate the kingdom of God only with saving souls. I don't know how historic this is esp. in current Muslim-Christian relations in the Filipino context, but I am pretty definitely sure that there was a pretty good spiritual battle that took place when a community of God's people decided to enter this wild space of love yesterday.