Resolution to “Romance on the Race”
This particular couple responded well to boundaries put into place. They eventually saw how their actions were affecting those around them and finally were able to admit their attraction to one another. There is still a close friendship but nothing further is currently being acted upon. An appeal to their conscience, contract with World Race and coaching from leadership was humbly accepted and changes were made.
Other such couples did not respond quite as positively and leadership responded much more aggressively. One such couple, however, has returned and are scheduled soon to get married.
Supporting it when it’s “wrong”
Often as we venture out into the world, we are confronted by different interpretations of scripture, different executions of Biblical truth or Church praxis and quite often, pure heresy. We teach our participants the skill of being a student of culture – to listen before they judge, to interact and engage before writing something off. There is truth to the belief (especially as it relates to culture) that “it’s not right or wrong, it’s different.”
Often, however, situations aren’t quite so black and white. The “different” drifts into something uncomfortable, something disturbing, something “wrong.” We have participants all the time who enter into a new culture and are exposed to some of these environments and practices and, quite frankly, are offended and “righteously” indignant that these practices are taking place.
One such example happened to me in last year. We were in Latin America in a small rural village living and working alongside a young pastor and his family. We engaged in all sorts of ministry activities: kids outreach, visitation of the sick, singing and playing in church, preaching, and on and on. The passion of this young pastor was evident and he persevered in the face of persecution from the community and the other spiritual leaders in the village (surprisingly, his chief enemies worked at the neighboring Catholic and Episcopal churches in town). His church could only be described as a fiery, charismatic home church that sought to bring the light of Christ into their community.
One Sunday (the church held 4 services a week) I was leading worship on a small, cheap keyboard for the small congregation. The pastor’s wife, sisters and extended family piled into the small church. The pastor’s wife took her customary seat at the very front of the church and led the charge in fervent prayer in tongues and dramatic worship expression. Likely from the lack of Biblical training, the pastor (young in the faith as he was) encouraged and prodded his small congregation to engage emotionally and even sometimes physically in the spirit. The pastor’s wife obliged.
I sat there playing watching the room begin to escalate into hysterics when the pastor’s wife started gagging and eventually vomiting onto the floor in front of me. It didn’t seem to disturb her at all and she continued on worshipping as if nothing had happened (believe it or not, this wasn’t the only time I witnessed this happening with her or others in the congregation). The morning was still young and the theatrics were about to go up a notch.
After being slain in the spirit, the pastor’s wife began writhing on the floor. By now a CD was put on and our team was praying over the people of the church. The pastor’s wife was drawing quite a bit of attention and her moaning and gasping only increased in volume as things went on. I believed it appropriate to grab a female teammate to join me in prayer over her and as I left and returned (forgive me for being graphic here) saw her in the midst of a “spiritually” sexual experience. Having experienced some of these extreme manifestations before, I was surprised but not altogether traumatized, my fellow teammates weren’t so lucky. I began moving into crisis management mode first to help my teammates deal with this situation without reacting in the full shock they were clearly experiencing and second to help bring some Biblical order to things. The poor pastor was elated at the “evidence” of the spirit’s moving and thanked us for our ministry that morning.
What to do? Was I over-reacting? Was this a cultural display or something Biblically conflicting? What was the obligation as a visiting missionary and guest into this family’s life (with whom we still had a week to work alongside)? As a brother in Christ and fellow minister, how should I respond?
