The Importance of Relationships

What constitutes the individuality and uniqueness that make living things precious?  It is their inner source of activity.  One brick or board may be as good as another since it has no inner life.  But to treat one person as replaceable by another is not to treat them as persons at all.  It denies the inner source, the originative power that is a human life.  And that is why doing so is regarded as dehumanizing.  --Dallas Willard: The Spirit of the Disciplines, p. 60.

As I read this quote, I realized how Willard articulated one of the deep reasons I am passionate about my flock as an assistant shepherd of the Good Shepherd.

1. Jesus clearly talks about how He knows His sheep and they know Him.  (John 10:14)  They are all important to Him.  Each sheep is precious in His sight. 

2. As a disciple of Jesus, He has called me because He believes that in some way I can be like Him and do the the things He did.  No, I cannot do them perfectly.  He knows that too.   But He believes in me--and in all Christians--enough to trust us to carry out His work on earth.  He has given us power to even do greater things than He has done.  (John 14:12)  So, my role as a disciples is to be like Jesus as much as I possibly can--including in how I treat this portion of the flock I am intended to look over. 

3.  Which means, I need to know them.  They need to be important to me.  Each person should be precious in my sight because they are precious in His sight. 

4. And each person is unique.  Individual.  Holy.  There is no one exactly like another.  None are cogs in a machine we call the church.  You can't replace one with a copy if he or she leaves, dies, or is removed from the flock.  Relationships don't work that way.  To think the church works in such a manner actually dehumanizes. 

5.  Despite all this, I must recognize that people have the ability to freely choose to move out of this flock, just as they have the choice to move into it.  But I don't think celebrating someone leaving is appropriate.  That, again, dehumanizes.   When someone leaves of their own choosing, I believe I must hold onto the thought that God has a purpose for such things to happen, and His grace is sufficient.  He works in brokenness and darkness, and He brings about healing and light.

Unfortunately, many institutions and organizations work on the mechanistic principle.  If a worker leaves, just plug in a new one.  No wonder so many people these days feel like pieces of machinery--of little value unless they perform in their place in the right function.  No wonder people feel used and sometimes burned up as the organization/institution they work for uses them up trying to get as much out of the piece before bringing in a "newer model with less wear and tear." 

Perhaps we need to move toward a more relational model of "doing business."  A model which actually humanizes people.  A model which recognizes each person as unique--who cannot be replaced.  Who contributes in his or her unique way to the organization/institution of which he/she is a part.  Perhaps looking at things in such a way--and helping one another see our church in such a way will have an impact in folks' lives as they see they are not simply a cog.  They are an invaluable part of a relationship--with God and with one another.