What is a crosswalk? We are so accustomed to using crosswalks that I wonder if we have lost our appreciation for them. In short, crosswalks exist to provide people safer passage from one side of the street to another. Most often they appear at intersections, but sometimes they show up halfway down a block. The idea is that when people need to get from one side to the other, they know to look for a crosswalk. While its no guarantee that they will find safe passage there, it’s much more likely that the lines will guide them effectively to the place they want to go. I’ve never seen a crosswalk, for instance, that moves a person into oncoming traffic, or off a cliff, in a circle. Their purpose is pretty obvious: get people to the other side efficiently and effectively.
A number of years ago, the First Baptist Church of Napa, CA made a bold and not completely popular move to start calling herself CrossWalk. Our corporate name didn’t shift, and neither did our affiliations. In fact, the way we did church didn’t change much at all. That’s because the church was already thinking about itself as a crosswalk more than a place where Baptist Christians might gather for worship. The name CrossWalk reflected what we wanted to do: provide safe passage efficiently and effectively for people looking to get from one side to the other. Some people are looking for some assurance that there is a heaven, and want to know how to get there. We proclaim that our assurance in our future comes as we walk with Jesus, because we recognize the grace of God more and more as we do. For others, they are looking to change their direction – to get off the path they’ve been on – in order to experience a different quality of life. We teach Jesus here, and try to help them figure out what it means to walk with God in this life as Jesus modeled.
But is this even biblical? Is it a good idea? For who?
Jesus was a crosswalk. Take a minute and think about what Jesus was actually doing with his life, and who he was doing it with. He was famous for exorcisms, healings of every kind, commanding resurrection, and apparent power over physical reality. Of course, people flocked to him to hear his take on God, too. He raised eyebrows with his interpretation of Jewish scripture, laws, and traditions. Sometimes it got him in trouble with religious leaders. All of his teaching and all of his miracles were for a reason: to help people cross over from wherever they were to a more fully-engaged life with God. What he did was what a crosswalk does.
What is known but still lost on many of us in the West today is who he surrounded himself with and who he sought and who sought him. And who he didn’t seek. The people he invited to be his followers were regular folk – everyday people. Blue collar guys. Some with heightened political hopes. Plus an IRS agent for kicks. He didn’t ask any rabbis or religious leaders to fall in (not that they would have acquiesced). He didn’t pursue religious people, either – not that he ignored them – he made it to church every week. It’s just that the people he went to needed a crosswalk more than the people in church. He went to people who had lives that made it difficult for them to believe that God gave them a second thought. Sick people. Deformed people. Disabled people. People who couldn’t see, couldn’t hear, couldn’t talk, couldn’t walk. People with skin diseases that made it impossible for them to go to church as it would have broken the law. People who were born under the wrong country code. People who were born female. People who were children. People who made decisions for a wide variety of reasons that took their lives to a torturous hell – public scorn for being a prostitute, or a tax collector. All of these people he sought (and who sought him) found Jesus to be a crosswalk where they could cross over to life with God in spite of what they had previously learned or were being currently told.
Side note: the Hebrew people were known as the “cross over” people because of the stories of crossing boundaries and rivers as acts of faith. To be in the Hebrew tradition is to make that cross over. Jesus knew such a move would be so much easier with a crosswalk…
We live in a country that began, in part, because of a desire to be a different kind of people. People who crossed over. People who wanted to do life with God freely, in ways they didn’t feel free to do in Europe. Other earlier immigrants to our shores has less lofty goals in mind: they wanted to make a lot of money, and felt that the New World probably held untold wealth for those daring enough to look for it. They had freedom to pursue wealth in ways they couldn’t in Europe. Both camps of people grew in number and strength over the next few centuries or so. The United States is, as we citizens know, the sole Super Power in the world, and is one of the most dominant voices – if not the most dominant voice – when it comes to the global economy. We are among the leaders when it comes to quality of life, GDP, and military prowess. Much of that has been funded by the American Dream of making it happen, sprinkled with a bit of faith. A bit of faith that is waning.
In their book, Exponential, Dave and Greg Ferguson give the following statistics:
- Fewer than 20% of Americans attend church regularly and only 22% have a positive view of church.
- Half of the 300,000 churches in America did not add one new believer last year.
- Every week 43,000 Americans are leaving the church for good.
- 100 years ago there were 28 churches for every 10,000 Americans and today there are only 11 churches for 10,000.
- In the US today we lose about 75 churches per week and opens only 25 per week.
I think it may have something to do with whether or not we are being crosswalks the way Jesus thought of being a crosswalk. Jesus’ life and teaching compelled people to want to do life with God. And they did. And they compelled others similarly. And a world was impacted with the Good News that God exists and is the embodiment of love for all people, the beacon of Truth, the infinitely deep repository of grace, and promise of justice. But many don’t want to be a crosswalk anymore because it carries a price.
Jesus broke tradition. He “violated” the Sabbath. He went where he wasn’t supposed to go. He touched contagious, contaminated people. He partied with people who knew how to party. He didn’t cater to the religious elite. He taught incredibly deep truths with simple stories – making meat as palatable as milk. He chose to serve instead of demanding to be served. He chose peace in the face of one of the most violent regimes to ever wield its power in human history. His own family said he was crazy. Religious people said he was apostate, heretical, even satanic. Yet he never wavered. Even when he was tortured and killed for what he lived to embody.
There is no need to wonder if the church has lost touch with its marching orders to be a crosswalk to the same people Jesus reached. The question is, will we stand for such apathy any longer?
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