Chapter 6 :: Posture

"Advocacy is different from empathy.  Empathy can be shown from a distance; it can be communicated through a card or phone call.  But to advocate for someone means you are with them in their need, and you must speak and act on their behalf because they can't speak or act on their own.  It is caring in a way that touches another soul, person to person, rather than trying to fix that person from a position of perceived superiority.  Henri Nouwen put it like this: 'The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not-knowing, not-curing, not-healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is the friend who cares.' " (p44)

Jesus was an incredible advocate.  I loved how Halter described the story of Jesus' response to the woman caught in adultery.  It drives home in me, the call to be an advocate for those around us.  But in order to be an advocate and really be "the friend who cares," we must be together.  Of all the factors that lead to greater levels of community, frequency of contact remains the number one.  People do not reach advocacy levels of friendship without spending a lot of time together.  Consistency of this contact creates the environment needed to nurture and grow these relationships.

This is part of the reason why our weekly table experiences are the most important thing we do as a church.  People continue to ask "What do you guys do on the off-weeks?"  What they are asking is what do we do on Sunday mornings when we don't gather for corporate worship and teaching.  What there question implies is that we have off-weeks.  We don't.  We meet every week.  We gather together every week, but it does look  a little different.  Hopefully though, it looks more like New Testament gatherings which will lead us into the kinds of advocacy relationships that are mentioned in this chapter.  

1.  How are you willing to advocate for people while they live lives that are in opposition to the way of Christ?

2.  If you could no longer use words to communicate the gospel, what would you do?