From Minus to Neutral to Plus

Let's start today with some humor. As the Bible says, "Laughter is good medicine." (Proverbs 17.22) So, my strategy is to get you laughing, and when your mouth is open, then I put in the medicine. Read on, brave ones!

"When I was a kid, bedtime was 9:00 pm. I couldn't wait to be a grownup so I could go to bed anytime. Turns out that is 9:00 pm." Wife texts husband on a cold winter morning: "Windows frozen, won't open." Husband texts back: "Gently pour some lukewarm water over it and then gently tap edges with a hammer." The wife texts back ten minutes later: Computer really messed up now.” "Getting angry with somebody? Please think before you talk. Count to ten if the person is younger than you, and then talk. If the person is the same age as you count to 30, then talk. If the person is your senior, count to 50, then talk. If the person is your wife, keep counting; don't talk." Enough said. 

This week, I noticed a social media poster that said, "Let us seek encounters with God that will transform us and not just affirm us." Notice that the writer did not say it was either affirm or transform. It was both affirm and transform. The statement perfectly captured something that is going on in our culture today. Our current culture is all about affirming others, but not necessarily transforming others. Let me explain. 

I think about human conditions on three levels: minus, neutral, and plus. The idea is to move people from minus to neutral and then from neutral to plus. Everyone is born to win, but many, through disabling conditions or conditioning, have been conditioned to lose. So, how did God design the process of moving from minus to neutral to plus, or from "Why me?" to "What's next?"

Let's start with people who consider themselves lacking, wanting, and needing building up. A minus season does not make them less valuable than anyone else, but they are in a season of what they would consider a minus. They're hurting. They're surviving but not thriving. There’s been a shaping event in their lives, creating lingering influences disabling them mentally, emotionally, physically, or spiritually. Minus is not who they are. Minus is what has happened to them or where they are mentally and emotionally. 

When I was a Singles Ministry pastor at Grace Community Church in Tempe, Arizona, and Northwest Community Church in Phoenix, I experienced devastated people coming into our group. Single again, no money, separated from their kids, and the like. They were lower than a snake's belly. They were in that minus season. But, after a few years of affirmation and then transformation, these formerly minus singles were changed from the inside out. 

So, how do you approach and empower people in their minus season to move to neutral? I learned that you start by affirming them. You connect with them. You build a relationship bridge and get over it. The four basic human needs that children from newborn to the early teen years need to be ready for their "What's next?" are significance, acceptance, love, and security. You affirm that they have real value. You affirm that they are accepted. You affirm that they are loved. You help them to feel secure. It’s a time for affirming and high support. It's a time for hope and feeling better about life and their future. It takes time and patience, and being ‘called’ to this service helps.

The problem in today's hyper-sensitive world is that affirming hurting people forever takes them from minus to neutral and then tends to leave them at neutral. Once you get people to where they feel good about themselves and are ready to move on from neutral, you shift from affirming people to transforming people. Transformation takes them from neutral to plus.  

The Bible uses this concept in Ephesians 4:11-13. The term the Bible uses is "equipping the saints (people) to do the work of the (their) ministry." Equipping is a hands-on approach to forming people for their ministry or career, not just informing people. Equipping is personal involvement with the person. That's transformation. It's not a touch; it's a change. It's not a promise; it’s practical. It's not easy; sometimes, it may be challenging. It requires commitment, better choices, honest self-appraisal, and truth encounters. Transformation is where God turns the mess into a message in a messenger.

Why is transformation hard? If it doesn't challenge you, it doesn't change you. The change I'm talking about could be getting a job, restoring a broken relationship, getting off welfare, turning their story into a ministry or blessings for others, or just starting all over again and feeling good about it. It’s an accomplishment.  

So, let me summarize this for you, speaking about the church area. Thirty years ago, many churches were just interested in transformation, without affirmation with the minus group of people. That comes across as hard and cold. Many churches today affirm people 52 Sundays a year but seldom take their people into transformation. That is good for attendance because everyone likes affirmation and positivity, but not very good for spiritual growth or personal change. The answer is both. Affirmation is first (moving from minus to neutral), and transformation is second (moving from neutral to plus).

This same concept works in social services and welfare. Affirming and helping hurt people in a minus situation is a great starting place because that is needed. But continually helping hurt people without transforming when they reach neutral creates co-dependence and ends up being destructive.

My friends at Teen Challenge are a great example of affirming and transforming at the appropriate times, and then releasing people to their purpose, calling, and destiny. That is how Jesus did it, and dare I say, we can too!