Made in the Image of God

Contributed by Rudy Eigenheer Behaviour Therapist West District

What is the CH Mandate?
Offering support and friendship to people with exceptional needs.

Why do we do what we do? We each have our own reasons. I’ll offer two:
We are called to it Matthew chapter 25. This mandate is clear
Feed the hungry
Give drink to the thirsty
Invite in the stranger
Clothe those who need clothing
Look after the sick
Visit the imprisoned.

We know that the people we support are made in the Image of God. This I want to explore further

What does it mean to be made in the image of God?
Genesis 1: 26-28, 31

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock , over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

…God saw all that he had made and it was very good.

What is the image of God then?
Not intelligence
Not physical ability
Not our ability to create
Not our ability to form relationships
Not even free will

Where, then, is the Image of God to be found?
“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. God Blessed them and said to them.” (vs 28)

“God Blessed them…”
What does it mean that “God Blessed them?” Here are other things/people that God blessed:
God blessed the Seventh Day and set it apart as holy
God blessed Noah, and set him and his family apart from all the rest of nature and humanity
God blessed Isaac, whom he set apart to be the father of many nations

What does it mean to be blessed by God?
Being set apart from everything else
Being raised above what surrounds you
Belonging to God in a way unique from the rest of creation.

“God said to them...”
What is the significance of this?
God initiated contact, God made the first address. This means two important things. First, God wanted this connection so much that he made the first move. Second, it means that we must be addressable. Before Adam and Eve thought, said, or accomplished anything that made them worthy, God addressed them (from Ray S. Anderson, On Being Human).
We are made in the image of God, not because of our ability to think, speak, or do; but because God speaks to us.
It doesn’t say what Adam and Eve said back to God. We don’t know if they said anything, or if they even could at that point. It is God addressing us, that makes us in his image
There is nothing we can do to induce it, and there is nothing we can do to stop it.
God speaks to Adam and Eve as representatives of all people
God also speaks to each one of us individually.

Talk about the ministry of CH
I’m sure the success stories here are endless
Ministry to Marcus at West District Office
Family was told he would never ride a bike or tie his own shoes
Now rides his bike everywhere even in the winter
Went from a special needs school to streamlined public school
Attended University of Guelph
But not all is positive, Marcus has not been able to find work in over two years of searching
He volunteered to work for CH
He was very nervous at first, but is becoming more and more confident
He is expanding the kind of work he does
He is feeling a sense of belonging and acceptance
He is feeling a sense of contribution

When Distance gets in the way of direct ministry:
As Behaviour Therapist (Consultative)
As behaviour therapist, I work mainly on a consultative basis. Most of my contact is with frontline staff in team meetings. There is very little time that I spend working one-on-one with the individuals that are on my caseload.
As Corporate Office staff
Probably for many of you who work here at the Corporate Office, this distance may be increased even more unless your role specifically involves working in the programs.

Our mission extends beyond the frontline
Now, Christian Horizons is about offering support and friendship to people with exceptional needs. Even if we are removed by distance of job descriptions from the frontline work, it is the frontline work that forms the basis for the ministry of Christian Horizons. That is our mission and identity. I believe that this mission statement is not for frontline staff only, but it extends through the entire organization to the Board.

Some Questions to think about:
How do you as the Corporate Office reflect the mission of Christian Horizons?
How much contact do you have with the individuals supported by CH?
What does that contact look like?
What can you do individually, and as an office to live out the Christian Horizons mandate?

These are questions that need to be asked and answered on a regular basis.

Go ONE STEP FURTHER than ministry to…
Now much is made of the supports provided by Christian Horizons to individuals with exceptional needs, and it should be. But I would like to challenge you to go a step beyond ministering to those with exceptional needs. Let me share my story with you.

My own experience
When I first began working for CH, and experienced frontline staff told me that she had learned so many important lessons working with the individuals in this home. My own thoughts were, “how could you possibly learn anything from people who cannot speak or communicate?”
I regret my own prideful thoughts from back then. But it was in that context that the story I’m about to share took place.

In retrospect, I’m not sure what I would call the emotions I was experiencing at the time. Anger? Sadness? Gratefulness? Loss? Relief? Whatever they were, they were many, and largely conflicting. Joel passed away at 29 after a one-year battle with intestinal cancer. A glaring minority of the people at the funeral was family. Almost everyone else was former staff from his group home. Most of the words spoken at the funeral were also by staff. Many beautiful even poetic words, certainly all were heart-felt. I had a story; a hard, but invaluable lesson learned. Joel had touched my heart in an incredibly powerful way, too. But it wasn’t the kind of story you share at a funeral.

Initially, it was his screams of anger that had drawn my attention from the kitchen where I was preparing breakfast. Then, before I even got to the bedroom door, a very telling smell and numerous, loud slapping noises made me want to turn around and leave, and hurry on all at the same time. By the time I walked into Joel’s bedroom, I had guessed what I was about to see. Standing at the bedroom door I debated for a quick second, whether or not to call another staff for help. I decided not to. It wasn’t an unusual scene, just unusually messy this time…
Joel was lying on his bed on his back. His arms were flailing wildly as he administered slap after slap to his own face. The rage in his screams and his eyes spoke volumes. The rest of his body did, too. From his chest down he was covered in his own filth.
I don’t remember many of the details of cleaning Joel up. But I do remember this: at first Joel was so out of control, I couldn’t go near him for fear of accidentally getting hit. As I began the clean up, Joel somehow transferred his anger and frustration at himself over to me, and I couldn’t go near him for the fear of purposely getting hit. All I could do was stand back and wait until the screaming and self-abusing stopped. As I was standing there, with nothing I could do but wait, I was hit in the face with a grave and ugly truth about myself…

I believe God spoke to me that day: “That is you, Rudy.” That is how I come into God’s presence too many times: mired from head to toe in filth of my own creation; raging at myself; raging at God; raging so much God can do nothing else but stand back and wait for me to finish.
I knew it to be true, and I felt it to be true. It was a simple truth; even pure, in its dirtiness. The many implications didn’t come until later, like stragglers following the main caravan: about a loving God who comes to clean up after our messes; about messes so big that even the helper gets dirtied in the process; about our unwillingness to listen (Joel refused going to the bathroom just five minutes before this incident), and many more. But perhaps these equally true but sanitized truths detract from the glorious messiness of the former truth: “That is you, Rudy.”

Who was truly being ministered to in this story? It was me, not Joel
Who was the minister? It was Joel, not me.
What did I do in this story? Some pretty basic stuff: I cooked breakfast, and I helped clean and dress Joel.
But what did Joel do? He spoke truth to me about the state of my soul and my relationship with God.
Joel was the minister that day!

Another example of the “helper” being helped
Marcus’ help
Christian Horizons has made tremendous impact in his life.
First person that visitors speak to when they call the office or walk in the front door.
Directs our calls, and connects visitors with the person they are looking for.
Input months and months of OI Summaries into our database single-handedly.
He often spends his lunch times reading his Bible. He sets an example of where our focus should be
What is the point?
The West District Office isn’t just serving Marcus. We cannot think of it that pridefully
The question that we must ask again is this: Who is being ministered to here? We all are.

We minister with what we can to whom we can.
And when we cannot, God still uses us to teach lessons that are invaluable.

There are two main points that I made today:

First. Make your Mandate tangible
As Corporate Office Staff you may be a step removed from the frontline group home work through location and job descriptions. How can you reflect and increase the mission of CH in a tangible and meaningful way here in this office? I encourage you to take these questions with you

Second. Allow yourself to be ministered to
As we live out our mandate as Christian Horizons staff, let us not become so prideful as to think that we are the sole ministers and supporters. If we close our eyes and ears to the lessons that God would teach us through the people we support, we may miss out on some of the most powerful and honest lessons we’ll ever learn.

To finish I will a passage from 1 Corinthians chapter 12:
The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.
Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.
The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!" On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.
Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.