Rethinking

Last week my church hosted our second annual social justice film series. It was great, although attendance was lower than I hoped. Still, we got some great results.
One great result was building a relationship with a local homeless ministry called Love Wins. Hugh (the moving force behind the ministry) is a great resource for helping us rethink our relationship to homeless and those in need. This morning I had to deal with a rather surprising situation at work, and Hugh was one of the people I contacted for advice. He and I had a long conversation about the situation and I have some new ideas.
This all ties in (naturally), with something that someone else in our church has been talking about: about how we don't need a telescope to find people in need (I borrowed that awesome language from her). Now, our church is pretty good about helping each other out. But you have to be plugged in, and that's a big step. So now my brain is bubbling over with thoughts about how we can extend our loving caring network to people who aren't as "tidy" to help. IE, it's one thing to paint a house for someone who's in foreclosure and trying to sell. It's another thing to help move someone who's been foreclosed on. But those are pretty "neat" situations. How do we deal with "resistant" people. In my counseling training, I was taught that you should never work harder than your client, and if you are, you need to terminate the counseling (or refer). But I don't think that's how the church should operate. We need to find grace-filled, yet wise ways, to help those who are "messy" - alcoholics who won't admit it, teens who have unprotected sex repeatedly, people who steal from the drink cooler, liars who won't stop lying.
The counseling and self-help movement is great, and badly needed for many. But it has a strong focus on people WANTING to get help and wanting to change. This is where the church can differentiate: we can love and offer grace to those who don't want help. The question is, how do we best do this? How can we be as wise as serpents and as gentle as doves and do it all with love?