Well after lambasting the church in my last blog, I should tell you that good things are beginning to happen. AT UCC we are starting an 8 week study using material from "Way of the Master". It is a tool for evangelism which is something that our church could use some of. Our pastor has been convicted that 2008 will be a year of decision for our church. If we are not an evangelising church then what do we exist for? As I sat there and listened to him explain how this class works, and how we will not only learn about it (which is where it normally stops) but how we are going to put it into practice, I got butterflies in my stomach, I turned white, and got tingles up my spine. After the initial feeling of total fear subsided, I got excited about actually sharing Jesus Christ with others.
I have spent a lot of time in the church from childhood on up, and I have only led two people to Christ and they are my children. As proud as I was about that, I realize that they were young and I will most likely have to explain thing again. I am ashamed that I have not had more conversation with people about Christ especially when I claim to be a Christian. This is our central task, to go make disciples of all nations. These were some of Christ's final words to those standing there with Him before He ascended to Heaven. Usually when someone is leaving, or in human cases dying, they say the most important things last. I am looking forward to the class and to the conversations I will have with people about Christ. I am also excited about the seeds we will plant and hopefully the harvest we will see.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
What Has The Church Become?
I have been very fortunate to have been raised in a Christian family. My grandparents were Christians and my folks as as well. While I was young, my dad served as a pastor for several years at a small country church in Ohio. I have been around churches for pretty much all my life, and so the cycle continues. I am going to school to get my degree in Christian Ministries and get my pastoral license in Worship. So all that to say this........Sometimes I really despise what the church has become.
WOW you say where did that come from??
It comes from here...... Christ set out a pretty simple command for us and it was to go to all the ends of the earth and tell others about Him and to show love. Don't get me wrong I love Jesus and serve Him with a humble heart, but sometimes, I really dislike what the church has become. WE (myself included) have taken a very simple message and turned it into this complicated, tightrope walking, circus trick that is nearly impossible to do. Someone once told me that ministry would be easy if it weren't for people. I have seen interviews and heard it said that you can ask many people if they are OK talking about God, and they will say yes. Ask them if they are OK talking about Jesus, and they will say yes. Ask them if they want to talk about church, and the answer is no. So I ask myself why??
Why is it that so many people today are turned off by the "Church"?
is it because of the message? is it because they don't want to sit for an hour or an hour and a half on a Sunday morning when they could be sitting at home watching TV or sleeping in? I don't believe so. I believe that just about anyone would do just about anything to hear the truth and to live it. HOWEVER, I also believe that far too often "church people" are the ones that get in the way of that happening. Why? Because we are hypocritical, we gossip, we act different on Sunday then we do the rest of the week, we act better than those around us, we have double standards that say we love you because Christ loved us but your not good enough to come into our church dressed like that. We love you because Christ loved us but I don't want to hang around you because I'm better than you. I love you and so does Christ, but I would rather hang with my Christian friends than have you over for dinner. WHAT IS UP WITH THE CHURCH??
NO WONDER MOST OF THEM ARE DECLINING IN MEMBERSHIP.
I often talk with my wife about church (since I work for one) and a long time ago she said to me, "The church is one place we should be able to go and not have to worry about people backstabbing, gossiping, or treating each other like we hate one another." The bible tell us that people will know we are Christians by our love. Well if one of the biggest things keeping people out of the church is the Christians, what does that say about how we are acting toward one another?
I think it's time we start taking a look at ourselves in the mirror and ask the question's,
Am I a hindrance to those around me coming to Christ?
Do I show unconditional love just as Christ does?
Do I have double standards when it comes to my Christian and non Christian friends?
Am I living the way Christ intended that I live, or have I taken over?
Sorry, for those of you that read this blog, I know this is coming out of left field, but I get really tired of all the bickering and complaining and complacency I hear about and see in the church. I have to wonder at some point why we go to church? Wouldn't we be better to just stay home, invite some non Christian friends over for breakfast or lunch and develop a relationship in which we could show true love and a Christlike attitude? I know, I know we are suppose to do that anyway, AND go to church, but for crying out loud.
I guess I'm getting tired of playing church and I'm ready to see the church become what Christ always intended it to be, ALIVE,GROWING and AUTHENTIC.
WOW you say where did that come from??
It comes from here...... Christ set out a pretty simple command for us and it was to go to all the ends of the earth and tell others about Him and to show love. Don't get me wrong I love Jesus and serve Him with a humble heart, but sometimes, I really dislike what the church has become. WE (myself included) have taken a very simple message and turned it into this complicated, tightrope walking, circus trick that is nearly impossible to do. Someone once told me that ministry would be easy if it weren't for people. I have seen interviews and heard it said that you can ask many people if they are OK talking about God, and they will say yes. Ask them if they are OK talking about Jesus, and they will say yes. Ask them if they want to talk about church, and the answer is no. So I ask myself why??
Why is it that so many people today are turned off by the "Church"?
is it because of the message? is it because they don't want to sit for an hour or an hour and a half on a Sunday morning when they could be sitting at home watching TV or sleeping in? I don't believe so. I believe that just about anyone would do just about anything to hear the truth and to live it. HOWEVER, I also believe that far too often "church people" are the ones that get in the way of that happening. Why? Because we are hypocritical, we gossip, we act different on Sunday then we do the rest of the week, we act better than those around us, we have double standards that say we love you because Christ loved us but your not good enough to come into our church dressed like that. We love you because Christ loved us but I don't want to hang around you because I'm better than you. I love you and so does Christ, but I would rather hang with my Christian friends than have you over for dinner. WHAT IS UP WITH THE CHURCH??
NO WONDER MOST OF THEM ARE DECLINING IN MEMBERSHIP.
I often talk with my wife about church (since I work for one) and a long time ago she said to me, "The church is one place we should be able to go and not have to worry about people backstabbing, gossiping, or treating each other like we hate one another." The bible tell us that people will know we are Christians by our love. Well if one of the biggest things keeping people out of the church is the Christians, what does that say about how we are acting toward one another?
I think it's time we start taking a look at ourselves in the mirror and ask the question's,
Am I a hindrance to those around me coming to Christ?
Do I show unconditional love just as Christ does?
Do I have double standards when it comes to my Christian and non Christian friends?
Am I living the way Christ intended that I live, or have I taken over?
Sorry, for those of you that read this blog, I know this is coming out of left field, but I get really tired of all the bickering and complaining and complacency I hear about and see in the church. I have to wonder at some point why we go to church? Wouldn't we be better to just stay home, invite some non Christian friends over for breakfast or lunch and develop a relationship in which we could show true love and a Christlike attitude? I know, I know we are suppose to do that anyway, AND go to church, but for crying out loud.
I guess I'm getting tired of playing church and I'm ready to see the church become what Christ always intended it to be, ALIVE,GROWING and AUTHENTIC.
Saturday, January 12, 2008
The Greatest Story Ever Told
In March, we will be doing a production at church called "By His Wounds", and it basically rein acts the final hours of the life of Christ. As I have been working on getting things in order for this, I have started to find myself getting excited about telling this story. I get excited about the people involved in the production and what they will take away from it, and I get excited for those that will attend, and what they will take away from it. Telling the story of Jesus Christ and what He did for each of us should never lose it's excitement, but somehow it does, or does it?
I think that since God never changes, then the excitement of the story should never change. The story itself never changes, Christ died on the cross and rose again on the third day thereby providing a way for you and I to come back into a right relationship with God. No God never changes, we change. We get pulled here and there, for this and that, yet God never changes. We are up we are down, positive then negative, strong then weak, but God never changes. We are nice then mean, loving then hateful, grateful then indifferent, but God never changes.
I love the fact that my creator, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, never changes. That means then that my excitement should never change save to only get stronger. I serve a great God, a loving God, and a just God. And His son Jesus Christ has a story that he want's us to tell. So let us not be ashamed, afraid, timid or cautious, but bold, strong and excited to tell the greatest story ever told, the story of Jesus Christ.
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