Everything I Don't Want to Hear About Church

I don’t want to hear that it’s my responsibility to make disciples of others.  That’s the pastor’s job right?  I don’t want to hear that I need to volunteer more of my time.  I don’t have any time, aren’t there enough other people volunteering?   I don’t want to hear that my church needs more money.   I give every week, isn’t that enough?  I don’t want to hear that we need more ministries.  Why do we need more?  People wouldn’t come any way.  I don’t want to hear that our conference can’t help our poor church.  Isn’t that what they’re there for?  We’ve been paying our apportionments for years and what have they done for us?  I don’t want to hear that we need to open our doors to the undesireables.   Soon as we start letting ‘them’ in our church is going to fall apart.  We don’t want ‘their kind’ here.  I don’t want to hear that we need to change to make others want to come/join our church.  What’s wrong with how we do things?  We’ve been doing it this way for over a hundred years with no problems.  I don’t want to hear that I’m supposed to love, accept, and forgive everyone.  Why would I want to do that?  There are some bad, sinful people out there.  They might corrupt our children.  I don’t want to hear that I am responsible.  What do you mean I’m responsible?  Why isn’t the pastor responsible for the problems we have?

What are we so afraid of?  Why are we always looking for a quick fix?  Why do we think we're entitled?  When did learning about the joy, and grace, and love of Jesus Christ fall to the way side?  When did we start thinking that we're entitled?  Isn't that what they're calling the younger generation these days?

And what do you mean it's all up to the pastor?  Pastors come and go.  The church is not 4 walls with a steeple on top.  It's the people within that make the church. They are the ones who will be here day in and day out carrying out the ministries of the church and keeping it moving into the future.

It's up to us as individual, disciples of Jesus Christ to make the church a welcoming place for everyone.  To find ministries that meet the needs of the community we are a part of.  To find ways to engage our youth in the community we call church.  Help them to learn their gifts so that they may feel a part of worshiping God with us.  

Are we lacking the spiritual fruits that we need to push forward into the future?  Are we willing to explore what those fruits may be?  In every church, not just the small ones, there are always the select few who are always volunteering, organizing things, keeping things going.  What are the rest afraid of?  Why do they ignore the needs of their church?  I understand that people lead busy lives these days.  We even manage to book our kids solid so they don't have any free time.  But why are we ignoring the church?

In a world so full of competition, we have to find new inviting ways to keep our members coming.  Sure, there's always the faithful who will always be there.  But our church can't depend on them alone.  We must find ways to keep the people we have interested, to help them discover their gifts so that they can contribute them to the whole at large.  As the church sign here at left states, 'shouting Oh God' from bed doesn't count.  Showing up only on Easter or Christmas Eve doesn't count.  Now don't get me wrong here, I know there are people who are required to work on Sundays.  I was one of those for many years.  I dearly missed and longed to be in church.  Life certainly wasn't the same for me.  But for those who think showing up whenever they feel like it makes them a follower of Christ, well, they better rethink that position.

There is no easy way to heaven.  It takes hard, faithful work.  It takes commitment.  It takes following Jesus' instructions: "for no one enters the kingdom of my father without going through me."  There is a road map, you just have to be willing to follow.  

There are no quick fixes for things going on in our churches today.  There's no hero who is going to walk through the doors and instantly make things better.  If we aren't willing to do the job Christ has entrusted us with, then why are we even bothering to keep the church doors open?  People are leaving, the bills are piling up, and everything is in disrepair. Nobody's motivated to do anything.  They all have this 'I'm a victim' attitude.  Makes me very sad.

Servant of God

Great uncle Joe passed away last week.  We never knew him all that well, which is very unfortunate. Meeting him once though, I knew immediately who he counted as his savior. Joe never worried about money and never cared about money. He did things for his friends, who were many, because he wanted to. When they would ask how much he wanted, he'd always ask, well, whatever you think it's worth. Most of the people in the church today ( a tiny little Missouri Synod church down by Horicon) owed him money-the church was overflowing. But, it wasn't because he did things for free- it was because he spent his life being a servant and friend to others. The pastor told a story about Joe today that spoke to his greatest love- God---

The pastor was assigned to fill in at this church until they could find a new pastor- little did he know, he would, one year later, become that new pastor. One of the men in the church came by during the pastor's first week and said there was someone he wanted the pastor to meet. That afternoon they drove out to Joe's house, walked in ( it was always unlocked) and found Joe in the shop making furniture. The pastor and Joe were introduced at which point the pastor said to Joe that he thought they might sometime sit and talk about the bible, etc. Joe promptly shut off his machines and said, ok, and they sat and talked for hours that afternoon. The pastor said in 33 years of preaching nobody had ever dropped everything they were doing to talk with him about Jesus.

Joe made 150 Christmas cakes every year and delivered them to shut ins in the neighborhood. This last year, while delivering those cakes, he fell down a flight of stairs and never quite recovered. In the hospital Joe said the hardest thing was that his eyes were no longer good enough to read the bible. Though scripture was on his heart, he found solace in reading those words.

  I guess there's no real point to this story other than to share it- because it seemed such a disservice to not share- know that the things you do, the times you drop everything to be a servant and share with someone, even one other person, that it makes a world of difference.....

Left Behind

(1)O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!  You have set your glory above the heavens.  (2)Out of the mouths of babes and infants you have founded a bulwark because of your foes, to silence the enemy and the avenger.  (3)When I look at your heavens, the work of your gingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; (4)what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?  (5)Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor.  (6)You have given them dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet, (7)all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, (8)the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.  (9)O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth! (Psalm 8)

(16)Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them.  (17)When they say him, they worshipped him; but some doubted.  (18)And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. (19)Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, (20)and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.  And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:16-20)

God has blessed us with many things.  The blue skies, the fields, oceans, mountains, animals, etc.  As the Psalmist says, “how majestic is your name in all the earth!”  So why do we take all these things and more for granted?  Do we think they’ll be here forever if we don’t care for them?  It is our duty to care for them you know.

And we have been given the charge to Go and to Do.  To go out into the world, to do, to share the gospel of Jesus with those who have been left behind.  Those who others see as the marginal, the worthless, the dirty.  We are a judgmental lot.  We don’t see the importance in seeking the left behind.  We are more concerned with us, our lives, our things, our worries.  We don’t have time for someone else or their problems.  Some may feel that if the left behind don’t know Jesus then it’s their own fault.  No it’s not!  Jesus told us to go out and find them, to share our experience with them, to let them know that God loves them too. 

 But there is hope.  Because there are many of us who do heed words.  We go and we do because ‘Jesus said so.’  Because we value the experience that that God has shared with us.  We value the His direction.  What we have to make sure of is when puts those encounters into our hands that we don’t miss the opportunity.  Just because someone has piercings, or tattoos, or brightly colored hair, or ‘different’ clothing we can’t just keep moving on.  Our ‘job’ is to stay, engage in conversation, share, and most importantly listen. 

The left behind are just like in us in so many ways.  They are missing something in their lives.  They are searching.  Whether they know it or not.  That’s why God handed them to us on a silver platter.  To walk away without giving them a chance is like walking away from Jesus. 

Where is the best ministry done?  In the streets, in the bars, in restaurants, in store fronts.  It’s not in church with the already churched.  The churched know about Jesus and the gifts he’s given us.  For them, the goal is to get them to believe that they are called by Jesus to go and to do.  To help them to understand that fear they envision of going and doing is just Satan trying to dissuade them.  But Jesus is stronger.  Jesus is almighty.  And Jesus is always with them as well as the Father and the Holy Spirit.  We are never alone when doing the Lord’s work or any other time.  It’s not as scary out there as people would imagine.  When you have Jesus leading you, you count Him to have your back. 

The next time someone gives you an opening, don’t miss the chance.  Jump on that opportunity.  Evangelism doesn’t always start with Jesus, but it certainly ends with Jesus.