I was reading a post from Ed Stetzer, about Church planting. I really liked this thought from him.
“The Church matters. It is God's agent of change for the hopeless. It is how He delivers transformation to a hurting world. Through the Church, God unfurls the banner of mercy and announces the kingdom of grace. He has assembled the Church to tell and model the most important issue in life--how to spend all of eternity with God Himself.”
He then goes on to say that the church appears to be on some powerful birth control because churches aren’t growing and multiplying. I thought this was a funny thought but a sad and true thought at the same time.
I think we do need to think of the church as a living, moving, and growing thing that is a force for good and God in the world. Each year I teach my students about the Great Awakening and the Second Great Awakening. For those who didn’t pay attention in your American history classes (As Patrick’s blog shared a few weeks ago), they were two major religious movements in American History. They were not a time when a whole bunch of people woke up at the same time. Spiritual Awakenings, not physical awakenings.
I just hope our generation will start another Great Awakening. That if in 100 years or 200 years or 2000 years, this crazy old world is still spinning and life is still going, I hope the people will look back on us and talk about the Spiritual revival that swept the world in 2010. I want us to be a part of that. Not for the sake of having our names in the history books, although that would be cool. I want us to shake this world up for God.
Give us clean Hands
Give us Pure Hearts
Let us not lift our souls to another
God let us be
a Generation that seeks
that seeks your face
oh God of Jacob.
Pray those words. Pray for God’s direction in your life and how you can be a part of changing the world for God. While you are at it, please pray for God’s direction for my life. All of this blogging, reading, studying, and thinking, has me wondering about the role God wants me to fill.
God, use me.
About Me
- David Willy
- I am a husband and a father and I pray that I will continue to look more like Christ to my wife and children each day. I pray that all that I do will be used to give glory to the Father and Christ through the Holy Spirit.
Here are two problems I see with the American church. And I'm going to somewhat paraphrase David Platt.
ReplyDeleteMost people view church as the actual building where they meet like-minded people every Sunday morning and Wednesday evening. The Apostle Paul would not so lightly point out that these people have missed the point entirely. The church represents the actual body of Believers. You and me. The hands and feet of Christ.
And two, most people are passive church goers. In today's "church" we all meet at a central location, sit down together, sing and listen to a 20 minute sermon from the head pastor. Then throughout the week, we all rely on Steve, Dustin and Jeff to share God's love, console the sick and hurting and generally represent Christ. We are passive because our actions say, "we represent this church and we are sending out these ministers in our place". The problem with this line of thinking is that our ministers are less than 1% of the overall church body represented at Conroe Church of Christ. (I'm just using our church as the example. This is happening EVERYWHERE.)
So ask yourself...who can reach more people with the Good News? A handful of church ministers, or the entire church body?
And we expect our ministers to do all of the work while also preparing classes and sermons that will challenge us(just a little, not too much) and most importantly will make us feel good.
ReplyDeleteWe need to allow our church building time to build us up and help us grow so that when we leave the building we can be used to serve God.
I went to Steve's class last night and was glad to see that the class was on the implications of being a Christian. God is really trying to get something through my thick skull and hardened heart.
We like to be consumers. We like to have the feast layed out before us. Church is all fine and good as long as it doesn't impact my life. I "go to" church, participate, pay, and leave. Church, for many of us in our consumer culture, is not much different than going to the movies, a concert, or a restaurant.
ReplyDeleteYou are correct. Drive through Christianity. Get what we want, how we want, when we want, and then move on.
ReplyDelete