Is the Gospel Dry and Boring?
I read an article recently that suggested five results if Jesus were to be the youth leader of your church. The first one was very obvious, The number of attendees would drop appreciably after the first meeting. My mind very quickly suggested that the same thing would happen if Jesus were to fill the pulpit for a few weeks in most churches. He would suggest, among other things, that the people would get out of their secure, comfortable, non-threatening pews and get out into the community and world and put their gifts, money, and time to GOOD use.
I fondly remember when Ruth and I were involved in a new church plant several years ago. Our fledgling congregation was meeting in a rented school gymnasium on Sundays and had started a building fund for a building of our own. We had the grand sum of $1200.00 in our building fund. Not enough to do much but one has to start somewhere.
The pastor came to the church one day with an appeal. There was a congregation in town, an old line denomination, that had a large old building that needed painting. The attendance was down and they didn't have enough money to buy the paint for the new paint job. "Is there any way we could help them?" the pastor asked.
After some discussion someone suggested, "We have $1200.00 in our building fund, maybe we should use it to buy the paint for their building and start our building fund again." Someone else suggested, "Why don't we not only buy the paint for these folks, but lets all volunteer and go down there and paint the building for them."
"I second the motion," someone shouted, and it was a done deal. We spent a couple of Saturdays with a whole bunch of willing painters and the dingy white church became a crisp bright, white church with a lot of new friends having been made.
I thought back of that experience many times and have asked myself, "Why haven't I heard that testimony from any other churches lately?"
I think that Jesus would tell most congregations that they need to start being the church by getting out of their church and doing what the church is all about.
Enough said.
I fondly remember when Ruth and I were involved in a new church plant several years ago. Our fledgling congregation was meeting in a rented school gymnasium on Sundays and had started a building fund for a building of our own. We had the grand sum of $1200.00 in our building fund. Not enough to do much but one has to start somewhere.
The pastor came to the church one day with an appeal. There was a congregation in town, an old line denomination, that had a large old building that needed painting. The attendance was down and they didn't have enough money to buy the paint for the new paint job. "Is there any way we could help them?" the pastor asked.
After some discussion someone suggested, "We have $1200.00 in our building fund, maybe we should use it to buy the paint for their building and start our building fund again." Someone else suggested, "Why don't we not only buy the paint for these folks, but lets all volunteer and go down there and paint the building for them."
"I second the motion," someone shouted, and it was a done deal. We spent a couple of Saturdays with a whole bunch of willing painters and the dingy white church became a crisp bright, white church with a lot of new friends having been made.
I thought back of that experience many times and have asked myself, "Why haven't I heard that testimony from any other churches lately?"
I think that Jesus would tell most congregations that they need to start being the church by getting out of their church and doing what the church is all about.
Enough said.
posted by Jim Burton at 1:13 PM
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