Killing Me Softly

Are churches slowly dying? Is there a killing off of what seemed like strong vibrant churches? If you watch television or get on the internet and read about churches, you would think that all churches are thriving and everything is fine. But, if you look at most churches where you live, not on tv or the internet, on any Sunday morning, you will notice that attendance seems to be lagging. So what is killing churches? If you look at most vibrant and growing churches, most of them never stagnate in a ministry. If a ministry fails to accomplish the desired goal, then the ministry is removed and replaced with something else. When water sits still, it grows moss and becomes nasty and unusable, but when it moves, it cleans itself and becomes more pure. A church needs to seek God's will and the leadership of the Holy Spirit when trying to decide if a ministry is working. Some think that data is useless in determing this, because data removes the spirit. However, it is wise to look at results, surverys for continued interest in the mnistry, and to talk to the ones performing the ministry to determine if they are burned out. Having every available tool helps the ones making the decisions get a clear picture of what is working and what is not working. IF you look at many churches today, you see that there is a lot of white hair, blue hair and no hair. This generation grew up in a time when the church was the center of the community and church attendance was an important activity. This generation developed the worshipful habit of tithing and developed commitment in their lives to be at church first and everywhere else second. Today, parents are inundated with every imaginable extra-curricular activity for their children to be involved in. I know people personally whose kids are invovled in several activities at one time. This leaves little time for God as a family and little time for church attendance. To justify and say "I am being a good parent because I am allowing my child or children to experience this or that", is not acceptable to God. Commitment must be made to God first and to attend the worhsip of Him with a local body. Parents need to allow their children to expereince God. Too many social clubs. There are just too many social clubs. If we gather to worship, we can fellowship and enjoy each other's company. If we gather to just enjoy each other's company, when will we worship. We are supposed to come to church seeking God. Everything else should be second to that purpose. We are supposed to come to worship Him. We are supposed to come to learn and to be with Him. I love attending church and being with the members that are there. I love accepting new people into our Faith Family. The goal is to see people saved, not compare what worldly possessions we possess and do not possess. Mean Spirited Services. Some services I have been in have just been mean spirited toward anyone that the insiders perceive to be sinners. Their is anger and degradation of others going on, even from the pulpit. It is right to preach about sin, and it is right to preach about God's wrath on mankind;however, it is not right to preach that man should harm anyone. When we do that, we are preaching and teaching to be judgmental of others. God is the judge. It is our job to teach and preach, it is the Spirit's job to convict. When we try to be the Spirit, we are overstepping our boundaries and hindering God's work. You can preach sin without being hateful. Jesus said to love your enemies. I think many times, the people that have been saved forget that they used to be lost also. We can't remember our sins then, and we don't see our sins now as being as bad as other's sins. This causes church members and attenders to be hard-hearted and not accepting of others. People had to accept you once, so accepting others is necessary. So what do we do to fix the problem? UNderstanding of God's word. Understand that God should be the focus of our lives, others are second and we are last. There was a simple song that I learned at a child in church. The song was on a cut out of a bottle of JOY dishwashing liquid. The lyrics were printed on the pages, and they were,"Jesus and Others and You, What a wonderful way to spell JOY" This will allow us to see everyone in our lives in the proper place.

Should a Church be a Brand?

If you see a large golden M on the side of the road,you would assume there is a McDonalds there. We are people who live by brands. Think about it. We have brands on our clothes, on our cars, and sometimes on our houses. We brand ourselves with sports teams, social clubs and academic associations. There is an apple on my phone and an hp on the from of my computer. All of these make us think of the company and what we like or do not like about the company. When I was in high school, if your pants did not have the red LEVI tag on the back or a brown WRANGLER patch on the pocket, you were not in style. So what do we see when we see church signs, logos and mission statements? How about when we see a description of the church as given by the church. I was in a discussion with a fellow preacher that I went to the seminary with in Henderson, TX about this subject on Facebook earlier today. Although these should not matter, the name, location nad description of the church will influence who attends the church. The name Landmark was bandied about as I said that i would not name a church this becuase of the connotation of negativity in current times. There are places this name would work well (most of those places already have one or two named Landmark ________ Church in the area) and there are areas where this would ensure that the church would not be very effective in outreach. Is this depending upon people more than God? Is this a compromise? I am an unashamed Baptist, and the name Baptist is on the sign at the church I pastor. In my opinion names of churches should be about the location, a special landmark near the church, or a name that illustrated what the church is about. That is just my opinion. A church can succeed or fail depending on the reliance of the Holy Spirit to lead the pastor and the people. Many times the church's DNA is in the name, the mission statement or the description of the church by the church. A church should be known by their outreach and their love for Christ, but more often than not they are known by their action. When a Southern Baptist attender moves to a new town, they could feel fairly confident in the First Baptist Church being an SBC church. However, there are FBCs that are not SBCs. BUt, this FBC has become a brand somewhat to stand for a SBC. Landmark in the name usually signifies a church that affiliates with the ABA. These are brands, whether we like them or not, that will effect whether a person attends the church or not.

Humility--A Horse Pill To Swallow

Today as I was shopping in the Dollar General Store, a lady asked me if I knew where the marshmallows were. I told her that I suspected they were back by the baking goods. As I debated about whether to go and get them, a lady said "Hang on a minute and I will get you some." I completely felt humiliated by my lack of campasson and willingness to serve. Jesus came to serve and not be served. Lesson Learned.