When Your Church Is Relevant

When Sunday is first about feeding on Christ and Him crucified, most people won't feel so starved, even if everything else about the church is less polished, and neither will you. The Church will be most provocative and alluring when it is being itself, being who God has constituted it to be, that is, being a mini-society that proclaims the person and work of Christ, and imitates his sacrificial service. The preceding statement is from the book, The Relevant Church: A New Vision For Communities Of Faith.

In this particular offering, the authors seek to dispel the notion that in order to grow the Church, we must appeal to an unmet need in the lives of people who felt the Church was irrelevant; be entertaining. While this technique worked for a while, it did not have staying power, and those who flocked to the Church because of entertainment found themselves leaving for the very same reason; they were no longer entertained. Fact is, no one will take the Church serious until the church starts taking itself serious.

The authors say that Churches need to remember one of the basic phenomena of human attraction: the least likable kid on the playground was always the one trying hardest to be liked. The cool kids, on the other hand, were popular partly because they didn't seem to care if they were liked; they were doing their thing whether or not you were watching.

The Church will continue to be least relevant when it continues to be caught in the act of reinventing itself to gain more friends. This seems to be the "thorn in the flesh" of most Churches today, being more concerned about aesthetics, socialization and making the people in the pew feel good. I sense that until churchgoers are able to point to something significant that the church has done in their lives such as the eradication of abusive tendencies, drug and alcohol abuse abatement, Christian behavior modification or spiritual growth and maturity, they will never be effective in making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. As long as some basic human need has not been satisfied by your church of choice, you will always be an attender and never graduate to the level of vested participant. Until then, churchgoers will be like the least likable kid on the playground who always tries the hardest to be liked and never succeed.

I welcome your comments.

Growing Where You Are Planted

Recently I have been working on a spiritual reality that has tremendous potential toward the eradication of stress, emotional fatigue and self-inflicted abuse. What have I been working on you ask? Simply put, it is a process of perfecting the place that God has planted you before you seek other opportunities. For many, ambition and upward mobility has caused persons to put the cart before the horse and get in front of God's will and plan for their lives. I too have found myself at times doing this and when I do, I immediately stress out unnecessarily. I have come to believe and realize that we must become experts where we are planted so that where we are, we outgrow in due season. When we outgrow where we are says that we become experts at where we are. Said differently, we become so proficient at where we are that there will be a great demand for us to move to another level of accomplishment.

Another way of saying grow where you are planted is to say,"Chop Wood in Your Corner of the Field." When you chop wood where you are, someone will notice your faithfulness based on the amount of wood you chop. So often we want upward mobility without demonstrating our ability where we are. Since God does not make mistakes, we must ask ourselves, "What lesson must I learn from this experience; what is it that God needs me to perfect?

When we are content with our current lot in life and we learn to master living at that level, God will provide our increase. In many ways, this is a stewardship lesson that very few in life ever learn until it is too late. Therefore, I urge each of you to learn to be content where God has posited you and in due season, you will reap a good harvest if you faint not.

This Too Shall Pass

Trying times, natural disasters and unpredictable changes in our status quo way of life are all symptoms of the realities of life that we all face at some point in our lives. What are we to do, who do we turn too and how do we hold on until the difficulties have passed. For many, a simple answer is to turn to God. However, for too long, the church has allowed cliches about God to go unexamined while many see their dreams, hopes and expectations dashed upon the rocks of despair. Is there an answer from the church about such circumstances? I say yes there is.

The best answer is, we are the answer. We are the answer because God lives within us. We are the answer because we get to choose life over death. We are the answer because life and death is in the power of the tongue. Said differently, as we think and speak, so are we. As God's people living in this the 21st century, we must drastically increase the fruit of the spirit operating in our lives. The more positive we are toward each other, with each other and for each other, the greater our ability to rise above trying times, natural disasters and unpredictable changes in our lives.

Thank you, you are welcomed, hello and excuse me are still appropriate ways to spread fruit of the spirit. Accepting one another and not tolerating or putting up with one another is another way we can share our fruit. The more I think about it, being loving, forgiving and accepting may not change our immediate circumstances but it will change how choose to deal with them.

I welcome your comments,

Dr. DJM