Your job as a church leader may seem daunting. But you have one of the most beautiful callings known to mankind. You get to constantly and consistently remind people about the freedom they have in the forgiveness and sacrifice of a loving Savior who has promised to return one day.
Hassle. Headache. I want to just do it and be done. So. Much. Easier. But that’s not healthy for them. It doesn’t teach them anything other than how to be reliant on others to do their jobs. And it’s not healthy for me.
“And in a flash, it’s all over. In an hour, all the hard work and preparation has come to a head, and it’s either time to do it all over again (literally in your next gathering), or start planning for next week, where you can do it all over again. Does it ever feel like Sisyphus, forever doomed to push the rock up a hill, but never reaping the rewards of reaching the top and the promised land guaranteed on the other side?”
Scholars and historians, Christian or not, all agree that there was a man named Jesus, and that He was put to death on a cross. There’s nothing in there for me to hope for. And my hope can’t simply be in salvation, because that’s something I already have. My hope, then, must be in something I haven’t yet experienced. Or, more specifically, something that hasn’t yet occurred.
And yet, we insist on leaving Jesus on the cross. A place where that hope can’t even begin to take root.
When you gather for worship, each one of you be prepared with something that will be useful for all
Everyone wants to feel like they had a part in accomplishing something big. When nobody knows what they’re hoping to accomplish, it’s much harder to bring them around to participating in much of anything.
What if the sabbath day looked less like attending and more like living?
Sign up for this program. Join a small group. Work in the children’s ministry. If we aren’t careful, the very things that truly could be beneficial to the congregation turns into a mandate that is accompanied by a guilty conscience if their response is in the negative.
Last week we continued a conversation begun previously about the struggle between numerical church growth and the problems it inherently creates. This week we look a little deeper. I’ve spoken to a number of good-hearted, talented churchgoers whose attempts at stepping into the process of building the Kingdom consisted of a public call from a […]
Last week we started looking at a growing epidemic in today’s churches and set the table for a continuing discussion on the subject. This week we’ll tackle the first of four problems at the root of our troubles. Jesus jukes and John the Baptist quotes about “he must increase and I must decrease” aside, the […]
