What does it mean for a church if it is inward focused? Can that church truly be fulfilling the call that Jesus gave to us to “Go” and “reach” people? How does a church focus on simply keeping their people happy and still paying tithe rather than being out in the community and reaching people that are desperately needing the message of hope, love and forgiveness that only comes with knowing Jesus? How does a church in a struggling community build a $10 million dollar building with marble from overseas while there are people in their community that cannot afford food or health insurance? What does that say about us as a denomination or deeper, what does that say about us as believers?
I don’t claim to know it all or even half of what I need to know. I do know this: Jesus cannot be happy when we are asking ourselves is it worth it to reach out to the lost and dying rather than make our people upset. I know that God wants us to give our best and if that means lying down a service rather than giving it a “warm death” then we should stop having services. We, ministers, stretch ourselves so far simply because of the expectations that people have of us. Instead, we should be doing ministry that matters like spending time with people that need to know that you can live a life for Christ. Having ministries that reflect what Jesus would do were He here rather than just having things or a calendar full of events for the “church folk”. We love being comfortable. That is the goal it seems of most churches. I am heart-broken to hear of a friend who left his church because he was reaching out to too many of the unchurched, “rough” kids and the church kids were afraid. Maybe they need to be afraid. We have tamed our children for generations and told them to be “apart from the world” rather than being “in it and not of it”.
I am shattered by the lack of response there is to reaching out to the community. We must be reaching out or we are failing at being followers of Christ. We have fallen asleep in our pews.
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