I had a great conversation with a good pastor friend and because both of us have passed the 30 year mark in ministry, we felt somewhat qualified to do some comparisons to the way we served in our 20's and today in our 50's. While we talked about all the changes our ministry and churches have experienced, we kept returning to a paradigm that has sadly remained constant. Churches that are unwilling (or pastor's refusal) to fly above the fray for the sake of doing Kingdom work in our cities. We stay preoccupied with...
How I look on TV compared to them.
How much more effective my style of preaching is than theirs.
How shoddy their facility looks against our pristine palace.
How much our worship experiences are compared to theirs.
It's blatantly obvious that jealousy, competition and insecurity occupy most of those lists but there is something deeper and far more grave.If our mission is truly to reach other people for Christ, other churches aren't our competitors. As a matter of fact, (though I am often guilty) even great ministries and churches aren't our standards of comparison.
Truth is, none of the people we are trying to reach go to those churches. When a person, who doesn't do church, comes to Colonial, I KNOW their first thought isn’t, “Wow! This place is way better than Dr. Fluberus Flufflhead's church!” They haven’t been! They aren't shopping churches!
I had the joy of joining part of our student ministry that does outreach serving on the east side of our city - you know the places we don't "wander" into after dark? I watched and listened as children of all colors and ages poured through the doors of the local Boys and Girl's club to sing and listen to the gospel presented. I watched groups of them walking around the neighborhood (at night) knocking on doors, sharing gifts and inviting them to church.
See, we DO have something that is incomparable and unbeatable and it's not the other churches in town, it's Jesus Christ. We do face the challenge of communicating Jesus through certain any and all mediums.
Some call me shallow...okay, true dat. But if that’s where people are, we have to meet them there or we might meet them nowhere.
I’d rather be viewed as shallow and be surrounded by people who have found a new life in Christ than be considered deep and be alone. Or to look on faces every week of people who knew Jesus long before they ever knew me. Lost people can’t become deep Christians until they first become Christians period.
