What are we doing?

It seems that we (church leaders) are limiting people from doing the very thing that we say we are equipping them for. Let me explain. In your church, the type of person that most people would point to as the "model christian" are the ones that are at the church every time a meeting is called. They're a "dedicated" christian because they show up for every regularly scheduled meeting. And, there are a LOT of regularly scheduled meetings. Now don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to imply that dedication and love for God's house is a bad thing. Here's my point. We recognize our "best" christians as those who show up around 100 or so times a year for meetings. And we get All Excited when 12 of our 600 men go ONCE A YEAR and help habitat for humanity, or go feed the homeless, or go help some elderly people cut their grass. Isn't that ratio off a little?

What are we non-verbally saying? Shouldn't our people be doing the work of ministry rather than just showing up for pep talks? As church leaders, why do we limit people from doing the very thing we say we're equipping them to do by scheduling so many meetings and expecting them to be at all of them? Why do we give in to the consumer mentality of the majority of the people that show up each week? What are we doing?

Will this ever change? Will church leaders do something radical like schedule less "teaching" and spend more time mobilizing people so that they can be fully "trained"?

You know, it would be crazy for me to try to teach a kid to hit a baseball by limiting his training to book reading, inspirational pep talks, and watching baseball on television. In order to effectively train a kid to hit a ball...you've got to take him out in the yard, hand him a bat, stand behind him and help him swing a little, and eventually throw a ball at him.

Yet somehow we expect that if we gather our people together often enough, inspire them enough, and pray enough that they'll magically know how to share their faith and minister to those around them. By the time our people work their jobs, have quality family time, and show up at all our meetings, they don't even have time left to go and serve. Even if they had time, they don't have the emotional energy to do it.

We seem to still be chasing after bigger programs, buildings, and other "bait" forgetting that the most effective bait out there is the impact of the Gospel on someone's life. Someone encountering Christ through the personal touch of another human's sacrificial servanthood is by far the most effective way to impact their life. We know that. We just don't prioritize it. I love "big church". So, don't get me wrong. But, are we just building big shiny boats and hoping that fish will come jump in? Or are we building sea-worthy boats and training our fisherman how to get in the water with their nets and catch some fish. That kind of fishing is smelly business. Are we up for it? Really?

I'm itching for it. While I can personally continue to mentor, coach, and disciple people within my sphere of influence, I'd love to see more intentionality from organized churches on this. What would it look like if our churches started using Wednesday night or Sunday night to mobilize the congregation into the neighborhood to feed people, pray with people, cut people's grass...etc.?

I know this sounds really sharp, or on edge. But it's what's going through my mind and heart tonight as I meditate and pray.

johnny