Rob Prince's Blog, page 56

Churches that Keep the Folks Who are Thinking about Leaving Have these 4 Qualities

LifeWay Research released a survey this week indicating that 15% of church attenders have thought about leaving their church in the last 6 months. You can see the survey Here.

Why would so many people think of leaving their church? Of course, there are a few legitimate reasons: moving from the area; marrying a heretic (I’m kidding) who attends another church; not getting your way in the Carpet Color Committee Meeting (oh wait… that’s not a legitimate reason).  It’s been my experience that people are too quick to start “church shopping,” but the churches that keep the 15% have taught its members/attenders the following:

1) The Truth about Pastures.  The “grass in the other church’s pasture may look greener” but it’s not.  Churches like cow pastures are filled with shades of green and brown. Since cow pastures are both the cattle’s kitchen and restroom, they contain opportunties for growth, but you also have to watch your step. Just like every church. All the churches I’ve pastored have had a less-than-perfect pastor (me) and have had room to improve. They’ve also had plenty of good folks and ministries. Your pasture (church) just like the next pasture (the church down the road) has its share of green and brown too. You will find whatever color you are looking for, so look for the lush green grass on your side of the fence.

2) Math Rules. Good members/attenders have learned to add and multiply, not subtract and divide. Add to the body by offering your talents, love and positivity. Then watch God multiply what you’ve given for His glory.  Those that subtract from the ministries, who are negative toward leadership and mission become a fraction of themselves and play into our enemy’s goal of dividing the body.

3) Churches should be more like camping, than a cafeteria.  Church isn’t a cafeteria where you pig out on piles of bacon, mounds of potatoes and more of everything offered only to leave as soon as you can’t eat another bite. It’s more like a campground, where you pitch your tent. You stay. Make friends with the next campsite’s residents. Share stories, supplies and maybe eat some s’mores together. Just because there may be rain clouds forming, you don’t pull up your stakes. Instead, happy campers hunker down with a “this-storm-will-pass” attitude. It’s not about consuming all you can and leaving, but joining in life and sharing with others even (especially) through the storms.

4) Members/Attenders should be more like Gorilla Glue than real Gorillas. Gorilla Glue’s marketing campaign states that the glue can hold anything together. On the other hand, you never know what a real Gorilla is going to do: charge or start throwing their own messes. Churches aren’t places to beat one’s chest and claim your territory, instead we need members/attenders who are more like the glue that holds things together.

Conclusion:Your church needs you.  Look for areas of growth, adding and multiplying to God’s work, camping out with a positive attitude and being the glue that holds things together.  Your church needs you to be in the 85% that says: “I’m staying! God’s up to something and I don’t want to miss it!”

If I am ever stupid enough or tempted to say “Yes” to becoming a District Superintendent I am to read this:

(Note:  I hesitate to share this letter that I wrote to myself as if I am trying to play a reverse psychology game (i.e. “He SAYS he DOESN’T want to be a DS so that must mean he DOES want to be a DS.  Kind of like in life when someone says “It’s not about the money, it’s ALWAYS about the money.”). With fear and trembling of such accusations tossed in my general direction, I wrote the following to myself.)

Dear Rob,

If you are reading this letter than that means that you have contemplated the office of District Superintendent.  So, think of this letter as a “preemptive strike.” I am writing this letter when your (my) head was clear and there was no pressure to say “yes,” since no offer has currently been made.  But here is my advice in a nutshell: DON’T DO IT!  For the following reasons, don’t do it:

1). DSs rarely get to baptized people, dedicate babies, officiate at weddings, visit the sick or officiate at funerals (unless it’s a pastor on the district). DSs don’t do “the work” of a pastor in other words.  You love doing the work of a pastor.

2)  Being a DS eliminates the things you love about preaching.  You love preaching through a meaningful series of sermons and leading a church through the seasons of the Christian calendar.

3) DSs spend a lot of time in the car.  You hate driving.

4). DSs spend a lot of time in meetings.  You hate meetings.

5). DSs spend a lot of time with cranky “sanctified” Nazarenes. I know “Cranky Sanctified” is supposed to be an oxymoron, but it’s not. There are a lot of such creatures out there. They bumped their head on the altar a couple of times during the Nixon administration and haven’t showed an ounce of obedience to the Lord since those moments. They usually don’t like at least some of the following things but they love emailing DS about them:  the preacher, the preacher’s rotten kids, the preacher’s bossy husband/wife, the temperature in the sanctuary, the color of carpet in the building, the style of music being sung, the volume of said music, the youth pastor’s hair, ear ring(s), tattoo(s) or his/her wearing of sandals on the wrongly colored carpet in the sanctuary).  Remember:  Cranky “sanctified” Nazarenes are no fun.

6).  Being a District Superintendent Sucks.  It literally sucks the energy and life out of a person.  I’ve seen it happen.  Pastors who have had vision and love for their community are “promoted” to the DS role and all vision and love are sucked right out of them.  Don’t let it be you.

7).  Remember Nancy Reagan’s campaign: Just Say “No!” Well, just say “NO!” Not “No to drugs” (well say “No to Drugs” too) but Just Say “NO!” to the other bad “D” word: District Superintendent, unless the Lord makes you say “Yes.” And if that’s the case, you had better be dog-gone-tootin’-sure it’s the Lord and not your ego. Make sure it’s the Lord and not that hot-headed, cranky person that just told you about the cold sanctuary.  Make sure it’s the Lord and not anything or anyone else.

Signed Yourself,

Rob Prince

 

Happy July 5th!

We all know what happened on July 4, 1776.  The 56 delegates to the Second Continental Congress officially adopted the Declaration of Independence so that 242 years later fireworks stands could occupy vacant lots across the country, Joey Chestnut could be free to eat 74 hot dogs in 10 minutes and the rest of us could enjoy life in an independent and free country. But what about July 5th?

A quick Google search of things that happened on July 5 shows a few interesting historical events.  It was on July 5, 1937, Hormel Foods introduced the world to Spam (maybe Joey Chestnut should eat 75 cans of Spam today to celebrate).  On July 5, 1946, fashion designer Louis Reard introduced “Le bikini” at a Paris swimming pool (If it’s all the same to you, I don’t want to see Joey Chestnut anywhere near a bikini).  On July 5, 1947 Larry Doby started playing baseball for the Cleveland Indians (becoming the first black man to play in the American League) and on July 5, 1975 Arthur Ashe won at Wimbledon becoming the first African American to win the prestigious tennis tournament.  July 5 is Independence Day in other countries:  Algeria (from France, in 1962), Cape Verde (from Portugal, in 1975) and Venezuela (from Spain, in 1811).

On July 5, 1776, the news of the ratification of the Declaration of Independence began to spread. By July 9, a statue of King George III was torn down in New York City and melted into 42,000 musket balls that the fledging United States army would use in the fight against the British.  On July 5, copies were made of the Declaration of Independence.  A Philadelphia printer named John Dunlop made approximately 100 copies that were distributed to the colonies, newspapers and commanders of the continental army (There are 26 known copies of the “Dunlop Broadsides” in existence today.  In 1989, a Philadelphia man found an original Dunlap Broadside hidden in the back of a picture frame he bought at a flea market for $4. It was in excellent condition and sold for $8.1 million in 2000.  Now that’s reason to shoot off a few fireworks!).

All this to say, on July 5, 1776 the work of fulfilling the Declaration of Independence began.  It was a costly work.  Approximately 25,000 people died during the American Revolutionary War. The war began before July 4, 1776 with the Battle of Lexington and Concord, on April 19, 1775, and lasted until the signing of the Treaty of Paris on September 3, 1783.  While July 4, 1776 made the Declaration of Independence from British rule official, the fulfillment of the Declaration of independence took time, effort and sacrifice.

Why the July 5 history lesson?

You and I can pray a prayer of surrender to the Lordship of Jesus in our lives—anywhere at any time. The decision doesn’t have to take long (a shorter time than it took John Hancock to place his John Hancock on the original document), but like the original signers of the Declaration of Independence deciding to follow Jesus doesn’t mean that the “fight” is over.  In some ways, it is just beginning. Following our Declaration of Dependence on Jesus our enemy will try to get us to recant our decision (one signer of the Declaration of Independence, Richard Stockton, recanted after being captured by the British). There will be challenges and temptations. It takes a daily commitment to serve Jesus with all of one’s heart, mind, soul and strength.  We must daily rely on him for His grace and mercy. Simply bumping one’s head on an altar isn’t the end point, but the beginning of a lifetime of serving, learning, loving and leaning into the loving arms of the Father.

If you haven’t made a Declaration of Dependence on Jesus, July 5this an excellent day to do it.  Don’t delay. Give your life to Jesus today.

 

LeBron, Boogie and the Body of Christ

The big news out the basketball world was that LeBron James (also known as “King James,” not for his love of the 1611 translation of the Bible, but for his prowess on the basketball court) left Cleveland for the Los Angeles Lakers and the 154 million dollars that they are going to give him to play a game for the next four years.  The pastor in me can’t help but dream…  “if only LeBron tithed.”

The other news in the basketball world was that “Boogie” Cousins (I do not think “Boogie” is related to Central’s Gwen or Gary Cousins, and I don’t know how he got the nickname “Boogie.” Hopefully it’s because he can dance and not because of a nasal drainage problem) signed with the Golden State Warriors.  The Golden State Warriors were already a good team (they’ve won three of the last four NBA championships).  Picking “Boogie” makes the Warriors have five all-stars. You might say, “It snot fair” (sorry for the continual booger jokes), since they will be the first team since the mid-seventies to have that many all-star players.  In other words, the 2019 NBA championship may have already been decided when Boogie blew into the Golden State hanky… ummm arena (sorry these booger puns are a curse).

Who cares? We cheer for the Pistons. The Pistons haven’t sniffed a championship in nearly 15 years and won’t again this year with or without a Boogie on their roster.

I write all of this because God has placed us on his team too. It’s called the church.  Paul used a body metaphor to describe the church in 1 Corinthians 12. But if Paul were a basketball fan maybe he would have written 1 Corinthians 12 this way:

Just as a basketball team, though one, has many players, but all its many players form one team, so it is with Christ….  Now if the center should say, “Because I am not a point guard, I do not belong to the team,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the team, And if the shooting guard should say, “Because I am not a power forward, I do not belong to the team,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the team. If the whole team were a point guard, who would guard the taller centers? If the whole team were centers, who would guard the quicker guards.  But in fact God has placed the positions on the team, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.  If they were all one player, where would the team be?  As it is, there are many players, but one team.

  The point guard cannot say to the center, “I don’t need you!” And the starters cannot say to the bench players, “We don’t need you!” On the contrary, those players on the team that seem to be riding the bench are indispensable, and the player that we think are less needed we treat with special honor… But God has put the team together… so that there should be no division on the team, but that its players should have equal concern for each other.  If one player suffers, every player suffers with it; if one player is honored, every player rejoices with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.” (A very loose paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 12:12-26)

LeBron can’t win a championship on his own. He needs teammates. Just because Golden State picked their Boogie, doesn’t mean the other players don’t matter. Likewise, we need each other. If we are going to win the world for Jesus, we must be united and on the same team!

 

 

 

Hello! My name is Holy

A friend of mine married a wonderful, widowed lady from another country who had two daughters from her first marriage.  One of the girl’s name translated into English is “Holy.”  When they were moving to the United States, there was some thought on whether she should add an “L” to her name and become “Holly.”  There are plenty of young ladies named “Holly,” but not too many named “Holy.”  (By the way, her sister’s name is translated as “Glory” and they wondered if she should go by “Gloria.”). In the end, it just seemed right for the girls to keep their given names.  So they are still “Holy” and “Glory.”  What beautiful names!

I wish more of us would equate ourselves with holy too. I’m not suggesting we all change our names.  It might be weird at Christmas time if my friend Jim Knight had a grandchild named “O. Holy.” Still I think we could embrace holiness like it were our namesake.

Most of the holy people I know are reluctant to describe themselves as holy.  Maybe it’s because they don’t want to be “holier than thou” or tout their holiness as if holiness placed them on some kind of pedestal (By the way, I don’t think that’s the case at all.  We all agree that Jesus was the most holy person to walk on planet earth, but Jesus never seemed to place himself on a pedestal.).  Maybe the truly holy people are reluctant to use this term to describe themselves because holiness and humility often go hand in hand. This humility causes the holy ones to honestly evaluate that they haven’t “arrived” and there is still room for growth into Christ-likeness.

In spite of not wanting to describe themselves as holy, make no mistake, people can be holy. When God says (repeatedly) in the Bible to “be holy as I am holy.” God wasn’t taunting us to an impossible holiness dream but instead provides a way for people to be holy.

I know people can be holy, because I see the evidence of God’s holy work in people every day.  I work with some very holy people. I have been privileged to pastor plenty of holy people. I know they are holy not because of the length of their dresses or how they cut their hair.  I’ve observed their holiness not in an outward appearance, but in an inward peace, a joy-filled heart and a servant’s attitude.

Holy people are quick to understand and quicker to forgive. They are slow to anger and refuse to speak poorly of others.  Holy people pray for their enemies and make every effort to transform their “enemies” into friends. Whether you call yourself “holy” or not, we need more holy people in the world today.  We need more people who are displaying Christ-like qualities in their conversations and in their interactions with those inside and outside of the church.

Your name might not be “Holy,” but let’s seek and embrace holiness like it is!

Following Jesus in Divisive Times

As you probably know, I am a pastor.  This has been my calling, my life, my “gig” since 1988.  Obviously, I didn’t pastor during the Viet Nam years (the country may have been more divided then than now), but we are sure divided these days.  So what’s a pastor to do when every issue causes more division than a fourth grade math teacher?  It seems that no matter what position a genteel pastor takes 50% of the crowd will cheer him/her on and 50% of the crowd will think he/she is a moron.

Jesus offers this solution: in his final recorded prayer (in John 17) Jesus prays for himself (not surprising since the next day He is going to be crucified); He prays for his disciples (again not surprising since the next day He is going to be crucified); He prays for the world (also not surprising since… well, you already know, the next day…) and he concludes the prayer by praying for you and me. On the night before his death, Jesus prayed:

I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— 23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. (John 17:20-23)

Jesus prayed that we might be one. His prayer is that through our unity the world would know him. Hmmmm… now I’m just spit-ballin’ here, but if our old Enemy wanted people to NOT know Jesus, NOT follow him and think this whole Christianity thing was a bunch of doggy doo doo (sorry for the deep theological terminology, but you’ve probably noticed that’s exactly how many non-believers characterize Christianity these days), then maybe, just maybe that sly old Snake would do his best to have Christians at each other throats (just like everyone else).  Thereby throwing a proverbial wrench into Jesus’ prayer.

Listen, my brother and sisters, we MUST be united. The last thing that Jesus prayed was NOT for our happiness, health or safety (the things we seem to pray about the most). Instead, Jesus prayed that we would be one. Clearly our unity (more than Aunt Lucy’s case of the sniffles) is a big deal for Jesus. Over and over, He calls us to love one another. Couldn’t we do that?  Let’s not allow politics, skin color, national identity, language or anything else divide us.  The great commandment is to love God and love people. Period. So let’s live into the truth of the old song, “They will know we are different by our love, yes our love.  They will know we are different by our love.”

People are not Pawns

Disclaimer I:  I am not a chess player.  I played some chess when I was a teenager. I am certain that any half-witted chess player could beat me with half their brain tied behind their back.

Disclaimer II: I am not a lawyer (that’s my sister and nephew in the family).

Disclaimer III:  This is not meant to be a political post. I love republicans. I love democrats. I love green party folks, libertarians, socialists, and communists. Jesus said something about how far the extent of our love to others should reach when he said, “Love your enemies.” I am pretty sure Jesus means love everybody no matter how they voted in the last election or their perspective on God and country.

OK, with these three disclaimers behind me let me simply write:

People are not pawns.

People are people, created in the image of God.  (The previous sentence includes all people no matter what their passport says. No matter what language they speak. No matter if they acknowledge God’s existence or not.)

People are not negotiation tools.

People are not expendable.

People are to be treated with love and respect.

Didn’t Jesus also say: Love your neighbor as yourself?  In case you forgot the answer to that rhetorical question: Yes, he did say that with his words and actions, he said it.

Moreover, God cares about how we treat people. Jesus also said, “Whatever you have done for the least of these you have done to me.”

The problem comes when some folks begin to see themselves as the Kings, Queens, Bishops and Rooks but everyone else as the pawns.  Pawns are fodder. If you lose one or two protecting the king and kingdom, well that’s just part of the game.

Jesus reminded us that He is the Good Shepherd.  He is the type of shepherd that leaves the 99 sheep to look for the one lost sheep. The implication is that in his Kingdom every single sheep matters. In other words:  People are not pawns. People matter. All people.

Life is not a game where the last king standing wins.  In Jesus Kingdom, the King laid down his life for the worst of us. Why would the King do this?  Because people are not pawns. People are people created in the image of God.

I think sometimes we forget this.

Got Holiness?

This spring, Karla and I have bought numerous bags of mulch.  We got them on sale, loaded them in our cargo van (aka Karla’s car) and brought them home. We’ve put 45 bags of mulch (maybe more, I lost count) around our flower beds and shrubbery. All done it to make our yard look nice and clean and for the most part it has been mission accomplished.

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There is a house in my neighborhood that has a sign in its front yard that reads “Got Mulch?” It is advertising for a company that does what Karla and I did for ourselves. The company puts the mulch in your flower beds and you don’t have to make four or five trips in your cargo van (aka wife’s car) to the home improvement store to accomplish this goal. I don’t know the cost of their services (maybe next year I will check them out), but I doubt that it will be cheaper than Karla & Rob’s Mulching Company.

 

Why the mulch mumbles? The family that has the “Got Mulch?” sign in their yard, I assume like Karla and me, wanted their shrubbery and flower beds to look nice. No weeds. Just shrubs, flowers and mulch. But here’s the deal:  They haven’t mowed their grass. I don’t mean that they didn’t mow their grass last week.  As if they were on vacation and whoever they asked to mow their grass forgot to do it. I don’t think the yard has been mowed all year. The grass is a foot high. Maybe higher. It’s so high that you have to look through the jungle of a front yard to catch a glimpse to prove that they indeed “got mulch.”  They “got mulch” but I assume they “don’t got a lawn mower” (poor grammar noted).

 

 

Which leads to my question: Why spend the money to get mulch if you aren’t mowing your yard?  It’s this like the old philosophical question “if a tree falls in the woods and no one hears it, does it make a sound?” If there is mulch around your bushes but no one can see it, do you really “got mulch”?

Maybe my neighbor’s mixed messages are not so unique.  I see the same thing happen in people’s lives. People focus on minor things, yet ignore major problems. I’ve known folks who say that say they want to be followers of Jesus, yet spend very little time with him.  Got Jesus?  “Well occasionally” is not the acceptable answer.  Or people that claim to live holy lives, but are angry, resentful, and bitter.  Got Holiness? “If it doesn’t cause me to change, ask forgiveness or challenge my preconceived notions, then yeah I got it.” Ummm… no you don’t.

Holiness involves allowing God to look over the grassy fields of your life, and if there is anything unpleasing to Him, then it’s giving God permission to mow down any over grown or unpleasant thing. That was David’s point when he prayed in Psalm 139:23-24:  Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

 

It’s saying “don’t let me simply spruce up my flower beds, while I ignore my lawn.”  It’s praying keep all areas of my life holy and pleasing to you, not just a few areas of my life. Search my blind spots, point them out and make me the person you want me to be. That’s holiness.

The Current State of the Flint Water Crisis: A Pastoral Perspective

I arrived back in Flint in October of 2013.  The Flint Water Crisis began six months later on April 21, 2014.  That’s the date, under the state’s supervision and guidance, the city switched from the Detroit water source to the Flint River. So nearly my entire time in Flint, the citizens of Flint have been living with the effects, the blaming, the promises, the back and forth accusations, the lawsuits, the anger, the distrust that flowed along with the leaded water in the Flint Water Crisis.

Most common sense thinking people look at what happened in Flint and say, “How can that happen in America? How can the richest country in the world allow for a contaminated water supply?”  Some people have been held accountable for their actions (or inactions) that resulted in this crisis.  Some court cases are still on going. Probably more are yet to come.

Water has always been a vital commodity.  In Jesus’ story about the end times when God is separating people like a shepherd separates sheep and goats (you want to be a sheep not a goat); Jesus commends those sheep who followed his example of compassion and concern for others. Jesus said, “I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink”(Matthew 25:35). The implication is that He was given something good to drink.  Not poison to drink; not contaminated water to drink, but rather He was given something good to quench his thirst.

Trying to live out Jesus words, a lot of money and water donations have come to Flint from many different sources from all over the country. Some inspired by the words of Jesus, some not. Some private. Some governmental. Our church worked with the Convoy of Hope to bring a lot of bottled water into the city. We helped our inner-city partner Joy Tabernacle receive a total church filtration system.  We gave funds to purchase healthy foods to be given away that would help mitigate the lead contamination affects in people. We gave out water and filters to our church folks and anyone in need.  We tried to do our part, in other words.

Citing improvements made to the water system since the crisis began (90% of the residents now show acceptable levels of lead), recently the state stopped the water bottle distribution sites and the home delivery to the elderly and infirmed that could not get the bottled water on their own.  Now I was not a math major (I was a psychology major) in college, but it seems to me that still leaves 10% of the residents with water that is still leaded. That doesn’t seem like a good percentage.

There’s another story involving a shepherd that Jesus once told– in that one, the shepherd has exactly 100 sheep but he leaves 99 sheep to find one lost sheep.  In other words, 99% safe sheep was not an acceptable number. Jesus is not called “the good enough shepherd,” he’s the Good Shepherd who looks for the lost 1%.  Given that story, I think Jesus would say 10% of folks without safe drinking water is not good enough.

Without getting into the politics of the situation (I know, I know…everything becomes political these days), still I think we should expect that all of our residents have access to clean, safe water.  Until all of our people can drink clean, safe water we cannot stop advocating for those who need it.  The church behaves as God’s representative on earth. As such, we need to speak for those silenced and cry with those whose tears have been ignored. And let us never forget Jesus words (in that same story about the sheep and goats), “whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me”(Matthew 25:40).

Keep praying for God’s Kingdom to Come and God’s will to be done in Flint as it is in heaven!

 

WHEN NAZARENES BELIEVED IN EVANGELISM

In the little Nazarene church of my youth, Sunday School and evangelism were a big deal.

We had “Opening Exercises” that had nothing to do with calisthenics. Instead it was the time before Sunday School when everybody (old, young, everybody) would gather in the sanctuary to sing songs (Hallelu, Hallelu…, Climb, Climb up Sunshine Mountain and Deep and Wide were my favorites), recognize visitors (the visitors would stand up and we formally welcomed them) and sing happy birthday to those who celebrated getting a year older that week.
If it was your birthday week, you went forward with money (a penny for each year) that you put into a birthday cake shaped bank. The money went to missions. My mom always gave 29 cents (I guess she wasn’t worried about lying in the “Opening Exercises.”)
We would sing the following birthday song:

A happy birthday to you

A happy birthday to you.

May each day of the year

May you feel Jesus near.

A happy Birthday to you

A happy Birthday to you.

The best you have ever had.

We had Sunday School drives and gave out prizes to whoever brought the most friends.
We had competitions with other churches on who could most increase their attendance.
We went door to door inviting people to Sunday School.
We had a bus that picked up kids from some poorer communities.
On more than one occasion we brought in a “Gospel Clown.” (There may be some folks who would say our church board did too when they called me as pastor, but I digress).
If we broke an attendance record the preacher would get a pie in the face. I think he once promised to preach from the roof if an attendance record was broken.
We had dinner on the grounds (which meant a potluck dinner picnic style outside).
Old Fashion Days were when we would dress up like pioneers (usually there was “dinner on the grounds” on this day). I still don’t know why we did that.
We had two revivals a year (Sunday to Sunday. Every night. Occasionally, we would extend the services an extra week if it was going well).
We had little envelopes for Prayer and Fasting and the idea was to put in money that we would have been spent on the fasted meal and give that money to missions. My mom usually gave me 50 cents for my Prayer and Fasting envelope.
We were taught the Romans’ Road and the Four Spiritual Laws, which were personal evangelism tools for leading people to Jesus.
There were Sunday School Campaigns: Strive for Five; Everybody Win Some, All Out for Souls and Our Church Can Be Your Home.
We believed in a heaven, a hell and that Jesus was going to return to earth.
We had movie nights that consisted of cinematography classics like “A Thief in the Night” and “A Distant Thunder.”
We were convinced that if we didn’t reach our neighbors and give money so that people on the other side of the world could hear about Jesus, then they were not going to make it to heaven. We took that serious.

We don’t think that way anymore.  The arguments are: Our tactics were embarrassing (I’m not preaching from our roof– it’s a little high); It’s old fashion; and those things just won’t work anymore.  Instead, our evangelism now consists of…. umm…. well… we are nice and we hope that somehow, people will assume that we must be Christians because of our niceness.  (We would never want to actually talk to our neighbors and co-workers about Jesus or invite them to a small group, Sunday School class or church and we would never, ever present the gospel to them because that might make them feel uncomfortable and besides isn’t that the preacher’s job?).  But hopefully they will know that we kinda like Jesus and give him a whole hour of our time most (some) Sundays (if there is nothing better going on in our life).

And we wonder why our churches are dying.

Author’s Note: I am not advocating for the good ol’ days. I know we have to change our methods.  I just wonder if we have forgotten the message too.