It's Not About Me!

I went home from the December Session Meeting depressed. The Session took action to remove about 50 people from the church rolls. It was the right thing to do. It simply reflected reality – they were not active members any more. It saves us money on our per-capita assessment. But my heart grieved for each of those people. I’m sure God has not lost all of them, many of them must still be people of faith in Jesus Christ, but at least some of them surely are not.
I must admit I was feeling sorry for myself as well. I work hard. I think I’m good at what I do. I care passionately. Why can’t I grow a church? It’s all about me when I’m feeling depressed!
It’s not about me! Don’t come and pat me on the back and tell me it’s not my fault, because I might smack you . . . in Christ. To some extent it’s the fault of all of us! We’ve got a broken model of church, which worked from the ‘50s – 80’s but hasn’t worked since, and we’re still hanging on to it. It’s a model where we do church well and people come to us. We do church well: The campus is attractive, the music is beautiful, the preaching is decent, the programs are solid . . . but people aren’t coming.
We need a different model, and it’s not a model that some guru can simply tell us how to build. It’s a model where we attempt to be the church IN THE WORLD. Some of it will still happen on our campus, but we will have to let the world shape how we present the gospel of Jesus Christ. Much of it will have to happen in the office, the lunch room the playground, the soccer field, the bridge club as we seek, not to invite people to church, but to introduce them to Jesus Christ the Living Lord.
At the February Session meeting, we listened together to the call story of Abraham. We were all struck by how God called septuagenarian Abraham and Sarah to pack up and leave everything they knew to travel to a strange country on the strength of a promise of blessing from God. God is calling the church to pack and move to a strange land. Will we leave a whole lot behind? Yes. Will we know where we are going? No. Do we have a promise of blessing from God? Absolutely!
It’s not about me! It’s not about you! It’s not about the programs! It’s not about the building! It’s not about the music! It’s about the saving grace of Jesus Christ! We’ve got that grace, now we need to decide whether we will hang on to it and hope people will come, or whether we let it compel us into the world to share it.
We’re going to try some new stuff. We’re committed to try reaching out to the youth and their families of our neighborhood, and in the coming year we’re going to get serious about doing it. I’m intentional about that word “try.” This will involve some experimentation. Some of what we do will bring changes that put us out of our comfort zones. Some of what we do won’t be successful. That’s not our job. Our job is to pack and go when God calls us to do it. The success is God’s job! Abraham and Sarah never saw most of God’s promises fulfilled. Those blessings were for their offspring. God want’s to bless us and our offspring.
It’s all about God!