Against The Flow

Hillcrest, my local church is and has been for some time focusing on what we need to do to better reach our community. It has always been my contention that before we open the doors wide and invite and/ or better, bring others in, that we are what God would have us to be, The Church. Many people have defined the Church many ways but the unchurched that show up have a definition of church imposed on them by their experience at the local church. George Barna in “Grow Your Church From the Outside In,� states that our responsibility is bigger than whether or not we grow numerically. Each time an unchurched individual visits a church and chooses not to return, his or her experience may well determine his or her likelihood of ever returning to a Christian church. We cannot force an individual to stay, nor can we guarantee that our church will satisfy all of his or her needs. However, we can ensure that the unchurched visitor knows that our church is a dynamic and positive expression of what Jesus must have had in mind when He said that the gates of Hades would not overcome His Church.

The “gates of hades� may not overcome according to Jesus, my prayer and desire is to lead the church so as the people, the “Christians,� our not responsible for “overcoming His Church.�

The bible compares are life here on earth as vapor. We have seen it action all around us, especially on these cold winter days we are now having. You go out side exhale and there it is vapor, but wait, seconds later it’s gone. Life is like that. Just this week I was reminded of this truth. On Saturday my family went to celebrate a birthday in Newberry. It was fun, got to eat cake and ice cream, hang out with my brother, mom, grandma, and my great aunt. From 2pm – 5pm life happened, the party came to a close and all shared nice parting words as we went back to our own lives. But then the phone rings and the news is bad, Aunt Louise had a stroke and will not make it through the night. She didn’t. Life is like a vapor, who knows but God what the next moment will hold? Make the most of every moment you get. Who knows, that phone call with your friend may be your last, that hug from your child could be your last, that visit with your aunt may be your last.

Know God as Father and live every moment to it’s fullest.

Hillcrest Baptist, the church I serve, recently spent $25,000+ to buy, move, and renovate an old school portable to provide housing for our new children’s church program. There will be those who will think that this was money wasted, but every one is entitled to there opinion. The most recent Laurens County Dist. 55 school report card listed an expenditure of $5,000+/student. Our spending will be less than $1000/current child involved with our church. I think that’s a bargain. But, regardless of the cost we must do all, spend all that we can to reach children while we still can. Especially when you factor George Barna’s statistics in “Transforming children into Spiritual Champions. Here’s the facts:

Probability that a person will accept Christ as their Savior, by age.

Age:
5 to 12 – 32%
13 to 18 – 4%
19+ – 6%

What ever it takes folks!

The Barna Update recently reported that, “One in seven people will look for a new church in the coming year.” Are we ready? What must we constantly do to be ready to share Jesus in a relevant way to those who visit us for the first time? The status quo is no longer making a difference.

Been reading Seth Godin’s, “Really Bad PowerPoint,� Seth is making a point about emotion in communication. I really like his thought here:

You can wreck a communication process with lousy logic or unsupported facts, but you can’t complete it without emotion. Logic is not enough. If all it took was logic, no one would smoke cigarettes. No one would be afraid to fly on airplanes. And every smart proposal would be adopted. No, you don’t win with logic. Logic is essential, but without emotion, you’re not playing with a full deck.

We must play with a “full deck� when we’re communicating the gospel message of the love of Christ. Logic is not enough.