Unless the LORD builds the house, They labor in vain who build it; Unless the LORD guards the city, The watchman stays awake in vain.
Psalm 127:1
Recently while attending Power-Plant with our teens which is a Mission Trip ran by the NAMB this verse was used. I could not shake it out of my mind.
I look at churches and see us with our projectors our good choirs our nice seats our multi million dollar sanctuaries and so forth and can’t help but wonder is there room for God. I mean we have regulated our services down to the minute to the point the spirit has no freedom to move unless He will move in our time frame. What are we doing? At what point has man taken over building the house and left God out of it. I was forced to ask am I building in vain. I have been struggling with this for over a week. I do not want my labor to be in vain. I want God to be in it and if He is not then what is the use, I am merely wasting time.
I just can’t help but feel that all across America on any given Sunday we have congregation that are based on man made tradition and philosophy they are houses built with straw houses built in vain where God is not in it. Sure they may have the appearance that everything is great but if the building was gone, the nice chairs were gone and there was nothing there and people had to come and sit on the dirt floor would the presence of God be there? Have we somehow confused stuff with the presence of God. If He is not there I don’t want it.
Well tonight we had family thanksgiving with my wifes side of the family it really was some good food. In fact I had some great cranberry relish and some good potatoe stuffing. As usual I washed it down with my wife’s pecan pie. I am biased and I know it but my wife males the best pecan pie in the world. We had a lot of folks here at the ridgeway Baptist church but as I sat hear I was thinking about family and how we are all different. I am glad that my wife’s family is not the same as my family how boring would life be if we were all the same. I know for me life would be boring.
If I am really honest I use to jot want to come to these things with my wife. Deep down inside I guess I never really felt welcome but I would always cone to make my wife happy. I know how lame I am but it is the truth. Now for the most part I like to come. But I can’t help but wonder if this is how so many feel coming to our churches. Do they come in the door looking to be accepted and loved into a family but in the end they feel rejected and not part of the family at all. I think we are failing miserably in the church and when we stop making church less about our comforts.and more about loving God and loving others we will see Him move. Lets together change the atmosphere of how we do church.
If we continue to operate church like a business we may be in trouble. I am not sure where the idea came from or when it started but for whatever reason all across america churches are being ran like businesses. The major problem with this is we are creating consumers out of those people who attend our churches instead of followers of Jesus and I really do not think this is the road we want to head down. Think about what you do as a consumer. You shop for what you want and if you are not satisfied you go elsewhere. Somewhere along the line we have developed this philosophy in our churches that we are a business and we must please our consumers. Will we really ever please the consumers. I mean wont they eventually leave for something better, something bigger, something different. We have no one to blame but ourselves. The church must wake up and follow God’s word and be a church. Be a place where people can experience freedom, healing, instruction, truth etc. The church I dont believe ever was to be a place where we entertained those that wish to consume our entertainment to eventually become gluttonous on it. If we do not wake up and change from running church as a business I fear for the next generation.
I love to fish. In fact if it were possible I used to spend to much time fishing, I would tell me wife that God made the world 3/4 water so we should spend 3/4 of our time fishing. It really does not matter what kind of fishing it is either. I like to bass fish, fish for catfish, trout, bluegill, you name it I love to go. For me there is nothing better then hooking into a big fish. Even when I was little I loved to go out and fish and try to catch the “big one”. There were times when I would go and stay out all night simply fishing. Well Jesus knew how to fish as well, Luke 5:4-11
And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” 5And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” 6And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. 7They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. 8But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” 9For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken, 10and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” 11And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.
This scripture has always intrigued me. I mean Jesus tells the disciples to fish out in the deep in the middle of the day. He is telling them to fish where everyone would say not to and during a time when everyone would say is bad time. The disciples knew that you fished at night near the shore. But Jesus knows where the fish are at. So the disciples obey and they catch so many fish that their nets are going to break and they end up filling 2 boats and the boats almost sink. Wow that is a good day of fishing. I cant help to believe that these verses have some application to the church.
I believe it is time for the church to wake up. For whatever reason we think the fish are just going to come and jump into our nets and we are going to have this great catch. Fish are never just going to come and jump into our nets it is time for the church to “launch into the deep and let down there nets” we have to stop thinking the fish will show up and start obeying where Jesus may be telling us to fish. Jesus knows where the fish are but are we willing to listen. We must not be content to sit back and to wait for them to come but to GO and find them.When I go fishing if I am in one spot for awhile and I do not get a bite I move to another spot looking for fish. I am not saying the church has to pack up and move but I am saying that we have stop thinking the people will come to us and start realising we must go to the people.
We have become so good at building aquariums that we think our aquarium is good enough to make fish come and be happy just sitting in our aquarium. I dont know about you but I have never seen an aquarium gill itself. I mean we have grown so accustom to worrying about how our service looks, or how our church looks, or how are music sond, or what Bible we use, or whether we have a Starbucks in our church and honestly it is meaningless. Sure it may attract a few fish here and there but ultimately our aquariums seem to be for the fish e already have. Dont get me wrong I like good music, I love Starbucks coffee but I am already in the church. Fish are not just going to swim right into our aquarium but we must go and get them. When will we learn that the great commission requires us to go and not to stay. We must go somewhere and find the fish and then go fishing.
We are all to be fisher of men will you go fishing?
It has been a long time since I have posted. The primary reason for this has been related to my lack of funds. You see my hosting renewal came up and I did not have the money to renew my hosting. I pulled the trigger a few hours ago and purchased my hosting.
Not much new here in northwest Missouri. The job hunt still continues. I have updated my resume I can’t tell you how many times but I know the best way for your resume to be noticed is for someone else to deliver it. However I still keep plugging away. Some people have asked if I want to be a youth pastor or a senior pastor and right now I am kind of in the either one camp. I have 15 years of experience as a youth pastor and that is something I enjoy doing. So in the right circumstance I would take a youth pastor postion. However most of the churches I have submitted to have been senior pastor postions. All of this to say the search continues. It has been 2 years since I have ministered in a full time capacity and trust me I am ready. But it is God’s timing so i will continue to wait upon the Lord.