Irrelevant No More

Go ahead. Think back to your last Presbytery meeting. Think back to your last session meeting. Think back to your last congregational meeting.

Now ask, "If an unchurched person were to walk into that meeting and heard us discussing what we normally discuss, would that person even get a hint that the main reason why the church exists is so that God can reach lost people, minister to hurting people, and heal the broken people and help them become fully devoted Christ-followers?"

We are so inwardly focused, and we don't even know it.

The only ones we seem to be concerned about are the current shareholders. We've got to keep our people happy. And we said it loud and clear through our agendas and our actions, "We don't give a rip about lost, hurting, and broken people unless they are one of ours."

We have made ourselves totally irrelevant to the real world because outside the church walls, and even within our own, we are a lost, hurting, and broken people.

When will we start advocating for the hurting and the suffering?

When will we start strategizing about the best ways to communicate the love of God to a people who love Jesus but can't stand the church?

When will we start thinking about how we can most effectively introduce lost and hurting people to the kingdom?

When will these things take top priority in our agendas? When will these things get the lion share of the docket?

How did we get to be where we are?

Is this what it means to be Presbyterian?

Don't you see? Our issues, our agendas, our meetings don't mean a darn thing to the actual people living in our communities who are far from Christ.

And no one is even asking, "Would Jesus be okay with this?"

Is this what God would have us to be about? Is this what our supposed best leaders are supposed to be about?

There has to be a better way. We have to get better at connecting with the real world. There are just way too many people who are unnecessarily suffering through life apart from Christ.

Hey you! You and me.

Let's start doing church differently. Let's start asking some different questions. Let's set some different agendas. Questions and agendas that might actually make a difference to someone living far from Christ in our communities. Let's start getting creative. Let's give our best thoughts and our best dreams to how God can use the church to establish His Kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven.