A husband and wife
decided to finally tackle the job of cleaning out their long neglected storage
shed. Early the next morning when they
went out to the shed the husbanded started to explain his strategy for tackling
the job. His wife disagreed with his
approach, and she explained what she felt was a better tactic. They didn’t exactly argue because neither of
them was angry with the other. However,
they couldn’t agree on where to start, how to proceed, or what criteria to us
for keeping or discarding the items in storage.
He agreed. They did.
So what happens?
Start somewhere and work. Pick a plan.
As long as it’s decent and in order, as long as it’s compatible with the
gospel, as long as you won’t be ashamed to explain it before the judgment seat
of God (doesn’t matter at this point how it’ll sound at the annual
conference) , then pick a spot to start
working and get to work.
After 15 minutes,
the wife said, “Honey, why don’t we just go back inside. I’ll fix some breakfast and we can come back
out here later?”
Six months later
they decided to finally tack the job of cleaning out their long neglected
storage shed. Etc., etc., etc.
This is what can
happen in a church.
Pastor and
parishioners decide to address the slowed growth in membership, the diminished
enthusiasm among young adults, the slackness in Biblical literacy and spiritual
discipline, the crisis of brokenness within families, the urgent needs in their
community, and all the other jumbled concerns stored up under the ceiling-heading
of “ministry.”
The church
conference/ council/ elders/ leadership sit down to deal with the needs of
ministry, but they can’t agree on where to start. Different people offer priorities in
different orders. There’s a question
about whether to purchase a pre-made program or create their own. There are questions about which programs to
consider for purchase. How to we
evaluate success? Is the approach
spiritual enough? Everybody has a point. Most everybody has a valid point.
We do what we do
best. We plan a 3 P.M. “Ministry Day” program
with a guest preacher, 3 choirs, and a soloist; and the kitchen committee fixes
dinner.
The next year, the church
conference/ council/ elders/ leadership sit down to deal with the needs for
ministry in their church and community.
Etc., etc., etc.
It isn’t that nobody
cares. It isn’t that leaders are
oblivious to the problem. It isn’t
(always) that internal politics is so vicious that the church can’t get to the
real issues.
Sometimes it’s just
too easy to walk away from the mess, eat something, and let the busy-ness of
the day distract us from the piles of crap that need to be pulled out and
picked through
Yeah, it’s easier to
go back in the house/ fellowship hall and fix ourselves something to eat. But, we weren’t sent out just to go back in
and feed ourselves, were we?
----- Anderson T. Graves II
Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is the pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church
Call/ fax: 334-288-0577
If you want to be a blessing to this
ministry, contributions may be made by check or money order.
Mail all contributions to :
Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Rd.,
Montgomery, AL 36116
No comments:
Post a Comment