Disconnected
Yeah - I'm with you there, Michael. I think that we ALL have it wrong as far as the Rapture/End Times thing is concerned...
Isn't it funny that so many believers are SO worried about what the end of times will be like that they can't seem to live in the NOW? I mean, I know a couple of denominations (or "affiliatons" if you take my meaning - some of the newer denominations don't like to be called denominations) that actually have a mandatory eschatological position - in other words, if you aren't a Pre-Tribulation Rapture, Premillenial Christian, then you're a heretic... Sheesh... like I have God soooo figured out, or something...
So, what is the Church around you doing right? Where are we actually BEING the Body of Christ? Clearly, it's not happening at school...
Around here... Well, at First we're just now putting resources (people and money and vision) behind our Evangelism committee - NOT because we need to make more members (we're actually GAINING membership without ANY work on the part of the Evangelism Committee), but in a real effort to connect Jesus with people. We're not very good at it, but we're trying. We put a real effort in our area to minister to the kids through Vacation Bible School and our weekly after school program - with mixed results. If numbers matter, we give something like a quarter of a million dollars in various mission giving (above and beyond our operating expenses, salaries, program committees, etc.) and we have a huge number of people who do outreach into the community. My problem with those kind of numbers is that there's no way to tell if there's any kind of connection between the giving (money and volunteer hours) and faith. Does Family Services see the large donation our church gives them every year as an act of faithfulness and in response to God's grace? Or do they see it as a line-item on their budget? Do the people who come to the soup kitchen see the volunteers there as ministers of God's love and mercy or as folks who ladle out the gravy? I don't know. St. Francis of Asisi supposedly said, "Preach the Gospel at all times, and, if necessary, use words." But we don't use the words enough... So, was our VBS just "free babysitting" or "a passionate outreach to the lost with the transforming message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ"? Viva!!
Disconnected. I feel that way too often (heh, especially when I'm railing against the injustice of the freaking idiot who goes forty freaking miles an hour on the freaking highway except in the freaking passing zones... What would Jesus do? ARGH!! James and John would have wanted to call fire down from heaven, I just know it...and if I had a rocket launcher on my car...).
Okay, maybe I AM disconnected from my faith WAY more than I should be. Why is that?
So, the church is taking steps - maybe they're baby steps, but they are steps... And so am I.
There's a great verse in a Rich Mullins Song called Hard to Get (by the way, the Jesus Record is probably the greatest Christian album ever produced..):
That's me, sometimes... Lost enough to let myself be led... And so the disconnection isn't so bad, sometimes, I guess. It puts me in places where I have to trust God...
And the connection? Well, I'm still not too good at telling people about my relationship with Jesus. I can preach, no problem. I can do good works. Piece of cake. But to just tell somebody why I love Jesus...not there yet... So, my actions are still disconnected from my faith...
Thinking back on all of this, I think the whole post is a little disconnected...but it makes sense to me...and, somehow, I make sense to God. I LIVE in that truth...
Isn't it funny that so many believers are SO worried about what the end of times will be like that they can't seem to live in the NOW? I mean, I know a couple of denominations (or "affiliatons" if you take my meaning - some of the newer denominations don't like to be called denominations) that actually have a mandatory eschatological position - in other words, if you aren't a Pre-Tribulation Rapture, Premillenial Christian, then you're a heretic... Sheesh... like I have God soooo figured out, or something...
So, what is the Church around you doing right? Where are we actually BEING the Body of Christ? Clearly, it's not happening at school...
Around here... Well, at First we're just now putting resources (people and money and vision) behind our Evangelism committee - NOT because we need to make more members (we're actually GAINING membership without ANY work on the part of the Evangelism Committee), but in a real effort to connect Jesus with people. We're not very good at it, but we're trying. We put a real effort in our area to minister to the kids through Vacation Bible School and our weekly after school program - with mixed results. If numbers matter, we give something like a quarter of a million dollars in various mission giving (above and beyond our operating expenses, salaries, program committees, etc.) and we have a huge number of people who do outreach into the community. My problem with those kind of numbers is that there's no way to tell if there's any kind of connection between the giving (money and volunteer hours) and faith. Does Family Services see the large donation our church gives them every year as an act of faithfulness and in response to God's grace? Or do they see it as a line-item on their budget? Do the people who come to the soup kitchen see the volunteers there as ministers of God's love and mercy or as folks who ladle out the gravy? I don't know. St. Francis of Asisi supposedly said, "Preach the Gospel at all times, and, if necessary, use words." But we don't use the words enough... So, was our VBS just "free babysitting" or "a passionate outreach to the lost with the transforming message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ"? Viva!!
Disconnected. I feel that way too often (heh, especially when I'm railing against the injustice of the freaking idiot who goes forty freaking miles an hour on the freaking highway except in the freaking passing zones... What would Jesus do? ARGH!! James and John would have wanted to call fire down from heaven, I just know it...and if I had a rocket launcher on my car...).
Okay, maybe I AM disconnected from my faith WAY more than I should be. Why is that?
So, the church is taking steps - maybe they're baby steps, but they are steps... And so am I.
There's a great verse in a Rich Mullins Song called Hard to Get (by the way, the Jesus Record is probably the greatest Christian album ever produced..):
And I know You bore our sorrows
And I know You feel our pain
And I know it would not hurt any less
Even if it could be explained
And I know that I am only lashing out
At the One who loves me most...
And after this all I really want to know
Is if You who live in eternity
Hear the prayers of those of us who live in time
We can't see what's ahead and we cannot get free
From what we've left behind
I'm reeling from these voices that keep screaming in my ears
All the words of shame and doubt,
Blame and regret
And I can't see how You're leading me
Unless You've led me here
To where I'm lost enough to let myself be led
And so You've been here all along I guess
It's just Your ways, and You are
Just plain hard to get...
That's me, sometimes... Lost enough to let myself be led... And so the disconnection isn't so bad, sometimes, I guess. It puts me in places where I have to trust God...
And the connection? Well, I'm still not too good at telling people about my relationship with Jesus. I can preach, no problem. I can do good works. Piece of cake. But to just tell somebody why I love Jesus...not there yet... So, my actions are still disconnected from my faith...
Thinking back on all of this, I think the whole post is a little disconnected...but it makes sense to me...and, somehow, I make sense to God. I LIVE in that truth...
posted by Pastor Bill at 2:31 PM
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