Monday Morning 9/24/2012

I have a serious question for you. It may require some thought. It might even require you to take it before God in your devotions. Here’s the question: What kind of person are you becoming through your church?"

I mean, think about it. We invite people to come to our churches for what? Do we want to reach people for Jesus? Do we invite people to come to a place of worship and learning and fellowship?  If people come to our church, what do we have to offer them? These are all important things to consider. But they are very short sighted. The real question that every person should be asking in their church is, “What kind of person have I become in my church and what will others become as a result of coming to our church?"

The answer is not about you and me. The answer is not in the numbers. The answer is not what the church can do for you and me. The answer is a changing attitude toward those around us in the community. The answer is each person becoming a successful participant in God’s work in and through us.

The demands of corporate life, family life and spiritual life are huge. All of us have given up prematurely sometime in our lives. We may have come up against a business setback, and we quit. Others of us had relational difficulties, whether with our spouse, our in-laws or our co-workers, and we’ve stopped trying to work things out. Still others have started a physical, spiritual or school program but gave up before reaching the finish line.

We live in a society and time when almost everything is handed to us without requiring us to be patient or to keep on trying. We buy our clothes off the rack. We buy our food frozen but pre-cooked. The shows on television and the movies resolve all the problems the main characters have, and they do this in a time frame that is thirty minutes to two hours in length. And recently, one can get a divorce on-line, without ever leaving home.

There is a concept that is called “flexible persistence.” This is the idea that we will do whatever it takes to do something by adjusting to individual need. Jesus and Paul both realized this. Jesus and Paul both practiced “flexible persistence.” This is why Paul wrote about flexible persistence to the church at Corinth. “God, with his mercy, gave us this work to do, so we don’t give up.” (2 Corinthians 4:1)

Not all people coming to our churches will react the same way. Non believers do not think the same way believers think. Non-church people do not act the same way as people who go to church faithfully. Those who are “different” are treated like those who are “normal” are doing a favor for them. These are the people we are becoming. Our “flexible persistence” seems to stop at the door of the church when it needs to find its place in our communities.

Sadly, flexible persistence is vanishing from our society. Flexible persistence enables us to work with difficult people in difficult situations to achieve God’s best. Flexible persistence trusts God and utilizes God-given resources to accomplish God-size goals.

Your church is called to serve people for the sake of Christ. There are many un-churched “different” people who have not heard the name of Jesus Christ. The only thing I can say is that they are not easily reached, but not impossible. God has given us this work, and with flexible persistence, they will surely be reached.