the SIGNIFICANCE of insignificance

Have you ever stopped to think how selfish Christians can be?  It’s almost like we gain this extraordinary sense of entitlement.  Some of us take on this notion that it’s all about what we can get instead of what we can give.

I’ve encountered more people that have told me what they’d like to see in worship because it’s what would work for them.  There’s rarely any consideration for what truly honors God, much less what would work for someone without faith who might be visiting.  I’ve had more people gripe about the “new” worship that other churches are doing (not even their own church) and how it just doesn’t feel like worship to them.  I’ve actually had candid conversations with some people where I’ve asked just how many people they think connect with the body of Christ each year in contemporary churches versus traditional ones.  Something tells me that the worship hasn’t gone astray, the people have gotten comfortable and have never reinvented their worship.

What is our worship about anyway?  Is it about making us feel good and assuring that we can walk away with?  Or is it about what we can offer God?

I’ve preached some on temple offerings over the last two weeks. (by the way, my sermons are on iTunes - just search for Mt. Bethel)  We’ve lost the most ancient forms of worship for the sake of what we call traditional worship.  In Jesus’ time, you came to the temple to make your offering - to bring something in the form of a sacrifice.  Fortunately for us, our sacrifice has been made in Christ, but we forget that worship is an act - it’s something that we DO.  We come to praise God, to recognize our place in creation and our need for divine grace, and yes, to receive that grace, but our worship should be God-centered rather than self-centered.

Our selfishness doesn’t end with worship either.  We are selfish with our lives.  Sure, we’ll all commit our souls and our future eternity to Christ because the alternative sucks, but what are we doing to live our faith?  Micah 6 recounts a time when God was ready to punish the people of Judah, but he wasn’t going to wipe them out.  They repented and wanted to know what offerings they could bring to the altar to gain favor with God.  Micah’s response was unexpected:
       “He has showed you, O man, what is good.
       And what does the LORD require of you?
       To act justly and to love mercy
       and to walk humbly with your God. (v.8, NIV)”

God doesn’t want part of us, he wants THE WHOLE THING!  He wants our lives to be lived by his will and in his honor.  When Christ ascended, he basically told the disciples that it was their job to live as he had and to carry on his work.  It’s an incarnational theology - one where we embody Christ to the world and Christ works in and through us.  When we are selfish and act out of entitlement, we misrepresent Christ to the world.  What a disgrace!  No wonder so many non-Christians have no relationship with Christ because of the behavior of the church!

I’m hurt by the number of people that say they like to hear about Christ and wouldn’t mind following his teaching, but don’t want the label of Christian.  How shameful is that for the Christians of the world?  How long will we bring our own agendas to the public arena or the pulpit and neglect to bring God’s agenda to the world?  How long will we put up with idiots on TV and in public that either say nothing of substance for fear of losing their crowd or say things that are divisive and turn people off to Christ.  How long will we put up with church leaders who feel a sense of entitlement and are sabateurs of the faith when they don’t get what they want?

I’m tired of entitled Christians.  I’m tired of defending this faith against them. 

Who’s most important in your life?  Is it you or is it God?

I’m honestly amazed at the number of people who still check my blog daily or weekly, even though I haven’t posted since the beginning of October.  Here, at the end of November, I can’t believe it has been that long.  The last two months have been full of ordination requirements, meetings, a stewardship campaign, church budgeting, preparing for Charge Conference, doctor’s appointments, and other responsibilities.

I have to tell you that shortly after my last post, I wrote another post that never got published.  As I was praying over the membership list for Mt. Bethel and considering leadership positions for 2008, God began to speak to me.  I picked up my notebook (if you know me, I’m never without my Black ‘n Red notebook) and began to write.  I wrote as fast as I could for almost an hour and then translated it into a single document.    This wasn’t  your typical brainstorming or even your typical prayer time.  Something happened that I can’t quite explain and still amazes me.

Anyway, I typed up what I thought would be a great post and saved it to my computer.  I wasn’t ready to post it.  I needed to spend more time with God to realize that what I had written was spoken directly to me and my job was to, over time, lead the people of Mt. Bethel in this vision.  This vision in it’s rawest form wasn’t suitable to post.  Over the next several weeks, I will mention, from time to time, parts of this vision as part of my blog post.

I can tell you this much:  I have seen much need for improvement, opportunity for ministry, and incredible grace from God at Mt. Bethel.  I have pondered the context and circumstances of my appointment and see literally, thousands of things to do.  The need to find the core elements in God’s vision for this church has been important simply to begin moving in the right direction.  Through this prayer time that I had, God has shown me five priorities in helping Mt. Bethel to truly be the body of Christ in this community.  What an incredible gift and burden!

The next day was Sunday, actually Laity Sunday (the Sunday that our laypeople lead worship), and I was on a high from writing out this vision.  I wasn’t ready for Sunday though.  The day started with one of the couples in the church who struggle to see the glass as half full doing everything possible to explain to me that the future of the church was hopeless and it was all the fault of pastors, district superintendents, and bishops.  But wait, it gets better…

I had made all of the arrangements for laity to lead elements of worship.  I was proud - people were getting involved that hadn’t been before.  Then it happened - two people leading key parts of worship didn’t even show up!!  On top of that, they didn’t call to say why and one of them later lied to me about where they were that morning.  INFURIATING!

That afternoon I went home and ate lunch by myself (Erin was on a retreat and Ben was with his aunt).  I pulled together the final details for Sunday night youth (anybody want to be an unpaid youth pastor?) and returned to the church.  After all of my preparation the week before, only TWO youth showed up.  Nothing I had planned could be done with only two youth, so we hung out and had a very short lesson.

After youth, a couple in the church came to speak to me about their marital problems.  I’m accustomed to helping people who are struggling with their relationships, but this couple is more passive-agressively hostile toward each other than any other I had been with.  I mediated conversation for about an hour before they decided to go home.  By this time, the great mood I woke with that morning was pretty well destroyed.

I drove an hour to my sister-in-law’s house to pick up Ben and got him in the truck just in time for him to fall asleep.  As I returned home (another  hour back) I noticed a car keeping pace with me several hundred yards off.  It was dark, so all I saw was headlights and since they didn’t catch right up to me, I assumed that it was safe to keep my typical pace of way too fast.  WRONG!  I found myself pulled over by Georgia’s finest just a mile further down the road.  Those state troopers sure can be sneaky!

Needless to say, our highs often come with incredible lows.  At the end of that day, all I wanted to do was sleep.  That day was only the start of things to come.  I’ve spent the last eight weeks working harder than I believe I ever have, usually 7 days a week.  I haven’t had time to keep up with friends, much less take time to relax.  My work has become much akin to herding cats.  Nothing has  come easy.  I haven’t even been motivated to blog, which has been one of my joys since moving in June.

After all of this, I’m back to blogging.  I plan, over the next several weeks to share with you the five priorities I believe God has in mind for this church and my impressions of each.  Be sure to leave comments on each as I continue to work them out for myself.

Thank you to my faithful readers.  I will do my best not to halt posting for this long again.

-Alex