Wednesday
Oct272004
Too busy at church
Wednesday, October 27, 2004 at 10:21AM What if the priest and Levite passed by the beaten man on the Jericho road, not because they lacked compassion, but because they were running late to a discipleship group or an important board meeting? (Wayne Jacobsen)I quoted this last week:
The elevation of one
Reader Comments (7)
Of course they were "busy, busy, frightfully busy" - you have seen the Veggie Tales version of course?! My whole church has, we showed the clip at our last Sunday morning attempt to tame the busy-ness beast.
I don't know... I think true "compassion" trumps "busy" every time.
Hey Mike: I think that's what Jacobsen is saying. Church events can get in the way of loving our neighbor.
I'm going to try and comment on both the last posts here...the issue is "our" people need to be taught and given the opportunity to go either way...away from business and stuckness to servanthood and really loving their neighbours. How about using church events to build ties with our neighbours? I hate to say it, but sometimes you have to kill two birds with one stone in an established church. Especially because transitioning our church from being inward to becoming outward will take much teaching, much training, and much just doing it. The problem -look at the upcoming bowling event the youth are putting on. It was communicated not just as a fundraising event for the youth, but as an opportunity for people to invite friends out to do something together...we've got a crowd coming! 24+lanes booked for three hours. Only one problem...out of all those people only two people invited a neighbour or friend that is not a Christian. So, shifting our focus outward sounds and I believe is a great idea, but there's no question we'll run into a whole new problem...one that shouldn't surprise us...our people don't know anyone on the outside! That's not just a problem for our church...most established churches are in the same boat.
"How about using church events to build ties with our neighbours?" That can work sometimes, but I think we need to work at getting onto people's turf rather than expecting them to come to ours. Sure, it will take training and work. I'm game. I want people to understand that having the neighbor over for meatloaf is better than serving on two committees.
Tongue in cheek...I didn't bolwing alleys were our turf. There's nothing churchy about going bowling with your neighbours. However, I agree with getting into their lives...and that it is better than serving on numerous committees.
There was a day a Baptist would have been shot for going to a bowling alley, and that's not even for a Halloween bowl! I'm glad those days are over.