We Will Stand Alone

On judgement day, we won't be able to call up witnesses on our behalf.

The church board will not be able to say how well we cooperated. Our congregations will not be permitted to tell how enjoyable our sermons were. Our kids will not be allowed to share fond memories of their childhoods.

Many people on this earth will have an opinion on whether our job was "well done," but only one opinion will matter -- that of our Father. As long as He can say, "Well done, my good and faithful servant," it will not matter what anyone else thinks. If the Father were to say, "Depart from me, I never knew you," it still wouldn't matter what anyone else thought.

I wonder, who are you trying to please?

Why does it matter so much what other people think?

Whose Wisdom Do You Seek?

God once commented to Jeremiah concerning Israel's pastors:

The shepherds of my people have lost their senses. They no longer seek wisdom from the Lord. Therefore, they fail completely, and their flocks are scattered. - Jeremiah 10:21

Seems the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Nowadays, instead of asking what God would have them do, many pastors ask how Rick Warren did it, or Bill Hybels, or Steve Sjogren, or Joel Osteen, or ....

Sometimes pastors tap secular resources such as Seth Godin, Jim Collins, Stephen Covey, or Malcolm Gladwell. Some have even gone so far as to study Mohammad or the Dalai Lama.

I've heard some say that all truth is God's truth. I cannot argue that point -- truth is truth.

The trouble is not the truth, but the wisdom. Not all wisdom is God's wisdom. The Bible lists many sorts of wisdom -- wisdom of words, wisdom of the wise, wisdom of this world, man's wisdom, and earthly, sensual wisdom. In contrast, the Bible describes the manifold wisdom of God.

I read most everything Seth Godin writes, and I thoroughly enjoy it. I appreciate the challenge he sets forth to be better than average, to try to do more than just get by, but when it comes to decisions, Seth can't make them for me. I cannot ask myself which option Seth would prefer. There is only one voice that matters -- God's voice.

I wonder what would happen if our churches started investing as much time, money, and energy into seeking God's direction as they do attending seminars, reading books, and scouring the internet?

Perhaps this would happen:

Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not. - Jeremiah 33:3

or this:

Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. - Psalm 2:8

In a Rut?

I speculate that most churches do church the same way today that they did a year or more ago -- tailored to the people in the pews, striving to keep them showing up and paying up without too much speaking up.

If you want to know where your church will be two years from now, ask yourself where it was two years ago. If nothing's changed, chances are good that nothing will change.