A few weeks ago my wife and I were having lunch with friends. During part of the conversation we began to discuss church. Our friends said they were no longer attending their church. One of the main reasons they gave was that the pastor’s sermons all sounded the same. During our ride home my wife and I were processing the conversation. The comment about our friends leaving their church because the pastor’s sermons sounded the same had really bothered us so we started to make a list of all of the reasons we attend the local church we do. Interestingly, none of the reasons we came up with had anything to do with the pastor’s sermons. Here is the list:
1. Its fun. We get to hang out with friends, go camping with teenagers, play games with children, have interesting conversations, drink good coffee, eat doughnuts, go on scavenger hunts, hike state parks, and in general have a great time.
2. We are working with a group of like-minded people on a mission to help heal the world. We help the homeless, encourage discouraged teenagers to see themselves as bright and shining children of God, support ministries to local families to help them overcome the struggles of life, serve meals to friends and strangers, rake leaves for people who can’t do it for themselves, and try to come up with other ways to have a healing impact in our town.
3. We are participating in a movement much bigger than ourselves. With that group of like minded people mentioned in number 2 we see ourselves as part of the the work God is doing to rescue this world from the kingdom of darkness. We are doing this by investing in the lives of children and teenagers so they can hear who they are in Christ, giving the homeless a safe place to stay and hear how much God loves them and wants to change their lives, by praying for one another, and by tangibly supporting each other through the difficulties and challenges in this life.
4. We get to be difference makers. We have had the opportunity to be alongside teenagers and adults while they pray through emotional wounds from their past and see God speak directly into their hearts and heal them from the painful memories.
5. We get to be part of the solution. Its easy to point out the problems. We hang out with a group of people who have decided to participate in the solution.
6. We go to church to be around people who genuinely care about us and how our family is doing. We get to hang out with people who we can share our burdens with and who have our back.
7. We go to church because we get to hang out with people we care deeply about.
8. We get to partner with Jesus and the work he is doing to bring his kingdom to the town we live in and around the world.
[And by the way, our pastor is a great preacher. His sermons have helped us grow tremendously in our faith. That’s an added bonus.]
As a leader one of the things I appreciate is very direct communication from others. I would much rather have someone come to me and say, “Jerry I’m really mad at you about…”, than have someone be be upset and sit on it. On the flip side, I have to create a safe enough environment for people to feel comfortable enough to share their true feelings with me. I can create that safety by validating their concerns and by not talking over them, explaining their concerns away, or retaliating in any way.
