Are you in front of something? When you look behind you do you see a group of people who are looking straight at you and apparently waiting for your next move so they know what their next move is going to be? If you find yourself in that awesome position, then you have woken up to find yourself in a position of leadership.
Are you a positional leader? Are you by job description or title a leader? Does your position in your company or business necessitate that you are in from of people, but when you look around are you straining your eyes to see where all the followers are?
In the business world this lack of follower-ship can be problematic to your company's bottom line - if you are a pastor then this lack of follower-ship can mean eternal death for hundreds if not thousands of people. We live in a time when the population of the world is growing and the population in our churches is decreasing - Houston, we have a problem!
We do not have a lack of church locations, but yet we have a lack of growth of the Christian faith. How can this be the case? How can we in America have a surplus of churches and yet still have a deficit of Christianity? How have we missed the boat? Why are we in the position we are in? How are we going to get out of it?
Where is the urgency in the church? Where is the passion in the leadership of the church that compels us to give everything we have to reach those around us with the Good News? When did we swallow the lie that it is ok to be the church 'for us', but it is not ok for us to be the church for 'those people out there'? Why do we believe that 'those people out there' need to change to be more like us before they can join us? Do we seriously think that people are dying to flood into our churches and fill our pews all by themselves?
Houston, we really do have a problem - it just isnt going to happen.
We need to allow the Lord to change us and transform us to a people of URGENCY - a people who have heard the alarm bell ringing and understand that when the alarm goes off it means only one thing - FIRE!
We need to allow ourselves to accept change and new things readily and to not get stuck in the rut of 'this is how we have always done it'. We need to recognize that the cheesy-Left Behind series movies may not have all the Hollywood razzamataz, but they have one vital element - the TRUTH. Whether you enjoyed the cinematography of any of those end of the world type movies is not important - the truth that people have one life to live and if they die without knowing Christ then they are dead forever.
When will we wake up to the alarm that is ringing loudly at the minute and 'be strong and courageous' and simply invite our friends and neighbors to come to church?
When?
Please let it be soon.
Do you hear me Jason? The time is now!
GO!
Christmas Eve 2024
3 hours ago
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