How Can They Get Involved?

Sitting around dynamic Church leadership meetings, church board meetings, church staff meetings, and the question almost always comes up, "how can we get people involved?" It seems that a problem exists in churches everywhere, a problem of Christians not stepping up and serving. I have another question to ask, it is not how can we get people involved, my question is "how can you not get involved?" Is it really possible to "take up my cross" and "present my body as a living sacrifice" if I am not involved?

The problem, seems to begin with church leaders. They are asking the wrong question. They should not be asking, "how can we get people involved?" They should be asking, "how can we get people to become followers of Christ?" Christian leaders (myself included) have greatly missed the point. In many cases we have come to the conclusion that if people are involved they are walking with God. It is not our role to get people involved, but to help people develop a relationship with Christ. If people begin to develop a strong relationship with God they will get involved. Our focus should not be on getting people involved in ministry but getting involved with Christ.

Windows

Windows are intriguing things. Think about it, windows are pretty humble. A really great window is one which never wants to be looked at, never wants to be noticed, and never wants any attention. A really great window is looked straight through. A really great window clearly shows what is on the other side of it, without getting in the way. Although not all windows are humble. Stained-glass windows for example, they are never looked through. A stained glass window is always drawing attention to itself, to its broken shards of glass. As Christians what type of windows are we?

As a Christian I am called to show Christ to others. I am to be a window of sorts. A window through which Christ is revealed. It is tempting to be a stained-glass window. Often times I want people to look at my life and see what Christ is like. I try to order the broken pieces of my life in such a way as to create an image of Christ. The problem with this is that people only see me. They see my broken pieces, even if they are beautifully placed together. They do not actually see Christ, they only seen an image of Christ. Even if Christ is really behind my life, all that will be seen is his shadow through the colorful glass. As a stained-glass window I draw attention to myself and become a barrier between others and Christ.

I should desire to be a standard window. A window which people look at and see Christ. My life should be transparent, not so people are looking at me, but so that people see Christ. I desire that people see right past me into the face of our Lord. To do this I must ask myself why I do the things I do. Do I do them so that others look at me or so that others look at Christ. Am I concerned more with my reputation, or the reputation of Christ. I need to ask if I am acting in such a way as to draw attention to myself or through myself.

I pray that we and our church leaders would desire to be standard windows and not stained-glass windows. Transparency should not be the revealing of my inner thoughts, secrets and skeletons in my closet but it should be the revealing of Christ through my life.

Where has all the worship gone?

Why is it that so many of our "worship services" in the evangelical church today have merely become glorified bible classes? Where is the worship? In many churches the pinnacle is not the preaching of the Word, but the dissecting of the words in the Word. The scholar has replaced the pastor. The "worship service" has paralleled the classroom. As a student of the Bible, I do understand the need for sound biblical teaching, I do understand the need to teach the Word. However, in many cases corporate worship has become corporately watching someone exegete the Bible. The congregation is not participating in the worship of God, and the teacher is often more focused more on their audience than on God. How can we come back to the heart of worship? How can we corporately worship our Savior? How can we bring worship back?