Do you remember years and years ago the mom and pop grocery stores? People would just go in to visit. Everyone knew everyone, it was a family atmosphere. And now they’re gone and we have the big box stores. Sure things are probably a little cheaper but at what cost? And it has carried over and we have the big box churches now. The consumerism mentality keeps carrying over into all aspects of our lives and in conjunction with that is the competition of the businesses/churches. Who offers this or that program, which has the biggest and best state of the art facility. And just like in the big box stores, they can put out the fliers, have the promotional, and hang some balloons…to get you to come in and buy the latest and best whatever. Truth is, a lot of the time it is just crap that is dressed up to get you to part with your money. Sad thing is I see the same tactics used in the house of God. Instead of speaking the Truth we use gimmicks to try and lure people in. We try to seem to be very tolerant. We just want to get them in the door-it’s about the numbers. It appears that we don’t think Jesus did a very good job and we need to make improvements on His ministry style.
If you look at Scripture, Jesus’ ministry only lasted 3 yrs and He drove more people away than He brought in. But yet-those people were ready, willing, and DID-die for their faith. Are the people you are bringing in ready to do that? Or are they just “part of the crowd?” What are you doing to equip, prepare, and release the body of Christ to do HIS work? This just isn’t a question for the corporate Church. This is for you and me as well. We are all members of the body. How, or better yet-WHO are you shepherding along in their faith walk?