Without the power and leading the Holy Spirit the Gospel is just a bunch of words. It takes the conviction and the invitation from God’s Spirit to lead someone to Christ (whether a first-time believer or a long-time disciple). We rely on God for the ministry of Church.
We often have preconceived notions about the what, the why and how of God’s calling. It receives no small attention from Pastors, authors of theology, bloggers, and the Jesus following Church member. I think that’s because it’s almost in no way theoretical and is extremely personal. Within God’s calling we find our guidance, our direction, our source of adventure, assurance and peace.
Everyone has something to say about leadership. Many people pursue positions of leadership while others actively avoid positions of leadership. We as people each individually need to be led. Whether we know it or not we will follow something or someone because we are creatures who follow.
It seems everyone has an answer as to why people are leaving and there are a myriad of people who know how to fix these issues. I’m not sure that the issues are as simple as we’d like to believe. We have to understand that church attendance is on the decline in part because the social expectation of church attendance has eroded, people are more busy and active now than ever before and their priorities are elsewhere.
The philosophy behind student ministry is the most important thing when it comes to thinking about how to do Youth Ministry in the Church. Should it be family focused? Will entertainment and pizza parties be the hook? Do we need a rock-star youth pastor who puts cool gel in his hair and knows the latest hip phrases and popular music?
You have churches popping up all over the place and yet still more and more churches are dying out. It’s like a consumerist propaganda, each church is trying to sell themselves as having what the guy down the street doesn’t have and I hear people comparing churches like they compare hamburger joints. The preferences over theology, music, eschatology, liturgy, and preaching style have caused a great splintering of the evangelical Church in America.
The flag bearer was near the head of the army, and the soldiers knew that if he was advancing, they should too, if he was retreating, they should retreat too. Because of this, the enemy would always target the guy with the flag. Because if the flag fell, the soldiers didn’t know which way to run, they would fall into confusion not knowing whether they were advancing or retreating. If you were the guy with the flag, you might as well have had a big huge red target on your jacket as everyone was gunning for you.
It seems most of us are so fond of our small pleasures in life that we have developed stomachs that would rather munch on cheap candies even though we are offered the chance to eat at a rich and elegant gourmet feast. If you find yourself sitting in church thinking about the football game you’d like to be watching, or wondering when Bible study will be over so that you can watch that new movie you want to see…