Pick Up a Fork

In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive. -  Acts 20:35

There is no doubt that we live in a consumeristic society. All of our culture is surrounded by the lure of come and take. Advertisers bombard us with “Look at what we can offer you to make you happy and fulfilled.” “What we have is better than what others are offering.” “No commitment required!” It all sounds good until something new comes out next week that says the same thing.

This is a very dangerous thing that has not crept, but blatantly barged its way into the modern church. It seems the modern church has embraced the consumeristic culture to downplay, or in some cases even eliminate, any commitment to the church. This come and let us make you comfortable approach is nowhere in the Bible. In fact, Jesus said just the opposite when He told his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Matthew 16:24

I have found that people do not commit to ministry or a church, and use the term I am just not fed. That may be the case in some instances where there is little to no sound teaching and community, but quite often it is because they refuse to commit and plug into what the body is doing. To be honest, these types of statements are hard to hear. Especially when pastors and ministry leaders labor to make much of Jesus and bring others along the way.

No church is perfect, and if we found it, we couldn’t be a part because we would ruin it. I love our church, but to be honest, there are things that I don’t particularly like. But I know that we as a body of believers are committed to making Jesus Non-Ignorable in Severance and beyond, and that trumps any imperfections in our church. This is why we commit to one another. This is why we lock arms and work hard to make improvements where we can. When we realize that we have been given forgiveness through faith in Christ, which we don’t deserve, we realize that it really isn’t about us but about Jesus. Simply put, the church is not meant to be a consumeristic society. It is meant to be a committed and serving society because of the abundance of what we have already been given. When we take the focus off ourselves and strive to love God with all of our heart, soul, strength, and mind, and love our neighbor as ourselves, it is a really cool thing. May we be the church that continues to lock arms with joy and make much of Jesus together.

I love you guys, and thanks for allowing me to be one of your pastors.