WARNING PREACHY
A true story (I think).
A church had a problem with squirrels making nests in the
church building and the congregants were at their wits end trying to get rid of
the squirrels. One day members of the
church were meeting to discuss the problem when woman who had been in the
church for many generations had a suggestion about how to get the squirrels to
go away, and never come back. “What we
must do, and precedent proves this to be true, if we want the squirrels to
leave and never come back, we need only to confirm them.”
While I think this is a true story, it feels like a
satire. Either way, it plays into an
epidemic that is spoken of in churches today.
One church’s members lament that their children are no longer coming to
church, another congregation complains that they cannot get young people to
attend, and another church has a rotating door of new people coming in and
going out despite the many programs that they have in operation. All the leaders and ministers of these churches
are seeking to figure out how best to attract and retain people. But I think the fact that people are not staying
in churches is proof positive of just one problem – Jesus isn‘t there.
Please don’t get me wrong, Jesus may indeed be in a
church but the fact that people are leaving indicates that the people leaving
are not experiencing Jesus – or if they did, they are no longer. Children not returning to an aged congregation
or a high turnover rate to a young church communicates the same thing – there is
a disconnect between the people and God.
What’s the solution?
Somehow the people need to connect with God through the Lord Jesus
Christ in a very meaningful way. This
can be through music, bible studies, fellowship, various liturgies, and the
like but people need to meet with Jesus in a real and revelatory way.
In the book of Revelation, the Apostle John had an experience where, in the Spirit, he encountered the Lord Jesus Christ. John describes the event in the first chapter
like this:
17 When
I saw him [Jesus], I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right
hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid.
I am the First and the Last. 18 I
am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And
I hold the keys of death and Hades. (Revelation
1:17-18)
My question is this. When was the last time you or I have had an
experience with Jesus that had dropped us to our faces as though dead? When was the last time we have had a revelation
of the actual living Lord Jesus Christ?
I suspect that when a church becomes good
at helping people actually experience Jesus, they will no longer need to ask how
to retain their people.
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