We are all The Church
Every one of us that claim to be Jesus-followers make up His church. It is not only those in the church with a title or who serve in a leadership position, but all of us that make up The Church. Now many of you may say
I want to talk about just one gathering of Jesus-followers that I'm a part of, namely RCC. We meet each Sunday in the Provo Towne Center Cinemark Theaters where we worship in song, through scripture reading and with a relevant message. At the conclusion of each worship experience, I present the opportunity to respond to the worship experience in many different ways...you can respond to the overall experience, you can get involved, you can turn in a prayer request or with your financial contributions. Then each week a lot of people decide to play games.
It's as if a lot of people believe this entire worship experience was somehow shaped just for them. If you have been attending RCC for more than six weeks, it no longer is all about you! Our goal is to reach out to folk that are not attending a church anywhere for whatever their reasons. We want to provide a place where they can come and experience God in a new and unique way. Then we want to make it possible for everyone to continue to mature in their spiritual journey. That means doing the work of The Church.
I chose six weeks arbitrarily. I don't know how many weeks a person needs to attend before they decide this is the gathering of Jesus-followers they begin to consider home. That may be two weeks for some and may be eight weeks for others. The point is, at some time a decision must be made. Either you decide to associate with this group or you do not. Some people want to go a year or two before making a decision because they were hurt at their last church or they were abused at their last place or they have deep scars from the last group they associated with. That's unfair to us. God has blessed each and every one of us with 168 hours a week and different gifts and talents that we all need to share. And by not sharing, you are hurting this group of Jesus-followers.
Now a lot of people then go on to say that they are not staff at the church and they don't want to be sucked into some never-ending volunteer position where they can't get out. Let me address these in order. I am staff at the church...at least my picture shows up under the staff page on the web site. But that doesn't change anything. I do not receive a paycheck for all the work I do at church. My motivation is not getting paid at the end of the week, my motivation is using the time and talents God has given to me in a way that pleases Him. I think too many people are motivated by money rather than just the raw idea of pleasing their Heavenly Father. I have the same 168 hours a week as every other human has been given, and during that time I am able to hold down a full time job as a software engineer, I run a small farm in Benjamin, I continue to raise three great children, I am a husband to my wife and I find opportunity to serve God with my interaction with people and working for RCC. If you are a Jesus-follower, you need to be working to help out your local gathering.
Now some people don't want to be stuck in a never-ending volunteer position they can never get out of. I say good! I don't want to keep people in positions they don't want to be in! I give every volunteer the same speech...treat this like a job, please. You have two weeks of probation where you can cut and run at any time with no regrets. Once you've done a job for two weeks, if I find your work satisfactory and you are happy with the work, you are hired. All I ask for on the back side is two weeks notice so we can try and find somebody to take your spot. There are a ton of folk who have come in, tried it, spent some time doing a job and quit. They did it right, found another position they preferred and are now serving there. No permanent volunteer positions and no guilt. I don't want to guilt folk into positions and serving, but I do want to make opportunities to serve available to everyone who wants to serve.
Sorry for the long post, but I needed to get this out. It is about time people stop coming in to church for an hour, complaining that it didn't feed them or take care of their spiritual needs and come back the next week to repeat the process. Being a Jesus-follower is about service. Jesus modeled servanthood with His time on this earth. It is about time those of us who claim to follow Him wrap a towel around our waists and get to work washing feet rather than complaining our feet are still dirty!
I know thatbut my question is are you really living that? Would somebody looking at your life from the outside see that you know that you are part of Christ's church?
I want to talk about just one gathering of Jesus-followers that I'm a part of, namely RCC. We meet each Sunday in the Provo Towne Center Cinemark Theaters where we worship in song, through scripture reading and with a relevant message. At the conclusion of each worship experience, I present the opportunity to respond to the worship experience in many different ways...you can respond to the overall experience, you can get involved, you can turn in a prayer request or with your financial contributions. Then each week a lot of people decide to play games.
It's as if a lot of people believe this entire worship experience was somehow shaped just for them. If you have been attending RCC for more than six weeks, it no longer is all about you! Our goal is to reach out to folk that are not attending a church anywhere for whatever their reasons. We want to provide a place where they can come and experience God in a new and unique way. Then we want to make it possible for everyone to continue to mature in their spiritual journey. That means doing the work of The Church.
I chose six weeks arbitrarily. I don't know how many weeks a person needs to attend before they decide this is the gathering of Jesus-followers they begin to consider home. That may be two weeks for some and may be eight weeks for others. The point is, at some time a decision must be made. Either you decide to associate with this group or you do not. Some people want to go a year or two before making a decision because they were hurt at their last church or they were abused at their last place or they have deep scars from the last group they associated with. That's unfair to us. God has blessed each and every one of us with 168 hours a week and different gifts and talents that we all need to share. And by not sharing, you are hurting this group of Jesus-followers.
Now a lot of people then go on to say that they are not staff at the church and they don't want to be sucked into some never-ending volunteer position where they can't get out. Let me address these in order. I am staff at the church...at least my picture shows up under the staff page on the web site. But that doesn't change anything. I do not receive a paycheck for all the work I do at church. My motivation is not getting paid at the end of the week, my motivation is using the time and talents God has given to me in a way that pleases Him. I think too many people are motivated by money rather than just the raw idea of pleasing their Heavenly Father. I have the same 168 hours a week as every other human has been given, and during that time I am able to hold down a full time job as a software engineer, I run a small farm in Benjamin, I continue to raise three great children, I am a husband to my wife and I find opportunity to serve God with my interaction with people and working for RCC. If you are a Jesus-follower, you need to be working to help out your local gathering.
Now some people don't want to be stuck in a never-ending volunteer position they can never get out of. I say good! I don't want to keep people in positions they don't want to be in! I give every volunteer the same speech...treat this like a job, please. You have two weeks of probation where you can cut and run at any time with no regrets. Once you've done a job for two weeks, if I find your work satisfactory and you are happy with the work, you are hired. All I ask for on the back side is two weeks notice so we can try and find somebody to take your spot. There are a ton of folk who have come in, tried it, spent some time doing a job and quit. They did it right, found another position they preferred and are now serving there. No permanent volunteer positions and no guilt. I don't want to guilt folk into positions and serving, but I do want to make opportunities to serve available to everyone who wants to serve.
Sorry for the long post, but I needed to get this out. It is about time people stop coming in to church for an hour, complaining that it didn't feed them or take care of their spiritual needs and come back the next week to repeat the process. Being a Jesus-follower is about service. Jesus modeled servanthood with His time on this earth. It is about time those of us who claim to follow Him wrap a towel around our waists and get to work washing feet rather than complaining our feet are still dirty!
posted by Pastor Tom at 7:26 AM
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