Every week we send first time visitors a questionnaire to tell us about the experience they had visiting.  We receive many wonderful comments, and a few suggestions, but the most repeated praise of what we do is the welcoming spirit of our people.  Your friendliness and love towards others is evident when they walk in our doors.  Sometimes it is humbling to know their greatest impression of us was not the music or the message, but the people they encountered, but honestly, I wouldn’t have it any other way.  Grace Community Church has grown mostly by people who cared enough to care for others.  If we ever lose that somehow I think we will lose our soul as a church. 

Will you do me a favor?  Will you help us do this even more? Sometimes we grow comfortable in our seats and fail to do what we need to do. (That statement is probably true about a lot of other areas in our life as well.)  This Sunday and every Sunday will you do two things?  1) Consider who you can invite to join you at Grace this week; and, 2) Introduce yourself to someone you don’t know and make the people around you feel welcome and at home.   

(As a side note from personal experience: Don’t assume it is their first visit, because they may have been there all along.  You just may not have met them yet.) 

Thanks for giving us a reputation as a friendly place where people are loved.  There is no better way to begin to introduce people to the love of Christ than to let them know they are loved by us.   

This is such a friendler post than what I started writing yesterday on this subject. Thank you God for time to think through commenting. I do have a question though about a denomination that I’ve been a part of since birth:

Are the Southern Baptist, by their passing of the resolution “On Regenerate Church Membership and Church Member Restoration” claiming that all the 10 million missing people from their membership rolls are in need of discipline?  You can read the resolution here: http://www.bpnews.net/blog/article.asp?id=176.  It passed at the denomination’s convention earlier this month. 

If so, I have a problem with that. My suspicion is that not everyone understands or even agrees with the system of record keeping Southern Baptist hold so dear.  In our military town, for example, people move away, join a church that doesn’t request “letters”, and never think to notify the sending church.  Are they living in sin because of an oversight in record keeping? 

I know that’s not the intent of this resolution.  Hopefully it is incredibly well-meaning to make sure disciples are being made in keeping with the teachings of Christ, but perception says otherwise, and, as I have learned in church planting trying to reach lost people, perception carries a lot of weight with the unchurched/unsaved world. 

I think the proper response may be to follow up with those “misplaced” members, find out where they are in their walk with Christ, and if necessary, adjust the churches records.  If discipline is needed then it can be addressed then.  I would suggest starting with the “love others” approach first.

Just a suggestion. 

Have you ever read something and wish you hadn’t?  That just happened to me.  While researching for message prep I stumbled on this blog post.  It’s not “new” information, just compiled in a way I haven’t seen; all in one neat, tidy, sobering place.  What to make of it?  Not sure yet.  I’m still processing it all. 

Check out what stirred my thoughts this morning at: http://faithwalk.wordpress.com/startling-statistics/

I’ve been following the story of the girls in a Massachusetts town who are believed to have formed a pact to get pregnant together.  The stories are all over the Internet; including many chat rooms and rumor pages calling the girls “retarded” and making other derogatory statements about them.  Apparently the girls would go to the school nurse to have pregnancy tests and were more excited when they were pregnant than when they found out they weren’t.  One girl even admits that a 24 year old homeless man is the father of her baby.  The school’s pregnancy rate among students this year is over four times what it was last year. 

We can stand in awe of this story, but I think it’s a very sad commentary on our society and ultimately on those of us who call ourselves the church. Some of the quotes I read about the girls:

The school superintendent said: “Many of our young people are growing up directionless.”

A fellow student said, “They’re so excited to finally have someone to love them unconditionally,”

Another adult in the system said these were, “girls who lack self-esteem and have a lack of love in their life.”

Finally, one student may have said it best when she said, “No one’s offered them a better option.”

While I am thankful on one hand that these girls value life enough to have carry their babies, I couldn’t help but think about the teenage girls in my own community, the one where I’m involved in planting a church.  Are they just as confused about how to find true love?  Are they just as desperate?  We claim to be offering a better “Way”.  We certainly believe we have a “better option”, but do these girls know it?  Have we shared with them the unconditional love of Christ?  Do they sense that kind of love in us? 

I am thankful in my community for some great Christian youth leaders and para-church ministries, as well as teachers and administrators, who attempt to reach our young people each day, but I still wonder if we need to be doing more at the church level, specifically to help train parents, change a culture that’s dying for love and looking for it in all the wrong places, and reach those who feel left behind and unloved in our society.   I see these girls pact as a wake-up call to the church to be the church God has called us to be; to be light into darkness. 

I have been to Wal Mart twice in the last few days and both times the customer service was less than one would hope to receive from America’s number one retailer. It almost seems to be a trend these days. Could it be the king of discount has forgotten that what got them to where they are today is more than just low prices? Apparently I’m not alone in thinking that Wal Mart is slipping in the customer service area. This MSNBC story from last year explores the problem: http://tinyurl.com/5fpu9x. In my opinion, if Wal Mart doesn’t figure out how to bring customer service back “with a smile”, they may not always be this nation’s number one retailer.

I also feel a similar phenomenon is occurring with some mainline Christian denominations and churches today. Over the years they have grown in numbers, built larger buildings and added new programs, but they have neglected some fundamentals of the Christian faith. They have become almost country club-like atmospheres where real strugglers in life (which is really all of us) almost feel unwelcome in the church because they don’t “fit in” with the church’s strict guidelines and stands on certain issues. The concept of “love others” (where they are) has almost been replaced with “teach others” to be just like us. In my opinion, the future of these denominations and churches will be decided by their ability to get back to loving others as Christ has first loved us and allowing the “kindness of God to lead to repentance.”

What is the Biblical concept of mutual submission as found in Ephesians 5:21 (and throughout the Bible) and how are we to apply it in our relationships today?

I’m working on a new concept in my mind and teaching. It has originated from recent marital counseling with several couples. Couples usually come to me with the mindset that they will meet the other person half-way, but only if their spouse does likewise. The thought of mutual submission, where each person is willing to give up all rights (100%) to the other person, is a very foreign concept and actually seems to anger people when I suggest it; yet I believe that’s what this passage teaches. The meaning of submission here literally means “to put under authority”. As I read Ephesians 5:21, we are to “submit” to each other. When both parties in a relationship are willing to give 100%, the dynamics of the relationship are incredibly enhanced. (It also seems that is what Jesus was willing to do for us!)

It is obvious today that we live in a very “me” centered society. Unfortunately that mindset includes my children and, sad to say, me. How are we to submit to one another? What is the correct Christian response to the culture in which we live that seems to teach us to think for ourselves and “every man for himself”? Of course the Ephesians passage is addressed to believers, so is submission only withing the Body?

I’m still in the wrestling stage with all this, but would love your thoughts…

Reading 2 Timothy 1:3 this morning gives me hope. Paul writes “I thank God whom I serve, as did my ancestors, with a clear conscience”. I think about Paul’s life; the things he had done against the Gospel; how he was probably one of the chief murderers of Christians in his day, and yet Paul could write his last letter to Timothy with a clear conscience. It gives me hope.

My sins are many and many are continuous sins, yet I can write this blog with a clear conscience. I can continue piecing together my message for Sunday without the guilt of sin discouraging or distracting me. Not because I am holy or worthy on my own, but because Jesus truly paid the price for my liberty He has wiped my slate clean. My debt has been paid. I can live in victory knowing that I am right with my Creator.

Today may I not be burdened by the junk of my past but may I live to please the One who has set me free.