WHAT IF the early church had decided to yell and scream at the Romans for acting like Romans?
As a youth pastor this is a never ending issue. There is always some person in the church banging their drum condemning the youth or children for acting badly in the church. I hear daily about the lack of respect that some of the kids we have come show the church building or leaders. To which I always explain that kids that don’t have Christ in their lives or in their homes have no reason to respect the church or anything else and it is up to us to help nurture that in their lives. But it goes further than that doesn’t it. How many times have church people expected visitors to be presentable in a Sudnay morning worship service? How many times have we expected a drunk to sober up before he comes to our church or a man and woman who are shacking up to find seperate residences before they become regular attenders? How would YOUR church react if a homosexual couple started attending and sitting on the front row?
We must come to a place where we can realize that the fixing is God’s job and that we cannot force any change nor can anyone bring about change in their own lives. Mark Batterson identifies the problem in his book “Wild Goose Chase”. We have tried to take the place of the Holy Spirit in people’s lives condemning them and convicting them instead of what Christ has asked us to do….loving them.
Lets remember the idea of the speck and the mote. We have enough to worry about on our own and despite what we think we don’t have God all figured out. When we see people acting like they don’t know Jesus let’s show them what he was all about.
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