No Longer Silent

You have persevered and have endured hardships for My name, and have not grown weary. Yet I hold this against you: “You have forsaken your first love.” (Revelation 2:3-4) We do many good things within our churches. However, it is so easy to get caught up in secondary tasks and succumb to the “tyranny of the urgent” that we neglect our most important calling, that of reaching lost people with the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. Each week I receive by e-mail the news and events taking place within our Annual Conference. In this week’s e-mails were articles about a college developing a smoke-free policy for their campus, observing an “Alcohol-Free Lent”, an observance celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Peace Corps, an article inspiring us to care for creation, plans for a Disability Awareness Sunday, a Golf Tournament fund-raising event, a day of Jewish-Christian dialogue to be held at one of our larger churches, and the announcement of a “Buddhism meets Catholicism” workshop sponsored by the World Religions and Interreligious Dialogue organization. There is no doubt that John Wesley called us as Christians to be concerned about social issues as well as proclaiming personal salvation. And in fairness to these weekly e-mails, there were some articles related to discipleship and evangelism. But my concern is, as I look at our denomination is a whole, that these words of Wesley have come true when he said: “I am not afraid that the people called Methodists should ever cease to exist. But I am afraid lest they should only exist as a dead sect, having the form of religion without the power. And this will be the case...unless they hold fast both the doctrine, spirit, and discipline which they first set out.” Dr. Daryl Ward, Vice-President of United Theological Seminary, puts it this way. He says: “If no one feeds people, somebody will do that. If no one clothes humanity, somebody else will do that. But if no one else says that Christ is alive, that Christ can save souls, and that Christ can break the stony bonds of our hearts...only the church can do that. And if we don’t do that, then we are in trouble.” We normally don’t fall into this trap intentionally. It happens slowly over time. Our church calendars get so over-crowded that evangelism and discipleship begin to be pushed to the side. As Rev. Mike Slaughter says: “We are so busy doing the work of the Lord that we have forgotten the Lord of the work”. And he calls us back to re-discovering our “first-love”. Those churches that are growing and healthy have a concise mission statement and clearly-focused goals. They continually remind their people of their mission and goals. Often times, we find them doing less things so they can focus on their major task. Dynamic churches often find their people at church less time per week than in other churches, so that they have time to spend in cultivating relationships with lost people. Those things will not happen automatically. They happen only as we do serious reflection and evaluation and discard some things from our calendar of events that are secondary in importance. If the annual “Chicken Noodle Dinner and Bazaar” is the major focus of our yearly calendar of events, then something is desperately wrong! If I were to have been named a District Superintendent, I realize that at the annual Charge Conference a degree of church business needs to be conducted. However, I would keep that to a minimum and, when it was finished, I would ask what I believe to be the truly important questions: “How many persons have come to saving faith in Christ this past year? Tell me how persons in your congregation are growing in their discipleship and using their spiritual gifts? And tell me the stories of persons whose lives have been radically transformed through the power of the Holy Spirit? It seems to me that these are the things that are our most important if the church is to truly be the church. I once attended a “Care Ministries” Conference in Kansas City. It had to do with welcoming and assimilating newcomers to the church. Rev. Ken Houts, the founder of this ministry, shared the following story. A church wanted to sponsor a team in a Church Softball League. They asked the Pastor if that would be all right. His reply was: “Absolutely. But half of your team members must be non-Christians!” Although not fully understanding the Pastor’s request, the coach agreed. At the end of the season, the Coach gave a summary report to the Church Board. He stated: “We were the only church where part of our team visited the local bar following the games! However, we were also the only team that had three of their players come to saving faith in Christ as a result of their participation!” I love gospel music, especially the music of Bill Gaither, and have found profound truths in the words of many of his songs. Here a few of the words from one of his songs. I think it has something to say to us as we ponder this critical issue. I don’t want to spend my time writing songs that answer questions that nobody ‘s even askin’ anyhow. When the house is burning to the ground, there’s just no time to stand around, arranging all the pictures on the wall. I want to spend my life giving folks the living water and the bread of life they just can’t live without. Instead of spending all that time writing songs that answer questions that nobody’s even askin’ anyhow! If revival is to come to our churches, we will have to once again need to allow “the main thing to truly be the main thing!”.