May 24, 2012
Finding Your Way
When I break a routine it’s a real struggle to get motivated again. At
the fitness center the other morning one member who hadn’t been working out for
sometime was greeted by another member, “We’ll,
you found your way back.” I was struck that the man returned of his own
accord without the involvement of others.
No one called him up, sent him a card or tried to remind him that he has
been missing in action. In fact, he wasn’t even greeted with a, ‘we’re glad your back’. I’m wondering if
believers put too much emphasis on dragging missing sheep back to church, when
we really should be focusing on being at peace while they find their own way
back.
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3 comments:
Gail;
-----I sometimes ponder that the over-emphasis on making new believers is actually a quite devious trick played upon the church by Satan. It is bewildering to think Satan would influence something as antithetical to his own interests as converting some of his own ranks to the enemy camp. However, considering what the people, the church, and the Lord are clears the problem.
-----Truly, referring to the Lord’s people and the church is redundant. The church is nothing more than the perception of His people in the aggregate. Yet, we who are the church - we people - are individuals, the perspective of the reference to His people. So the church is as much the interrelationships of all its individuals as each individual is uniquely peculiar from the rest. These two foci of consideration founds the sense in which Satan might be willing to influence God’s people to overemphasize evangelism.
-----Part of interrelationships are mutual responsibilities. I don’t mean common responsibilities, I mean responsibilities towards one another. Taken as orders or regulations from a command structure, these mutual responsibilities do not rise out of the hearts of the individuals. They are rather put there by the force of any disincentives thrown upon the individuals by a command structure. This is not love. It is legalism. Legalism requires less teaching and more force. It survives exclusive evangelism quite well.
-----The church is made of love. Love rises from the heart of the individual without regard to incentive or disincentive. In other words, it does not have to be bought or coerced. In fact, the benefit and joy of the one loved is the incentive for the loving one to love, while the detriment and sorrow of the loved one is the disincentive for the loving one to hate. These simplified terms denote the basic fiber of the interrelationships that is the church. It is this love, this responsibility for the safety and decent conditions of others that makes the church only when it is initiated from the affections of the individuals’ own hearts. Yes, the Holy Spirit is the instigator of it. But He chooses the individuals themselves to be the propagators of it. It can not be forced. It must be modeled and taught. It requires all the focused attention and energy as does evangelism.
-----So if the church focused upon only the recruitment of new members, the propagation of what is the church would not occur. You might then think the church would not exist. And you would be right. Certainly an organization would exist. One that feigned love. One that had the looks of said interrelationships. But it would not be the church because the doings of it would rise from incentives and coercions centered around self interests, not around interests of others. It would be a system of phoniness filling the very void which, if otherwise unfilled, would call out for genuineness. The void filled with falsehood is exactly the rub, new members untaught, uninspired, unloving. Just keep them entertained so they will stay. It is the perfect order for placing into the spot of the sanctified church the dastardly beast. It is so naturally a thing of Satan’s wares.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
Steve,
I guess I’m toying with the idea of where evangelism should be exercised. Certainly we evangelize the lost, but are we also trying to use the same evangelistic play book on those who are missing in action? I really have to laugh at the continuing fitness center conversation. On the first day the active member said, “Well you’ve found your way back.” On day two he said, “I see you’re back again.” Then today, day three, he said, “If you keep coming back people are going to start thinking you are serious about this.” Obviously these guys are friends and can rib one another, but I can just imagine the indignation if someone active in their faith were to say to a straying sheep, “If you keep coming back people are going to start thinking you are serious about this.”
Gail
Gail;
-----I so missed your point that maybe it could be said I ignored it. Over emphasis of evangelism gets my goat too much. Maybe it is why we are a bit consternated by straying sheep situations.
Steve
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