The worst feeling in the world A slight annoyance must be the feeling you get when hearing a sermon at your church and thinking of an absent person who would greatly benefit from your minister’s words.
Whenever a church knows they are going to do an evangelistic or apologetic sermon (and every church should know at least a few days ahead of Sunday), and do not inform their congregation, then they are doing themselves and, more importantly, they congregants a disservice.
Why?
Because they rob their people of the opportunity to invite those whom would engage with the topic or are open to hear a clear gospel presentation.
With social media, this is an even greater disservice.
My mind spins when it thinks of all the missed opportunities churches have let slip through their fingers because they are either too shy, disorganised or lack the missional awareness to simply tell people what they can expect on Sunday.
I know it’s been a long time since I’ve posted, but between a month on teaching practice and exams, blogging hasn’t squeezed into my timetable. But, now I’m on university holidays...
Over the last few months my church has moved into a brand new building and its... nice.
Frankly, it’s your fairly generic new church.
But, it is brand new.
And, if you’ve been a part of the entire building process, then you’re super excited.
But, I wonder, when does the line from thankfulness to idolatry get crossed.
Gladly, the swooning over the new building has started to die down, but what would happen if my church was still swooning over the new building after three months?
What if it was mentioned at the still at the start of every service?
What if it was still a part of every prayer?
Whenever a big new initiative happens within a church there’s always a danger of idolatry.
We can make the same mistake as those in the Old Testament did with the temple.
We can elevate the gift over the giver.
I wonder how many church leaders are aware of the danger and how many, by thanking God so profusely and repeatedly, are an instrumenti for idolatry to grow.