Doing the Impossible

I say that I will scream if I hear another sermon, clergy retreat, district meeting  or conference presentation that mentions church membership decline.  And if they include numbers and percentages I will walk out.  Now, if I did that my throat would constantly be hoarse and I would never attend another meeting because it's mentioned quite a bit.

And how two-faced am I?  Church membership decline came up in my sermon this past Sunday; I even slipped in a statistic.  I neither raised my voice beyond my usual bellowing and was the last person to the leave the sanctuary.

I think it was God.

It seemed right, and a good and joyful thing to mention it as we thought about Peter's miraculous work with Tabitha and how so many believed in the Lord because of it. It's agreed by many that the church has lost some of it's prophetic voice.  Maybe she's been yelling too loud at other things, but many do not think the Christian church has much to contribute to the livelihood of the world.  That hurts when part of your church's mission statement is to "transform the world."  And it reeks of unfaithfulness when we remember that Jesus said we would do greater things than he did.

All that said, it seems somewhat impossible to do anything about where we are as a church.  Good because, as Walt Disney once said, it's kind of fun doing the impossible.

I guess that's the point of this sermon.  You listen, scream and let me know what you think.

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Stay blessed...john