Have you ever heard the phrase "Fly By Night?" The phrase itself means something of a shaky or impermanent nature. A fly-by-nighter is an unscrupulous or undependable person. The phrase denotes a person who is unreliable and not a good finisher. This in some ways is the type of faith we have been teaching over the past years in many "modern day" churches. It feels good because it takes little or no sacrifice or commitment and you can take it or leave it. In our desire to make serving Christ as easy as possible we have polluted the purity found in a passionate heart that loves Chirst. We have asked for no buy in and thus the amount of Christians who are available to serve Christ through the church has diminished over the years. In most churches 100% of the serving is done by 20% of the people and those people are overworked and many times burned out. What should be something that is very enjoyable and encouraging becomes something very taxing and draining. So....we've got a major problem because of the lack of leadership getting all people involved in serving in some capacity. We've also got a group of people who have been empowered to do nothing and have no remorse about it. Is it their fault? To some extent, but the real fault lies in our lack of understanding God's Vision for His church in today's world. I remember a few years back it was the "in" thing to develop a vision statement and then rally your church around this one statement and make everything evolve from it. I personally thought it was the weakest attempt ever to try to get the church to come alive in the area of service. So I wasn't surprised when it became another failed action that started as only an idea on a piece of paper with no real proof of success. Now the big thing is to get people to come to a worship service once a week to hear a "super preacher" either live or on a screen and hope in some way he can mobilize people through this distant, at best, contact. In reality all we are trying to do is get people to do more with less forethought, prayer, or direction. They get involved in something that sounds good but has no good foundation and after a period of 4 weeks to 2 months they get disenchanted and quit. I say all of this to say, "This faith is fly by night faith." All of this sounds bad doesn't it? That's because it has taken years to promote this agenda that is counterproductive to the Great Commission of Jesus Christ. Now we are reaping what we have sown and this fly by night faith is failing miserably at a time when the world is more ready to hear and see real faith. What are some causes of this fly by night faith? Not spending quality time planning and praying when developing a ministry plan for long term. Not finding and developing the gifts and talents of believers in your church. Not taking quality time to develop character and Biblical Foundational Skills in each person. Not mentoring new believers and showing them the possibilities of what Christ can do in their life. There are many other things we have done to "dumb down" those who have the capacity to change their world forever but now it is time to change. No more fly by night faith. No more trying to be relative to our society weakness. No more excuses. Change......NOW.
I sometimes need to hear the TRUTH, just the truth. I maybe don't want to hear the truth. I need to hear the truth.. Today''s blog is the bad and the ugly, and tomorrow I will share the good. I want to open your eyes to what is going on around you so you can pray for wisdom and change. I also want to let you know that the church can still rise and that everything we need to share the message with the world is right here and right now. The difference maker will be God's people and leaders following the wisdom from the Holy Spirit, through God's Word and realizing they must come alive. You can trust God and His Word. You can believe Him when He says something. Here are some encouraging and challenging words from Scripture. Take it to heart. John 14: 11-14"Believe me: I am in my Father and my Father is in me. If you can't believe that, believe what you see—these works. The person who trusts me will not only do what I'm doing but even greater things, because I, on my way to the Father, am giving you the same work to do that I've been doing. You can count on it. From now on, whatever you request along the lines of who I am and what I am doing, I'll do it. That's how the Father will be seen for who he is in the Son. I mean it. Whatever you request in this way, I'll do. 15-17"If you love me, show it by doing what I've told you. I will talk to the Father, and he'll provide you another Friend so that you will always have someone with you. This Friend is the Spirit of Truth. The godless world can't take him in because it doesn't have eyes to see him, doesn't know what to look for. But you know him already because he has been staying with you, and will even be in you!
18-20"I will not leave you orphaned. I'm coming back. In just a little while the world will no longer see me, but you're going to see me because I am alive and you're about to come alive. At that moment you will know absolutely that I'm in my Father, and you're in me, and I'm in you.
We need to be follow Christ and lead the world. Pray for a heart like that and take the next step of faith toward that foundational belief. Fly By Night Faith will become Firm Faith.
The pilgrimage continues.....
David Warren
No comments:
Post a Comment