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| Repentence is surrender to God's Will courtesy photobucket.com |
Gleaning from Sunday’s sermon
as Pastor Jerry is getting the congregation ready for some serious get together
talks, about the future of our church in a few weeks.
Courteous communication at
such a meeting with not just ideas, but action is needed.
In previous meetings, proposals
were neatly printed and handed out and then cast aside and ignored, because
people wanted to keep doing as they had done in the past.
Repent means to be willing to
turn around and go in a new direction. A
change may be in order, in our thinking and in our hearts.
A small church is less than
50, a midsize church 51 to 300 (usually 200) a large church perhaps 300 to 1000
and a Mega church 2000 or more.
Our church was a midsize
church but our senior citizen members are passing on to heaven and we are at
present a small church. We only have but
one or two single young people, and no children. There is a need to invest in people and to
adjust to the times.
Pastor did some research on
old reports on this problem, finding them usually ignored, as members seem to
be in denial. Pastor said that for a
church to grow there is a need to have young couples with children in the
membership.
Pastor told a story of some
farmers and their race horses. One
farmer hired a professional jockey to ride his horse in the coming race. His jockey and another rider collided, and
both horses and riders fell to the ground.
The professional jockey jumped back on the horse and won the race, but
the farmer was extremely angry, because the jockey had jumped back on the wrong
horse.
It is sort of like going to
the wrong bank to draw out your money, because the teller says no money for you
because your bank is across the street.
Before growth in a church can
begin, there must be a change in the hearts of each member of the
congregation. Paul said it was needful
to become a new person, a totally new thing.
We must be willing to turn
away from personal opinion and seek God’s direction.
Recognizing our faults and
making a heart change are actually two different things.
Change can come not by
our own power, but by insight given by God, and by his grace.
May we ask the question, “Who
am I now, and of what do I need to repent?”
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1 comment:
Your post is something that's been on my heart for a while now (in fact, my post is similar).
The church I attend has around 100 members. Over the past year I've seen some growth with younger couples but there's much work to be done. Much repenting that needs to happen. It can be frustrating and disheartening to encounter resistance to God making changes.
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