well, the 30 days of prayer isn’t over… but there’s nothing like a mid-course correction to change things up and fix some real problems. for the next two weeks we’re going to tackle the issue of serving as a church in a rather blunt and unapologetic approach that i’m not sure has ever been seen at our church. i’m tackling the first one and next week one of our elders is preaching in the same type of way, on the same subject.Â
it’s a pretty harsh sermon–for example, one of the lines is: "If we decide that this church is unimportant, or unworthy of our time… then that’s your decision. We’ll all go our separate ways and be the same lazy cancer to another church that we were here…"Â
sometimes we need a kick in the teeth… of course, all in love!
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I’d like to know how it goes.
well… how’d it go?
it went well… there seemed to be a rather good response to it. i think my favorite two comments were:
1. thanks for stopping the bullshit
2. that’s the best damn sermon i’ve heard around here in years
the funny thing is, even though many people touted my courage for preaching something like this, it was actually one of the easiest sermons to preach… probably more out of necessity than anything else. the ultimate measure of how it was received will be in how people get involved.
What I find ironic, is this same sermon could be preached in at least a dozen churches I know personally and have been involved with throughout my life…how has church come down to that? It seems no matter the size of the church, all churches end up in a similar place. Why is that?
One thing I wonder about in general is this truly how “church” is supposed to be? I mean are we supposed to have 100 different programs reaching out to every individual situation? Is the church really about those who attend weekly? Is it about those who give weekly? Or is the true church about others in the end?
I don’t have a clear answer to any of that…those are things that I ask myself every week. As I see various churches I grew up with having the same exact issues they had 20 years ago. As churches are in financial turmoil over and over again. And wouldnt ya know it, someone stands up and talk ever so gently about money because we dont want to offend anyone…I say bravo Aaron for “stopping the bullshit” and not sugar coating things….Mars Hill went through a similar scenario 2 summers ago. Rob said bluntly, if we do not have x number of people sign up for the children’s ministry, there will be no children’s ministry for the entire summer. And wouldnt ya know it, not enough signed up.
Well how could they do that? You cant do that! is what they were told. But sure enough no children’s church for 3 months…wouldnt ya know it, 2x the amount needed signed up at the end of the summer to help…we sing “It all about you” when really it’s all about me.
I don’t envy your position brother, but I do know honesty and to the point are the ways to go…obviously we as the church in general dont have it figured out or this sermon wouldnt apply to every church I know, but it does….makes me wonder what is the purpose of church yet again????
BRAVO! I don’t know if you remember me or not…if you do great…if not cool…I have been a member at HCC since I was born. Right now I’m in Dongducheon, Korea doing some mission work and spending time with my boyfriend. It’s truly amazing here. Anyways, I left to come here in August, and was having a hard time with leaving Heartland. I love that church, and I believe that God can still use the church even though its been through crap. A lot of others around me didn’t seem to be believing the same. I wanted to scream WAKE UP, START DOING SOMETHING ABOUT THE CHURCH….WE”RE GOD”S PEOPLE…Lets start acting like it…..and you did it….GOOD!
I’m praying for y’all everyday. If you would, keep me posted on how things are going. I would love to hear from you and others from the church. I can’t really do much finicially, but if there’s a way that I could send anything at all, I will. I love your two favorite comments…and I must add I LOVE the bluntness. I think that brutually honest is the way to go, Jesus was, so why can’t we be. Well take care,
Sister in Christ,
Christy