Stagnant Water

Last week I had the privilege of attending our Nazarene Church's Illinois District Assembly. This is where all the church leadership teams come together from in our district, which covers from the southern-most tip of Illinois to an imaginary "boundary" line somewhere almost horizontally above Springfield - if you would like to create that mental image in your head. I love this concept because it allows us to hear how people are serving in the many cultures and diversity that make up the Body of Christ. It is encouraging to hear reports of how local churches are making waves of connecting with their communities and sharing testimonies of how God's Family has been growing or, in the case of the recent reports, declining in the past few years.

That was the bad news - churches are declining - and not just one or two! The majority of our churches have been showing a decrease every year, and if nothing else staying the same; as I refer to as "stagnant".

The churches that continue to grow are the ones that treat their church center as more of a place where the people have available to come together for a kind of celebration of life with Christ, as opposed to being the "one Holy Place where we must attend to meet God". See, the issue is that Christ lived to show us that we were created to have a RELATIONSHIP with God, our Creator, rather than be shuffled around as depicted in the original "Planet of the Apes" - where a big siren goes off that hypnotizes all humans to walk to a certain place and bow to a bunch of wild animals that have taken over their earth. But even in this relationship, we must not forget His majesty, grace, power, Lordship, and authority.

The way I view this is kind of like how I eat at the dinner table with my family. At the table sits me, my sister, her husband and their two daughters, my mom, and my dad. We do not spend the entire meal with our heads down, waiting for the next command our parents have to give us - instead we sit around and talk about how everyone broke out their instruments and started singing at the last family reunion, the Cardinals beating the Cubs so severally that they should have PETA called on them, and how, "back in the day", one of us had to visit a public restroom and a flatulent turned into more of an explosion they decided to leave as a gift for the next guess. But if mom and dad asks one of us to pray, help clean dishes, or remove our elbows off the table, we would never refer to them as being on the same level as us, and absolutely would we never consider them lower in position. We would immediately listen to their call and respect what they had to say.

God gives us this awe-inspiring opportunity to pull up a seat at His banquet table, talk about our every day lives, share food with each other and pass the plate of desert around for all to enjoy to the fullest extent of our satisfaction, but He also has the ability to take our breath away in one split of a second, or split apart the atoms that make us so our bodies disappear into oblivion. He also has the strength to hold us together as broken vessels, while forming us into an even more beautiful masterpiece! Before that kind of authority, how could we not humbly bow in respect? And yet He is so Loving He wants to spend time with us and share with us in our daily lives, work schedules, family bonding, and practical jokes. He wants to be at the center of it all!

What struck me with utmost sadness was the response our General Superintendent received when he asked the assembly if they would be a part of bringing their local church into the current century, look for ways to encourage and lend a hand in supporting their pastor and family, offer maintenance to their home if needed, and keep their church from being stagnant. The overall response was an overwhelming "eh", with a handful of "amen"'s mixed in.

He asked a second time, but this time giving the assembly the benefit of the doubt by suggesting maybe there was commotion and couldn't hear the response very well, asked us to raise our hands if we would agree to the support of our church and pastor; a handful of hands were lifted, barely visible in the clouded stench of a community of believers that does not seem to care.

A third time our General Superintendent made his appeal - this time asking for us to stand in agreement - and laughter struck the room as a mere 1/3 of the people grudgingly rose to their feet.

I apologize for any harsh words I may have chosen to describe that event, but then again I don't. The truth hurts, and this is one moment when we as the Body of Christ should be ashamed. How can we sit back and watch as our churches, no matter how they are organized - wether it be a fellowship in an organized setting, an institution made up of boards and committees or staff members, or moving organically on our streets - slump into a pool of stagnant water? The stench is unbearable, and we wonder why no one is attracted to come for a quench of their thirst!

"Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life." - quoted from Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, who gave His life so that we may have freedom from our sins and live eternally, adopted into God's Holy Family.

Why are we trying to offer stagnant water when our Father has so much more to offer?

When I walk through the food court of our mall, I am offered a barrage of food samples from companies that are promoting what they have to offer as the best choice to make. It makes me consider what I do with what God offers - He even hands us abundant plates of it to hand out! We are faced with choices:

• Pitch the plate into the garbage
• Stand there with the plate and partake of it, all for ourselves, before anyone has a chance to enjoy even a fallen crumb
• Hold the plate, with a lack of excitement, complaining of how no one takes it upon themselves to even go for one bite
• Desire everyone experiences what God has to offer, to the extent we do everything we can not to miss one opportunity, and take the plate to anyone we can find to share it with

Am I holding onto my own stagnant water, or am I eager to share the Living Water of Life to build the Kingdom and bring more into the adoption of the Family of God? What do out churches say about our relationship to our Father in Heaven?