Life Goes On

I'm one of those who has emphasized many times that most of the programs in most churches are designed as "come" structures.  Come to our service, come to our program, come to our concert, or revival or whatever.  Cast against the backdrop of the Great Commission which emphasizes "go", it makes it seem as if we are choosing the exact opposite of what Jesus meant.  Today as I was praying and thinking about an identity for our church, I began to think of "go" in a bit of a different light.  Wouldn't it be wonderful if the people of our town began to think of Faith Baptist Church as the "go-to" place for all sorts of needs?   Lonely?  Go to Faith Baptist. Depressed?  Go to Faith Baptist. Hungry?  Go to Faith Baptist. Homeless?  Go to Faith Baptist. Jobless?  Go to Faith Baptist. Not that we are currently equipped to meet all those needs, but we can become equipped.  When we have a member who is passionate about a particular mi...

In this day of cookie-cutter churches, it seems that when one church does something that results in numerical increase, many other churches line up behind and emulate them. The primary idea seems to be the old Tony Robbins mot "Find someone who is successful, do what they do, the way they do it, and you too will be successful." BTW that probably is not a completely accurate quote, but you get the gist. The problem with this approach when used by churches is that they copy the technique, the program, or the marketing approach while giving little thought to their scriptural assignment. That assignment is found in Matthew 28:18-20. Having discovered the assignment, the real question is how do we accomplish it? Jesus gave us help, both as individuals and as churches in Matthew 25:31-46, commonly called the parable of the sheep and the goats. The defining factors that determined who was welcomed into the kingdom and who was not were these; Feed the hungry Give water to the ...