Cap'n Jack Sparrow -- "The world hasn't changed. It's just less empty."
I love these lines from At World's End. Even though the movie is a little too outlandishly cheesy at times. It seems that things look different to everyone. It just depends on the place from which you are looking.
Honestly, this quote made me think of church. Uh oh. Now I've done it.
It seems there is a concentration of our church members who are drifting away right now. I'm sure some have valid reasons but from what the grapevine tells me, most are just making up reasons and then trying to justify them. My question is, "Why?"
A year ago I would have wished them all well because it was hard to be there most of the time. We could have hired a full-time bookie to take bets on who would be preaching, people were at each others throats trying to get their candidates name in the hat, and the music was, well, if you were there then I need say no more.
But now? Things are really good, y'all. We've got some good things going on, people are passionate about their respective causes, Dr. Golden has provided great stability in the pulpit and his teaching is as solid and biblical as you will find anywhere, and G-man has the choir back to a good number and the music is favorable to all. It's a good time to be at SCBC.
So why are people unhappy? I think they just can't see the forest for the trees, so to speak. We went for a few years in constant turmoil and now that things have calmed down and gotten enjoyable again, some people can't adjust. Maybe they're still looking for an on-going problem or something. I don't know. But now doesn't seem like the time to be bailing out. It's the perfect time to be getting re-involved.
So let's take those principles and apply them to the "Upper Room" (the youth room, to the lay-person). Good changes are coming, great new approach and teachings, and JGen is about to turn one year old (Sniff. Sorry, it's really just my allergies). But some regulars aren't as regular as they used to be and that makes me sad. I miss them alot. I know that summer does that but should it? Shouldn't we be faithful no matter what season it is? Shouldn't we remain faithful no matter what life throws our way? I believe with all my heart that if something draws us away from the things we do for God and the people we love there at church, then it's a distraction. Yeah, I'll say it. High School sports included.
God has us all there for a reason, and He has us all serving in the student ministry for a reason. I want to take that a little more seriously. Loving on our kids and influencing them and being mentors to them is a huge responsibility, but it's a great blessing, too. Because, to be completely honest, I don't want them to make my mistakes. I don't want them to turn out like me. I want to do all I can to help them live better and make better decisions than I did. One thing that my bad decisions have taught me is that life is too short to make bad decisions.
So, what I mean by all that is let's all re-ignite our fires. I don't think things have changed that much from a year ago or even the beginning of 2009. I think we just need to see things the way we did then.
Ta-ta.
