The other day one of my female friends was wondering why few people showed up to the church missionary dessert event. I shared how one person told me they weren’t going because it had the same speaker from the previous two events, the same choir, the same band and the same plea for donations. And since he had already pledged his support, he saw no reason to attend.
My friend got a little ruffled and she shared that we are to go, not because of what we get out of it, but what we can put into it. As I reflected on her words, I realized that she was missing one interesting fact; no one had ever taught or demonstrated to the man how a Christian is to support church events. He had no clue.
The discipline of tithing popped into my mind and it dawned on me that I could count on one hand the number of times it was taught from the pulpit over the past dozen years. I couldn’t help but wonder how all the new Christians attending our church were going to learn how to tithe and the incredible blessings that come into our lives as a result.
A few weeks ago I bumped into a group of women chatting in the hallway of our church. They were complaining about how many of them are ready to mentor younger women, but few of the younger generation are interested. Their conversation quickly turned toward the downward trend of younger women not knowing how to be a blessing to God and their church.
With all the churches I’ve visited in my travels, the expectations of some church leaders amaze me. Some expect the body to tithe, but they won’t teach on a somewhat regular basis the blessings that come from it. Others have wisdom to share and wonder why no one is seeking them out. What happened to mentoring and demonstrating? Have we forgotten that new Christians don’t have a clue?
When I first became a believer at age 12, I was blessed to have a pastor spend some one-on-one time with me. He showed me how to lay hands on the sick with compassion and pray for them. He walked me through how to listen to the Spirit and know His voice. He stepped me through every aspect of tithing and the giving of offerings – how to give according to the Spirit, not the emotions driven by elitism or guilt.
The church I attend today is too large for the head pastor to spend quality time with everyone. In fact, our church is so large that most wouldn’t expect our pastor to know them by name. However, our head pastor can guide our team of some 20+ pastors, who can each guide their key people or lead volunteers, who could guide those under them, and so on. By using the waterfall principle, our pastor has the ability to demonstrate down through the ranks everything we need to know for righteous living.
Once the demonstration is passed down to the men in the church, they in turn can pass it down to their kids, who can share it with the neighbor kids, and so on. What an incredible and powerful tool our pastor has in place.
Can you imagine the confidence men would have in the church if a pastor decided to demonstrate from the platform how to pray for a wife? And then, demonstrate it again for the other pastors, who would demonstrate it to their lead volunteers, who would demonstrate it to their ministry teams or small groups, who would then demonstrate it to their families. Within a matter of months, the men in our church would be comfortable and knowledgeable about how to pray for their wives.
The married women I know would be ecstatic. They would turn around and tell all their friends in the community what their church was teaching and how their husbands are blessing them. I’m confident the joy of those women would be so high; they would forget about the affects the economy had on their lives and they would be inviting neighbors to church regularly.
Everyone directly impacts about 200 people each year, but most don’t take advantage of passing on any enlightenment. If they wait on the sidelines for their pastor to teach them how and what to pass on, they may never do it. So, since Jesus called us directly to fulfill the great commission and to love one another as He loves us, I suggest that married men dive in and begin praying for their wife today. And, single men can start praying for their future wife, as women love to hear how they were thought about and prayed for, before ever meeting.
Not all pastors will have the same structure in place and not all pastors would be willing to use such a powerful tool regularly for fear of someone changing the message to something unhealthy in the process. But, we are all individually responsible before God to seek what we need to learn and to pass it along to others – Together we might live kingdom principle filled lives as a witness to the world.
As for me, I love having a mentor in my life and I always make myself available to mentor others when I can. I’m a firm believer in demonstrating biblical applications within our lives that help us to live according to God’s kingdom-lifestyle. So I’m dropping all empty expectations I have for others and I will implement a waterfall affect of demonstrating what I’ve learned to those around me, in person or electronically.
No comments:
Post a Comment