It really bothers me when I am ministering to someone whose heart is being more pliable to hearing about this Christian faith, even to the point of being interested in attending church; but all of a sudden, someone else immediately intercepts your invitation for theirs. Are we missing the point, here? When has ministering to the lost ever been a competition to see which church that person attends first. We really need to redirect our mission, people.
Working together as believers has been mired by “I love my Pastor so much!” and “I have the best church in the world!” Meanwhile, hurting souls are continuing to veer away due to the unattractive nature of a Christian sparring match over church services. This is such a disgrace to the overarching mission of Christ, and is doing much more harm than good. Getting yourself planted in a church is an essential part to every Christian’s walk and maturity in Christ. However, when your church (facility) becomes so revered that everyone else’s church is regarded on a lesser scale, this becomes a very slippery and dangerous slope that never produces positive results.
We have to get out of the “your church vs. my church” mentality. We are all on the winning team! How are we going to effectively minister to the world if we can’t effectively minister to each other? As Christians in America, we have no choice but to work together. There are so many entities trying to destroy the fundamental truths of the Christian faith. Oftentimes, unfortunately, Christians themselves fail miserably of expunging this mission by doing things that not only keeps this opposing mission alive, but helps it thrive.
Picture this: you are a non-Christian, or you call yourself a Christian, but are not living a life according to God’s will and Word. All of a sudden, you encounter a couple of people who you know are Christians, and they are very likable and relatable. So relatable, that a conversation about church and living for Christ sparks, which builds your curiosity about going to church or living a devoted Christ-filled life. You were invited by one person to go to church, and this is a church that you were familiar with, even attending it once before. Looking at your coworker’s lifestyle, and how it is congruent to being Christ-centered, you commit to going back when challenged to do so out of the spirit of love and encouragement. All of a sudden, you immediately get invited to another church by another Christian, who is somewhat cornering you to go.
Weeks later, you are revisited by your coworker about the challenge. You oblige, and commit to going to church; or, at least, listening to a live stream. There is the first step to potentially (and prayerfully) a paradigm shift. However, the other person who intercepted the invitation before, immediately does it again. The cornering repeats, which dilutes the commitment to the initial invitation, because you feel obligated to attempt to commit to the other invitation as well. Eventually, it is a wash, and you do not go to either church.
What a failure of working together.
We have to do better, friends. We cannot afford to allow another person to slip through the cracks on the way to hell, simply because of the aggressive feeling that your church is better than mine.
ViZion United, LLC 