I am speaking this weekend at the Roseville Church
of Christ. My friend Richard Inyang, the regular preacher there, is in Cameroon
where the locals are shooting at each other. I am concerned about Richard. Besides
the church, he has a wife and three children here and a mother and father in Nigeria,
next door to Cameroon. Nigeria is where the soldiers swoop in and kidnap whole
schools of teenaged girls. Pray for his safe return and for the safety of his
family and friends.
Richard asked me to speak words of encouragement to
the Roseville church. He didn’t say they were discouraged; I am reading between
the lines. I think a lot of small churches are discouraged. What should I tell
them?
I can say that God is good, that Jesus saves, that
he is coming back to rescue us, like he did the nation of Israel from Egypt, and
I probably will mention all those things, but they know all that. Yet they are
discouraged.
I am guessing they are discouraged because they have
misinterpreted the mission of the church. They think we have been charged with
saving the world and they see us losing ground in that fight. “Why aren’t we
growing?” “Why aren’t we able to influence our neighbors?"
And perhaps they are focused on their personal situations
and wish they were better. “How am I going to make next month’s rent?” “Why isn’t
God rescuing me right now from my circumstances?”
I have to think about what the message should be.
What do you think?
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