Well I guess I should start by telling a little about myself. I’m 51 years old (what a shock that is to me) but I think of myself as being so much younger LOL I am at a crossroads in my life. We recently changed from a small mainstream church to Calvary Chapel which is a non-denominational bible teaching church that has turned church upside down for us. The service usually consists of singing praise music and then the preacher teaches directly from the bible. The message today was from 1st Corinthians and the main point was that every question or situation we ever face can be answered by Christ and Him crucified. We have served on a multitude of church committees in the past, participated in many bible studies and spent months agonizing over what we were going to do about the “church situation”. We were getting nothing out of it and it had become on one hand a chore – something we thought we should do, and on the other hand, a social time where we met with folks we were friends with.

I have come to the conclusion that most mainstream churches have gotten to attached to the business of doing church and have lost the heart of the matter which is simply telling the story and then standing back and letting God do a work. We learn about Christ through the bible and then we take what we know to the world and let Jesus draw the world to Him one person – one relationship at a time.

I see these churches doing programming to death trying to bring the world in and maybe getting members to fill their rolls but do those members actually come to know Christ? I’d rather know that in my time on earth I brought one person closer to knowing Christ than knowing that I had brought a church a hundred new members.

When we stand before the Lord will he count it gain that we protested against some social injustice or that we spoke out in a judgemental way publicly against something we think is unbiblical? Will having a huge blow up slide for the kids or trips for the senior citizens make a lasting difference in someones Christian walk? And if I work on a church committee will I be doing it for God or because I think I should?

I think all I can do that counts for anything is praise the God who loves me for doing an ongoing work in me and trust that he will bring that work to completion. If I truly feel that way then I believe God will work through me to bring others to Him. That is the only way it will happen because I am not a person who is able to share the gospel with others in an eloquent way. I usually stumble all over my self and say the wrong things.

I know that we are in the right place at this time because I am learning things that may help me to not stumble – that will make me more confident in my knowledge. Especially when I keep remembering that the only thing anyone needs to know is Christ and Him crucified.