Well it’s that time of the year again. Public schools are out and now it is time for the onslaught of Vacation Bible School (VBS) signs all over the city. Why do we do this? Growing up Catholic we did not have a once-a-year VBC stress-a-thon. There was no arm twisting and condemnation heaping for not helping on the people. No sir, those Nuns took us to church every Holy Day. We did the Stations of the Cross every Easter. Plus every Sunday our family went to Mass. The Catholic School I went to and my parents were concerned enough to make sure we received the proper religious training – get this year around! Now if we are really concerned about the neighborhood children we would blitz the neighborhood with (now hold onto your hats) Bibles instead of church literature. And on top of that, Lord have mercy, we would put our name and phone number in the Bibles so they could call us to ask questions or arrange a follow up meeting.
Dave and I attended a church recently where they were collecting money to rent (not buy mind you) all of these huge blow-up bouncy hard plastic structures (like buildings and trains) to attract children to come to their Fall Fest. Anyway they collected about $16,000 for this stuff. Here is a crazy suggestion – why not buy Bibles and give them away. We are supposed to be pointing people, the last time I checked that included children, to Jesus not to our church so we can get more members and more money. The dark and even sinister side of such church growth ploys is; if we can get the kids to come maybe later they will bring their parents. But the aim is not to bring people to church, but bring them to Jesus. Mark tells us, “But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.” (Mark 10:14) Here Jesus was not having a special service just for the children. I am not sure why we separate out the sexes to have a Bible study or conference. I guess it is just another gimmick to get people to come to church. Instead of having something of substance to give people to get them to come we have to trick them with a promise of having a special meeting to get them to come. We are to bring the little children to Jesus not to a theme that changes every year. If you dump a lot of resources once a year into VBS to reach the children in your neighborhood (like most churches in town does) you probably are not doing a good job the other 51 weeks of the year in bringing the little children to Jesus. Too often we have compromised the Gospel message and the functionality of the church. True Evangelism does not need to be compromised by doing what people like or do not like to get them to come to church. Bringing the little children to Jesus is not singing, dancing, putting on puppet shows, eating hot dogs, and the like, but sharing the wondrous Gospel message, one-on-one, 52 weeks a year. The Gospel message and method of delivering the message must not change to entertain and appease people.
If we are really concerned about souls we would be hearing more hell-fire and brimstone messages and not self-help sermons watering down the Gospel. Churches would have stacks of Bibles at the door, instead of church literature to what their doctrinal belief is, free for the taking. Pastors and Teachers would be given free rein to be led by the Holy Spirit to bring forth the word of God. This too would require Pastors, Teachers, and all of the church leadership to get themselves right before God in such areas as: lust, (after little children, church secretaries and members), anger, bitterness, envy, wrath, etal. We have known some Pastors who were responsible for big churches who had problems with homosexuality (the Bible calls it sodomy) yet covered it with a facade of being righteous and holy while holding VBS every year. We knew another Pastor who condoned, by covering up, rape in his church. Another church we use to attend paid for abortions for some of their young girls out of church money. Who would want to bring their children to these churches for VBS? Before we can bring the little children to Jesus we first better have a face-to-face with Him. If we are really concerned about bringing the little children to Jesus pastoral jealousy would not exist, because the senior Pastor would be more concerned about allowing the Holy Spirit to put His man in the pulpit for whatever reason. When Dave pastored in Germany, he would allow other ministers to come and share in our church. Dave was more concerned about the message than the messenger’s credentials. We all gleaned something from what was said. Remember receiving God’s word has to do more with how we hear than what we hear. Jesus said, “take heed how we hear,” not what we hear. Do we hear with a pure heart condition? Dave would spend much time before the Lord and encouraged many to speak more often, he did not need to feel like he was the Pastor. Dave did his best and God honored it, even today Dave spends much time before the Lord so he would not “miss it.” He has spent countless hours with the Lord to be led of the Holy Spirit in his message preparations and writings – hummmm there is a bizarre thought, being led by the Holy Spirit. Yes, if we are really concerned about bringing the little children to Jesus and all souls for that matter, seems to me like we would be doing some things differently. So buy a Bible, write your name and phone number in it, and give it away. Now the Holy Spirit can do His job. And remember the best is yet to come. Written by Karen Stahl
Dave and I attended a church recently where they were collecting money to rent (not buy mind you) all of these huge blow-up bouncy hard plastic structures (like buildings and trains) to attract children to come to their Fall Fest. Anyway they collected about $16,000 for this stuff. Here is a crazy suggestion – why not buy Bibles and give them away. We are supposed to be pointing people, the last time I checked that included children, to Jesus not to our church so we can get more members and more money. The dark and even sinister side of such church growth ploys is; if we can get the kids to come maybe later they will bring their parents. But the aim is not to bring people to church, but bring them to Jesus. Mark tells us, “But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.” (Mark 10:14) Here Jesus was not having a special service just for the children. I am not sure why we separate out the sexes to have a Bible study or conference. I guess it is just another gimmick to get people to come to church. Instead of having something of substance to give people to get them to come we have to trick them with a promise of having a special meeting to get them to come. We are to bring the little children to Jesus not to a theme that changes every year. If you dump a lot of resources once a year into VBS to reach the children in your neighborhood (like most churches in town does) you probably are not doing a good job the other 51 weeks of the year in bringing the little children to Jesus. Too often we have compromised the Gospel message and the functionality of the church. True Evangelism does not need to be compromised by doing what people like or do not like to get them to come to church. Bringing the little children to Jesus is not singing, dancing, putting on puppet shows, eating hot dogs, and the like, but sharing the wondrous Gospel message, one-on-one, 52 weeks a year. The Gospel message and method of delivering the message must not change to entertain and appease people.
If we are really concerned about souls we would be hearing more hell-fire and brimstone messages and not self-help sermons watering down the Gospel. Churches would have stacks of Bibles at the door, instead of church literature to what their doctrinal belief is, free for the taking. Pastors and Teachers would be given free rein to be led by the Holy Spirit to bring forth the word of God. This too would require Pastors, Teachers, and all of the church leadership to get themselves right before God in such areas as: lust, (after little children, church secretaries and members), anger, bitterness, envy, wrath, etal. We have known some Pastors who were responsible for big churches who had problems with homosexuality (the Bible calls it sodomy) yet covered it with a facade of being righteous and holy while holding VBS every year. We knew another Pastor who condoned, by covering up, rape in his church. Another church we use to attend paid for abortions for some of their young girls out of church money. Who would want to bring their children to these churches for VBS? Before we can bring the little children to Jesus we first better have a face-to-face with Him. If we are really concerned about bringing the little children to Jesus pastoral jealousy would not exist, because the senior Pastor would be more concerned about allowing the Holy Spirit to put His man in the pulpit for whatever reason. When Dave pastored in Germany, he would allow other ministers to come and share in our church. Dave was more concerned about the message than the messenger’s credentials. We all gleaned something from what was said. Remember receiving God’s word has to do more with how we hear than what we hear. Jesus said, “take heed how we hear,” not what we hear. Do we hear with a pure heart condition? Dave would spend much time before the Lord and encouraged many to speak more often, he did not need to feel like he was the Pastor. Dave did his best and God honored it, even today Dave spends much time before the Lord so he would not “miss it.” He has spent countless hours with the Lord to be led of the Holy Spirit in his message preparations and writings – hummmm there is a bizarre thought, being led by the Holy Spirit. Yes, if we are really concerned about bringing the little children to Jesus and all souls for that matter, seems to me like we would be doing some things differently. So buy a Bible, write your name and phone number in it, and give it away. Now the Holy Spirit can do His job. And remember the best is yet to come. Written by Karen Stahl
2 comments:
Very deep and needed in teh church today.
Wonderful! Thank you very much for the truth.
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