Easter's Coming

I have had the opportunity to go to Café Caturra here in Midlothian for lunch today with some great people. We have been discussing Easter and this has really made me think about Easter. We are still almost two months away from this time of year, but as believers we need to start preparing ourselves.

What exactly do we need to prepare ourselves for? I believe that we need to prepare ourselves to be real. I started thinking about Easter and what we think as believers will happen on Easter. This is the way I see it, we get to Easter and we think about all the people who do not typically go to church and the fact that they will be in our seats on this very important day when we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. Here is what I think goes on in the mind of a lot of Christians about Easter and the loads of unchurched people that don our doors.

I think that too many times we think that because we are going to talk about the resurrection and tell about what Jesus did for us, that we will see multitudes get saved and start coming to church. I believe that this is a myth. I believe that we really would never even know if those people that said they gave their lives to God really did. Sure we will know by their fruit, but at the same time that decision is a very personal one between them and God.

Here is what I think about Easter and how as a church we should be. We should be real, we should talk about the resurrection and what it means, don’t get me wrong there, but we should also try to show people who we truly are. Instead of trying to go for the salvations and possibly never see those people again, maybe, just maybe we should try to find ways to invite people into our communities so that then we may get the opportunity to see their lives transformed.

Too many times we are so concerned with the salvations in the church, when we really need to be looking for the transformations in people’s lives. In essence we are not inviting people into salvation during this time of year, we are inviting them into our community of people who are trying to live their lives for Christ. Because of that, maybe people will see the realness in us and want to be a part of that community, then given time we will see the transformation that we long for to make us look good for a weekend.

I am not trying to say that we do not need Easter or the message that is contained within, what I am saying is that we need to rethink how we package it in order to see more people get involved in the local community we call a church. If we do that, we will see growth and transformation. This year, let’s be real and show people that visit our churches what it truly means to be a part of our community. Don’t dilute the message, but make it come across in a way that shows them what we are all about.

Lent

For those of you that read my blog, first let me say thank you! I would love to hear from some of you. You can always email me at ashort01@me.com or leave a comment here.

I wanted everyone to know that I will be doing a series on this blog about the lent season. I will be following the 40 days toward justice series for lent offered by actingonaids.org. I encourage you to take that journey with me as we look at the 7 weeks of lent. I will be posting thoughts on the study and hope that you can follow along with me. If you need to order the study, go to actingonaids.org and request it.

Thanks for reading . . .

Be:Interested

I am doing a series at church right now called "Popularity Contest." This week is called Be:Interested. As I was researching and doing some writing on this particular week I came across something interesting. As I go through the next three weeks of this series, I plan on making some extra notes here, so be sure to check back each week to keep the discussion going.

I read on a website about a 12 year old boy named Craig who saw a news story about another 12 year old boy in Pakistan who was murdered for speaking out against child labor in his country. This boy Craig decided to do something about it and started an organization called "Free the Children," which is an organization dedicated to ending child labor and poverty in other countries. It started with this 12 year old boy and now has branches in 35 countries (source: www.idealist.org).

After reading this I started thinking about this whole concept of being interested. See this little boy was interested in making a difference in our world, making a change with child labor and poverty. It seems to me that there really wasn't anyone standing in his way. Here I am also thinking to myself that with branches in 35 countries and being started by a little kid, wow is the only word I can even begin to think of. So now to the point of what I am getting at. . .

If this kid can get interested in something and make such a huge impact on our world, what would it be like if all of us started being more interested in others more than ourselves? I look at our culture and see how self focused we are and how our need and want of things has taken over our thought of being interested in anyone else. Even the little things like stopping to help someone on the side of the road, becomes a chore because we are talking on our cell phone to people we know, in our car, most likely late for something and just don't have time to stop.

What if so many people stopped to help that person on the side of the road that it caused a traffic jam?

What if we all just started being interested in others and maybe even what's going on in the world around us? How would our culture be different? What kind of movements would we see?

What happens too much is that we try so hard to be interesting, that we can't be interested in others. I am probably one of the most guilty people here, but I want to change. I want to help you be interested and I want to be interested in others.

I would love to hear some thoughts out there on how to be:interested. We are called by the great commandment to Love God and Love People. We need to really start living this out. I just think of all the things we could do together if we would start being interested. We could change the world. . .