The church is not just here to serve me, provide classes for me, programs for my family and activities for my children. The church (which I am a part of) is supposed to be a driven, motivated and godly gathering of people zealous to seek and save the lost.
There is a song we often sign called “Soldiers of Christ Arise”. Soldiers are to be “mission-minded”. Can we honestly say that we are 100% committed to the mission of Christ?
As Christianity is becoming less and less of a cultural norm, we are seeing our numbers decrease. We often look to place the blame on “society”, or everything, and everyone besides ourselves. What if one of the big reasons the church is not making an impact in society is because “I am not doing my part”? No one likes to take on that kind of personal responsibility…but it is necessary.
In a blog post on “Five Reasons Why Growth May Be Difficult in Your Church”, Thom Rainer concluded with this powerful paragraph:
“Growth is indeed more difficult in most of our churches today. We no longer have the large pool of cultural Christians from which to draw. But we can reach them. We must reach them. We will have to treat our membership in our churches as missionaries to the community instead of country club membership. Biblical membership is not about getting our perks, privileges, and preferences. It’s about sacrificing self for the gospel. Then, and only then, will we see our churches start growing again”.
The second to last line is what stood out to me the most. “Biblical membership is not about getting our perks, privileges, and preferences. It’s about sacrificing self for the gospel”. It is not about what I can get from the church, but it is about what I can do as a part of the church. Am I doing my part?