Tonight as I flip through the channels (while putting away dishes, yes that's right!) I came across Extreme makeover : Home Edition. Now, I have always been partial to this show, Mostly from a "lets see what kind of gadgets they put in this house" standpoint. But tonight, I watched it with different eyes, I saw the sense of community that permeates this show. Granted, you have to wade through the Ty Pennington Manic outbursts and the, not so subtle, Sears "namedrops,"
but community is there. In our world today, there are many good people, and you will find a lot of philanthropic organizations, maybe more than at any other time in history. I think this is fantastic. The thing that is conspicuously missing is the churches presence in a lot of these endeavors. Some will say well, the church is persecuted, 
religious organizations would never be allowed to do such things in our community, let alone have a Makeover show. Can you imagine, all the given churches in a given town bond together to support a family who just suffered a loss. But at the end of the show, there are all the usual thanks, and interviews. This time in addition to the "this community loves you" and "you are special" lines (which are important) we hear God loves you and wants you to have your needs met. This show has a lot of missional elements, in the sense that it's stars try to understand their target family, what they're about, what makes them "tick." They strive to meet their need, they provide this Mega-house in replacing their old home, they provide funding for the mortgage or for college education. What's missing is the message of Christ. How can we complain about such a heart warming event....I'm not, I'm thankful that we live in such times, overall community awareness is high, environmental friendliness is popular, spiritual awareness and interest is high (although pleuralism is rampant). We AS the church must get back to the table of public societal life. I believe we need to go through a makeover of our own, revisit our roots, throw those things that do not matter out of our closet. Be a kinder gentler church. On a reference to more home shows, it kinda like one of the Home organization shows...Hmmm......wow! that sounds like more blog material...more to come, it's late!
religious organizations would never be allowed to do such things in our community, let alone have a Makeover show. Can you imagine, all the given churches in a given town bond together to support a family who just suffered a loss. But at the end of the show, there are all the usual thanks, and interviews. This time in addition to the "this community loves you" and "you are special" lines (which are important) we hear God loves you and wants you to have your needs met. This show has a lot of missional elements, in the sense that it's stars try to understand their target family, what they're about, what makes them "tick." They strive to meet their need, they provide this Mega-house in replacing their old home, they provide funding for the mortgage or for college education. What's missing is the message of Christ. How can we complain about such a heart warming event....I'm not, I'm thankful that we live in such times, overall community awareness is high, environmental friendliness is popular, spiritual awareness and interest is high (although pleuralism is rampant). We AS the church must get back to the table of public societal life. I believe we need to go through a makeover of our own, revisit our roots, throw those things that do not matter out of our closet. Be a kinder gentler church. On a reference to more home shows, it kinda like one of the Home organization shows...Hmmm......wow! that sounds like more blog material...more to come, it's late!
Posts
Very good blog brother. We had a sermon a couple of years ago called "Open Your Heart Before You Open The Door" that looks at getting your house in order so you can open it up to others.
ReplyDeleteOur mission statement "We Love Jesus and We Love People" is a derivative of Luke 10:27.
In my pastor's former ministry of 17 years, he had someone come up and tell him (after seeing someone that didn't fit that so-called church look) "we don't need someone like that in here!" My pastor looked him in the face and said "THAT'S EXACTLY THE TYPE WE NEED HERE!"
So many times we are caught up in our own legalistic mindset and dogma, pushed upon us from our early days in church, that we forget Christ's "GREAT COMMISSION!" We are supposed to teach the "lost" about the Good News of Jesus Christ.
If we don't reach out and care; if we don't reach out and love; if we don't reach out with our hearts open so the lost world can see what Jesus Christ has done in and through us, then why do we even proclaim to be Christians?
Our goals should not be to say to the world "look, we're just like you!" Our goals should be to "show" the world "hey, look how good God has made my life - and look at the rewards I'll someday receive." And I'm not talking just in church. I'm talking about exactly what you're saying here.
"God loves me so much, that I'm going to show you love, just like Him!"