A word to the church

Before I get to the point of this post, let me tell you a little about my Friday night. We went to my Aunt and Uncle's house for pizza and bird dogs (chicken in a hot dog bun). We then went to the park under the new Cooper River Bridge. While we were there, I saw what my new favorite church (Ashley Ridge Church, a community of people who don't realize they're members of a United Methodist Church) has been spending money on. From the looks of this pic, this church seems to have no problem getting its members to tithe. Maybe they've decided to really make it a portable church....

After our trip to the park, we then let Mary Ruth spend the night with her cousins at my Aunt and Uncle's house. I left very clear instructions for my Aunt and Uncle: 1. Don't kill or otherwise permanently damage Mary Ruth. 2. Don't tell me how bad she was unless she was so bad that she broke something and I owe you money for it.

Now for my word to the church. As you know, I'm just sayin... is Latin for "Mentor to preachers...". Therefore, I feel the need to pass on some wisdom to my dear friends who hold leadership positions at churches. You go to a church (any church) long enough and you'll hear about missions work being done somewhere in the world. This is good work and very important, don't get me wrong... but don't forget about your local "flock" that you've been charged to lead. When you have a member of your church sick (I'm talking homebound type sick... not just I have a cold type sick), call or visit them. It's a good habit to get into while you're at churches that aren't very large... and it's a great habit to keep when you have a large church. Now, before you start with excuses on why this can't always be done let me share some advice I got from Coach Hatley: "Excuses don't change man's love for the winner or score for the loser".

Listen, I'm not saying the lead pastor of a church always has to be the one to call or visit the sick/homebound members. It's not like I think Andy Stanley calls or visits every sick member in his church(es)... But if you aren't going to do it, you need to have someone else on staff doing it. And I think it's important that it is someone on the church staff... not just some other member of the church (though it wouldn't be bad to have someone on staff AND another church member doing it if you can). People talk about overseas missions as a way to show God's love... well caring for sick members of your church is another (just as important) way to show God's love. For a church staff to "forget" an elderly sick/homebound member could be a blow to that member's faith. It could also shake the faith of that member's family. Lucky for me, when the church staff at the church I grew up in (the church MaMa had been a member of for over 60 years) forgot about MaMa it didn't shake her faith or my family's faith. We were lucky, I guess, because we knew not to put our faith in man but in Jesus. But what if that wasn't the case? What if we weren't a family that grew up in the church? What if we were a family that was new to Christianity? Not having a staff member from the church even call to check on someone could do a lot more harm than any good the best sermon could do. I understand it won't always be easy. I understand it won't always be convenient, but it's something that needs to be done. Just something to think about...