enroute

I have an issue and it is tiring me out…

I’m tired when youth pastors and youth workers come together and complain about the same “old” things. I am tired of youth pastors complaining about the relationship that they have with their senior pastor but are not willing to do anything about it. I am tired of youth workers complaining about the “old” people in the church but do not strive to tell the stories of what God is doing in the lives of students so that seniors in the church could actually pray for us. I am tired of us pointing the finger at everyone else while ignoring the issues that we have perpetuated in the church. I am just tired of us not being apart of the solution but adding to the problem “pile.”

Today, my heart is saddened and tired because I am just tired of us all wanting to be the church but pushing the responsibility and blame to someone else. I know that we need to have an outlet to share our frustrations with the church and that what usually comes out of our mouths at gatherings isn’t fully what we believe to be true but I am starting to wonder if the reason we complain is because we don’t have a solution to what we see happening around us.

I am reminded today from the story of God that God loves to partner with His people. He is all about partnership and loves to use his people. Since that is the DNA of who God is, we see that theme throughout the entire Old Testament and into the New Testament. Here’s where it home for me today — there is no way that you can say that Jesus wasn’t “worried” about what the church would look like when he left the earth. I fully believe that in John 17, He is expressing his concern but God is a God who believes in partnership so He let the disciples develop the church from what they experienced with Him.

Here’s the thing - I am sure that there were things that God would have done differently with the church but God wanted mankind to “value” something that was important to Him - the church. If I really care about the church, then I need to work hard to be apart of the solution rather than the “peanut gallery” on the sidelines. What am I (and you) doing to be a part of the solution to all those issues we have with the church?

My list is getting suprisingly small - how about yours?

- Matt