“Church growth strategies are the death gurgle of a church that has lost its way.”
— Stanley Hauerwas
Last Sunday, I had the chance to drop in on a vibrant local church in the town I was visiting.
It wasn’t a megachurch, but it was a church that had fully integrated the megachurch best practices of a visitor-focused, semi-Christian-but-totally-American worship experience. (Is a Midichurch a thing? Yes, I just decided. It was a Midichurch.) In other words, I was 100% comfortable since I’ve spent quite a lot of my life in churches like this.
The sermon, which was 75% of the service, was utterly predictable. It’s ten days to Christmas. No matter what the Scripture passage, the Pastor preaches from his job is to drive his members to invite their friends to the super-awesome, not that subtly evangelistic service on Christmas Eve. So this sermon focused on how Ruth took necessary “next steps” to put herself in a place where God could work in her life.
AND YOU SHOULD TOO!
Melania Trump would be happy to see a version of her mantra “Become Better” right there on the Church app’s downloadable sermon notes.
Ruth became better because she:
1. Responsibility, Took
2. Initiative, Took
3. Sacrifices, Made
4. Knowledge, Got
And so since she had taken all these “next steps,” God honored her hard work by fixing her problems. And he’ll fix your problems too if you will only do the same – primarily by inviting your friends to Christmas Eve service.
By the way, take those first letters and see what they spell. RISK! Ta-Da! Sermon win! (In my mind I always hear a little ditty satirizing preachers from my childhood, “It must be the will of the Lord because it seems so right to me!”)
Now I’m not writing to make fun of my brother in Christ or his Church. As I said above, I came out of places like this, so I know Jesus can do good things even here. But it strikes me that quite a few of my Facebook friends and family are going to churches just like this right now. I know you shuffled into church on Sunday, harried, exhausted, and frazzled with 57% of your kids in tow and a list of Christmas to-dos longer than both your arms. And you were whipped up and hustled out back into the fields of harvest with an even longer list of to-do’s since you are now expected to RISK something to get someone to church.
And the risk is considerable. The risk is you will miss that Jesus planned before the dawn of time to come in the flesh to relieve you of your burdens. The risk is you will feel like the price of your eternal salvation is Jesus’ life plus your life-time of working for God.
The risk is you will feel utterly undone by the season but not get that God sends his announcement of Jesus’ incarnation to people who had taken no steps (ZERO) to get closer to God’s blessing in their lives.
The risk is you will only feel burdened and not feel loved at all this Christmas season. And I’m not ok with that.
So STOP RIGHT THERE!
Don’t take one more step to make God like you more.
Don’t take one step to place yourself in God’s stream of blessing.
Don’t take one step to meet someone else’s expectation of what God has called you to do.
Just know this, God, through the body and blood of His son Jesus Christ has taken all of the steps needed to save you, sanctify you, and ultimately glorify you.
All that he asks of you is that you know it’s true.
And act like you know it’s true.
So can I suggest something super subversive, ignore your church’s frantic request that you bring someone to Christmas Eve service. The poor, harried, over-burdened soul you need to take to that service is yourself and your family. So don’t tell anyone but go as though this is all for you. Enjoy it. Rest. Relax. Be kind to the people sitting around you.
Jesus wrapped himself in our flesh and came among us to be close to you and me. And we took no steps to make that happen. It’s crazy. But it’s true. I hope somewhere this Christmas you feel the freeing joy of that news.