Merry Christmas

We've been on hiatis and will continue to enjoy a little break through New Year's. Meanwhile, wishing you the very best wishes for all the blessings of the season.

Are Churches Serving or Self-Serving?

There's a great conversation taking place over on the Facebook page about the proliferation of churches positioning themselves as businesses and their pastors as CEOs, In the process, business gets done, but often the work of Christ doesn't and it's a shame. The gist of the discussion seems to include a concensus that the best way to overcome this is for individuals to ask how they can make a difference, and that of course, IS the church. Too often, however, people with gifts and talents who want to serve don't get a chance.
Here are some observations I posted. Do you see these things in your church?

Churches stop people who really want to serve and reach out with reasons like:
1) They always do it this way
2) Myrtle is the one who does that
3) We're using our funds for something trendy
4) Other churches are successful ...by doing something else and we want to do that instead
5) You're a woman
6) They don't see a need
7) They don't want to lose control of something
8) The person in charge shouldn't be, but is, and doesn't know how to do it, help you do it or let you do it
9) They need 400 committee meetings and no one offended in any way before ministry can happen
10) A hundred other reasons that keep the business of the church going, but the work of Christ stalled.

Don't get me wrong. There are many wonderful church bodies doing wonderful things, and many wonderful pastors trying to light a fire under church members who need to be more aware of needs in their community. But there also are a growing number of big, "cool" church mega corporations with their cool, fame-seeking pastors who are more concerned with image and numbers than with spreading the word and love of Christ and that makes me sad.
--Lauren Yarger