Saturday, May 31, 2008

Did Ya Hear About The New Preacher?

Did ya hear about the new preacher?

A new preacher came to town. The first Sunday, he preached a wonderful sermon. It was exciting, it was Biblical, it was emotional, it was with conviction. The congregation loved it.

The second Sunday, the preacher preached the same sermon. It was still exciting and motivating and preached with as much conviction as the first Sunday. The folks just kind of overlooked it as a repeat, since the preacher was new at this church. Perhaps he forgot.

The third Sunday was met with more anticipation. However, the new preacher preached EXACTLY the SAME sermon as the first Sunday. Members of the congregation were beginning to get worried. Three Sundays in a row with the same sermon.

The fourth Sunday, the new preacher preached the SAME sermon AGAIN, the same as the first Sunday. So the deacons decided to meet with the preacher to see if there was a miscommunication or problem. Why was the preacher continuing to preach ONE and only ONE sermon Sunday after Sunday?

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You will notice I have not posted much in the past couple of months. That's because, the message here has been "preached" so to speak, from the beginning. When you (or someone) actually DOES the Great Commission, then we can move on. When people begin to GO and begin to MAKE DISCIPLES, then we can move on.

I can talk about the pastor, I can talk about the staff members, we can even talk about the 15,000 people who live in Crockett County and what they are NOT doing for the Lord. But the message has been laid out for you. If YOU do not DO the message, then everything else is irrelevant!

Ya see, when the deacons confronted the new pastor about preaching the same sermon four weeks in a row, the young preacher looked at them and said, "When you begin winning people to the Lord as was preached in that sermon, then we can worry about new sermons. When you begin DOING about which that sermon speaks, then we can move on ahead...together.

Currently, there is virtually no evangelism at FBCA. There is lots of activity, lots of busywork, lots of religious-sounding noise being made, but virtually NO EVANGELISM at all, even on Sunday morning. Currently, church members are being systematically ignored from the "in crowd" and excluded from the loop. Currently, nobody is confronting the issue of long-term debt or why a building is necessary. When you do those things spoken of in the past few months in these posts, then we can worry about new issues.