Have you seen the buger king commercial where they quit selling Whoppers? People are "freaked-out" and understandably so - Whoppers are what BK does - when organizations quit doing what the "do" they lose their significance, their meaning... they just exist.
"The question" shocked me the first time i heard it. I didn't like the answer i came up with. I've asked hyde park "the question" - matter of fact, I've asked pastors and other churches i speak at the "question". What's "The question"?
"If your (our) church was no longer here tomorrow, would anyone in your community miss it?"
The people who attend hp, they would definitely miss it. Those who have given their service to JESUS through this fellowship, they would miss it. But our community... would they? Would our "disappearance" from the landscape leave "a hole"? Would they even notice that we were gone.
The other night at the end of our music rehearsal we were taking prayer requests and people were sharing a lot of requests for what seemed to be "Hope-LESS" situations. In the end I told them, "I want everyone here to remember, we aren't offering people "church" or a better "church-alternative" than what they already have...we offer them JESUS and the prospect that HE and only HE transforms lives through the power of His Spirit. Otherwise, we're nothing more than another organization doing good deeds." We offer the Hope of JESUS to people who feel Hopeless through the means of a personal relationship with Him (Jesus - at least that's what I "signed up" for) - when we quit doing that, we've removed "the Whopper" from the menu.
Lately, there's been some talk about this in "blogworld": Jay talked about it here, Jake has an excellent post here, but Ben's link to "Burger King" (you've gotta watch this BK video, it's better than the commercial you've seen
Great Ending!) says it all - Whopperless BK's? It would almost be like "Hope-Less" churches lacking the power of JESUS and the excellence He (and they) deserve...
May we always keep THE main thing OUR main thing.
Recent Comments