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| With all the discussion about Rev. Wright's sermons and the damage they may have on Sen. Barack Obama's candidacy, it has led me to believe I should begin each of my sermons with some sort of disclaimer. Perhaps it could be something like: This sermon was prepared by me in cooperation with the Holy Spirit. The opinions of the author, which are grounded in the scriptures, do not necessarily reflect those of the media or the culture and should not be used for political purposes. What do you think? I welcome your input in helping me to craft this not so serious disclaimer.
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Yesterday, I received a prayer request from Central Asia. It came from a small church in the former Soviet Republic of Tajikistan. Apparently, the government is working on a new law of "religious freedom". With the new laws a church must have at least 1200 people in order to be officially registered. Unfortunately, there are no churches that have that many people. According to the pastor, all churches will be required to re-register with the government and that means all churches will be closed.
After doing a little research online I discovered the following blurb: (and it is a year old)
If passed in its current form, the law would be the most repressive of all the Central Asian religion laws. Among the violations of international human rights standards that the law proposes are: a ban on unregistered religious activity; the highest threshold for the numbers of citizens to register a religious community (1200); restricting the numbers of mosques; banning evangelism or proselytism; banning the teaching of religion to all children under 7; state control over who can teach religion within religious communities and their education; state control of organising Muslim pilgrimages to Mecca; and a ban on foreigners – such as Catholic priests – leading religious communities. from forum18.org
Your prayers are greatly appreciated.
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Have you ever visited a church that wasn't "friendly"? Most churches advertise that they are friendly and/or welcoming but is friendly what non-church members are really looking for?
While you think about that let me tell you the following story about my father. It was a typical Sunday morning at our church, my father had finished singing with the choir and came down from the balcony to join me where I was sitting. As we finished singing the closing hymn and the last note was being played my father turned around to the visitor sitting behind us and commented on the man's beautiful singing voice. After the pastor gave the benediction my father once again turned to the man and invited him to come sing in the choir on Thursday night.
A month later the the church announced it had hired a new choir director and guess who it was? That's right, the man my father had invited to choir that Sunday morning. When the new choir director introduced himself to the congregation for the first time he noted that he chose our church because during his visit the church had been both friendly and inviting.
Commenting about his voice was my father's way of being friendly. Inviting him to visit the choir was an invitation from my father to begin a relationship. Most churches are friendly but what distinguishes one friendly church from another are those churches where members are intentional about going beyond friendliness to building relationships and welcoming visitors into their circle of friends and into the life of the church and ultimately into a relationship with God.
What prevents us from moving beyond friendliness? And how can we be more intentional about building relationships with those who visit our churches?
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| Perhaps you have heard people describe themselves as spiritual but not religious.What is the difference between being spiritual and being religious? I think many people are simply trying to express a genuine desire to know God but feel that the structures of the church prevent them from doing it. Plus, they fear that all their energy will be spent trying to maintain the organization instead of developing their relationship with God. How can we insure that our churches are communities that are spritually alive and not just religious organizations that suck the life out of people?
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