It Chaffs Me

Most marketers and sales people focus most of their attention on taking clients or customers from “the other guy.”  If you sell Mt. Dew then you try and win over the Pepsi drinker.  If you sell Chevy’s then you need to win over the Toyota fan….I think you get the idea.

One of the things that has always chaffed my behind is how that mentality has seeped into the church world.  We set up our churches in a way that wins people over from “the other guy.”  Who is that “other guy” in church world?  Well, he is the pastor that has been just down the road for years and loves God.  He serves his people, and introduces many to Jesus.  He has set up his church experience to the best of his ability and he loves his flock that God has blessed him with.  So then Johnny come lately sets up his church 3 blocks away and markets and tells everyone how his church is not like the other one but better.  Yea that chaff’s me for a couple of reasons.

The number one reason that it makes me scratch is because I thought we were supposed to be focused on the lost.  You know, that silly little scripture about how we should leave the 99 to find the one.  Remember?  But instead we have purposefully set up systems and structures that perpetuate feeding the 99 and not allowing the one to even come in.  I know we need to take care of the flock that has been blessed to us, but wouldn’t we be better stewards if instead of feeding them and molding them, we taught them how to feed themselves.  Wouldn’t it be better to follow the example of Jesus?  What Sunday school program did he set up for his disciples?  Remember?  Oh, he said, “Go!  Don’t take anything with you.  If you get kicked out of a place, shake it off, walk it off and move on.”  Yep, no training.  No 5 steps to inner complacency, just hard core, ‘stop your whining and go.’

The second reason it chaffs me is because we are supposed to be on the same team.  That church and this church, your church and my church are all on the same team!

My 5 year old plays T-Ball, and it is a hoot!  I often relate it to watching moths mate.  One kid hits the ball, then 11 boys chase the ball.  They tackle each other, hit each other and hurt each other, all to get the ball.  The entire time coaches are yelling to get off each other, the ump is laughing, and the hitter rounds the bases to the applause of parents.  Yup, that’s a perfect picture of the Kingdom of God.  We are all fighting over the ball while Satan gets to run the bases.  How easy it would be if the mighty church would realize who is on the team, hand the ball to the one best suited at that given moment to chuck it at the Devil and beam him in the head.  (Okay I know beaming the runner in the head is not baseball, but we are talking about Satan.  Let’s beam him in the head.)

I never want SouthPoint to turn into an institution that is entirely focused on raising fat sheep who know every nook and cranny of the word, yet never leaving the stall to bring more in.  I have a dream, that it really is possible to establish a church, a movement that focuses on the un-churched and the de-churched in a powerfully life giving way.  Showing people that Jesus is loving and gracious, introduce them, and then send out those neophytes to bring in others.  When that happens we won’t have to strive for anybody to come, it will instead be a beautiful synergy that brings honor to God and the Kingdom.

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