I am quite worried about the amount of apathy in our church at the moment, in particular the apathy towards serving- whether in large or small areas.
I'd be bold to say that it's always been there for as long as I've been attending but it does appear to be getting worse.
Church is not perfect as it comprises of imperfect people. But if we are serious about belonging to the community we should be stirred and convicted of helping and serving in what ever ways possible. It's not about prestige or public admiration/recognition but a genuine desire to serve in an area that needs people and the desire to create a better Christian community for all who attend.
We completed a sermon series a month ago on G.R.A.C.E. The main theme was to not only show grace or be gracious to each other, but to further expand on this for the whole church community, each letter represented a sub-topic of its own:
G stands for Genuine
R is for Receptive
A is for Active (this is the one I want to focus on for the purposes of my ramblings)
C is for Community
E is for Encouragement
As Christians we are drawn to church as a means of worshipping God. Worship is not limited to singing or bowing in prayer, but also includes active service and genuine desires to glorify God.
To confess yourself as a Christian and attend church regularly but never participate or rarely participates in the church community is of great concern.
Some questions arise:
- Are we taking our Christian life seriously?
- Do we only want to do things that are fun and popular?
- Do we seek admiration or personal glory from others by only choosing to serve in ways that are up-front to get maximum exposure?
- Are we only serving because our friends are doing it, but our hearts are not really into it?
- Are the areas of need too boring, need too much preparation and personal sacrifice because we have to turn up to church earlier, stay back later or have to take a detour from our usual routine every now and then?
- Would we much rather be spending time outside of the Sunday services doing our own fun things and not preparing for church needs that happen during the week?
